Posts by CaptainSchmideo

33

VERY short day at the Arlington/Dallas International Convention-My Observations

by CaptainSchmideo in

jw
friends

okay, some good takeaway:.

i have never been to a convention quite like this before.

a very friendly vibe all around, lots of banners and posters with sayings like "sending love to all our brothers", "see you in the paradise", "ecuador sends greetings", and "jehovahs-witness.net" (okay, i lied on that last one...).

CaptainSchmideo

Crap! Things I forgot to mention!

Loesch was wearing a very cheesy looking JW.org button. It looked exactly like the kind of pin Jennifer Aniston was required to wear as "flair" in the movie "Office Space".

More on the drama. Every exciting thing that happens in the account was done "off stage". No visuals of walls of Jericho crumbling, Achan gets a stern talking to, but no mention of the fact that he and his family would then be brutally stoned to death, and no battle of the Five Armies versus Israel and Gibeon on screen, no visuals of the sun standing still (and crisping one half of the Earth while the other side froze), no hailstones (other that a few token, bloodless dead bodies and a sprinkling of hail around them. Very dull. Oh, well, one day, maybe they will finally give us a Lord of the Rings epic (and take credit for the special effects software in the process.)

33

VERY short day at the Arlington/Dallas International Convention-My Observations

by CaptainSchmideo in

jw
friends

okay, some good takeaway:.

i have never been to a convention quite like this before.

a very friendly vibe all around, lots of banners and posters with sayings like "sending love to all our brothers", "see you in the paradise", "ecuador sends greetings", and "jehovahs-witness.net" (okay, i lied on that last one...).

CaptainSchmideo

Okay, some good takeaway:

I have never been to a convention quite like this before. A very friendly vibe all around, lots of banners and posters with sayings like "Sending love to all our brothers", "See you in the Paradise", "Ecuador sends greetings", and "jehovahs-witness.net" (okay, I lied on that last one...)

Lots of delegates in "native" dress, and lots of cowboy attire! (this WAS taking place in Texas, after all!) No one was brave enough to dress in Native American tribal attire, but I guess all the Comanches are mostly dead. And it wasn't just "regular" publishers. Attendants wearing cowboy hats, a sister monitoring the contribution box, wearing a denim skirt, vest, braids, and a straw hat. A hispanic brother wearing a sombrero. South Americans dressed as "gauchos". Hindi sisters wearing saris. Definitely a monotony breaker.

And gift tokens! Someone with a bowl of candy standing in the hall at the end of the session, for anyone to take a piece. Sisters exchanging little business cards with hand made doo-dads attached to them, representing their congregations. Some of them even had little State Flags of Texas on them! (I am NOT making this up!)

BIG display on the "Jerry-tron" as no matter where you where, you had a direct, eye to eye view of the speaker. Gerrit Loesch, 50 feet high, and looking right at you! (okay, maybe not so good...). The emcee (or whatever you call the guy who introduces the speakers and reads the announcements. Compere? Announcement Guy?) never could get the hang of the camera, and still kept looking at the audience members in the stands, which made his delivery on camera akin to a guy following an insect with his eyes as it buzzes around his head (or is that just the DT's?).
At one awkward point, at the beginning of the afternoon sesssion, after he announced that the musical interlude was to begin, the camera stayed on him for the entire interlude, so we all got to be entertained by watching him on the big screen sitting there, fidgeting, at one point, patting all his pockets in an obvious panic as he tries to find some important item (he must have found it). Somewhat amusing entertainment.

We actually got to the convention very very late. Parking was amazingly full (so much for all those pronouncements of "this religion is dying, no one goes to these things" blah blah), so full, that they kicked into "overflow parking" which was two miles away at University of Texas at Arlington. This required boarding a bus to get to the site. Nice air conditioned ride to the assembly, yes? Except...you had to get a ride back to your car at the end of the day, and here is where it all went into a shambles (and not the KJV "meat market" kind of shambles). Apparently, they only could get 2 buses available for this service. And it took forever to get them in operation (oh lord, were there all sorts of buses, but none of them were the ones that could get me to my car!). So, the session ends at 3:50. I figure, okay, let's give them some time to get this sorted out. I can be patient! So, 3:50 becomes 5:00, becomes 6:00, becomes 7:00! And the service never improves! And what with the numerous wheel chair inhabitants, etc, the boarding process is INCREDIBLY slow! By 7:00, I am really getting concerned, because I still have a four hour drive to get home, and all I have been doing is waiting! Fortunately, a cab driver happened to show up, and after picking up one load, he figured out that he could come back and make some serious coin! There was a real scrum when he came back, as my wife and I, and another couple, and a family of 4 all crammed into a car that seated 7 and finally got our air conditioned car! All for 30 bucks for the group. Best 10 bucks I ever spent. If this is the level of "organization" to be expected in the "new system", everyone is going starve in a week....

The venue of Arlington stadium was ENORMOUS! To you friends in Britain and Oz, you just could not imagine until you got there. The place is built to the specifications and ego of Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and to say it is "Texas Sized" is understatement, in the same that saying Katy Perry dresses a tad loud, or that Lady Gaga tends to a slighly higher level of self promotion than other entertainers do. There were 50,000 people there on Sunday, and most of those seats were full. I think all the ones who avoided Detroit like the plague must have decided to come to a city that has an amusement park and a water park within visual distance of the convention site, as well as hundreds of hotels and many more restaurants.

