Entertaining yourself during the meetings

by Mysterious 40 Replies latest jw friends

  • Mysterious
    Mysterious

    What did you do to entertain yourself during the meetings? I always had little games I played. To this day I have a fascination with notebooks and write almost compulsively when something is wrong.

    I used to pick out people wearing certain colors and match them with the four horseman. Pale green for death, black for famine, red for warefare, anyone in white represented Jesus. I got this idea from the good old revelation book of course.

    When I was older I would write down the scriptures that were used. My friend and I used to compete for who could write down the most. When mom decided this was now a silly game and not proper notetaking I used to start to copy scriptures we used out of the bible. She never looked too closely so it always looked like I was taking good notes. As a result I can now wrote copy from a book without thinking of what I'm writing. This serves well when you need to take notes while really tired but it takes a lot of conscious effort to actually study now.

    I had one of those pens that had about 20 different colors and you would press the top to retract the pen nib so you could put a new color down. I used to secretly aim it at people and it would click when you pressed the top and pretend I was shooting them. Then mom got annoyed at the clicks so I used to use my finger to stop the nib from hitting the top and clicking.

    I used to label the alphabet down the side of the page of a notebook and write words that the speaker said that started with that letter on the line. When I was older I used to write words down the side and do the same game. The words were almost always to do with my latest hobby or video game.

    I would doodle across the top of the page and if mom said anything to me point out her notebooks always had a few doodles on them as well.

    My best friend and I had pens we had cut the ink down so a rolled up message could fit in the top. The pens were matching as well. We then had a "code" of symbols and we would exchange pens and deciper the messages on the scrolls in the pens. Sometimes we'd write things on the corner of our notebooks and let the other person look at it.

    My friend and I used to have fun at assemblies and try to be the last to clap in the whole auditorium without drawing the ire of any of our parents.

    I daydreamed a lot also. I have the ability to look up scriptures without giving them any of my concentration. I also can read out loud or sing without paying any mind and do so flawlessly. That's how I always got away with it and looked like I was paying attention.

    I used to make "snake kits" where I would sculpt paper into fangs, venon sacks, skin, etc and then fold a little square of notebook paper into a kit they could all be slipped inside. I have no idea why but it was fun. If I got caught mom took it all away and scolded me for playing in the meeting though.

    When virtual pets were popular I would try so hard to have mine be "good" while in the meeting but if they aren't fed every hour you never get the best pet so I would slip it in my purse and try to feed it when we stood for the song. If she caught me with it I'd get a lecture. But darnit I had responsibilities to my pet! The beeping was off I was being very covert and no one ever saw it.

    I would also make "leather" that involved rubbing a piece of paper until it was soft between your fingers, sometimes using a bit of spit to 'cure' it. The end result was very soft if fragile paper. For some reason this activity always amused me.

    I'd spend lots of time tracing the routes of the missionary journeys in the back of the bible or memorizing the maps of the regions that were printed there. Or I'd use the index to look up smut scriptures.

    On nights when we got new mags I'd try to read those. That earned me another "just like your father" rebuke and it didnt fly for long but darnit at least reading about madagascar hissing cockroaches was more entertaining than another endless lecture on the dangers of the world.

    I had a mood ring, that wasn't taken away from me because mom wasn't superstitious and new how it worked was just silly nonsense. I used to get it warm in my hands to the deepest blue then put it on the metal of the chair and watch it cool down to black. The color formations between brown and green often looked like galaxy photos on the cover of the creation book.

    I would make spitball ammo (little balls of paper that would harden when the spit dried) though I never shot them in the meeting. I'd also make spears of paper with hardened pointed tips. All of these could be launched from the tip of a pen. I would practice taking my pens apart and putting them back together in the meeting also.

