So, a week or so ago the Chinese started invading my blogs.

It started here. Suddenly I had hundreds, even thousands of hits for a blog that on a good day has a hundred or two folks reading my verse. Imagine my excitement! When the average run of a book of poetry these days is under 1000 readers, having several times that in a day or two felt like I had hit the poetry big time.

Until I looked closer. All those hits came from a single location in China. Now, I have readers and art patrons in China, but they are onesies, twosies, not thousands. And certainly, I do not have a single fan so obsessed with me that they spend 20 hours a day reading verses by this sedate poet (With an occasional rant against injustices) in the wilds of Vermont.

After a few days here, they seem to have found my other blogs. First my art blog, with the same pattern. Then my life coaching blog with its essays and such. Same pattern. In the last day or two, they seem to have found both my business website and my church website. At this point, all added up, I probably have about 7-8 thousand hits a day.

None of which mean a thing.

It is, I understand, a thing the Chinese do, troll websites. They flood them with activity to try and keep them from functioning. And they track down every link in your site to see if they can glean any information.

But seriously… Me? I am not sure a poet/painter in a little corner of Vermont, with no influence at all is worth all this effort. They expect to find secrets? Links to dark holes in the industrial military complex? A shopping list of spies disguised as poets or painters?

They must be looking for SOMETHING, right?

Or maybe a poet who writes of depression, spirituality, nature, and (gasp!) God poses a threat, so if they flood me with fake visits they can keep me from contaminating the world with my ideas!

I wish I was that important. I know the truth. I am just a random IP number and they are doing it everywhere. It means a few fewer real visitors for me as sometimes people can’t get through, but it has nothing to do with me. It’s part of something larger. But while it is frightening that their campaign to mess with the internet here in the States has reached peons like me, it’s fun to pretend I am that important.

I’ll go with that. I do love a good story.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom