My baby!
Posts by kerc
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31What do you drive and why did you chose the vehicle you have?
by JH in.
i love japanese cars, easy on gas too, and that's why i drive a corolla.
also it has 4 doors
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31
What do you drive and why did you chose the vehicle you have?
by JH in.
i love japanese cars, easy on gas too, and that's why i drive a corolla.
also it has 4 doors
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kerc
I drive a Nautical Blue 2006 Scion tC. For those who aren't in America, Scion is a sub-brand of Toyota (like Lexus) aimed at a young market. The tC is a very nice three-door sports coupe based on the Toyota Avensis chassis. Sporty, roomy (yeah, roomy!), great performance (160 bhp, 0-60 mph in 7.4 seconds), decent fuel economy, standard 17" wheels, standard opening moonroof (the whole roof is glass but only the part over the front passengers opens), 6-speaker stereo with CD/MP3 player, power steering, ABS, 5-speed manual tranny, power windows, A/C...It costs $20,800 here in PR (the Government imposes a pretty heavy $3,500 tax!)... I love my car. I love it! I work as an IT Consultant, and the tC fits my style and job. Looks good, feels good...Makes a good impression, and I would have no problem in taking a client to lunch in it. I bought it in February and it already has more than 6K miles on it! Oh, and it's a Toyota, so it's ridiculously reliable. My other car, a 2001 Toyota Echo bought brand-new, has more than 98,000 miles and still going pretty strong and solid.
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10
I wish my father was alive...
by kerc inhe wasn't the typical elder.. dad was a gifted man, highly intelligent...very analytical.
i remember when my jw sister married a no-good jerk, while everyone told her she should stay married because of how holy it all was, dad was the first one to tell her to get a divorce.
he was the one who, when my sister was df'd and a while after reconstructed her house (which was in rather bad shape), dad took her and her children to his house to live there while the new house got built.
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kerc
Thanks for the kind words.
What really made me mad is that when my Dad's health started to decline (serious heart condition), he obviously started taking less and less assignments from the Society. As he did so, he received less and less calls from his former "colleagues"...Until they basically forgot him, right until his death. No one asked for him--only the members of the local congregation, and a few others he met. But none of the high-ranking Society individuals was there...
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10
I wish my father was alive...
by kerc inhe wasn't the typical elder.. dad was a gifted man, highly intelligent...very analytical.
i remember when my jw sister married a no-good jerk, while everyone told her she should stay married because of how holy it all was, dad was the first one to tell her to get a divorce.
he was the one who, when my sister was df'd and a while after reconstructed her house (which was in rather bad shape), dad took her and her children to his house to live there while the new house got built.
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kerc
He wasn't the typical elder.
Dad was a gifted man, highly intelligent...Very analytical. I remember when my JW sister married a no-good jerk, while everyone told her she should stay married because of how holy it all was, Dad was the first one to tell her to get a divorce. He was the one who, when my sister was DF'd and a while after reconstructed her house (which was in rather bad shape), Dad took her and her children to his house to live there while the new house got built. The elder in his congregation started to give him hell for that, and he just said "Is is an example of Jehovah's love to leave my daughter alone when she need me? If so, then you can have my privileges revoked, 'cos I won't leave her on the streets." They didn't do anything to him! He was like that.
Dad was pretty serious about the thought that there could be life on other planets--not the freaky stuff you read about in the National Enquirer, but he thought that they might be humans too, like us, since according to the Bible we are such a nice creation...
Dad didn't think that Jehovah made what he called "little personal miracles", because that went against the thinking that we had complete liberty to choose our path, and that it made God be partial to certain people...
Dad read a lot of "bad" stuff, like books from other religions, and he had copies of a lot of different Bible translations. After he died, I found a couple of "apostate" books, which my mother threw away...
Dad was a valuable individual to the Society while he was in good health...Helping in the administration of Conventions, and being an expert in electrical work, did a lot of that for the construction of the local Branch Office. His organizational skills made him be the right hand of a lot of people in the Society.
I think he was there because he, having gone to early retirement from IBM, really liked the work involved and to be honest, the recognition it brought to him sometimes among certain circles. I know he liked it...Because he didn't kiss any asses, and I know about it because the things he told me about high-ranking members of the Society.
I know he would have understood me now...
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32
were you forced to join the (misery ) ministry school?
by headmath in.
maybe you have some fond stories of this.. my story is that i was forced to join when i was about 12. i always got an assignment that dealt with beastilaity in exodus or somethin.
