Posts by Open mind

13

Becoming officially inactive

by All for show in

jw
friends

i don't want to turn in my token time anymore.

it's only a few hours counting what we do with the kids.

i don't want it counted for their skewed statistics- or to just for the sake of doing it.

Open mind

By going totally inactive you do pop up a bit more on their radar as a target for shepherding, so that MAY be a reason to turn in token time.

One obscure reason in favor of going totally inactive is it starts the clock ticking towards when the elders are allowed to not pursue judicial action against you. This is particularly true if you've moved to a new area. There's not a set number of years, but in practice it's usually around 3-5 years. After that, if some JW from the area you previously lived in sees Xmas lights hanging on your home and tattles on you, the elders have no obligation to hunt you down for a JC.

If you were a particularly "high-profile" JW, (ex CO, DO, Uber-Elder, etc.) they may still come after you anyway.

om

26

Ever tried "Dry January"? Join Ms. OM & me for a 30 day liver vacation!

by Open mind in

jw
friends

there are a few things i picked up from watchtowerism that i still find value in.

(although, i could have easily picked them up elsewhere.).

one of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.. .

Open mind

Xanthippe: I was a bit surprised that a didn't lose a single pound but a good idea to give your liver a rest.

I haven't lost any weight yet either.

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't be substituting ice cream and cookies for the booze!

om

26

Ever tried "Dry January"? Join Ms. OM & me for a 30 day liver vacation!

by Open mind in

jw
friends

there are a few things i picked up from watchtowerism that i still find value in.

(although, i could have easily picked them up elsewhere.).

one of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.. .

Open mind

LOL @ JakeM2012. !!

26

Ever tried "Dry January"? Join Ms. OM & me for a 30 day liver vacation!

by Open mind in

jw
friends

there are a few things i picked up from watchtowerism that i still find value in.

(although, i could have easily picked them up elsewhere.).

one of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.. .

Open mind

Thanks for all the replies everyone!

Hope the drinkers here realize we're not standing in judgement AT ALL. For us it's about checking our will power and also gauging the strength of this particular habit. At 2 1/2 days in, we're doing fine, but I have to admit the habit is very powerful. One thing that helps us is to have some substitutes available rather than just plain old tap water. For dinner we'll have chilled, sparkling water, perhaps with a bit of lime. In the evening, a cup of Good Earth non-caffeinated tea helps me continue the habit of sipping on something while reading or watching a movie.

Also, in the interests of complete transparency, we fully plan on boozing it up one Saturday night during January. It's the night one of our employers has an annual employee dinner and the gourmet food and world-class wines that are poured that night are just too much for us to pass up. So, we're not technically going 30 days straight. It's 30 out of 31 days.

To life!!

om

26

Ever tried "Dry January"? Join Ms. OM & me for a 30 day liver vacation!

by Open mind in

jw
friends

there are a few things i picked up from watchtowerism that i still find value in.

(although, i could have easily picked them up elsewhere.).

one of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.. .

Open mind

Thanks for the refs ADCMS!

To sparrowdown, I can't remember for sure, but it's quite likely that I went home after that JC and had a stiff drink myself.

om

26

Ever tried "Dry January"? Join Ms. OM & me for a 30 day liver vacation!

by Open mind in

jw
friends

there are a few things i picked up from watchtowerism that i still find value in.

(although, i could have easily picked them up elsewhere.).

one of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.. .

Open mind

Hey there DOC. I agree most drinking JWs would laugh in your face if you suggested this to them. I was on a JC where the accused had made the mistake of downing 3 very large beers (IROC, they were 22 oz) in rapid succession at a ball game in front of a very holier-than-thou tee-totaller.

One of the other kangaroo court members pulled out an Awake! article that recommended a 30 day break from alcohol just to prove you can do it. This poor guy had to agree to do the 30 days as part of "works that befit repentance". Blech.

Maybe if Blondie happens across this thread she'll have the exact reference.

Quite a few years later, the Awake! made another similar comment, but extended the time to several months!!!

(Imagine a round-mouthed, surprised emoticon right here.)

om

26

Ever tried "Dry January"? Join Ms. OM & me for a 30 day liver vacation!

by Open mind in

jw
friends

there are a few things i picked up from watchtowerism that i still find value in.

(although, i could have easily picked them up elsewhere.).

one of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.. .

Open mind

There are a few things I picked up from Watchtowerism that I still find value in. (Although, I could have easily picked them up elsewhere.)

One of these is the 30-day test to abstain from all booze.

After fading from JWs, I've learned a "worldly" variant, that I think is even more practical: Dry January.

November & December invariably see Ms. OM and me imbibing more and more with parties and dinners here and there.

For us, January is the best month to give our livers a vacation and (sort of) make sure we're not alcoholics. I say sort of because just going 30 days on the wagon doesn't really prove we're not alcoholics. But hey, at least it proves we can go 30 days!

14 staff members at New Scientist magazine did a very small, non-peer reviewed, non-scientific experiment to see what, if any, results would come from 5 weeks of no drinking. Here's the chart:

And here's a link to the article:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129502.600-our-liver-vacation-is-a-dry-january-really-worth-it.html#.VKcI7cljkuc

So, have you ever tried the 30 day test?

om

10

Testing to see if I can start a post at all

by Open mind in

jw
friends

i tried starting a thread with a picture of an irreverent nativity scene and i guess the hoooly spirit must have stopped it.. .

now just seeing if i can start a thread at all.. .

om.

Open mind

Resized photo using Paint. Trying again using home PC and Firefox.

Yay!!! I reduced it to 40% of it's original size and it worked!

I am a frikkin' techno-genius!

(And humble too.)

: )

35

Looks like ABC New York got the okay.

by truthseekeriam in

jw
friends

http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.gov/search/case/dockets.cfm?dist=1&doc_id=2025979&doc_no=a136641.

12/19/2014order filed.

upon due consideration, the media request of applicant abc news to make a video recording of oral argument in the above-referenced appeal is granted.

Open mind

Marking for future reference.

Thanks ABibleStudent !

It might be worth taking a morning off work to go do a little herpetology.

om

26

Site issues: Dec 30 Update

by Simon in

first of all, some apologies - i had planned to spend the last couple of days getting everyone signed in to the new site and sorting account issues out but i wasn't getting over the flu as i thought, i got worse.

i've probably had 4 hours sleep in the last few days.

anything that requires too much thinking isn't going to happen right now.

Open mind

I think Simon's just doing his part to discourage any more people moving to the Great White North!

: )

Take care of yourself Simon.

om