A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

spam

I don’t like blogging spam, even with green eggs and ham!

There are times when I look at different parts of my blog and I’m boggled.

Going behind the scenes of WordPress is pretty solid. With stats, and the ability to change so many things and everything else, it’s pretty impressive.

Sometimes, though, I see things that I’ve never seen before and usually, it’s pretty cool. It happened again to me the other day.

Here are the items that caught my eye:

100,830 Blocked malicious login attempts

1,240,724 Spam comments blocked by Akismet.

Wow!

I know I get a lot of spam as I am constantly clearing the spam folder. There’s nearly 2,000 “comments” in there at this moment, so it’s probably a good time to re-visit the “spam” posts I sometimes do. So, over the time I’ve used Akismet, it doesn’t shock me that many have been blocked.

But damn. More than 1.2 million spam comments!

The one that blew my mind was the other number. More than 100,000 attempts at a malicious login to my blog? Really?

What could I possibly have that somebody would want to hack and get to?

I’m sure not all of these are real people per say, rather than something trying to log in via a bot or something, but still … more than 100,000?

What do they expect to find?

The numbers really are mind boggling. I had an old website I checked on recently (in conjunction with my move from one webhost to another) and was amazed at how many spam comments were there (and, apparently, approved because I hadn’t set up anything to filter them … so thousands of comments made it through) and how stupid they were.

Over and over these spam comments attempt to get through.

Back in the day, I used to try and look each day, in case a real comment somehow got flagged. It happens as I remember saving a few but at the rate these spam comments come anymore, it’s hard to do that. When you get upward of 100 or more in a day, it’s hard to go through each one to see if there’s one real comment in there (and it’s rare).

Years ago, I ran a message board. It was fun and we had a small group who were active. But over time, it became a chore to find out if a person signing up was real or not, and then having to delete and moderate so many comments. I used to love message boards, but I started fading away from them because of the spam.

Thankfully, things such as Akismet have helped me not have to moderate hundreds and, as it turns out, more than a million comments!

The numbers, though, are fascinating to look at. I’ll have to see what they are at in a few months.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” A ‘lil HooHaa on Facebook! You can also follow me on Twitter @softball29!

Thank you for adding nothing to the conversation!

I often view comments on blogs as a place for conversation.

Sometimes it’s one-sided — the readers make their comments and move on. Sometimes, it’s more of a conversation where there is some dialogue. But in the end, it’s a place for someone to view their thoughts and/or opinions about what you have written.

There are other times where you just wonder what the heck is going on.

I know I’ve tackled this topic before and I think it’s time to re-visit it.

It’s all about the SPAM bots.

For those that don’t know what SPAM bots are, they are automated accounts that go around to blogs and message boards and other Internet sites and comment with bizarre things. There are instances where it really seems like a real person. They have profile photos and the whole nine yards. Until you see the links they leave as their website etc. Then it all comes together that they are SPAM bots.

And SPAM bots are downright annoying.

Still, the comments they leave can be rather humorous. It makes you wonder what kind of things they look for when they post to blogs. In the past several days, many have leaked through here and reached my e-mail. They were eventually flagged as SPAM and I didn’t have to see them in the comments filter, but the e-mails were funny enough.

That made me think this was a good time to share a few and the insanity that is SPAM bots.

The first doozy comes on a post about Peyton Manning. Our friendly reader says:

I do not even know the way I finished up here, but I assumed this publish used to be great. I do not recognize who you are however definitely you’re going to a well-known blogger if you aren’t already. Cheers!

It’s all good here because I don’t recognize who this person is, either!

A while back I wrote a post about wondering if I would do the college life again. Somebody appears to have found this post and here’s what the person had to say:

Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s truly informative. I’m gonna watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. A lot of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

I think I am going to watch out for brussels, too!

What in the world does that even mean??

