Posts by maxwell

47

Do you eat out alot?

by iiz2cool in

jw
friends

i eat out a fair bit.

i used to eat out alot more - two or three times a day, but i've cut back to about three times a week.

restaurant food is starting to get to me.

I eat lunch out during the week everyday. I'd like to make my lunch sometimes, but we don't have a very good fridge at my office and I'm too lazy to carry a cooler type bag or prepare something that will keep at room temperature. We have a microwave that doesn't work very well also. My office is supposed to be moving within the next year or so and we are told we will have large pantries with nice fridges there, so maybe I'll start then.

I eat out on the weekend usually 2 or 3 times also. Sometimes somewhere semi-nice (sit down and a waiter/waitress). That I don't have any plans on cutting back on. It costs more to eat out, but one nice eat out dinner a week isn't too bad and it is possible to eat somewhere where the food isn't all greasy and fatty. On the other hand during the week at least 2 days I'm eating at McDonald's. So you really can't expect anything but greasy and fatty there. I haven't had any real horror stories like finding a bug. I have gone in like 3 in the afternoon sometimes because I want to avoid the rush of lunch time and I'll get a hamburger that has obviously been sitting in the box too long. But again, it is McDonald's, cheap and fast, not a place where I expect high quality food. It is amusing when I'm standing in line behind someone at McDonald's or any fast food restaurant and they're getting all picky about a $2 sandwich. "I want the bun lightly toasted and the burger well done with the pickles on the side and oh with the cheese melted on the burger" or "Take this sandwich back and make me another, the mustard is mixed in with the ketchup. I asked for mustard on the side." It's McDonald's, not fine dining.

36

Did You Feel Pressured To Auxiliary or Regular Pioneer?

by minimus in

jw
friends

a few times a year, the society really promotes pioneering.they will devote service meeting talks and parts stressing the need to regular or auxiliary pioneer.

at the assemblies and at the district convention, they will try to shame you into pioneering.

they give examples of 85 year old parapalegics that "made room in their lives" to pioneer.

maxwell

I felt some pressure. After I was baptized, I did auxiliary a couple of summers as a teenager. I had said that I would become a full-time pioneer when I graduated, but somehow sensible thinking came over me and by the time I graduated high school, I figured I better make sure I can take care of myself financially first and I never did pioneer again after those early teenage summers. Never really thought about doing it much while in college. There was simply no time to do it between full-time school work and part-time job to keep up with expenses. After I graduated and got a nice 40 hour/wk job, I did feel pressured a few times in the 2 or 3 years before I left. They started putting those little schedules in the Kingdom Ministry showing how one could do it on within 2 or 3 days a week. And I knew one brother actually did it with evening witnessing and working 4 days a week. Combine that with the fact that my work hours were fairly flexible (For example I could easily and often did alter my schedule to work four 10-hour days), and I felt a little pressure and guilt that I was not at least auxiliary pioneering during the hyped months. Well I am happy that I removed that pressure.

87

Who are the A/As on the board?

by starfish422 in

not alcoholics anonymous, mind you.

:) atheists/agnostics.

i know there are some of us here; who's with me?

maxwell

I'm agnostic. I still believe that there are some things that suggest there might be a supernatural force. Life on this planet, this planet, physical forces, etc. But these things could just as well have ended up here as explained in the evolution theory. I don't see conclusive proof for the God theory or the evolution theory. I don't know that there's ever been a proper poll of people on this site, but I find it interesting that it seems that here there is a higher proportion of atheist/agnostics here than in the general population. The vast majority of humans do believe in some type of god. I suppose when you leave JW, it causes you to question many things that some people take for granted. I told someone I met about my beliefs. She could hardly believe it. She was 38 years old and acted as if she had never met anyone who did not believe in God and she wasn't a JW. And she refused to consider the idea that there might not be a God. It was not a concept she was able to grasp, so we didn't stay on that subject long.

16

Iran - On the right track

by Uzzah in

say what you want about middle eastern law but at least with this one i belive they are on the right track for an admitted child rapist/molester.iranian court hands 8 death sentences, 173 lashes to serial child rapist.

by ali akbar dareini.

tehran (ap) - an iranian court has sentenced a serial child rapist to eight death sentences and 173 lashes, the judge in charge of the case said thursday.

maxwell

This is just a guess. But I would think that multiple sentences could also be important in case one sentence gets overturned on a technicality. I don't know how the Iranian judicial system works, but I could see a situation like that in our judicial system.

9

Did the WT rob you of your Inheritence??

by Poztate in

jw
friends

over the years many ways have been suggested by the wt as to giving.one primary way was to name the wt in your inheritance.my father had a very simple will.one third of all he had went to me,one third went to my sister and one third went to the wt.. my father was a great believer in the generation of 1914 not passing away doctrine before the big "a" many times he would urge me to come back before it was too late.he was absolutely certain the end would have to come very soon.after all this was jehovah's promise not just the thoughts of the org.. then came the doctrinal change of 1995?

the goal posts in his life had suddenly been moved.this took all the fire out of a very old and unsure man.he died less than a year later.. the big change...when his will was opened and read it was even simpler.one half went to me and one half went to my sister.i guess at the end he finally saw "new light".

did the wt try to rob you and did they succeed??

maxwell

My parents don't have much and probably never will. Even if they did, I don't see how the WT can rob me of something that isn't mine. What my parents have is theirs and they have the right to give it to whomever they wish. They do own a house and which they have been paying mortgage on for 17 years, so I'm sure they have a positive net worth. But I have no expectations about inheriting any of their property. I can only be robbed of something that I own. That said, I do understand that in some families the tradition/culture is that kids are entitled to and perhaps should expect something from their parents when their parents die. And if their parents decide to give to some large phoney corporation instead of their kids, then their feelings of being robbed are valid.

