Posts by SnakesInTheTower

when I finally move away from this area, I have no intention on revealing my JW past to new people. I do not want to be pidgeon-holed into that crazy corner.... Fresh start and all.

Snakes ()

24

My mom- and Hi! I am new here.

by RaraAvis in

jw
friends

i have been reading this site for a while now but have never posted.

i am an ex-pioneer, who left the organization 15 years ago.

i served as a need-greater in a foreign country and when i came back i walked away.

SnakesInTheTower

welcome RaraAvis

My mom is also a 40 year JW...wasting her whole life in it... I just got out a couple years ago..after years of doubts.

I got rid of a lot of my WT literature here (the old JWD) ..I just requested people cover cost of postage and trusted people. No one stiffed me, most gave a bit more for me to go out to dinner... only one person only gave the postage cost..... and I figure if someone is helped by seeing the truth about the Truth™, well then it is good. I still have some WT lit...I keep meaning to burn it or at least send it to the recycle bin... time time...

Funny why we kept so much literature over the years..most dubs have not read any of it unless it was "studied" at a meeting. I was an exception. Probably why I had doubt...

Snakes ()

36

Is it really just innocent words?

by lonestar63 in

jw
friends

from what i've read on here, i understand many of you have a certain amount of anger over the way the society controlled every aspect of your lives.

thats understandable.

i still have a bit, even though my fade is complete.. that being said, i think everyone on here has a goal to help those that are still trapped inside the mind controlling cult.

SnakesInTheTower

jackie:

If someone really wants to research the other side of their religion a few unsavory phrases are not going to turn them away. And if someone is not ready to research the other side of their religion this site will turn them away with or without those same unsavory phrases.

exactly. I have mentioned this on occasion but the more I thought about it, the more I came to a similar realization.

I do occasionally use the term "Borg", but if it is on a more serious topic, such as experiences of people leaving the religion or other major issues where kindness should be excersised, I try to avoid the derogatory terms some of us have adopted since leaving.

WTWizard has some of the most colorful terms for JWs.... and I usually laugh..but sometimes I cringe because I think of what doubting/lurking JWs (aka "dubs") might think...("crazy apostates").... if they are ready to search...it wont put them off..it didnt scare me away, and I was a deeply ingrained elder when I first started lurking...

Snakes ()

6

can an ai (adobe Illus) file be converted to Corel 12?

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

just a shout out to poster georgiegirl (or anyone who can do this).... is it possible to downgrade an .ai file (i believe this is in adobe illustrator v. 10) down to an adobe illustrator version 7 file?

or convert to coreldraw 12?

the shop that we took it to locally is using cd12...and only has adobe 7. personally i wouldnt have used that particular shop for printing or anything... for one particular use, we are piggybacking on another organization and they made the decision to use that vendor.

SnakesInTheTower

just getting back online...school kicking my tail... and thank you all for the input. What I dont understand is that I have multiple flavors of the file thanks to gg. Included in that is an eps file. When I gave the person at the print shop (seems to be more of a tshirt shop but also does banners, etc), my flash drive had .ai (v10), eps, pdf, jpg, and gif.

I dont think this guy who owns this place knows his butt from a hole in the ground. However, I did not choose the place. The college campus club that I am part of is teaming up with another club on a joint use poster for events that we co-sponsor. We need to add our very professional looking logo to their very amateur logo on the poster. When we do our own we will be using a different shop.

mastadon:

Any print shop using Illustrator 7 or ANY version of Corel should, as an act of mercy, be burned to the ground

I wish you could see this dump. I live in a town that has died but someone forgot to tell it and shut off the lights. These print shops are all either very amateur or outrageously expensive, or both. I have to go to St. Louis if I want a real print shop.

I will forward the info above to the print shop.

gg:

If your illustrator file has text, make sure you convert text to curves before saving it and bringing it into corel (make it vector art).

i am not exactly certain what you just said...I presume the name of the club in the logo is text and not some sort of graphic but I dont know.. you made it all pretty... and you saved it as multiple files...I dont know why the print shop doesnt know this...

Snakes ()

36

Can I ask a question without offending Spanish members? Neighborhhood?

by restrangled in

jw
friends

i have some great neighbors...spanish on both sides of me, and down the street.

their homes are very nice and the yards are kept up....but there is the strangest thing.

they love to put big wooden posts in the middle of their beautiful lawns with the most hideous kmart type night lighting fixtures you have ever scene.