Also a while back, I wrote a post about Jim Thome being one of the good ones in the game of baseball. Someone stumbled across this post and it appears they wanted to comment…

I’m now not sure where you are getting your information, however great topic. I needs to spend some time learning more or working out more. Thanks for magnificent info I used to be in search of this information for my mission.

An opinion piece… and wondering where my info came from?

You need to spend more time not being a SPAM bot!

On my post about needing some ideas, two people posted! And boy did they have some fantastic ideas!

Coach purse is a totally fashionable brand in a extraordinarily believable price.Good quality of products of the late-model tutor leather discharge leather-ku,mentor,and trainer outlets,specialty hoard brands and offers first-class transcribe at take price.Delivered in outspoken shipping.

And…

Tods Shoes UK Stockpile Take care of A Series Products of 100% Legitimate Tod’s Shoes For Mens & Womens Online,For twopence Tods Shoes On Exchange With the Most Favourable Honorarium 65%-79% Dippy, Most appropriate Worth and Set free Shipping Worldwide.

Well thank you very much!

I thank goodness for SPAM filters each day because it would be entirely too hard to delete every single one each day.

Keep in mind that I’ve had this site for a long time, but the stats of SPAM are simply amazing. Akismet — a plugin that snags known SPAM — has done its work on my site, capturing 160,907 SPAM comments. Yes, that number is right.

160,907!

Sheesh!

Currently there are 9,178 comments in the SPAM queue.

Not for long.

It’s a bit ridiculous how it all works, but it gives a small piece of entertainment every once in a while to see what kind of idiotic things these SPAM bots post.

Then it’s fun to rid the site of them fully.

Fundraiser: I am, again, trying to raise money for the Relay For Life. If you donate to me — even a small amount — you will be entered to win a super-sweet quilted scarf. Click here for all the information!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook! 

Notes from my noodle: Feb. 29

I’ve been trying to organize life here at A ‘lil HooHaa lately.

See, there’s a new blog a few of us have been working on. If all goes well, it will launch this upcoming Monday. It’s a niche blog, so it will stick to one topic. I will have more information on this probably this weekend. I just want to make sure we have everything in order before saying anything as we had hoped to have launched already, but some real-life things got in the way. Such is the life of a non-commercial blog.

With that in mind, I wanted to make sure I organized my personal blog a bit more so that I can do both with no issues, especially once I become gainfully employed again.

So, I have some things I’m working on here.

I’ll still be covering a lot of the same things I do now and I’m working on a few more in-depth journalistic style pieces. But I’m going to be working on a few more “fun” and “quick” things, so if I feel I need filler for a day, I have it.

This might include some of those wacky quizzes you see people fill out or challenges.

By challenges, I mean the ones that seem to pop up all over the place every day. They come in 7-day, 10-day and 30-day challenges. Some are even longer. Some shorter.

The idea is to do something for that amount of time each day.

For example, it could be a photo challenge. So for 30 days, they give you themes and you have to fill it. It can be about a movie. It can be about you. About friends. Family. Health. Whatever. There are so many of them.

Go check out this Tumblr page if you want some ideas. So many of them.

My plan won’t be to actually do the challenge as planned — I’m going to do them HooHaa style, baby! That means I’ll be doing full challenges in one blog post. Offline it might take me some time to do them, but when I bring it to you here, it will be in one post with all the answers.

I’m also going to be doing some fun things such as a joke/riddle of the week (most likely both) in one post. I’m going to bring back those “What’s going on this week” things. And I’m going to branch out to do some baseball card scans and such.

Again, I’m not changing anything else. If things are going on, I’ll do the normal thing. Heck, that might mean more than one post a day. But I want to have a few more fun things, too. Just to make it a little easier on me when needed.

I have a lot of cool thinks cooking here at A ‘lil HooHaa. It won’t be going anywhere. I just want to tweak a little.

***

Today is February 29.

If you are on FourSquare, make sure you mention Leap Day to get the sweet badge for this special day!

