Posts by SirNose586

My dad has full-on conversations with himself, and he doesn't even care if someone else is in the room. So yeah, that passed on to me. Sometimes I'll be thinking about something I'm going to say in the future and I'll end up vocalizing it with someone else around...that's plenty embarrassing....

20

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 7-9-06 WT Study (TELL FINALE)

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 7-9-06 wt study (june 1, 2006 issue date, pages 21-25)(tells finale).

review comments will be in red.

wt material from today's wt will be in black.

SirNose586

I was really disappointed by that "God chose not to forsee" paragraph. Poor dad, he bought it so hard. "Well, when God asked Adam and Eve where they were in the Garden, he didn't know because he gave them privacy..."
It was too easy. "Hey, I thought the eyes of Jehovah were everywhere! It's not like God had a radar and somehow Adam and Eve just didn't register!"
"Well...maybe..."
Poor thing.

38

Insensitive talk assignments

by Steve Lowry in

jw
friends

i once was assigned a talk on masturbation when i was about fifteen or so.

the theme of the talk was to discourage masturbating (actually to forbid the practice), as it was considered by the society a no no.

looking back on it, it offends me to this day that they would give a kid such a sensitive and embarrassing talk assignment like that.

SirNose586

Oh man, that thing happened to me a year or so ago. There was a controversy over the videogame Halo (an M-rated first person shooter), because one parent was upset that it was introduced to his stepson and brought into his home. The parent's stepson was a friend of mine, but he had plenty of issues already, one being obsessive compulsive disorder. The parent was upset because his stepson would play Halo until like 5 in the morning everyday. Not too balanced, right?
So this parent goes to the elders to complain. Meanwhile the stepson names everyone who played the game, which included me and some friends of mine. Now bear in mind, Halo didn't make me a bad person. I kept my hours up, my attendance constant, and my comments gleeful. No bad behaviour could be detected from me, as far as I could tell. I certainly avoided talking about the game at the meetings. My close friends and I gave no indication that this game was a problem to ANYONE's spirituality (at least in the WTS definition) until the stepson became involved and played it non-stop.
They didn't approach me about it and take me upstairs, but the jerks DID assign me the "Why Violent Videogames Are Not For Christians" talk. Now, a lesser man would cop out from giving the talk. Not me. I made a carefully worded talk, and avoided outright lies. Heck, I even referenced an Awake article which mentioned certain games by name.
Good, right? Not enough for our P.O., who was in charge of the main school. Here's the kicker: he went up and specifically called out Halo. My face burnt. You cannot mention anything specifically unless the Watchtower or Awake calls it out first! It's not allowed. You can't specifically warn against a particularly named source of entertainment. That destroys the "matter of conscience" outright. Of course, it didn't matter for Mr. Bethelite P.O. If he wanted to talk about it in private, that would be a different matter. Instead, he chose to make sure that he publicly shamed everyone who played the game, choosing for them what was right or wrong.
And the best part of all, is comparatively speaking, Halo isn't all that violent. No hacked off limbs, no decaptitations, no buckets of blood. For most of the game you're killing aliens with purple blood. Even in multiplayer, a smattering of blood might come on the walls, but it's nowhere near as graphic as other games before it or after it. The language isn't bad either, nothing beyond 'hell' or possibly 'damn' coming from a Marine's mouth. If there were no blood stains, it could've gotten a T rating.
A few months ago, my friend who still plays Halo was given the "Why Violent Videogames Are Not for Christians" talk. I helped him a lot. He was very nervous when he gave the talk, which is unusual. Again, he didn't say any outright lies. Mr. Bethelite P.O., after the talk, wished my friend could've called out Halo. Mr. P.O. had a list of games he wanted my friend to call out, and I'm not sure how many were previously called about by the Org. The P.O. didn't know my friend still plays Halo; this is because we have nothing to do with that troublesome stepson.

23

New fundraising methods for the WTBTS!

by Gill in

young people ask ' how can i help those in need?

awake aug 2006

now i remember when we were jws and raising funds for a new kh, the money had to come from publishers pockets.

SirNose586

"Some years ago when we were going to build a Kingdom hall one of the Elders put it to the publishers discreetly that they could come to his almond orchard and pick the crop and he would donate the money to the hall fund. It was forbidden to talk about it at the meetings and the event definitely not to be mentioned from the platform.Oooo it was so naughty to talk about it at meetings . The decision was made after this to never allow an event like this again with no real reason expressed. Weird huh! "
--wozadummy
Hah...did the elder in question really donate the money to the KH fund? Or was it FREE LABOR??

22

I've gone wireless!!!

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

for years i have forgone using a wireless router at home... i never thought i would need or even want one.

well, while staying at stevenyc's home in new york for a week, i have to say i'm sold!

he has a great wi-fi setup and when i connected my notebook i suddenly discovered how great it is to be able to lounge around any part of the apartment looking at jwd and any other web site i'd like.

SirNose586

You've got a nice download speed. I just got 4199 kbps/351 kbps.
I feel bad for my friend who has DSL. He's capped at ~300 kbps up and down, poor thing.

22

I've gone wireless!!!

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

for years i have forgone using a wireless router at home... i never thought i would need or even want one.

well, while staying at stevenyc's home in new york for a week, i have to say i'm sold!

he has a great wi-fi setup and when i connected my notebook i suddenly discovered how great it is to be able to lounge around any part of the apartment looking at jwd and any other web site i'd like.

SirNose586

Nice, I use a wireless router for my computer too. It would've been a hassle to get the cable up to my room.
What's your down/up ratio?

25

When a Loved One Leaves the Watchtower Society - Parody

by Scully in

jw
friends

when a loved one leaves the watchtower society .

(a rational re-write of the september 1, 2006 watchtower article "when a loved one leaves jehovah", by scully).

(scans of the original article can be found here: re: wt desparate: aug 15 wt- in our next issue: when a loved one leaves jehovah) .

SirNose586

Well done, that was hilarious! I think I'm going to print it up and put it in all the magazines left at laundromats.

34

SUGGESTED POLICY CHANGES to spice up the religion

by Terry in

1. the president of the watchtower society is really jesus incarnate .

2. plural wives are now allowed (but, only pretty young ones!

3. special silk robes for elders (and maybe fancy headgear) .

SirNose586

Terry, that was a good parody of every "Questions from readers" article, or every "new light" article.