this year i owed money to the irs.
(the result of cashing in some investments so i could put a down-payment on my first house... i owed taxes on the "income").
i mailed off the check the other day and today i looked at my bank account online.
I had to cough up and additional $2500, as if they didn't take enough already out of my checks. Glad those college degrees and a better paying job is going towards those who are to _____ing challenged to improve themselves...
On the other hand, my girlfriend had to pay $20,000.00...and thats a quarterly payment, mind you.... Glad her degrees, hard work, and business sense is able to help even more of those I was just b___ing about....
sigh.....
how the hell does this guy get paid to scream about every product he promotes?.
i wouldn't buy a single product he advertises even if i liked it..
ShamWow Guy arrested after hotel fight with woman: Smoking Gun
For his mugshot I wonder if he said, "Are you following this camera guy".....
i first had access to the internet in 1994. i thought it was amazing all the information at my fingertips.
i have no idea what search engine i used before google.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl9wu2kwwsy.
Very first experience with remote login and computer useage was the early 70's. Used a teletype an electro-mechanical typewriter basically. That was pre-commercial Internet when select universities and the military (DARPA) had very simple links.
just another controlling feature of a mind controlled cult.
they always dictate that everyone should look like clones of one another - the same.
from early on i remember my elder dad in the late 1970's telling me as a teenager , " you are an elders son ; little brother jimmy over there looks up to you as an example.
Yeah...
Had a moustache. An elder pointed out in the then lastest magazine(70's) that there was a picture of a scientist at a chalkboard attempting to prove evolution. The scientist had a moustache.
Therefore, the obvious conclusion, in his alledged brain was that if you had a moustache you believed in evolution...
That was my first clue that some elders, and in this case, a Bethel elder had some serious thought process issues.
And of course the usual issues with hair length and dress.
has anyone on this board attended college or knows anyone who attends as an active jw?
how many remain in the organization after graduation?
i was baptized in 1988 and was encouraged to stop college after 2 years.
I knew two Bethelites that started college within a matter of weeks of leaving Bethel. When they graduated they were still active, but that was many years ago. No idea of current status.
And today...well yesterday seeing its 1.1.09 Donna Summer turned 60...
...she probably moans for other reasons now...
come on i know many of you did.. i used to volunteer because 1. my mum forced me as a kid, then 2. i wisend up to the fact i'd miss quite a bit of the session if i volunteered.. many hours were spent cleaning stadiums, the loos (vomit), picking up litter.
in the days when they served meals at the assemblies we peeled potatoes, chopped onions, cooked, served the food / cooldrinks.
took the tickets.
And if you were in full time service, such as pioneering you got to count hours for "working" at assemblies. It was an easy way to make up or create hours...
we had a few.. no gum in your mouth ever!
the elders found some gum on the carpet so gum chewing was banned.. disfellowshipped ones should sit quietly in the rear of the hall.. you had to get at least the congregation's average in order to share in the privilege of mowing the lawn!.
No moustaches. Once when I was counseled for having a moustache I pointed out that most of the elders in the neighbouring congregation had moustaches. The elder replied "Yes, but you don't see any elders in OUR congregation with moustaches. Besides, most of them are Italian and it's part of their culture"
I got nailed on the moustache issue also...
Elder pulls me aside. Did you see the picture in magazine? I forgot now if it was the watchtower or awake. The picture was a scientist standing at a chalkboard proving evolution. The pictured scientist had a moustache.
Ergo. If you wore a moustache you believed in evolution.
My first Epiphany that some elders really do have their head up their a$$...in this case a Bethel elder
i got the jw "bug" as a teenager.
witnesses called at our door when i was nearly 11. my parents are deaf and i was the oldest hearing child, the default interpreter for them in that era before relay services and professional interpreters.
they had no interest in jws, but it started to spark an interest in me.
Recently I was talking to a friend of mine. We were at Bethel together. Not sure of his status, its a subject we seem to avoid cryptically. Anyway, whatever his status is he went back to college and completed his bachelors in his early 50's and is several months into a masters program in finance. He stated that no matter what your age or money circumstance is, it is well worth the effort to do. At the very least for personal satisfaction.
i often times wonder what happened to certain bethelites that i ran around with during my 1990s tenure there.
while there are still a few left there, the greater majority of them aren't there for various reasons (marriage, disillusionment, left the borg, etc).
a couple of cats i wonder about - there was one brother who i believe was from kansas, who got his fingers cut off in a printing press.
Whatever happened to Olie Riley?
He was a very popular guy in Brooklyn back in the 70's, I think he went though Gilead and was sent to some place like Fiji. Gymbob
There is a long forgotten name. I remember him as well when I was there.
DF: "Mark nevejans" I worked with his brother in the garage. If I remember correctly mark got married and moved to a bethel in south america (I think.)That would be Ecuador... his bro Roger became a CO last I heard.
Mark Nevejans had the same fate as numerous others during the 1980's apostasy uprising at Bethel and was exited out. In Sept-2000 Mark died from brain cancer that he battled for two years.