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kerc
As much as I hated it sometimes, I gotta admit it helped me face relatively large groups of people effortlessly. Has helped me a lot when doing software project presentations!
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51
Bethel Downsizing - Management Discussions
by core in.
the spin on downsizing is apparently "go out into the field" yet when the gb initially considered this it must have been presented as a practical problem - too much surplus hr capacity/ too expensive to maintain - or whatever and yet they turned it into a positive matter by stressing the return to the field - all those in such discussions are clearly able to deceive themselves as much as they try and deceive the "flock" - what do you think - did a discussion on a practical problem have to have a positive outcome and how did they twist their minds so as to sell it as such - for years they begged people to stay in bethel service (make it your home for life) and now they cast them out into the world with the thin veneer of "speedin g up the preaching work .. etc".
all those at the top must have been involved in turning this huge embarrasment (jehovah will provide etc) into a positive spin - they should try out for a marketing award "downsizing - the only way to grow!
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kerc
SAP consultants are on the very high end of the spectrum. I also work as a consultant for a small company, mostly P8, FileNet, and custom Microsoft .NET development, and we charge between $65-$100 depending on the job being done...
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44
1st post here, on a journey of discovery...
by kerc inso after a very, very slow process, thinking over things that were stored in a little box in a corner of my mind, i've decided to finally confirm or deny all the doubts i've had about the society.
i'm a 34 year-old married man, work as an it consultant, with two kids, ages 9 and 2. i was "born" in the organization.
so i took everything as true, never questioned anything, and did all that was asked from me.
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kerc
Thanks for the warm welcome...:) I still have to write some more of my story...Will do soon!
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44
1st post here, on a journey of discovery...
by kerc inso after a very, very slow process, thinking over things that were stored in a little box in a corner of my mind, i've decided to finally confirm or deny all the doubts i've had about the society.
i'm a 34 year-old married man, work as an it consultant, with two kids, ages 9 and 2. i was "born" in the organization.
so i took everything as true, never questioned anything, and did all that was asked from me.
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kerc
So after a very, very slow process, thinking over things that were stored in a little box in a corner of my mind, I've decided to finally confirm or deny all the doubts I've had about the Society.
I'm a 34 year-old married man, work as an IT consultant, with two kids, ages 9 and 2. I was "born" in the Organization. So I took everything as true, never questioned anything, and did all that was asked from me.
Since I learned how to read and write by myself at the age of 3, I was placed in school two years ahead--so I was only 5 years old in 2nd grade. That means I graduated from high school at 15...And I could tell you that maybe that's when things started going downhill, in "spiritual" terms, even though I didn't know it at the time. But my very analytical mind seemed to be working and storing everything for future reference...
As soon as I was about to graduate, and after knowing my College Board test score (with a 99% in Mathematics and in English), I knew I could study whatever I wanted...Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, so many things in which I was interested. But then, They came to me and told me I should waste my young years studying in a corrupt University, where I would surely end up as an alcoholic, drug-using, satanic puppy kicker...I should invest my time in eventually going into full-time Field Service! But I wasn't so sure, so I just went ahead and took a short course in Computer Programming (not even an Associates Degree) to have some kind of job...
Meanwhile, They started to approach me, to talk about baptism...How I was already 17 years old and I needed to make a decision now. So frankly I just felt I had to do it, and took the "tests" and was cleared for baptism. I went ahead and did it...And I felt the same I did before. I never dedicated myseld in private. I just yielded to pressure.
I eventually met and married a wonderful woman, who like me, was "born" into it all. We tried to be "spiritual", to be at the forefront, be an example...But it was hard. I remember working very, very hard in the Congregation, wanting to be a Ministerial Servant, only to be turned down because I didn't have enough repeat visits in the Field Service report...
Worship by numbers...
My dad was a faithful elder, worked hard, they used him (emphasis on "used") at the Conventions...Useful man for the Society. When he died last year, not ONE member of the local Branch came to the funeral home, or called, or anything...All his "worldly" friends came and grieved and let us know how special he was for them.
My wife and I have become sick of the elitist attitude of most high-ranking Society members. And now we've started to re-discover all the incoherent things related to prophecies, doctrines...How the service had become a routine, something based entirely in appearances, not in substance.
We don't need to fade out--we have already done so in the last six years. Makes it easier, I suppose. But still hard in a way....So many fears ingrained over all these years. It feels really weird.
Anyway, this site has proven very useful in my research so far...And it's encouraging to read that so many people have gone through similar experiences!