SnakesInTheTower

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Posts by SnakesInTheTower

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  43

  Anyone have a Kindle or a Nook?

  by Simon in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  i really don't like the ipad (or apple) but i think an ebook reader would be nice.

  nothing made by sony though .... the amazon kindle and barnes & noble nook look to be the best (esp.

  with the recent price reductions) but i'd like any insight from anyone who has one.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  I still like the feel of a book in my hands, but the thought of not having to find my reading glasses makes it tempting.

  I like books on a shelf, but not having to dust or move them around.....

  Snakes (Rich )
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  21

  I'm an HBH

  by Lunatic Faith in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have received two visits from car-groups this week and am trying not to freak out.

  i think it is because the co's visit is coming up.

  i have been home-but-hiding both times.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  HBH... .I still write that on my collections work orders for my cable customers.. LOL

  DO NOT HIDE

  I do not hide on the rare occasions that they show up here and I happen to be home. Why should I? I put the word out through back channels that if they harassed me or my fiancee or her son or caused her distress that the PR problem they would have in this town of (now) under 30,000 would be bad. I answered the door awhile back one Sunday morning in my robe, my soon-to-be step son in his PJs, and my fiancee in her robe. We are not yet married and they know it. Told them we will get married when the time is appropriate. They may or may not see a public notice in the paper.

  Have not been DF yet. Wonder why? Maybe I know too much. (former elder, MTS grad)

  Snakes (Rich )
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  9

  I got this email

  by Iamallcool in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  usa today map & jehovah's witnesses.........??.

  jehovah's witnesses are now large enough to have a separate listing on the breakout of american religions.

  no more 'other' category for us!?.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  I am pleased on one hand that only 1% -- no more than 2% are dubs.

  On the other hand, I just want to reduce that number by one individual -- my JW mom.

  And by the way -- I hate both McDonald's and Watch Tower Corporation... gave 3 months to the former, 35 years (23 baptized) to the latter.

  If I would have reversed that, I would probably have my own franchise and a 401(k) now. (BTW... I knew the daughter of a rabid JW that did just that...started at the bottom as a cashier... went on to become some big district manager / trainer... I think she has her own franchise(s) now.)

  I don't go to either.

  Snakes (Rich )
• 
  39

  Getting upset with children who cannot sit through the meetings.

  by life is to short in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ok this thought came to me the other day.

  i was thinking of the co who told me that he liked to see parents spank their children for not sitting still during the meetings.. i remember how hard it was to sit through two hours when i was four or five years old.

  it was like forever.. i was thinking of comparing the hours that we have been alive to how long two hours is for a child.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  hell... i could not sit through the meetings -- and I was a 30 something elder.

  Might explain why I volunteered for attendant duties or food service duties at conventions. When I no longer was allowed those things, I went nuts.

  Snakes (Rich )
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  28

  Did you do very early morning field service?

  by truthseeker in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in my old congregation, there was a group of dubs who started field service at 4am - yes, that's 4 o'clock in the morning.

  i went with them on a few occasions.. to be ready, you'd have to be up at least 3:30am to get washed and dressed and maybe get a bite to eat.. at 4am, our designated driver would show up along with a couple of sleepy eyed jws trying to "get their time in.

  " many times we'd go pick up a jw only to find they forgot about service and overslept.. .

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  SnakesInTheTower

  We had a magazine route for the gas station owners. We placed new magazines... one at a time. So we could alternate weeks -- WT one Wednesday, Awake the next... 4 weeks... about 20-25 stations in our territory. I had a folder with a sheet so the pioneers could keep track when the stations were hit so as not to bug the people at the station. We also did laundromats and apartment laundry rooms and hospital reception rooms on other mornings because we could hit them early and often.

  Then April would come and every JW and their mother wanted to do "early morning witnessing." Do you think these new comers would work with the pioneers and not risk our easy time? NO. They would hit the gas stations multiple days, using old magazines -- sometimes 3-4 years old magazines. So what started happening was that the station owners got sick of all these people bothering not only them but their employees. So we got booted out. Then April was over, the CO-inspired JW auxiliary pioneers crawled back in their beds, and the pioneers struggled for months to rebuild the gas station route.

  Years later, after I left, I got to talk to many of those laundromat attendants and gas station owners/managers. The attendants admitted to me that they often waited until we left and then tossed the mags in the trash and the station managers -- who only took the magazines to be polite and keep JW customers -- got fed up when the visits became more than the predictable once a week. And why did we leave JW magazines in a Catholic hospital waiting room. The sisters (Catholic - not JW) would wait until the JWs left and then clear out the waiting room of magazines. Of course, the JWs thought the magazines were being read and taken by "interested" people... when in reality some nun or maintenance guy was tossing the rags.

  I also remember doing star method of early morning work. We started at 7 am at the apartment complex closest to the KH, left mags in the laundry room, and then went out to some remote apartment complex 15 miles in some tiny town at the edge of our territory. Then by the time we got back in, it was 8 --- by the time we hit 4 more stops -- it was time to meet the group back at the KH. WOW-- 2 hours driving around "Counting Time."

  What did we really accomplish? Nothing really. Glad I am no longer doing it. Especially when gas hit $4/gallon (I know -- you overseas people would love to see four buck gas -- but it was sticker shock for us in the US). Even at $3/gal now, I cannot imagine how pioneers keep gas in their cars.

  Snakes (Rich )

  PS.. Ironically, I asked my (never a JW) fiancee out on a date at one of those same laundromats. Hopefully this long engagement becomes a marriage this spring.
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  19

  Assembly Hall In Palm Beach Florida Sign says Christian Assembly Hall of Jehovah's witnesses

  by DeeDubs in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i saw this on google when i was looking for a kh plan on visiting family.

  is this new?.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  somewhere in my archives I have a picture of the sign. My mom attended that place for a few years while living in Dania.

