betterdaze

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Posts by betterdaze

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  187

  Favorite Love Songs?

  by Robdar in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  until recently, i have never been in love.

  oh, i had lots of lust, but i cannot say honestly that i was in love.

  silly love songs made me roll my eyes heavenward.

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  betterdaze

  Oh my gosh, 9 pages already!
  
  Alicia Keys – If I Ain't Got You
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhPAK8HjcPI

  George Harrison – My Sweet Lord
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wynYMJwEPH8&feature=related
  
  ~Sue
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  6

  Watch Tower Humanitarian Aid in Haiti

  by betterdaze in

  1. social
  2. current

  top story at jw-media.org:.

  witnesses' relief efforts in haiti continue in the two weeks following the devastating earthquake that paralyzed the small island nation of haiti, jehovahs witnesses have been maintaining the intensity of their efforts to render assistance.. here is a truck.. .

  here they are unloading a truck.. .

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  betterdaze

  Top story at jw-media.org:

  Witnesses' relief efforts in Haiti continue

  In the two weeks following the devastating earthquake that paralyzed the small island nation of Haiti, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been maintaining the intensity of their efforts to render assistance.

  Here is a truck.
  
  
  Here they are unloading a truck.
  
  
  
  Can anyone confirm if the boxes on the truck bed are literature shipments? (Not the blue packages, the cardboard boxes.)
  
  Thanks.
  
  ~Sue
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  80

  Tell me about your avatar(not the Gravatars)

  by asilentone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my avatar is a pic of a cool car, obviously.

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  betterdaze

  Hi leec, we can't change our avatars just yet. Here's an alternate method to display the image of your choosing:
  
  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/forum/announcements/186156/1/Gravatar-MonsterIds-now-supported
  
  Welcome and best regards,
  
  ~Sue
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  80

  Tell me about your avatar(not the Gravatars)

  by asilentone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my avatar is a pic of a cool car, obviously.

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  betterdaze

  Sylvia, thank you for the reminder to "remain upright, in these, the last daze."
  
  ~Sue
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  80

  Tell me about your avatar(not the Gravatars)

  by asilentone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my avatar is a pic of a cool car, obviously.

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  betterdaze

  Casper, re: history and meaning. Those heels in your sophisticated (I must say) avatar remind me of a "worldly" boyfriend I brought into "the Truth" over 20 years ago. He had a wicked women's shoes fetish. It was a little weird at first but I could not complain... what girl can say No to, "Hey, let's go to Garden State Plaza and look at shoes for you"?

  Sexiest high heels in every color of the rainbow... supporting dowdy floral prairie garb befitting a modest "sister." Gotta love the '80s.

  If/when he shows up here, he'll PM you post-haste, before ever posting a word in the forums. Let me know, okay? He still has half an ass cheek left I want to kick.

  ~Sue
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  21

  Giving to Charities

  by Kristina1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i notice the jw's don't really donate to charities.

  when i donated to the earthquake in haiti, my husband didn't really say anything about it.

  silence usually means he doesn't agree with something because of his religious beliefs.

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  betterdaze

  Start giving on a local level.

  
  
  designs, I totally agree. It's the only way you know donations aren't squandered or swallowed up for bogus means. I've seen some 501(c)(3)'s set up solely to enrich halo-wearing thieves.

  So, they give a pittance to their cause. So what? Most of it is is pocketed for "administration costs." Fancy meals and travel galore. Shame on them.
  
  One guy, kept urging a local volunteer group I was part of to use his business equipment... that we had no need of at all... so he could write it off his taxes as a donation. Never time or money or public advocacy, just "Take my crap when I don't need it, so I can say to the IRS, I gave something." But the minute he needed it for a job, he'd demand it back! Jerk. So it runs both ways.

  I'd like to have faith that most charities are run legitimately. But it's ones like these that make the Watchtower Swiss Bank Slush Fund appear trustworthy. I gave a little at the KH for Katrina. When I found out later that victims signed over their insurance policies to the WT, I knew I had been exploited. Never again, and I'll do everything I can to keep even a penny out of their offshore coffers.
  