    [Hey if you know anyone still going to meetings feel free to print this off for them tee hee]

  • Dansk
    Dansk

    I was usually on duty as I was in charge of the attendants. I did everything I could to find something to do so as to get away from the boring meetings. It's the same reason I volunteered to be an attendant at assemblies - but I felt guilty at Claire and the children having to sit through it all

    Ian

  • PrimateDave
    PrimateDave

    Things I remember doing at the meetings:
    As a young boy, I would see how high I could count. (My parents never let us have pencils or paper for drawing.)
    As a young boy, I would read a story from the Bible. (The Exodus, or one of King David's adventures.)
    As a teenager, I would engage in sexual fantasies. (Standing up for songs was a problem sometimes!)
    As a young adult, I would actually try to pay attention.
    In more recent years, I would take ebooks on a Palm computer to read. (I read H. P. Lovecraft horror stories that way)
    Finally, I just learned to put my mind in "neutral" until the boredom passed.
    Now, I save time and gas by not going at all!
    Dave

  • Outaservice
    Outaservice

    A brother I knew quite well always brought a little silver flask to the meeting and whenever he could he would take a little 'nip'!

    Outaservice

  • sass_my_frass
    sass_my_frass

    I mastered the ability to stare straight into the speaker's eyes and not hear a word he says for 45 minutes. These days I pretend that's why I can't concentrate on anything during work meetings.

    Best thing I ever got out of a meeting was one night I realised that I could practise the accounting techniques I was studying on my own budget in a spreadsheet. During the meeting I planned how to plot it all out, left as soon as the prayer finished, went home and wrote it up, and worked out what it will take to get out of debt. After that the meetings were far more tolerable as I'd sit and ponder new things to do with it; projecting future expenses, savings plans, plotting out compound interest, mortgage repayments etc. If it wasn't for the meetings I'd probably still have three credit cards and wouldn't have saved for a few international holidays and some expensive hobbies. So maybe I'm the only person who can say 'thanks to the meetings, I got my finances under control and am now a lot happier'.

  • KW13
    KW13

    Young lad - fill paper with triangles and colour them in

    Slightly less Young lad - read bible accounts, some of them were ok

    Teenager - either sat and listened OR thought about what i would do at home when i got back, OR got a responsibility to do and that passed time, for example help with mics (rare occasions but it helped) or go on car park.

    Now i just don't go and i entertain myself at home thinking about the people i dont like, having to sit through it.

  • Bonnie_Clyde
    Bonnie_Clyde

    Back we had cafeterias at our assemblies, I used to volunteer and we could miss the last half hour or so of the program. I know there were brothers who had more responsibilities who were able to miss out on most of the program. Supposedy, they would attend another assembly to make up for it. Don't know if they really did.

    I'm still trying to keep up appearances, so I look up scriptures in my Spanish Bible trying to learn a few new words each time. Guess that's not entertainment, but at least I am doing something worthwhile.

  • Alligator Wisdom
    Alligator Wisdom

    Me as a young child?

    Stick figure animation!

    The kind where you would draw stick figure people on each page of a publication while making out a story line. Once finished, I would flip/skim the pages with my thumb and see my own production of a movie. I got pretty good at it too. [The mid-1950's thru the-mid 1970's 400+ page publications were the best to use]. Yes, I would periodically need a new Bible as well because all the pages were used up!

    Alligator Wisdom (aka Brother NOT Exerting Vigorously by WTS standards)

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    Mysterious, your activities take the cake. I can't nearly match them.

    At the assemblies, I pre-mark the anti-apostate, anti-Christendom, anti-Unblieiving Mate talks, and listen only to those. I try and copy the worst quotes verbatim. I count the baptism candidates, and try to figure out their ages (how many teens and pre-teens getting baptized today?). I estimate the number of attendees. Typically, the announced number is higher by a few hundred people.

    I am a whiz at copying down the scripture references, a trick I learned from my regular church. This always impresses my honey.

    At regular meetings, I make faces at the little ones, to see if I can can stop them from fussing for a moment. I figure I've done my duty if I cut down at least one visit to the back room.

    Solitaire on my Pocket PC. Always, always, my blank notebook with me. I've written entire chapters for my book, poetry, work plans, you name it.

  • Mysterious
    Mysterious

    tee hee jgnat I've always been accused of having a very active imagination. Possibly because I have no siblings.

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