One of my favorite authors. Quirky sense of humor and a unique writing style. He will be missed.
noontide
JoinedPosts by noontide
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5
Kurt Vonnegut dies at 84
by CaptainSchmideo inand in his memory, i want to be first to say this statement:.
kurt's in heaven, now...".
if you haven't read his last book, you won't "get" that sentence.
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WOULD YOU EVER GET PLASTIC SURGERY?
by Mary inseeing as the new system of things is taking it's sweet time getting here to restore everyone's youthful appearance,
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noontide
Kate, you are so right. Here in Southern California you can do it all on credit. I know someone who did their boobs, nose, lips, and butt all on credit with her surgeon. I often wondered what would happen if she missed a payment?
I’ve thought about doing my nose. Nothing really wrong with it but I would like to “streamline” it. I just can’t mentally justify spending the money. Plus if I got my nose done then I would have to get my eyes lasered so I wouldn’t have to wear glasses anymore, then my teeth would be next, then my…damn, maybe I should just wear a bag over my face!
In the hall, there was a sister who got her boobs done. She looked great afterwards and she was so happy. Of course, everyone gave her grief for it and basically told her she was vain and a stumbling block to the congregation. Well, she did cause me to stumble a few times, guess I should have keep my eye on the “prize” instead of… well, you know. -
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Age Differences in Relationships Help!
by noontide ini find myself in a situation that has me very confused.
id like your input on this.
i work for a large company (over 550 employees) and as such, romantic and or sexual relationships between employees tend to develop every once in a while.
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noontide
Thanks for your responses. I guess I’m just nervous.
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Age Differences in Relationships Help!
by noontide ini find myself in a situation that has me very confused.
id like your input on this.
i work for a large company (over 550 employees) and as such, romantic and or sexual relationships between employees tend to develop every once in a while.
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noontide
I find myself in a situation that has me very confused. I’d like your input on this.
I work for a large company (over 550 employees) and as such, romantic and or sexual relationships between employees tend to develop every once in a while. We don’t have a policy against such relationships and things seem to work themselves out eventually. At last count; 4 marriages, 1 pregnancy and more than a few breakups. I always said I would never get involved with someone at work and so far, so good. However, (you knew this was coming) about 8 months ago a new employee was hired which kind of changed my opinion. At first I only gave her the friendly smile and quick hello. At lunch she’d come and sit with the group but eventually we’d end up talking by ourselves. So we got friendly, I got to know a little bit more about her and she about me. Her personality and way of looking at life made me realize that I was becoming attracted to her. She seems to like me as well. We have lunch (at work) whenever we can, I call her or she calls me and we meet up. The other day I happened to mention that I had a cold and when I got back to my office I had an email from her offering to go to the store to get me some medicine or chicken soup! There are also several people at work who have mentioned that she seems to be attracted to me, I try to play it off as though I don’t know what they are talking about.
Now here is my dilemma; she is 10 years younger than I am (I am 35, she is 25). I don’t consider my self “old” and I certainly don’t “feel” my age, but I guess from 25 to 35 there is a large gap, however we do have quite a few things in common. Other than minor flirting I haven’t pursued any kind of relationship outside of work. I guess what I’m asking is: Is 10 years a big difference in age? Have you ever dated/married someone with such an age difference? Does it really matter? The thing I don’t want is to come across as the “creepy old guy” hitting on the younger girl. Normally I would not have even considered it, but this girl seems mature and we seem to be hitting it off.
I put this question to a friend of mine and she said it all comes down to life experience, meaning I have more life experience than she does, thus we could not possibly have anything in common. To a certain extent I understand what she means because at my age, most people have gotten married, they have children and a mortgage or have been through divorce. However, I’ve not done any of those things. After I left the “truth” I was in a bad place and sheltered myself from everything and everyone. No relationships, no family, no friends, nothing. It took quite a while to figure out who I was and what I wanted out of life. So while I have experience in life, it’s different than most.
Sorry for the long post, and I don’t mean to ramble but I’m confused as to what I should do next. She is the first person I’ve started developing feelings for in a long time and it turns out she’s younger that I am. Am I creepy for having feelings for her given our age difference? I don’t want to be. Do these relationships work? How do younger women feel about situations like this? What do you guys think? -
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Holy spirit my ass!!!
by unbeliever inmy mom called to tell me that my cousin made ms and how happy everyone is.
we got to talking about how the elders think they are led by holy spirit and crap like that.
it damn near killed me not to say anything but my cousin is a double lifer.
