Posts by larc

97

Hello...Hello...Hello (cont) #3

by Prisca in

well someone had to do it, so it might as well be prim & proper prisca to do the honors in the sex forum...... .

this thread is for all newbies to introduce yourselves.

whatever you feel happy to reveal about yourself.

larc

Lurker,

You are absolutely right when it comes to compound intereste curves. What looks like little increases at the beginning, takes off like a rocket later. It is truely wonderful mathimatics.

Now on the Prisoner's Delema, I don't know about the computer simulations. I do know that I used to play a game with my college students called "Win as much as you can". The ten rounds of "tit for tat" in the real live situation, did as I said earlier cause total ruin and some bad feelings among the players as well. I had to debrief them when the game was over, pointing out that I had put them in a "bad system", so they wouldn't go away with great distrust for their fellow students. I played this game in a one week management workshop in Dundee Scotland on a Tuesday. On thursday, one man was still mad at another. One tryed to apologize and the other said, "never mind, I have seen your true colors." This is a very dangerous game with real people.

97

Hello...Hello...Hello (cont) #3

by Prisca in

well someone had to do it, so it might as well be prim & proper prisca to do the honors in the sex forum...... .

this thread is for all newbies to introduce yourselves.

whatever you feel happy to reveal about yourself.

larc

Lurker,

I think you will without a doubt find that "special someone" someday. Your obviously intelligent and good hearted, and those are the same qualities you want in a woman, and you will find her. My own wife, known here as Zazu, is one of the brightest women I have ever known. We have been married for 37 years and her conversations are always interesting. I know that you will find a "like minded women" like that.

On the 401k thing, you probably have several investment options. You should eventualy read the book, but on the short run the best bet without research is a Value Fund or a Growth Income Fund.

On the subject of debt. I will borrow money any day of the week at 8% on my house when I take the money and invest it at the market average of 12% and make money on their money. It is called OPM, other people's money. Right now, I am living on credit cards at 15% for a few months so I don't have to pay 30% in taxes, plus take out money in a flat stock market. I love applied math and statistics.

25

confused

by conflicted in

jw
friends

i left the jw's 11 years ago and even though i never looked back i'm constantly concerned about the things i do.

for example, my wife's family is fairly devout in their faith (catholic) and therefore i occasionally have to attend their church, and i am always riddled with guilt upon entering and participating in the services.

also, every time some calamity occurs around the world i am always wondering if "this is the beginning of the end"?

larc

Conflicted,

If you go to Las Vegas, I would recommend that you get a book on the basic rules and then learn the basic strategy. Take the book home and practice. Learning to play a good game of Black Jack is easier than Euchre and not as hard as Bridge. Don't go uneducated and unskilled and decide to lose all your money like most people do. If you do lose, which can happen, at least your money will last a lot longer if you know what you are doing and you will get free drinks while you are playing.

Mommie,

I have never won ten straight hands in a row! The odds of doing that are over a thousand to one.

65

The Poor JW Children

by larc in

jw
friends

the children.

there are many things that could be changed, and even though i would never go back, i think there are some very basic changes they could make in their child rearing practices, simple changes that would make a big difference in their society.. 1. don't force small children to sit for two hours in a chair.. this was discussed at length on the thread about slapping children at the kingdom hall.. 2. don't bring children to meetings where the subject has to do with adult sexual practices.. 3. don't tell teenagers that they can't ask someone out for a date unless marriage is on their mind.. 4. don't tell them that they are not special, that they have to humble themselves and be like everyone else.. 5. don't tell them they have to get good grades through high school as a reflection of what jehovah has given them and then tell them they can't go to college when they graduate from high school at the top of their class.. 6. don't tell your wordly neighbors that you give your children presents all through the year, but not on their birthday, when they have never seen a special gift wrapped present in their life.. 7. don't expect a shy child to enjoy going from door to door and don't expect an extroverted, lively child to sit still at meetings.. 8. don't tell an inquiring child not to ask questions and don't tell them not to read interesting books.. 9. don't surprised if you don't change your ways that your children will leave you, even though they love you.

larc

Lurker,

I will give you that. I was a pretty pliable young lad myself, and could sit still through boring college lectures myself as a result. One thing occured to me in college after my Theocratic Ministry School training was that I could be as good as at least the average college professor with little effort, so that's what I did for the last 15 years of my career, and parts of it earlier on. Don't mean to brag, but I could give almost all my lectures extemporanious style with questions from the students and no notes whatsoever. It was great fun!

97

Hello...Hello...Hello (cont) #3

by Prisca in

well someone had to do it, so it might as well be prim & proper prisca to do the honors in the sex forum...... .

this thread is for all newbies to introduce yourselves.

whatever you feel happy to reveal about yourself.

larc

Lurker,

How on earth did you find my original bio. It was posted on Dec. 15 on waiting's earlier Hello, Hello thread. I had trouble finding it myself. Hey, Lurker, I and Abe Lincoln had quite a life don't you think?:):):)

97

Hello...Hello...Hello (cont) #3

by Prisca in

well someone had to do it, so it might as well be prim & proper prisca to do the honors in the sex forum...... .

this thread is for all newbies to introduce yourselves.

whatever you feel happy to reveal about yourself.

larc

Lurker,

Thank you very much for the compliment. I really appreciate it.

On the 401k information, I had to go look for it myself. What helps is the search feature at the top of each page here. I put in the word Pascal in the text search and it took me right there. Any unique word can usually get you to where you want to go.

The discussion is under the subject of "RE: confused" It is the last post on the bottom of page one.

