In which a spammer gives me something to think about.

I sighed when I opened gmail this morning and saw that some Chinese spammer named "sexy" had hit about forty of my old posts with lists of Chinese links. It takes about seven clicks to delete one of these spams. (For more on "comment spam," see below.)

Well, it turned out to be a nice journey through the four-plus years I've been keeping this blog, which has more than two thousand entries. For the first several years I was adamant about posting every day; I poured my life and thoughts and jokes and heart into it. Being forced to look at each spammed post - long forgotten posts - I was thinking, "Dang, they were pretty good, they were interesting and fun..."

I guess life is like that, too. At this moment, I feel sort of beached here in the woods with my donkey and chickens. I often wonder whether anything I've ever done was worth doing, whether any of it mattered to anybody. Then something reminds me: I've actually done an awful lot of good things in my life. I just don't remember them.

This isn't supposed to sound like whining. Things are pretty good back here in the woods...

... My son Ezra and I are having a pretty nice low-key time living together; he's learning to cook (he made chili last night) and helps with the "farm chores" and is a funny, sweet companion.

... I'm grateful improved technology makes it possible for Bob and me to make a cd in the living room, and even videos, for free!

... It's thrilling to be able to translate a Yiddish novel that's never been published in English before - how lucky I am to live near a prominent Yiddishist who can help with the rough spots!

... The time I spend with my mentee is a continuing joy...

Getting back to Sexy the Spammer and what he showed me - I'm sort of proud of this blog, it's a pity that most of what's in it is totally hidden except to spammers. I stopped posting so diligently when I realized it was harrassing me. Blogs are voracious and insatiable and yell: "WHAT WILL YOU POST TODAY?"

Spam in blogs (from Wikipedia)
Spam in blogs (also called simply blog spam or comment spam) is a form of spamdexing. It is done by automatically posting random comments or promoting commercial services to blogs, wikis, guestbooks, or other publicly accessible online discussion boards. Any web application that accepts and displays hyperlinks submitted by visitors may be a target.

Adding links that point to the spammer's web site artificially increases the site's search engine ranking. An increased ranking often results in the spammer's commercial site being listed ahead of other sites for certain searches, increasing the number of potential visitors and paying customers.