I know, nothing special. Or is it?

Of course it is! It’s Leap Day! Sweet!

This fine day only happens once every four years (usually). There are rare times it doesn’t happen, but it’s all how the world works.

Anyway, so this is a great day.

See, first of all, 29 is my favorite number, so it’s sweet to see February get this day. Second, there’s always cool little things with this day.

Take FourSquare, for example. The social game is giving a special badge out today, so make sure you get it!

For you geocachers out there, you can get a special souvenir by finding a cache today!

Welcome to the game, February!

There are many events, too. I was planning on heading out to one later, but it turns out Mother Nature is making this area a bit bad today with snow (during the winter? Who knew?), followed by sleet and freezing rain. Add all that together and a trip to Albany for a geocaching event doesn’t sound so fun.

Or necessary.

So if you’re a cacher, hopefully you get the chance to find a cache or hit up an event!

For me, it’s an extra day in the year and is the reason behind me doing the 366 challenge.

I’m hoping to find something good to shoot. I already have taken a few photos, but maybe I can find some other things. I’m a little stuck, however, as I don’t want to leave town with this weather, so I’m kind of looking around here. Something will come along, I’m sure.

***

A quick add on here as I just saw the news that Davy Jones died at the age of 66 today.

I still remember (re-runs, anyway) the Monkees show. I really enjoyed it. I actually have a bunch of their music, too. I was always a fan of that group and Davy Jones was always fun to see in television shows and wherever else.

It’s a sad day for music. Though The Monkees were a made-for-TV group, they really went past that and became part of a culture and a time period.  Remember, Marcia from the Brady Bunch really thought Davy was “dreamy” and “groovy.”

Davy Jones was heading into the Northeast sometime in May for a tour and I had actually debated going and seeing him. It’s a shame that chance will never come for me and for many others who probably would have loved to see him perform.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos:

The Monkees theme song:

Daydream Believer (probably my favorite Monkees song):

***

I have only been summoned for jury duty once in my life. I was stoked, too. Two days before, however, it got canceled and I was done. Since then, I’ve never been called back.

I always thought it would be something to serve on a jury. It’s a duty not to be taken lightly and it’s one people should embrace because they are being part of the judicial process.

Apparently, one dude thought he had an out.

See, turns out this maroon was serving his duty as a juror in an auto negligence case, according to the Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Fla. The defendant, a young woman, must have caught the eye of this guy because he started to look around, apparently, for her.

And he found her on Facebook.

He ended up sending her a friend request on Facebook, which is obviously a no-no as jurors should not be contacting the people involved in the case. See, this guy apparently thought the gal looked familiar and with more than 1,300 Facebook pals, he wasn’t sure if she was a friend or not. When he found her on Facebook (via his phone), he claims he tried to press the “mutual friends” button, but actually hit the “friend request” button, according to the newspaper report.

That’s not good, right?

Though he said he knew the request would be sent to the defendant, he didn’t say anything during the jury selection. And, he ended up on the seven-member jury.

The guy, whose last name is Jock, said he hoped she’d forget about it and thought it wasn’t that big of a deal because it was a mistake.

The defendant obviously saw the request, told here lawyer, who told the judge. That got this guy removed from the jury.

Oh, but the story doesn’t end there.

This Einstein then bragged about getting dismissed to his legion of pals on Facebook.

Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.

Really?

The end result?

Three days in the lock up on a criminal contempt of court misdemeanor. The newspaper reported he was handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom as his girlfriend cried.

Said the judge, after a two-hour hearing:

I cannot think of a more insidious threat to the erosion of democracy than citizens who do not care.

Fully agreed there.

A bit of advice to future people on a jury — take it serious. You are doing a part that in an important process in our country. It’s not a joke and shouldn’t be taken as such.

***

I’m shocked at the amount of people looking to meet me recently.

It’s like I’m a celebrity.