65

The Poor JW Children

by larc in

jw
friends

the children.

there are many things that could be changed, and even though i would never go back, i think there are some very basic changes they could make in their child rearing practices, simple changes that would make a big difference in their society.. 1. don't force small children to sit for two hours in a chair.. this was discussed at length on the thread about slapping children at the kingdom hall.. 2. don't bring children to meetings where the subject has to do with adult sexual practices.. 3. don't tell teenagers that they can't ask someone out for a date unless marriage is on their mind.. 4. don't tell them that they are not special, that they have to humble themselves and be like everyone else.. 5. don't tell them they have to get good grades through high school as a reflection of what jehovah has given them and then tell them they can't go to college when they graduate from high school at the top of their class.. 6. don't tell your wordly neighbors that you give your children presents all through the year, but not on their birthday, when they have never seen a special gift wrapped present in their life.. 7. don't expect a shy child to enjoy going from door to door and don't expect an extroverted, lively child to sit still at meetings.. 8. don't tell an inquiring child not to ask questions and don't tell them not to read interesting books.. 9. don't surprised if you don't change your ways that your children will leave you, even though they love you.

larc

Waiting,

I find it sad to say, but I don't see much chance of them changing either. I thought that conditions were starting to improve when they begrudgingly agreed that going to college is acceptable. However, what I have read here from Lurking, you and a few others makes it clear to me that they really haven't changed all that much.

65

The Poor JW Children

by larc in

jw
friends

the children.

there are many things that could be changed, and even though i would never go back, i think there are some very basic changes they could make in their child rearing practices, simple changes that would make a big difference in their society.. 1. don't force small children to sit for two hours in a chair.. this was discussed at length on the thread about slapping children at the kingdom hall.. 2. don't bring children to meetings where the subject has to do with adult sexual practices.. 3. don't tell teenagers that they can't ask someone out for a date unless marriage is on their mind.. 4. don't tell them that they are not special, that they have to humble themselves and be like everyone else.. 5. don't tell them they have to get good grades through high school as a reflection of what jehovah has given them and then tell them they can't go to college when they graduate from high school at the top of their class.. 6. don't tell your wordly neighbors that you give your children presents all through the year, but not on their birthday, when they have never seen a special gift wrapped present in their life.. 7. don't expect a shy child to enjoy going from door to door and don't expect an extroverted, lively child to sit still at meetings.. 8. don't tell an inquiring child not to ask questions and don't tell them not to read interesting books.. 9. don't surprised if you don't change your ways that your children will leave you, even though they love you.

larc

Waiting,

I am sure that parents in all religions and all cultures vary widely as to their effectiveness. I was not referring to the individual cases of really bad parenting among the wintesses or elsewhere, or to the percent difference in bad parenting for them as compared to other groups. I was referring in my list to either organizational sanctions and/or congregation norms and values that have the adverse impact that have been described so frequently in this discussion forum. I know there are very good parents who have made exceptions to the strict parameters of the witness culture. When they did, e.g., promote college for their children, they were criticized. Resisting social pressure is not easy even when the official policy has changed, but the local norms have not. For a recent example of this, read Lurker's bio. under "hello, hello," and how he cried himself to sleep after being sanctioned for going to college. (I believe that you stated that you faced criticism yourself when your son went to college) There are also parents at the other extreme who use the Societies sanctions to grind their children down with an autocratic implementation of the rules. In between are the average parents who love their children, but impliment the Societies really bad rules. I do believe, however, that if the Society took steps to make the relatively easy eight changes in their methods of their treatment of children and adolesents that I desscribed, that the average parenting techniques among the Witnesses would improve as well, and the average JW child would grow up to be a lot healtier.

7

Stuff-Not to Tell the R+F;)

by ISP in

jw
friends

things to avoid.

circulate to all elders.

please let us have feedback so that we can maintain a full database.. well don't get involved in anything about past chronology.

larc

Moridin,

There is a lot of information on Beth Sarim and the neighboring property Beth Shan on the thread "Re: Strange WT Contraditctions and Backpeddling" dated Feb. 20 of this year.

16

GB question,

by somebody in

jw
friends

does anyone here know what year the wbts spirit appointed a gb/f&ds?.

thanks in advance,.

edited by - somebody on 26 february 2001 13:24:19

larc

Somebody,

There is a site that I have seen that has the membership numbers from about 1920 to the present. Unfortuantely, I didn't write it down. Parhaps someone else here may be able to supply it. Also, I started the thread awhile back called JW decliine, where I summarized the recent (ten year) changes. (To find it, go to the top of this page to search and enter the word "decline". It should take you there) The original graphs that I summarized can be found at the freeminds site.

Besides membership, it is useful to look at % changes by year. I put together a graph for the years of 1925 to 1990. I have to look it up, so what I am here writing is off the top of my head. After the 1925 fiasco, the WT membership did not get back to its 1924 number for a full ten years. Growth from 1935 til Rutherford's death in 1944 was slow. Under Knorr they had double digit percent increases during the 40's and 50's. In the 60's and 70's they settled in at about 7-8%. They showed large increases before 1975, followed by loses and small increases intil 1980. They never did recover. From 1980 until today their growth rate has dropped steadily from an average of about 8% to about 2%.
There is one interesting fact that I forgot to add to my previous thread. In economics there are statistics that are called "leading indicators" that predict other, future information. If you look at the graphs at the Freeminds site you will notice that the number being baptized started to decline further and faster than membership declines and is a leading indicator of membership decline. This indicates that for at least the next five years, their membership in all but the third world countries will continue to decline no matter what they do.