Posts by darkuncle29

40

Where were you when you decided to quit being a JW?

by Steve Lowry in

jw
friends

for me, it was at the hall.

it was an evening meeting.

i felt a kind of mental surge within me brewing and i got and went to the men?s room.

darkuncle29

It was a slow process for me, I was not even aware of it at first. I may have been at work. I also started spending lots of time at my best friend's fiance's parent's house. They were a fun busy family. I started gardening on their property and raised chickens there too. My hobby eventually got way out of hand. It was taking up most of my free time and a large chunk of my income. I had at one point over 300 chickens, 12 turkeys, 4 peafowls, and 12 or so Guineas.

My hobby was the distraction that I needed to heal and get over JW. I had not even considered that there was an active online community of exJWs. I had not heard of CoC. When it finially occured to me that I was no longer living as a JW-no meetings, no service, ect., I realized that I didn't want to go back to it all. I was not mentally free, but I was good at supressing things, so I supressed the JW desires and control mechanisms.

A few years later, I met up with my best friend in the JWs. I thought he was still active. We had a very long conversation, and that is when I was mentally free from JW. Having my world view changed that quickly was painful, but so nessesary.

Looking back, I wish that I could have been more aware of what was happening as I think it was a fascinating experience (exiting the JWs).

21

An odd experience I had the other day...............

by nicolaou in

my job took me to a residential part of town that i would never normally have any reason to go to.

i had to go to a specific address.

i found it quite easily and parked the car about twenty yards from the customers home.. i had a sense of deja vu - but an unpleasant and rather disturbing one.. i took a good look around me.

darkuncle29

That's interesting. I too can't remember mine.

17

IRS & Salary at Bethel

by Phil in

jw
friends

the answer to your question is:.

for more information, see publication 517, social security and other information for members of the clergy and religious workers.

you ask the internal revenue service (irs) for an exemption from se tax for your services and the irs approves your request.

darkuncle29

I'm doing my dad's taxes tomorrow. The language they use is always kind of hard to wade through as no one actually speaks like that, unless in a legal or tax profession.

I do think that if someone were to get documentation or other evidence of Bethelites "moonlighting" and turn that over to the IRS fraud division, it may cause some problems for them. Social Security might even get involved. If govt. agencies could move the curtain aside and see what the great OZ is doing, that would be really fun to whatch.

13

What do you miss most about the person you wanted to be?

by dh in

jw
friends

though my posts might not reflect it, i find life pretty hard and spend most of my time battling things in my head, regardless of what else i'm doing, thinking too much junk, always trying to figure things out and always ill at ease, i often remember being a kid, looking forward to a future, with goals and things i wanted to do, now i'm an adult and for the life in me i see nothing worth looking forward to.

i miss the feeling, when anything is possible, when i'd pine for a thing, or just smile at what i knew i was going to be when i grew up, or what i'd do, or when i'd look in the mirror and see a familiar face.

somehow and somewhere down the road, between becoming a child and a man, i seem to have got stuck.

darkuncle29

I used to know exactly what I wanted to be when I finished HS. I even went to a year of school towards a degree in chemitry. I still like chemistry and physics, but my world has changed so much that I felt lost. I have had to relive an imaginary childhood where I taught myself the things that I would have wanted to learn as a child. I still don't think I can get close to answering this question, but I like the introspection.

47

Favorite childhood TV shows

by Nosferatu in

jw
friends

now, i'm not referring to sesame street, mr. rogers, or any of the educational kids' shows.

i'm talking about the ones for pure entertainment, cartoons and such.

however, i can't really classify this as purely cartoons since some of you might have watched things like hr pufnstuf.. i grew up in the 1980s, when the magic of saturday morning cartoons existed.

darkuncle29

I still love The Muppets.

I also liked reruns of I Dream of Jeannie. I was frustrated though because I was not shure if I wanted to grow up to be a genie and marry an astronaut or if I wanted to be an astronaut and marry another astronaut. Magical powers vs going into space?

I also liked Quincy--if that's the one with Jack Clugman who was the M.E.