I’m not sure how to react to all of this, so I’m taking my time sifting through all the e-mails and such. See, it seems like there are people from all over the world who want to meet me. Want to see a couple of these awesome e-mails?

i’m Alice

!There are many good moments in a life…You certainly will be happy. Let’s meet?

write to me please.

Kiss.

Alesia

We’ll have to get rid of Alesia. I don’t like bad grammar and not capitalizing things. I could send an autograph, I imagine, if that’s what she would like.

I’m Alisa
Being with a man, makes me feel happiness.
Let’s communicate?
Waiting on your turn.

I wonder if this is the same person and changing the spelling of her name? Sheesh! But waiting on my turn? Are we playing a board game or something? I’ll communicate — lose my e-mail address!

Salute! I’m Lesechka. I’m 22.I saw your photos in brother’s account and decided write to you.

Some time ago I break with my boyfriend and now I am single. So if you want to chat with me please… write me something interesting about you.

Something interesting…

OK, I got it.

I don’t know you. You didn’t see me in your brother’s account. You’re a Spam Bot. Go away.

Sometimes, however, you just have to e-mail these people back. For kicks. Something has to return, right? I mean they are all looking for love and romance, after all.

Here’s an exchange I had with one person.

The initial letter:

So I’m  happy that I have  meet with reliable man.
My name is Irina, doing gymnastics since childhood and I love swimming.
I’m blonde with blue eyes.

Hope get more information about you.

I liked your snapshot, and I wanna meet you.

Hope read you soon

Sounds like Irina is quite the keeper, eh? Not sure where she saw my snapshot, though. So, I was curious. Let’s see if she knows me. (Note that this e-mail is for an account I have set up for junk mail signups and all, so it has no personal stuff at all).

Me:

I bet you can get into some great positions with that gymnastics background, huh?

Let’s get it on!

Where did you see my snapshot though? I don’t put that online. You stalking me?

I figured that response would get her attention, eh? Internet love with some chick overseas… I’m in!

Her response:

Hey! Hi!

I recently registered on the website (clipped… looked like a site heading to Russia), and uploaded my photo. Write me PM, cuz I hate email.
If you are interested, you can see my pictures.

compose me your minds.

That was the end of that chat. It’s unfortunate, too. It had such a good beginning. I’ll have to compose her my mind one day to see if she eventually found happiness in this cruel world.

***

Time for a riddle.

I will post the answer to this in the comments later tonight sometime. But until I do, feel free to answer away in the comments section.

A black dog stands in the middle of an intersection in a town painted black.

None of the street lights are working because of a power failure cause by a recent storm.

A car with two broken headlights drives toward the dog but turns in time to avoid hitting the pooch.

How could the drive have seen the dog to turn away in time?

(Riddles.com)

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Notes from my Noodle: January 23 edition

It seems that every time I think I have seen it all when it comes to being politically correct, something else makes me shake my head in wonderment.

This time, it’s in Utah.

The Cougar is not a good nickname for one Utah school, for an odd reason. (Photo by Mike Fisher via Flickr commons)

See, though I may not agree with everything that has to be politically correct out there, I understand it. I can see why schools change their team names from something like Warriors or Chiefs or Braves because of being sensitive. I really can.

There’s many more I understand.

Not this time.

See, it seems that there’s this new school in Utah — Corner Canyon High School. And, well, the school ran a contest to let future students decide on its future mascot. The school, according to a USA Today story, is slated to open in 2013.

The board, however, rejected the winning mascot from the contest. And what mascot put the board up in arms?

Cougars.

Raise your hand if you see where this is going.

It turns out the board though calling their mascot the Cougars would be offensive. To whom? To middle-age women who like to chase younger men. Because the term “cougar” is becoming synonymous with that act.

I can’t make this stuff up.

It’s to note, also, that three other schools in Utah, as well as Brigham Young University, all use the nickname Cougars, according to KSTU Fox 13.