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noontide
Yeah, I learned all about being appointed by the Holy Spirit the day I moved congregations. When I told the elders I was moving congregations they told me they would not recommend me as an MS. Basically I was doing a lot of their grunt work and they did not want to see their free labor go away. They told me point blank that if I stayed I would continue to be an MS but if I left they would not recommend me. I asked them if that was the way the Holy Spirit worked. They said nothing in return. I left that congregation and sure enough they wrote a bad letter about me. Though in hindsight I think they did me a favor.
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Annual Jersey Hall Meeting Notes
by noontide ini dont know if anyone else has received this email or not but apparently its making the rounds and my loving family decided to forward it to me.
at age 20 for 3 yrs - later attended gilead .
bro.
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noontide
I don’t know if anyone else has received this email or not but apparently it’s making the rounds and my “loving” family decided to forward it to me. I guess it’s supposed to make me snap back into submission. The last part is interesting. Whatever. Enjoy.
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While it is still fresh in my mind and fresh in my notes I thought I’d send y’all the highlights from the ANNUAL MEETING in JERSEY ASSEMBLY HALL. Ready?????
The meeting started at 10:00am promptly and ended at 1:15pm. Bro David Splain (GB) was the Chairman.
There were representatives from 69 different countries (amazing) and reports from 5 Branches. - AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST, SOUTH AMERICA, NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE.
AFRICA-Togo: Togo is between Ghana & Benin. It has 5.2 million population. 28% are catholic. 13,000 publishers. 34,716 bible studies being conducted. Ban was lifted in 1974. 3,691 baptized this year. 56,200 attended memorial. The Bethel branch has a grand total of 41 members. There are 7 missionaries in the country.
MIDDLE EAST-Lebanon: 3,500 publishers. There has been fierce fighting the past 33 days and constant bombings. Total of 25,000 homes destroyed as a result - 60 day siege. However the field ministry has not ceased - the brothers met many people in the ministry that heard the good news for the very first time. 3.5 million population.
SOUTH AMERICA-Ecuador: In the 1940’s there were no Kingdom publishers. Today 55,000 publishers, 92,000 bible studies being conducted and 212, 441 attended memorial.
NORTH AMERICA-U.S.: The US Branch has reported that with the increase of the Bible Teach...... book, we have hit the 1 million mark of publishers. Now we over 1 million in the U.S. 97,500 pioneers and 37,322 aux pioneers. Bible teach bks - placed 6,703,261 - at a rate of
42,000 bks placed daily. Congs are requesting over 400,000 bks monthly. Currently there is no Branch in Alaska. Alaska is now part of the US branch.
EUROPE-France: There are 922 kingdom halls. We are listed as a sect in Paris and the push to get us to pay taxes is still in the courts. 6,500 pioneers, 48,000 bible studies and the brothers reported that we are active in the field but the courts are still giving much trouble about our religious order and tax problems.
INTERVIEWS: Bro Paul Illingworth (D.O.) interviewed long time servants of Jah.
Bro Maxwell Lloyd: baptized 1950. 58 yrs of full-time service. Starting pioneering at 18. Special pioneer in isolated territory in US. Served as a C.O. at age 20 for 3 yrs - later attended Gilead
and assigned to Paraguay. Married in 1957 (missionary sister). Presently serving on Branch Committee in Australia. Said he had a culture shock on his first visit to NY and does not like it (smile).
Bro McClain. Baptized in 1939. Started pioneering at age 20. Was arrested and put in prison for 2 yrs. Attended Gilead - assigned to Australia at age 23. Later in the Circuit Work at age 26. Later in District work – had to travel over 1,700 miles to serve the congs. And still got 100 hrs a month in service.
Greetings from: BRAZIL, CONGO, ESTONIA, GUADALUPE,
ICELAND, NIGERIA, NORWAY, SPAIN & THAILAND
Bro. Anthony Morris (GB) had the privilege of giving the year text for 2007:
ZEPHANIAH 1:14
He said the, “Governing Body is convinced” that we are close to Jehovah’s Day. Very evident that Jahs day is near. We eagerly anticipate the judgment period. Joel 2:1-16. He asked - are you ready for Jehovah’s day? Does the fact that it is near affect our day-to-day life? Do we sense the urgency of the time? 2 Peter 3:3,4 - We should be diligently studying the prophecies for our time with a sense of urgency. Many do not want Jehovah’s day to interfere with their day-to-day life. The does not believe Jah’s day is coming - but they will have a rude awakening. They put a lot of stock in money – but soon they will be throwing it into the streets. -
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Has a brother ever screwed you?
by noontide ini was always very cautious with worldly people but of course i trusted everyone in the congregation 100%.
i trusted someone from the congregation with a business deal and got raked over the coals.
its a long and frustrating story, suffice it to say it cost me a lot of anguish, time and money.
