"aye, cheers"
I'll drink to that.
what do you do to squell your thoughts, to move onto better things, when time nessesitates such?.
kindest regards.
mark
"aye, cheers"
I'll drink to that.
it's so hard to choose, but i would have to say the theocratic ministry school was my most hated meeting.
the first few talks were a rephrasing of mind-numbing society doctrine.
then it was time to listen to a ten-year old read nwt to us........... #3 talks, don't even get me started!
I kinda liked the Sunday talks, as long as the speaker was articulate. Some of them were good. And the TMS gave me a chance to write some of my own material, which certainly got me some funny looks from the folks in the audience.
The stuff that drove me nuts? Watchtower Study. Good grief ... from about 3rd or 4th grade, when a kid develops decent reading comprehension ... we read the WT. Then we go thru a study at home. Gotta underline some answers to the questions & be prepared to raise your hand during the meeting so everyone knows you're taking this seriously. And then to sit thru that whole process all over again on Sunday morning? Can you say "remedial"?
The book study was almost as bad, maybe even worse when it was held in a private home. You'd be camped on an uncomfortable chair, feeling the chili dog you ate for junch swelling your intestines with high pressure gas ... you ever learn the hard way just how noisy a fart can be when released on a metal foling chair?
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/2003/6/1/article_01.htm
does the fact that incense is used in religious ceremonies and in spiritism mean that all incense-burning is wrong?
not necessarily.
Well of course incense is commonly used for non-religious purposes. When I was a teenager, we used to burn it to cover the smell of marijuana smoke.
i was always lead to believe my family came to america from canada in 1926. both my mothers and my fathers families are of french decent.
it turns out only my mothers side came from there.
my father, who i only know casually, (parents were divorced when i was three and mom remarried when i was five), sent me a history of his side of the family.. turns out his side has been here since at least 1775, (new england)!
Maverick, I'm curious: Why did you find this information to be a shocking and sad?
Add me to the list of folks whose ancestors have been in the U.S. for nearly four centuries. And yes, I didn't know about that until I was an adult & began doing genealogy research ... to learn that my ancestors were among the early settlers of Long Island, NY and of New Haven, CT. There are some fascinating stories of witch trials, Revolutionary War exploits, and frontier life in what is now Cincinnati.
If there's anything sad in that for me, it is the fact that none of the family members with whom I was allowed to associate as a youth knew any of this.
love_truth, in describing the utter dullness of jw assemblies and conventions, just gave me an interesting idea for a thread.
what were some of the ways you tried to make the hours pass?
some of mine: looking at the interesting refracting patterns the arena floodlights made on my eyeglasses when looking thru them at an angle.looking for people i knew from my congregation and others in the mass of people in the arena.counting the number of people leaving the section to go to the bathroompractice writing people's names in elvish scripthaving a conversation with friends a row behind me by passing notes back and forthseeing how many pages of my bible stick together when i slam a wad of gum in between its pages.. what else?
Oh, yeah ,,, gotta check out the sisters. Then, gotta go to the bathroom.
Then, I'm hungry. Gotta slip out to the RV in the parking lot to grab a snack.
Tired of the seats in this arena. Gotta walk around for a while. I can still hear the loudspeakers out in the corridor.
Ohhh .. THAT was a cutie that just walked by ...
(repeat for a few days)
.
hey folks!
for those in the u.s. - don't fergit to push yer clocks ahead an hour tonight.. if you _do_, you'll be late to a few appointments tomorrow.. regards,.
Don't forget to give those of us in Indiana and Arizona a pass.
While the rest of you are setting a zillion clocks forward an hour, we'll just leave our wristwatches, microwaves, ovens, coffeemakers, alarm clocks, car stereos, VCRs, etc., etc. alone. And we won't have to bump back an hour in October.
I can't believe that some moron or another keeps trying to push something thru the legislature to get us on Daylight Saving Time. I'm glad it fails every year.
the price of gasoline sure is getting high, in my area it is about $1.65, i guess not too bad compared to other areas.
i'm not too worried because my camry gets pretty good gas mileage and i don't usually have to commute too far.. however, i think this summer it may reach over $2 in many areas.
i just wonder how this will affect summer aux.
Elsewhere, you'll note that the extreme prices ($4-5/gallon) were from England. Our European friends have long been paying much more than us "Yanks" for petrol.
Every time I hear someone suggest that we should be paying the same prices here, I wanna horse-whip them.
the price of gasoline sure is getting high, in my area it is about $1.65, i guess not too bad compared to other areas.
i'm not too worried because my camry gets pretty good gas mileage and i don't usually have to commute too far.. however, i think this summer it may reach over $2 in many areas.
i just wonder how this will affect summer aux.
It sure was good to see prices last week under $1.60 when I was in Arkansas & Texas. I wish the prices were like that here.
I guess I can wish in one hand & s*** in the other ... any guesses about which hand will fill up first?
Meanwhile, I'll keep rolling along in my V-8 powered, full-size, American-made 4x4.
Hey ... anyone here seen the "What Would Jesus Drive" propaganda? My guess is that he's drive a Suburban, or maybe an Excursion. He would have needed enough seats for his 12 buddies, and he would have needed off-road capability (roads were poor in old Israel), and he would have needed towing power for his boat.We know how he liked fishing with his buddies.
upon my leaving this morning.
a very nice, theocratic 4-door suv pulls up and out get 4 males, three adults, one child, all dressed in their saturday morning finest.
the look on the child's face, (he looked to be about 8) was one of misery.
"these kids are growing up learning such rejection over and over again"
Perhaps, but it prepares the kids for one heck of a career as salesmen. I've never let a "no" get me down. I simply move on to the next prospect.
i've always enjoyed the subtle, soothing sound of the wind chime, being in the organization however requires one to forsake such items because of their origin.
it has been linked to the ancients as a means of keeping away evil spirits.. upon leaving the organization, one of the first things i picked up upon was a wind chime.
i enjoy listening to its melodious tune when the wind blows in our back yard.
[b]Does not the wearing of a wedding ring also have its roots in Paganism and idolatry as well? [/b] The wedding ring dates back to ancient Egypt.
[b]What forbidden fruits do you partake of since becoming more enlightened?[/b] Twenty years ago, I would have said "My bong." Since then ... hhmmmmmm ... , let's see: 1. Pre-marital sex, with a variety of women. 2. Wearing an earring. 3. My beard. 4. Birthday gifts. 5. Birthday cake. 6. Marlboros. 7. Jose Cuervo, Jack Daniels, Budweiser ... 8. A Catholic wife. 9. My kids attending a Catholic school. 10. Being a Cub Scout leader. 11. Sleeping in on Sunday mornings (instead of going to meetings). 12. Watching TV on Tuesday & Thursday nights (instead of going to a book study and ministry school). 13. Christmas cards. 14. Listening to Nine Inch Nails, AC-DC, and The Bloodhound Gang. 15. HBO. 16. Playboy. 17. X-rated videos. 18. Sex toys. 19. Lingerie (for the Mrs., of course). 20. Saying the F-word.