Apologies to visitors to this blog and my website who may have encountered an “500 Internal Server Error” message, instead of seeing my usual drivel and website boot & leather photos. What happened?

A bot or idiot, or both, with IP address 199.15.234.218 has been spamming my website. While an IP address tracker indicates this spammer is located in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, I have suspicions that this is but one of several relays from the origin, probably in China or another country notorious for spam and Denial of Service attacks on U.S.-based websites and blogs.

In one way, I can say that I am impressed that my website and blog have achieved a level of activity that a spammer would target it. In another way, it’s just a pain in the ass to have to deal with it.

Yesterday, I attempted to block that IP address, but the code got written weird and that is what caused the “500 Internal Server Error.” While the “how to fix this problem” websites all say the problem was with the server that hosts my website and blog and that the host has to fix it and the user cannot — in this case, it was something that I did so I could fix it myself.

I did not know this problem had happened until someone sent me an email. I do not access my blog or website while I am at work. As soon as I heard about the problem of people not being able to see my blog or website, I undid the IP block that I had inserted earlier in the morning and my website and blog returned to normal. Later when I got home from work, I installed a more permanent block of that spammer jerk.

Welcome to the weeds of maintaining websites and blogs — probably more than you wanted to know.

Life is short: check results of your actions!