SnakesInTheTower

If that was all my neighbor was doing I would not have had to put up a $700 6 foot high, 120 ft long stockade fence between us (and I rent..I had to pay $500 of that)...just to keep him from driving through my yard and coming over and attacking me....

he did come over again a week or so back banging on my door wondering why I called the cops on him (apparently he has a scanner..the cops hadnt even arrived yet)... LOUD BASS in a car he wasnt even sitting in..he just went outside to turn it on to piss me off. But at least he had to go around to the street side before he could get to my house.

I told him (through the locked door) to go the hell away I wasnt bothering him.

I have waited the bastard out and lately havent heard or seen much of him... I have to pick and choose my battles with that thug.

give me 10 foot high ugly ass lights any day. (I doubt its a nationality thing...probably all got a deal over at Big Lots or Hood's or something)

Snakes ()

4

Watchtower buys property in Ramapo, NY

by asilentone in

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090326/news03/903260466/-1/rss01?loc=interstitialskip.

SnakesInTheTower

that is kind of weird the way they are placing properties... Walkill on the NW.... Patterson on the NE...and Ramapo on the SW.. all out in the country but not too far from major interstates. Ramapo is right off of I-87.... Wallkill is 6 miles off of I-87...Patterson 4 miles off of I-84...and all within 30 miles of each other as the crow flies... Yeah, they don't want everyone too close to each other....but out of the city....

....kind of a Bermuda Triangle where Old Light goes to hide....

Snakes ()

12

I lost a friend on facebook :-P

by loosie in

lol.

i had a jw friends on facebook.

who was listed one my friends list last night now today she isn't there.

SnakesInTheTower

originally the only reason i got on facebook was because I wanted to see the pic of someone who used to be on JWD that I eventually got to meet... I guess since I didnt respond to all those FB requests, I got "unfriended" by them... was told it wasnothing personal...ok....I hope they are ok...

Then I met someone through eHarmony that had a page and had a couple more pics than on her profile... still didnt get a real good view... face shots only...I wonder why.

Now I am playing this stupid Farm Town game on FB and I have a bunch of JWDers on the friend list. The game is designed to ensure people keep coming back to maintain the farm...kinda like SimCity..... and so silly...and a waste of time.. but at least I actually have met some of those people.

I wonder what dubs will think if they ever seen my private page..wishing people happy birthday and stuff.... oh, thats right, I wont let those fake JW friends be my friends in FB life or real life...LOL

Snakes ()

6

can an ai (adobe Illus) file be converted to Corel 12?

by SnakesInTheTower in

jw
friends

just a shout out to poster georgiegirl (or anyone who can do this).... is it possible to downgrade an .ai file (i believe this is in adobe illustrator v. 10) down to an adobe illustrator version 7 file?

or convert to coreldraw 12?

the shop that we took it to locally is using cd12...and only has adobe 7. personally i wouldnt have used that particular shop for printing or anything... for one particular use, we are piggybacking on another organization and they made the decision to use that vendor.

SnakesInTheTower

just a shout out to poster georgiegirl (or anyone who can do this)...

Is it possible to downgrade an .ai file (I believe this is in Adobe Illustrator V. 10) down to an Adobe Illustrator version 7 file? Or convert to CorelDraw 12? The shop that we took it to locally is using CD12...and only has Adobe 7. Personally I wouldnt have used that particular shop for printing or anything... for one particular use, we are piggybacking on another organization and they made the decision to use that vendor. Our group is using another more professional shop for the rest of our printing needs.

BTW....Georgiegirl did an awesome job with my logo project...and so quickly too....literally overnight.....thanks also to sacolton who offered help also..

We have such great talent on this board...amazing what kind of talent WTBTS is attempting to supress.. each of us that escapes can prove them wrong on the whole "education is evil and unnecessary" thing..lol

Snakes ()

17

Ex-Elders, how did you resign?

by dismayed in

jw
friends

this issue is coming up for me soon, the resignation.

a physical move is out of the question.

but the most likely scenario is that i will be in the same hall.