The bionic man, bionic woman.

I still whatch Looney Toones whenever I can. My nephew and I whatch alot of Sponge Bob Square Pants.

13

Pet peeve #24.

by onintwo in

jw
friends

why is it that cashiers hand you your change back with all of the loose change on top of haphazardly stacked bills?.

man, that pisses me.

i remember years ago when i was trained, we always handed the change back into the open hand.

darkuncle29

little witch:

On the converse, many customers are domineering, bitchy, short tempered and rude. After 8 hours of bs, I can understand how many clerks become robotic.

This is SO true. There are also good and kind people out there, but they are not as numerous.

Looking back, I wish that I'd gotten my degree in chemistry or went to Antacrtica to do research as my personality makeup is more inline with that sort of work.

However, my years of observing people for brief periods of time lead me to an interest in human interactions. It also lead me for a while to not like people in general. I think of my time with Fred Meyer as almost as damagin to me as my time with the JWs.

I do not think I would make a good mental health clinician as I am too sensitive to peoples' emotions.

As for the dumbing down of clerks, I agree. I was only there for the 90's but I saw alot of change. The employers are having a dificult time filling those jobs, yes that may sound odd. The turnover rate is phenominal. New cashiers were getting dumber and dumber. These are also the type of people who think they are smart enough to get away with stealing. It used to just slay me as to how they could think that stealing $100, $1,000, or more and think that they'd not get caught.

I'll stop, as this is not my place to rant about FM.---wanders off talking to self

13

Pet peeve #24.

by onintwo in

jw
friends

why is it that cashiers hand you your change back with all of the loose change on top of haphazardly stacked bills?.

man, that pisses me.

i remember years ago when i was trained, we always handed the change back into the open hand.

darkuncle29

I worked as a cashier for over ten years, and I understood this. I had a few regulars that were little old ladies. I'd put the coins directly into their coin purses, or write their checks for them. What was on my mind was to help them like I would want somebody to help my great grandmother or other older relatives.

Age wasn't really what made me want to make things easier for people, but that is just an example. It was important to me to interact with the people on a simple person to person level, as opposed to a corporate entity and impersonal experience.

6

Female Hormones Discovered In Beer!!!

by Elsewhere in

beer study: .

yesterday scientists suggested that in consideration of the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer, men should take a look cutting back their beer consumption.

scientists discovered the female hormones while conducting a study in which 100 men were fed a case of beer within a one hour time period.

darkuncle29

The Hops used in flavouring beer does contain phyto-estrogens. I doubt that there is enough in there to make you grow boobs. I used to reald alot about herbs and plant medicines. Hops was recomended as a calming agent, but there was a warning that repeated use could lead to depression.

I hope this didn't ruin your joke.

8

Hey Everybody..

by shamus in

i just got back from the city, and it was an experience to say the least!

i nearly died, lol!

i came within a hairs breath of a head-on semi crash.

darkuncle29

Hey Shamus,

I'm glad you made it back safe. How many hours is that drive? From where I'm at it is a 6 to 8 hour drive in good weather.

Peace.

22

A sincere question about prayer for any kinds of Christians out there...

by somebodylovesme in

jw
friends

a few weeks ago, i received a mass e-mail from one of my mainstream christian friends requesting prayers for headaches she's been having.

i wrote back and told her i hoped she felt better (i'm personally not religious at all).

today, i got another mass e-mail thanking everyone for their prayers, and that her headaches were gone now through the grace of god.

darkuncle29

Strangely enough, I do still believe in prayer. Not to offend any others here, but I believe that prayer is the setting of you intentions. People that practice magic do the same with their rituals. Intent is clearly focused on a goal. Why would it be dificult to win the Lotto this way? Because millions of other people are also hoping that they win. so everybody cancels each other out. But like your friend with the headaches, numerous people with one common goal.

What if a bunch of us bought lotto tickets with the same numbers, and then prayed over them or focused our intent on those numbers? It could be interesting, but I'd rather use such a gift on something less selfish.