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noontide
I was always very cautious with “worldly” people but of course I trusted everyone in the congregation 100%. I trusted someone from the congregation with a business deal and got raked over the coals. It’s a long and frustrating story, suffice it to say it cost me a lot of anguish, time and money. He would say things like, “Don’t worry about it.” “Don’t you trust me?” “I love you brother” and so on. Of course because we were spiritual brothers I was dumb enough not to sign any legal documents (big mistake!). When I left the org I came to my senses and sued his a**. It’s been a long three years but matters are finally being settled…in my favor!
I also knew another brother who owned his own business. He hired all Witness staff and treated them like kings. Why? Because he was not paying his taxes and he was lying about his workers comp insurance. All the Witness brothers knew about this but kept their mouths shut because he paid them more money than they had ever seen in their lives. We’re talking about High School dropouts, no college education who a month had been earning minimum wage and just scraping by and now they were earning $100,000 plus. He also provided them with personal Mercedes cars to drive and Rolex watches. He convinced some to put the company in their names and gave them fancy titles like: President, CEO, CFO and so on. So all of these Elders, MS, pioneers and publishers felt like kings. That is until the FBI raided their offices. The company and its principals were hit with tax evasion charges and all hell broke loose. This brother let them take the fall and he walked away smelling like roses. When all was said and done some of them had gotten disfellowshiped, or reproved, others claimed ignorance and escaped the WT’s wrath. Not sure if any of them went to prison but you can bet they got the sh** scared out of them and are now back at their minimum wage jobs. Granted these people had become accomplices along the way but initially they were recruited under the guise of “brotherhood”. So I guess back to my initial question, has a “brother” ever screwed you?
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Artificial Insemination
by noontide inim a long time lurker, first time poster.
my question is this; if a sister in the congregation decided she wanted to have a baby, but was not married and went to a fertility clinic and was artificially inseminated, could she be disfellowshiped?
she didnt have sex, so she did not commit fornication.
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noontide
By the way Blondie, if the woman were inseminated with her husbands sperm, they would have to reprove him. He would have had to…you know…into a cup…in the middle of the day…
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Artificial Insemination
by noontide inim a long time lurker, first time poster.
my question is this; if a sister in the congregation decided she wanted to have a baby, but was not married and went to a fertility clinic and was artificially inseminated, could she be disfellowshiped?
she didnt have sex, so she did not commit fornication.
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noontide
Thanks for your responses guys. I pretty much figured they would find some way to make it wrong. But it was always fun to play “stump the elder.” I guess if you are going to be disfellowshiped for getting pregnant, you might as well do it the “fun” way! Well, I guess sperm and egg donations are out too.
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Artificial Insemination
by noontide inim a long time lurker, first time poster.
my question is this; if a sister in the congregation decided she wanted to have a baby, but was not married and went to a fertility clinic and was artificially inseminated, could she be disfellowshiped?
she didnt have sex, so she did not commit fornication.
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noontide
Greetings everyone! I’m a long time lurker, first time poster.
My question is this; if a sister in the congregation decided she wanted to have a baby, but was not married and went to a fertility clinic and was artificially inseminated, could she be disfellowshiped? She didn’t have sex, so she did not commit fornication. According to the “rules” you can be disfellowshiped for fornication, adultery, heavy petting, etc. In this case she did none of those things, she went to a medical clinic and was inseminated. Would it be considered the same as if she had sex? Anyone ever hear of such a thing happening in a congregation?
I realize it’s a strange question, but it’s been in my mind for some time now, I don’t really know why. (By the way, I’m a guy, so it’s not because I want to get artificially inseminated). I actually asked an elder this question during field service one time and the look he gave me made me not want to ask any more questions. He basically told me to stop thinking up nonsense and not to give the sisters any ideas. Well, I’ve been out now for about 7 years (sounds like I was in prison doesn’t it?) and this question is still in my head. What do you guys think?