31

A serious sex thread (seriously)

by logansrun in

jw
friends

so, i'm looking through some booklets at school (college, mind you) about sex and abstinence and all that good stuff.

seems like the department of health really promotes just holding hands and smiling at each other as opposed to mind blowing orgasms.

this got me wondering.

maxwell

I don't really have anything constructive to add in answering the question. But I too have wondered why the vast majority of our society insists on complicating sex with social rules and excessive emotion. There's certainly nothing wrong with making sex subject to several artificial conditions. And I can see the value of stable family units for children. But the prevailing views on sex are just not something I share with most of my fellow world neighbors.

24

Cars at the Kingdom Hall

by YellowLab in

jw
friends

the cars i've seen most in the kingdom hall parking lot: the familiar, dull 4-door car, the family minivan, or the old beater.

sometimes the occasional 2-door car, which was generally frowned upon for service.

ok, let's hear it... what kind of car did you drive when you were a dub?.

maxwell

I drove an 85 Mazda 626, then 88 Honda Civic when I was a teen. Then later an 86 Honda Accord. I kept that even after I got a job that allowed me to move out of my parents house. After I left the JW, I sold it. One less thing to worry about.

At both KHs I went to, someone drove a Lexus. There were also Cadillacs and Lincolns and SUVs. But they were definitely not what the majority drove. Late model foreign cars were pretty much the norm. 4-door of course.

28

apartment life

by MrMoe in

jw
friends

the chick upstairs is loud.

she came home and when she walked by my door she banged on it as loud as she could, waking up me and emma.. it is 1:15 in the morning.

called the cops i am sick of her crap.

maxwell

I guess I've been really lucky so far. On the 23 of this month, it will have been 4 years since I moved out of my parents house. I've been in apartments the entire time and I've never had a problem. The first apartment I was in had specific rules about no loud noise after 11 pm. Which should be common sense and I guess that's what my present apartment assumes because there are no specific time rules. In cany case, if there was a complaint, you'd have to take it up with the police. My apartment happens to be on the first floor of this building. There's a lobby/ground level below me, and my apartment ends up being right above some ground level covered parking spaces. Below the parking spaces is a basement level conference/party room. One night, there was some party there that I thought lasted a bit too long I thought. They were there after 11 and I could hear their music quite clearly. But that was the only incident. And they weren't nearly as loud as the police and the fire trucks who come through every other night.

I grew up in a rural area where all you would hear were insects and maybe some owls or dogs in the distance, and that only if the air conditioning and other appliances weren't making too much noise. I guess I've gotten used to city noises. Garbage trucks, street sweepers, fire trucks. None of those bother me now and I don't even notice them when I'm asleep. I think the police do try to be somewhat considerate when they come by at night. They sorta stutter their sirens instead of going at it full blast. I have definitely heard some horror stories and was a bit afraid about my first apartment, but everything was cool. After I moved to this area, I read an article in the paper about some guy who got so angry with his upstairs neighbor walking around that he went upstairs and shot him to death. It didn't just happen right away; the situation escalated from some initial confrontation. The guy is going to jail. Not a really good way to deal with neighbors, and I don't think he will like his new neighbors any better. If the person doesn't respond to an initial polite request, documentation and using the authorities, as has been suggested, is a much better way of dealing with nusiances.

Also I'm happy to say, I've never had a complaint about my own noise. I sometimes practice my saxophone which can get loud. But I usually quit before 8pm and I never play after 9pm. My apartment only shares a wall with one other neighbor. And he is cool with the music.

15

US - Do Not Call registry

by Uzzah in

.

here's a breaking news update i just received from cnn.. -- appeals court rules national "do-not-call" registry can be implemented while court considers whether it violates telemarketers' free speech.

watch cnn or log on to http://cnn.com (aol keyword: cnn) for the latest news.

maxwell

There was a live on-line chat with "legal expert" Stuart Banner last week. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35572-2003Oct2.html

It was suggested at that time that a higher court might overcome the 'freedom of speech' argument by arguing that the government is not restricting speech but facilitating a consumer's right to restrict speech. The government cannot discriminate or restrict speech based on speech content except in certain circumstances. But individual citizens can. Maybe that's what this latest court has decided. I haven't read the full thing. But I am glad they are going forward with that. I was worried for a while about that. It reminded of the Stratton, Ohio case. The government couldn't restrict the JW in that case. However, as pointed out in the chat above, any citizen may put up a "do not solicit" (or even a "No Jehovah's Witness") sign. The do not call list is the equivalent for your phone. But it did make me wonder. Would there be interest and would it be possible to create a Do-Not-Knock or a Do-Not-Mail list?

90

What Was Your Reputation In The Congregation?

by minimus in

jw
friends

were you considered a "troublemaker", a "complainer", a "fine" brother or sister?

were you always being called before the elders for one thing or another?

is your reputation the same here as it was in the congregation??

maxwell

Part of my personality was the same as it is now. I was quiet and people knew me for that.

As far as towing the JW line, I was probably seen as mostly good, but not quite stellar. I was regular in field service, studied for the meetings and answered and participated at every meetings. I did well enough to be used for various chores around the hall like the literature counter, attendant, reading at the bookstudy and mikes. I was actually trusted enough to pray in front of the congregation at the Service/School meetings. Supposedly the congregation as a whole has to have some confidence in you for that. Obviously some elders felt that way. But I never had a repuation good enough to be appointed as a ministerial servant. I think if I had been there a little longer and I had done a little more in field service (couldn't quite get that average over 10/mo.), I might have been eventually appointed to ministerial servant.