  ~Sue
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  21

  Giving to Charities

  by Kristina1972 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i notice the jw's don't really donate to charities.

  when i donated to the earthquake in haiti, my husband didn't really say anything about it.

  silence usually means he doesn't agree with something because of his religious beliefs.

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  betterdaze

  There's a separate box for Haiti? Not so with Katrina. "Just make your checks out to the Worldwide Slush Fund."

  breathing, my JW mother is similar. She supports Amnesty International (because they've advocated for the JWs overseas) and local animal shelters. She likes to think her donations at her KH are for the building's upkeep.

  ~Sue
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  80

  Tell me about your avatar(not the Gravatars)

  by asilentone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  my avatar is a pic of a cool car, obviously.

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  betterdaze

  <— How's this for abstract? (It's the Omega/Swan Nebula, or M17. These are some of the paint colors in my home.)
  
  ~Sue
• 
  37

  OMG! I just realized that ALL cats are ATHEISTS!!!

  by Elsewhere in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just think about it.... have you every seen what happens when you try to baptize a cat???

  cats don't like it!!!

  cats don't like it because they hate gawd!

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  betterdaze

  

  

  
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  10

  Engineer: "This was not an earthquake disaster"

  by betterdaze in

  1. social
  2. current

  the audience at last tuesdays uc berkeley lecture given by eduardo fierro, one of the first u.s. earthquake engineers to visit post-quake haiti, collectively cringed as fierro showed slide after slide of haphazard columns, brittle frames, and slipshod rods and joints.

  this was not an earthquake disaster, fierro said.

  fierro, a peruvian native who has worked around the pacific rim, arrived in haiti within two days of the earthquake to investigate the destruction caused to the countrys built environment.

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  betterdaze

  Engineer: "This was not an earthquake disaster"

  

  The audience at last Tuesday’s UC Berkeley lecture given by Eduardo Fierro, one of the first U.S. earthquake engineers to visit post-quake Haiti, collectively cringed as Fierro showed slide after slide of haphazard columns, brittle frames, and slipshod rods and joints. “This was not an earthquake disaster,” Fierro said. “[This] was caused by people that didn’t know how to use codes, that built things in bad shape. These were the people that caused the tragedy.”
  
  Fierro, a Peruvian native who has worked around the Pacific rim, arrived in Haiti within two days of the earthquake to investigate the destruction caused to the country’s built environment. From Port Au Prince to smaller cities like Leogane, from cathedrals to schools to power plants, Fierro found that the same architectural mistakes were made over and over again:
  
  - Heavy, unsupported block walls: One of the main principles of architecture, Fierro said, is to make structures as light as possible. “These people don’t know that,” Fierro said. He showed multiple slides of houses and buildings constructed with unwieldy slabs of concrete and cinder blocks.

  

  - Poor detailing: Fierro pointed out badly made plastic hinges, as well as joints going against “all the rules for earthquake engineering” with small, smooth bars and no hoops.

  

  - Lack of rebars: One of Fierro’s most troubling observations. Steel reinforcement bars—rebars—are what hold up concrete and masonry structures. Most of the collapsed buildings’ rebar was either entirely too frail and thin to support the building—if the building had rebar at all.

  

  - Poorly constructed columns: Columns holding up higher floors were often unreinforced concrete, too brittle to provide sufficient support.

  

  - Bad concrete: Even the Presidential Palace was built using poorly compacted concrete. Also, many buildings had corroded columns, which suggests that beach sands (which retain more moisture than river sands) were used to mix concrete.

  

  - Bad soil: Areas with the most damage were built on top of soft soil.

  

  Fierro concluded the seminar with photographs of local reconstructive efforts currently taking place. Things don’t look much better—new construction is proceeding the same way as before the quake. “Same little columns, same blocks, same lack of rebars,” Fierro said.
  
  But what’s the solution? “Better code and better design isn’t the answer,” Fierro said. He stressed that the rebuilding process must be simple and supervised. One idea: distributing a “cartoonish” booklet depicting the right construction processes – a guide so easy to understand you “don’t have to be an engineer” to read it.