Posts by GentlyFeral

27

Its my Birthday, please send.......

by ScoobySnax in

jw
friends

its my birthday, my mum gave me a plain card that said inside " dear scott, although we don't celebrate birthdays, i want you know i thought of you today, i'm proud of the child that became the boy thats turned into the man you are today......i love you today and always "my" boy.

love mum" xxx <<<< awww i was choked.

so 33, knocking on a bit, but still up for it!

GentlyFeral

Happy birthday, Scoob, and --

Oh, let's break another taboo --

Good luck!

GentlyFeral

24

Looong assemblies.

by avishai in

jw
friends

when i was a kid in the early 1970's, i remember assemblies being longer thatn they are now, but because i was little, i do'nt remember.

also, i've heard in the 50's & 60's they were even longer.

how long were they?

GentlyFeral

gadget,

Probably counsel on why they weren't out in the ministry and they should do more!!!

I remember deliberately not going out in service during conventions for what seemed a perfectly theocratic reason: The territory was never in my congregation's territory, so I would have no chance of making return visits on anyone I contacted.

Dunno why it never occurred to me that someone else would be assigned to follow up. Or maybe I just reeeeally believed in "the personal touch".

GentlyFeral

21

JESUS SAVES !!!!!!!!!!!

by Hamas in

jw
friends

.

but beckham scores on the rebound !

.

GentlyFeral

Rising high above the end of the street, a bright neon sign! I saw the word "Jesus" made of blue light come into full view. But as I continued to walk, another word began to come into focus. And I did not see what I expected, namely, the ubiquitous "Jesus saves" sign. Instead I saw this phrase, "Jesus knows."
Whoever commissioned the sign, I figured, was a realist. I reasoned that whatever church official created that sign took one look at 42nd Street and realized that even the other-worldly salvation of the Christ they preach would have little meaning to people already living in Hell, a Hell that would have shocked Dante himself.

-- Rev. Mark Belletini

Click here to read the rest.

21

Conkers !

by Simon in

liam has been a bit disappointed this week 'cause conkers are all the rage at school and he hasn't had any (apart from a couple his friend gave him).

dylan wanted some as well (but he just likes to 'want' what liam does).

so, i promised them that tonight i'd take both off them to get some.. on a bit of an isolated stretch of road on the way to work, i'd noticed a couple of chestnut trees that were well away from housing estates so hadn't been 'hacked to bits' by local kids.

GentlyFeral

Bonjour, Frenchbabyface,

"osselets" you can play it with 10 stones : you take them in one hand and you threw them in the air have to put the same hand on the ground and then you have to catch them with the same one hand till you only got one.

I see that osselets is called fivestones or jackstones in Britain.

Sounds a little like an American game called jacks. Instead of touching the throwing hand to the ground, our kids bounce a little rubber ball and have to pick up a "jack" before it hits the ground a second time. Each time you throw the ball, you have to pick up one more jack than you did before.

The jacks are little metal things that look something like caltrops. It's a girls' game, almost exclusively.

GentlyFeral

77

Who is your favorite author?

by Happythoughts in

.

ayn rand is mine.

just wondering so i can find a new book or books to read *smiles*.

GentlyFeral

Hey, I've been meaning to read Me Talk Pretty One Day. And forgot. Thanks for the reminder.

Well, my current favorites:

Leslie Marmon Silko
JT LeRoy
Sherman Alexie - all good stuff, but I think I like Indian Killer best (this week :))

Tried to read Dune about 30 years ago and gave up at the beginning of the third volume. I'm afraid the only Frank Herbert novel I like is Soul Catcher. Found it in the teen section at the library about 25 years ago.

Currently enjoying Ronald Hutton's The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles and about to dip into Arthur Rimbaud's poetry again.

GentlyFeral

33

First Christmas

by yxl1 in

when we first left the dubs, we celebrated x-mas pretty much straight away, but had no decorations or tree, and only gave gifts to each other.

for some reason it just seemed wrong to put up decorations and we continued to celebrate this way for about 5 years.

we decided to put up decorations when it was my daughters 1st x-mas, and have never looked back.

GentlyFeral

geez, the decorations are expensive, especially since we'll be starting from scratch.

Thrift stores often have plain glass balls for cheap, and they can provide a nice shiny background for the cool stuff you can make yourself out of odds and ends. Like so:

I like the eggshell trick, below, but ... use the tip of a steak knife to make holes in each end, not a thumbtack. Makes the eggs easier to blow out and easier to hang. And instead of gluing things to them, you can wash the shells with slightly soapy water, let 'em dry and then paint them with watercolors. Then use glue & glitter.

http://www.bry-backmanor.org/holidayfun/xmaseggz.html

You can also do lots of amusing stuff with construction paper & glitter.

Some of my favorite ornaments are just plain sea shells; I stuck a hook inside each one with a big wad of strapping tape. I bought them fairly cheaply on eBay a few years back.

And god's eyes! All you need are twigs and yarn!! http://www.make-stuff.com/recycling/gods_eye.html

Styrofoam balls covered with ribbons, sequins and/or other shiny stuff - I remember these from my childhood. http://www.make-stuff.com/hollidays/styrofoam_ornaments.html

Make up a batch of gingerbread critters, being careful to poke a hole in each one. String them up with ribbon once they're cool and decorated.

Cornstarch ornaments? I'm not sure I believe this one :) http://www.make-stuff.com/projects/cornstarch_ornaments.html

There, will that do?

GentlyFeral

22

Look who ruined casual day.....

by Surreptitious in

GentlyFeral

Oh, her.

We used to date.

She was hot.

GentlyFeral

7

Are you a Bright?

by Abaddon in

jw
friends

another neologism... .

... just as the homosexual community took a term and used it for their own purposes, so that scientific designations and insulting words were derailed, so to a group of people believe that humanism/atheism et.al.

needs such a term.

GentlyFeral

Abaddon,

Just a little point of vocabulary...

I bet bigots hated the appropriation of the word 'gay' when it first started out.

I kind of doubt it -- originally "gay," as a slang term, meant what we would now call "loose" -- was applied to illicit sex generally. Don't have any scholarly references, but first noticed it in Sarah Waters' novels.

Great to see you again, btw.

GentlyFeral

62

Please vote on new cookbook cover - UPDATED - 6 COVERS

by Lady Lee in

jw
friends

thanks to simon and his nifty new image attachments i got these ready.

please let me know which one you prefer.

and i have already made matching banner ads for the site (saves simon having to do it.

GentlyFeral

#6 - yes! the winter fruit is great, especially with the nuts, apples and pointsettia in it.

Now, maybe, lose the candles and bring the title down lower on the page.

GentlyFeral

8

Need help...I am so confused....(this will probably be rambling)

by stephaniesays in

i started going to church.

i am going to a baptist church just because they have a great youth program at this one, and my daughter (12) has really gotten into it, which i think is a positive thing.

i have never really taught her anything about religion because i never knew what i believed, and i am having to confront now, what exactly it is that i do believe.

GentlyFeral

I don't want to bog him down with all the questions I have, because I need to start at the very beginning, if you know what I mean.

You know the man's trustworthy - ask him to recommend a list of BASIC books.

I don't understand if you are allowed to be a religion and not agree with some aspects of it

This varies from church to church. Most are less restrictive about disagreement than the jaydubs.

(then why would you be that religion?),

A church, at its best, is a family you choose. Nobody expects you to agree with everything your relatives do :) so why should they expect it of your religion?

I don't understand if you have to be a religion at all...I am just so completely confused. I don't even know if I believe in the bible, but I am trying....Does anyone understand what I am going through here?

YES! It's very common, and HEALTHY, for people who've been lied to to question EVERYTHING they believe. You are only doing what you MUST do - starting from scratch.

Is there a Unitarian Universalist church near you? They're also famous for their youth programs, but the curriculum is more about COMPARATIVE religions, because UU's believe there is good/truth in all religions - and in atheism. www.uua.org

They also have a course for adults called Building Your Own Theology. A UU pastor can recommend a wide variety of good books about any religious question you wish to explore.

If there isn't a UU church near you, they have a "mail-order church" called The Church of the Larger Fellowship, which will provide food for thought, an email address & phone number to contact - and you can still go to the Baptist church if you like, they won't freak out. There are even non-UU clergy who belong to the Church of the Larger Fellowship.

gently feral