Oh, and the drama! Huge jumbo tron, and the subject is the book of Joshua! Gotta be exciting, yes? Um, no.... The story was done EXACTLY like a typical convention drama, complete with abstract sets, painted backdrops, and the same dubbed voices over bearded "actors". (But I did think that the woman playing Rahab was kinda hot. She reminded me of Diana Scarwid or Denise Crosby in the eyes, but with the "ancient Jeri curl look" that they always portray non Israelite women with.) One thing that made me almost burst out laughing was, whenever "Jehovah" speaks to Joshua, or the pair of Joshua and Caleb, it went something like this: Joshua [looking at camera and you, the viewer] "and Jehovah then said to me:[Joshua pauses, looks up. Camera angle changes to elevated view, looking straight down at Joshua.] Jehovah [V.O.] "and you will tell the people, obey all my commands (blah blah blah)." [Jehovah finishes, Joshua now looks at camera and speaks again]. It took me awhile to figure out what this reminded me of, and it just dawned on me today:

http://youtu.be/P4NT1UUCZV4?t=50s

If the video doesn't embed right, the reactions of the characters at 50 seconds in (which was always the same in the Muppet Show segment of "Veterinary Hospital") is exactly what I was flashing to.

As far as the talks, I kinda dozed through the first one (darn that heavy sandwich), but I was able to keep fairly concetrated on Loesch's closing comments. A summary of the Big Talk that others have already posted on here. But, for all the text that has been ranted over Loesch in the past, what really struck me was that he is really a very boring speaker. Knda like listening to the summing up at an accountants meeting.

Anyway, my wife was happy to make at least one day, my mother in law probably thinks there is still hope for me yet, and I got to experience some of the fuss. And the hotel we stayed at was an Aloft! I highly recommend staying at one.

Later days....

18

Malawi Party Card vs US Passport HYPOCRISY of Gibbering Buddy

by hamsterbait in

as we all know jws were persecuted in malawi, beaten tortured and murdered, because they would not purchase (for about 70 cents) a card saying they support the political rule at that time.

if they did they wd be df .. what must a us citizen do in order to get a passport - and how in god's name do the wt leaders get one without a compromise nobody else wd be allowed to make?.

is this another case like the change on vaccinations in 53,because nathan homo knorrr knew he cd die of tropical diseases touring the third world.

CaptainSchmideo

Calm down, folks.

The US passport application has no "oath" other than the following statement when you sign it:

"I declare under penalty of perjury all of the following: 1) I am a citizen or non-citizen national of the United States andhave not, since acquiring U.S. citizenship or nationality, performed any of the acts listed under "Acts or Conditions" on page four of the instructions of this application (unless explanatory statement is attached); 2) the statements made on theapplication are true and correct; 3) I have not knowingly and willfully made false statements or included false documents in support of this application; 4) the photograph attached to this application is a genuine, current photograph of me; and 5) I have read and understood the warning on page one of the instructions to the application form."

What I believe you are really referring to is applying for Citizenship. That is a different animal altogether.

22

Muhammad Ali fought the US Draft 47 years ago today, June 20th, 1967

by designs in

with the help of jw attorney hayden covington the supreme court ruled in favor of muhammad ali's exemption status to the draft.

i admired him for taking his stand.. meanwhile we young jw guys were being hung out to dry by the wt.

goons- knorr, franz and schroeder.

CaptainSchmideo

Talesin: Is your friend William Gibson????!!!!

38

Two points of entry for the Dallas Convention?

by CaptainSchmideo in

jw
friends

anyone else hear about this?

i got this second hand from my wife, who got it from her mom.. .

apparently, there will be two points of entry to the convention.

CaptainSchmideo

You are only aiding the terrorists, you know....

38

Two points of entry for the Dallas Convention?

by CaptainSchmideo in

jw
friends

anyone else hear about this?

i got this second hand from my wife, who got it from her mom.. .

apparently, there will be two points of entry to the convention.

CaptainSchmideo

Anyone else hear about this? I got this second hand from my wife, who got it from her mom.

Apparently, there will be two points of entry to the convention. Badge wearers will come in through on entry, non badge wearers go in through another, which apparently will have security screening.

Surely, this can't be right...Can it?

4

Thor vs Superman

by FL_Panthers in

god of thunder or man of steel.. fight takes place in gotham city.

.

who would win?.

CaptainSchmideo

Batman, because....He's Batman (and Gotham City is HIS turf, Beeyotch!)

18

How did HQ handle the increase of new JWs leading up to 1975?

by Zoos in

this new donation arrangement under the pretense that so many new halls are needed to accommodate the worldwide increase has me wondering.

the numbers in the current annual reports don't show anywhere near the increase as there was leading up to the 1975 debacle.

so how did the gb of the time handle a genuine need for more kingdom halls?.

CaptainSchmideo

I seem to recall that there was a shortage of space in my locale. At the time, our hall was the Westernmost unit in the city, and a lot of members that lived in outlying suburbs even further west finally created their own congregation. For the first year or so, they actually met in semi-dance hall on the main drag in their town (it was a Country and Western dance hall), until their own hall was built. This was in the late 70's. So, there was a noticable hard to support growth for a little while....

9