drowned barbecues can be the best

Lovely gathering yesterday at origamitiger and Stjon's. Good to catch up with some peeps, get to know others a little better. It was to be a BBQ but, alas, the gods of weather decided otherwise. Never mind, this didn't matter.

I took a guitar and a camera but didn't use either of them. Didn't take a single picture, didn't torment anyone with any guitar playing.

Getting there was a bit of an ordeal -it started raining down very hard just as I got off the train at this station which was pretty much only the platforms and the ramps leading to side-streets, miles away from anything, nowhere to get under to weather the rain. Got there thoroughly soaked but got there ok nonetheless.

Today, just lessons here and away and some guitar practice.

It's a conspiracy

A couple of people in my FB f-list turn out to believe in pretty much every conspiracy theory around. The moon landing was a fake ('done in a Hollywood basement' in the rather trodden phrase of RHCP's song). I've mentioned that there is one particular person who IRL comes across as quite cogent and rational, but believes the moon landing was a fake, 9/11 was an inside job, vaccines are a means of control (how?) by the state or something like that (I can't quite understand the argument).

I have mentioned this before and I may come back to it again -it really baffles me so I have to think about how it works.

One of the elements in this may be ... that we all need explanations and reassurances, thrown in a world that can be supremely hostile at times, so we invent narratives in which it all has a sense and a purpose; there is a hidden hand (good or evil) making it all work the way it does. So we create god, alien abductions and secret government conspiracies. This way the world makes sense. If it is god, well, we are in his (why not her?) hands and all will be well. If it is an evil conspiracy, it can be thwarted and things made better. Hm, not sure about the last bit but I feel some of how it works may be along those lines.