Reveling In The Ignorance

 It's been a long time since I felt like I needed

To search for anything

In fact, I can't remember the last time I felt

That I needed to know the meaning of life

Or the meaning of anything, really, for that matter

I can't remember the last time I had the thought

That finding something that would make sense of everything

Was important

I can't remember the last time I had the thought

That it really, really mattered that I figured it all out

Nowadays I'm content not knowing 

Content not wanting to know

I guess it's true what they say

Ignorance is bliss

The Most Preposterous Conspiracy Theory...So Far

There I was just minding my own business at the gym when a guy I recognized but didn't really know came over and sat down on the bench right next to the one I was using.

"Hey", he said, in a manner that suggested an invitation to conversation, desired or not. "What do you think of the action on Wall Street yesterday?"

I turned to him and shrugged my shoulders and said, "Well, you know what they say, millions are made by people who buy when the blood is running in the streets."

He chuckled a little and said, "Yeah, I've heard that, don't know if that's true or not because I don't have the money to gamble like that, but what do you think about how the Chinese are bringing down the value of Tesla stock?"

I took a few seconds to reply to that because I really had no idea what he was talking about and my eventual reply was just that: "What are you talking about?"

"The Chinese man, the Chinese government, they've spent the past three years working to bring down Musk and it looks like their plan is working. It's so they can corner the electric car market worldwide."

Though I didn't want to be drawn into the conversation I said, "Can't say I've heard anything like that at all - where did you pick up that info?" 

He raised his eyebrows as if it was a shock that I had not heard about the nefarious doings of the Chinese government and then he said, "Yeah, a lot of people haven't heard about it because there is a huge cover-up going on - the Chinese and Korean hackers attack any websites that mention it and have targeted just about every individual social media user who has posted anything at all about it. Some of my friends have been hacked man, so I know it's happening."

I looked at him and with just a touch of skepticism asked, "Have you yourself posted anything about it on Facebook or whatever and then been hacked?"

His reply was something like, "Oh hell no man, I'm not stupid enough to post anything that's going to get me targeted. Only way I'll discuss it is person-to-person, you know, with people I can trust"

"Well thanks for telling me, appreciate that. I'll have to look into it." I said this as I got up off the bench to head over to another station.

"Be careful buddy, this thing is real, don't treat it like a joke - it's real real." He said that with an uncomfortable amount of seriousness as he walked away.

So, here it is, my lazy research into the Elon Musk is being targeted by the Chinese government conspiracy dealio - I'm writing this and posting it to see if I get hacked.

Should be a fun wait.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Lakewood Museum Of Discarded Art - The Winterscapes Retrospective

   Just an FYI, the Lakewood Museum of Discarded Art is a semi-regular posting I create to showcase the wide variety of artwork I stumble across at garage sales, thrift stores, church bazaars and other places that deal in original artworks that have been discarded by people who either have grown to dislike them or have always dislike them but are just now getting rid of them.

   Some of these pieces are quite good and some are not. Evaluating art is very subjective and has lead to many an argument, so I'll just post these pics and stand back.