The school had decided, instead, to call itself the Chargers.

But being the school doesn’t open until 2013, I’m sure the board will have a chance to re-visit this and see if it offends anyone else by then.

—

Legendary football coach Joe Paterno died Sunday at age 85.

His death ends the life of the winningest coach in major college history and also one of someone who stayed in Happy Valley for more than half of his life. His donations to and his love of Penn State is known my pretty much anyone who has heard JoePa’s name.

Paterno in November 2010 (photo by Jeremy Kahn via Flickr's creative commons license)

Though his final months were doused in controversy because of the alleged dirty doings of a former assistant coach, I personally don’t think his legacy is tarnished. He still did much for that University.

One could argue that he should have done more with the Jerry Sandusky situation. That’s a fair argument. Morally, should he have done more? Probably so. But, legally, he did what he was supposed to do. I understand both sides of the argument and I’m not going to get into one here. Everyone is entitled to believe what they want.

I still think Paterno got railroaded at the end, which is a shame — especially looking at how his final months unfolded. But he had tremendous support as was evident.

I went to college at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, which is about a 20-minute ride to State College. Needless to say, during my years at The Haven, I knew all about Penn State and its athletics.

JoePa was loved indeed.

Though I never attended a football game at PSU (probably a silly move, eh?) I did venture to State College a bit. I explored the campus once or twice, saw a few other athletic contests and did have the chance to see the stadium.

And, I saw JoePa.

It only happened once. I had gone to this restaurant a few times and had been told it was one of Paterno’s favorite spots. I didn’t think I’d ever see him as it was apparently his “breakfast choice.”

Alas, one night a few of us went to State College and ate at the place. Soon after we arrived, JoePa and his wife came in. They ate not far from us, so we got to see the legendary coach. People said hi as they walked by and he greeted them the same. But nobody bothered him. No autographs. Nothing. They let the man be.

That’s the way it should be.

It was quite cool to see this legendary figure as a member of this small community. Embedded in it.

He was an amazing football coach and one of the best things to ever happen to Penn State. He’ll be missed by many, in football and in life. Rest in Peace, JoePa.

—

When owning a blog, you really see some interesting comments.

Though spam is awful for your e-mail inboxes, sometimes blog spam comments can be quite funny. (Photo Eddie Awad via Flickr commons)

Many comments are spam and need to just be deleted. But I like to read some of them before I delete them. Why? Because they are quite interesting and funny.

Usually, however, they make no sense.

It’s pretty simple to figure out the spam because you get random comments on posts where the comment makes no sense or on posts that are several years old.

A post of mine from the Day Zero Project — about traveling to five new cities — recently got a comment. It made NO sense whatsoever.

I realize that it might have picked up on some key words or something or maybe it’s because the post was about some travel of sorts, but it still didn’t make full sense as to why this comment would just show up, outside the fact that its spam.

One day while driving, I came to a stop at a red light. I looked both ways and made sure no one was coming, then proceeded to make a left turn. A few seconds later it hits me — you can only make a right on red. I felt like such an idiot.

I will admit it made me laugh.

Though I try to make sure these spam messages don’t make it through, I do give credit that at least some of them can be a bit funny!

—

You’ll remember that I had my personal stand with the legislation PIPA and SOPA last week?

I thought I’d give a quick update.

Apparently the Internet blackout work as both pieces of legislation have been pulled for now. That’s not to say they won’t come back at some point. I’m sure those who worked on these two will want to find a way to get them back, albeit with some workings.

I looked at many of the people in Congress who switched over on these bills and like that they did. They seemed to see the light — if even just in saying it. The reality is this — America talked and Congress finally listened. Things can happen when done in ways like this.

Protests don’t always have to be taking over public parks and making them slum palaces. There doesn’t always need to be a march, or people getting together in places all over the country.