SnakesInTheTower

not intending a hijack, but the answers to the questions may relate to this or other cases...and certainly gives you background on why I resigned de facto (was forced out when I refused to resign).

jabberwock:

Snakes, why exactly were you removed? What qualifications did you not meet? Was it related to them relieving you of your position as local building chairman and secretary?

There are catchphrases that elders can use that end up being all-encompassing nets. One of them is "loose conduct." Another is "unreasonableness." The BOE gave several reasons that I wasn't qualified under the term "unreasonableness."

I was considered unreasonable because I had engaged in a dating relationship online (I was introduced by the wife of a MS in another congo to his out of country JW sister), so it must have meant I was "internet dating," when in reality we were using IM, web cam, email, and telephone to communicate. We were not able to meet in person for 8 months..when we did, she ended it because of her depression issues (and ironically, I think her brother also didn't ultimately approve). The elders did not approve of that relationship (yet the BOE would have been fine if I had dated a sister in the congo who had depression issues and had already been locked up once but had a huge crush on me.....)

I was also considered unreasonable because I refused to appear at a Quarterly Elder's Meeting with less than 24 hours notice of the actual agenda, leaving me no time to prepare for the meeting. The elders also did not appreciate my throwing things in their face (tactfully or otherwise) organizationally or scripturally. The "Good Ole Boy Network" was in full swing. Jackass elder, his PO son, and the porno sniffing SO were all in cohoots. I didnt stand a chance. I am surprised I lasted 3 years there as an elder.

Can elders be removed for turning down responsibilities or giving them up after taking them on?

If an elder is seen as shirking his responsibilities then yes. Who defines shirking? Whomever has to take on those responsibilities. If an elder is well liked, well respected, then he can drop responsibilities without retribution. If an elder is like I was, hated by the BOE, but loved by the elderly, then turning down responsibility gives them additional ammunition when going to the CO to remove an elder. Ironically, I was always willing to take on additional responsibility.... which was seen as threat to others who had those titles (but did not do the actual work or did it poorly.)

Snakes, you also mentioned that one of the elders in your congregation was allowed to continue to serve even though he got caught viewing pornography. Isn't that a disfellowshipping offense?

It certainly can be a DFing offense. At the very least, it is an offense that normally leads to the loss of privleges.

You see, it has to do with how he is viewed. A 25 year plus regular pioneer, who takes the lead in the ministry, means that the other elders do not have to take the lead in the ministry. At the time, this elder was also the only one (other than myself) that could conduct the morning Book Study group (ie, the elderly group), and no one wanted to face the wrath of 20 old (mostly sisters) by removing that elder as CBSO (and they certainly did not want to move me from my tiny group to the big one). The offense was not widely known, only the elder, his wife, the cousin that discovered the porn on the computer, and the elders knew about it.

When I asked the porn-surfing elder in our meeting with him (and subsequently with the CO) how he could serve as an elder "with a good conscience" going forward when for two years he had served as an elder with a damaged conscience, he could not come up with a good answer. I told him I had difficulty with him continuing to serve as an elder and pioneer when he had attended multiple assemblies where the topic of pornography was brought up and yet he could still go out in service (including placing literature that talks about the so-called "harm of viewing pornography") and be on the platform talking about good morals. Neither he nor the other elders could give me an answer.

I then asked him directly if, had he not been caught, would he have come forward? He admitted he would not. He claimed shame (which may be true), but it did not excuse him being an elder on one hand and committing "loose conduct" repeatedly on the other.

The elders dismissed this guy from the meeting and we voted individually. I was the only one to vote against him staying an elder. I was persuaded cooerced to change my vote in the "spirit of unity." I had asked the CO to put my objection in his report. Instead, the weasel CO (who I found out later enjoyed a golf outing with the porn surfer and the PO earlier that day) put in the report that the BOE was unanimous in its decision to retain the elder. Three years later, he is still serving as an elder and regular pioneer in good standing with responsibilities at the circuit level and with the RBC.

I knew then my days were numbered... mene mene tekel parsin.....or some such crap...

Snakes ()

PS...to those of you in my old congo .... who may recognize who I am.... you know who I am talking about. I would publish their name but my mom is still a dub.... and if you are lurking and reading (as this is the public part of the forum)....you can throw me under the bus if you want..but if I get DFd ........I will go public with names if you do. Then lets see how much bad publicity "Jehovah" the Society likes....