  "Christian" my ass.... but at least the seats on the floor were comfortable. Made for nice napping when I visited a couple of times.

  Snakes (Rich )
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  17

  As an Ex-JW (or whatever you are) Tell Us Your Core Hope / Dream / Wish

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what i ask is for some specifics.

  it helps to say it, type it, get it off your chest.

  read mine and maybe you will have a good idea what i mean.. i hope that i get my wife out of the jw's by all of the positive reinforcement i have given her to be an independent thinker.

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  SnakesInTheTower

  Get married to my beautiful NON-JW fiancee -- the sooner the better -- hoping for May.

  Get my JW mom to wake the hell up and see the truth about the Truth®. Short of that, rebuild our relationship based on non-JW interests.

  Snakes (Rich )
• 
  37

  What I think the next move is...

  by TheJigsUp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'll keep it short.. you're no doubt aware of the 'if the gb say something that seems odd, just go along with it' thing.

  and the 'do as the gb tell you!

  dont doubt the gb!

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  SnakesInTheTower

  It seems to me years ago there was something in the publications about the "Great Tribulation" versus "Armageddon." Something along the lines of that we would be in the Great Tribulation and we would not even necessarily be aware of it. That the longer the GT went on, the shorter (and more intense) that the Big A would be? Maybe I just dreamed that or maybe that was my own view point.

  Either way, except for my JW mom, I really do not give a sh*t about the DubDoctrines anymore.

  Snakes (Rich )
• 
  131

  so oompa got df'd this week...

  by oompa in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  no call to invite me to a committee meeting...no notification of deciding i should be df'd....no telling my jw wife of the announcement...not a chance to appeal what i did not even know what was going on...my mini-serve son is devasted....he even researched it....told me to go to page 153-154 of the od book...never heard of it but it is a green hardback given to all who are to be baptized.

  wow...the elders broke every rule in this book as to my case.... i have no respect for these men that can take away your jw family without even telling you they are going to.

  my jw son has now begged me to meet with my committee...even though there is prob zero chance they can reverse the decision...that chance is from when they let you know...and you have to appeal by letter within 7 days (i cant make this stuff up!!

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  SnakesInTheTower

  Very glad you are alive oompa... The elders are not even following their own internal directives. Of course, things have probably changed in the 4 plus years since I was an elder. One thing I know has not changed -- the love that God supposedly has for humans. And the elders sure as hell are not showing the love.

  Really depends on what you want the outcome to be. You can certainly fight the elders and get reinstated. YES -- disfellowshippings can be rescinded and announced publicly ("The announcement regarding Oompa has been rescinded."). It would cause some huge "WTF" reactions in the congregation. However, the elders will keep you on their radar and just find another reason to kick you out. It is their game -- their rules. And local elders rules are like "Free Parking" in Monopoly. Free Parking is just a space, but lots of people make up their own rules about it -- and so do the local yokel elders.

  Good luck to you in your recovery.

  Snakes (Rich )
• 
  12

  Major legal break through in the Uk that will affect the JW's

  by highdose in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353703/double-glazing-firm-knocking-door-exasperated-homeowner-landmark-ruling.html.

  this is a man who had cold callers coming to his home.

  at first nothing could be legaly done about it, but now it can and house holders now have a legal right to refuse cold callers coming to their home and by law this must be obeyed.. i wonder what impact this will have on the jw's and also their policy of calling once a year even if they have been told not to??

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  SnakesInTheTower

  On the trespassing issue... the Society claims that a JW is not supposed to trespass (wink wink)... and has made clear in letters to the congregation and the elders that WTLegal is not going to back a JW that does. But how many die-hard j-dubs do you think are still ignoring the "No Trespassing" signs? (Theocratic warfare, "god's work," "urgent message" blah blah).

  As far as I know, the law allows access to a property as long as a person stays on the sidewalk and/or the driveway. No trespassing starts at the sign. If the sign is on the house, that doesn't cover the sidewalk, it covers the house. If there is a fence around the yard and the sign is at the gate, then it starts there -- do not go inside the gate.

  Things are different if you have an implied invitation. An example of an implied invitation is the mailbox on the house. Of course the mail carrier has the right (and invitation) to cross the no trespassing sign. I am a bill collector for a contractor for the local cable company. I ignore the no trespassing signs all the time. Why? I have an implied invitation -- either because the person is a customer or I have to access their yard to get to our connections. If I have a work order in my hand -- even if the customer did not request my visit (i.e., they did not pay their bill now I need to collect money or equipment), I still have the right to go on the porch, sidewalk, driveway and contact the person. If I need to do the actual disconnection, then because it is a utility, the utility easement gives me right to access the pole or pedestal in the yard, even if I have to climb the fence to get to it -- though we do try to contact the homeowner first. (There is supposed to be unfettered access to the utility lines, but people fence them in all the time.) Thankfully, I am not the one that must do the disconnection so I can pass the work order to someone who does. Pisses people off when we "trespass" to cut off their cable. Sometimes police have to be called to force access.

  When it comes to the witnesses -- If the sidewalk or driveway is not blocked with a locked gate and/or a no trespassing sign, then the witnesses -- or anyone for that matter -- have an implied invitation. If the gate is locked and/or a sign is posted -- then the JWs have no legal right to be there. By the way -- the "Do Not Visit" list in most congregations is one of the most poorly maintained records in the congregation.

  The dubs no longer bother me. I put the word out to leave me the hell alone and they are. I do not have a sign posted but if they start bothering me again I will get one and post it at the end of my driveway.

  Snakes (Rich -- of the "JWs don't trespass on my property anymore" Sheep Class)