Sometimes it can be quick, clean and effective. You just need to have a definite agenda, a hope for a resolution and an actual plan for what to do. This one-day blackout worked effectively and was way more successful than some other protests that have been going on for months with seemingly no true direction.

I applaud the country for getting this done, especially some of the Internet’s biggest sites who showed that getting people together in something like this can work wonders.

Again, these bills could slip back soon enough, so we — as  country — need to make sure we can stand for what we believe in. And I’m a firm believe that piracy needs to be stopped, somehow. Just in a different way than these two bills were showing.

Stay proud, America. The Internet is safe, for now.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook by clicking the button on the right side of the page!

Thanks for the comment… now move along

Good point. I hadn’t tohught [sic] about it quite that way. :)

— Bubber

Typos and all, that was a comment I received on my post titled “Sign of the Times?” where I talk about how much cars are to lease and purchase. Not that I made any major points, outside of the fact that several high-level cars are expensive to get.

That’s not anything breath-taking in regard to making a point.

It really is amazing, anymore, what kind of e-mail spam you get or comments on a blog/message board. Every once in a while, I clear out my spam folder for blog comments and same with e-mail. But there were some things I wanted to share, just because they gave me a chuckle. The following is a look at some of these comments I’ve received. I’ll be doing this every once in a while as I find funny posts.

Pretty nice post. I merely stumbled upon your weblog and wished to mention that I have actually enjoyed searching your weblog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing in your rss feed and I’m hoping you write once extra soon!

It’s nice to know someone “merely stumbled upon” my site. How accidental, eh? It’s always good to know someone enjoys searching my blog posts, too. I wonder, when I see ones like this, if it’s indeed a human spammer or just some computer-generated spam bot that leaves stupid replies in hopes of some people following the link?

I lean toward the latter.

Next?

Apres la prise Cialis pas cher est rapidement absorbe, avec son action commence dans 16 minutes, mais le plus grand effet a ete observe au bout de deux heures.

Huh?

Yeah. Let’s move on. …

Hi, i think i saw you visited my weblog thus i came to “return the favor”.I’m attempting to find things to enhance my website!! I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!! Here is a link to my site , what do u think of it? Feedback would be appreciated :)

No, Mr. SpamBot, I can assure you I didn’t visit your weblog. Further, I won’t check out the link you left, either.

As for what I think of it?

It stinks. Now go away.

I don’t usually reply to posts but I will in this case. WoW

I got this comment today.

For a blog post I made in 2007, giving the lyrics for Frank Sinatra’s High Hopes as the Phillies embarked on a playoff journey.

Yes, 2007.

<sigh>

Nice article. last thirty days I uncovered this internet internet site and desired to permit you be conscious that i’ve been gratified, heading via your site’s posts. I should certainly be signing equally as much as the RSS feed and should certainly wait around for another post. best Regards, Mateus

Um… OK?

Hey, Mateus… I have no idea what you are trying to tell me. But if you are still subscribing to my RSS feed, maybe you can weigh in on this and let me know what the hell you were trying to say?

I won’t hold my breath waiting for a response.

hi,you guys. I was directed by one of my roomates to support your site. I love the design of the website very much. The article is very interesting. Please keep on the good work. I surely will visit it frequently and introduce it to my roomates.

He must have a lot of roommates if he was going to keep introducing my site to them, eh?

As for his opening line, all I can think of is Goonies… HEY YOU GUYS!!!

Love this blog post. Where did you find this information?

This comment was on one of the posts about one of my geocaching adventures.

So to answer the question?

I lived it, dude, I lived it.

Swietne, mozesz napisac wiecej?

I believe the answer would be no.

Real brain power on display. Thakns for that answer!

I like brain power!

Nice content, Do you have a twitter account I can follow?

Yes, and it’s linked right on the blog, turd.

I think that’s about it for now. I’ll be doing this type of post periodically when I get a kick out of some of the comments. Until then? It’s time to clear the spam folder and move forward!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com.