BTTT -
Seeker4 - you have a PM
JV
seeker4 - robert smith from vermont.
former jw, elder, pioneer, etc.
i've got a few thousand posts on these sites, but haven't posted for a year or two.
BTTT -
Seeker4 - you have a PM
JV
i remember in the 70's and 80's the big jw career was pin striping...in addition to the regular careers like janitorial and window washing.
now i hear the big career is meter reading in the pacific northwest.
what are some of the other jw careers that are hot in the 2012 and the "end is closer than ever?
RRB - Meter readers in the Northwest? That's a dead end career like pin-striping.
I live in the Pacific NW. The power companies are just now completing their conversion over to wireless meter reading. This has been progressing in California too. We still see gas meter readers and the city still uses walking meter readers (they use a wand that reads the meter and then sends the results back to the HQ wirelessly).
It's funny how the rank and file seem to fall into the janitorial and construction type jobs. I've noticed that a high percentage of COBOEs tend to have white collar jobs or own their own businesses. It's also not surprising to me that most COBOEs also have some college training or hold a professional degree.
So while the Watchtower continues to discourage the R&F (especially sisters and young people) from getting university level educations, the WT leaders continue to promote those who have already received a professional level education into responsible positions. After all, COBOEs, COs, DOs, etc. are basically corporate managers. They need to know how to maintain accounts and inventories. They have to be able to speak well before crowds. They have to have some level of debating skills. More importantly, they have to have achieved a level of self-confidence that will give them an aura of authority and intelligence so that can lord it over the flock.
There are always jobs available at 7-11 stores, 24-hour gas stations, and all-night donut shops. Costco and Trader Joe's offer decent jobs in this area. Starbucks always has openings for baristas. But there aren't a lot of meter reader jobs available. I know for a fact that a lot of JW women work as hair dressers and manicurists. I even know of one JW lady in this area that does electrolysis and Brazilian bikini waxes. Oh, yes - don't forget pet groomers.
A lot of folks (both men and women - but not JWs, obviously) in the Pacific Northwest between the ages of 20 and 40 also belong to the National Guard. The reasons for this are too numerous to go into, but potentially putting your life and limbs on the line has valuable benefits not available to non-military folk - like Jehovah's Witnesses. You see a lot of people wearing full military cammies off-base around here.
JV
i'm looking for anyone on jwn who might be fluent in both written and spoken italian and portuguese (brazilian dialect).. i've recently received two very interesting communications from jehovah's witnesses in brazil and italy.
they seem to be very anxious to tell their stories and share them with the rest of the world.
i've used google translator to try to get the gist of what they are trying to tell me, but i've found that for online translation services to work well you have to write in very short sentences and use very common phrases to make them truly intelligible.
I'm looking for anyone on JWN who might be fluent in both written and spoken Italian and Portuguese (Brazilian dialect).
I've recently received two very interesting communications from Jehovah's Witnesses in Brazil and Italy. They seem to be very anxious to tell their stories and share them with the rest of the world. I've used Google translator to try to get the gist of what they are trying to tell me, but I've found that for online translation services to work well you have to write in very short sentences and use very common phrases to make them truly intelligible. I don't write that way, nor do most of my correspondents, so trying to fully understand emails is mostly unsuccessful.
Maybe someone here has already had contact with Rocco Politi. He sent me a link to an Italian talk show where he and his wife (I think that is him!?!) give an interview about their experiences and some kind of expose of the JWs in Italy or that part of the world.
So - is there anyone out there that can work with me on this? If so, please PM me and I will give you all of my contact info. Or contact me through Ex-JW.com on the Contact page.
http://ex-jw.com/contact-ex-jw
I will protect your identity if necessary. What I need are truly bi-lingual speakers and readers, not someone with a couple of semesters of high school level language courses. I need to fully understand the use of unique JW lingo and local shadings and slang, something not usually available to formally trained students - but only to someone who was raised or has lived with the languages.
I will, of course, give full credit to anyone who helps me with this. There is a lot going on in Brazil right now and it looks like there are possible a dozen or more anti-JW activist groups that are trying to expose the Watchtower and are fighting against shunning and blood transfusion teachings.
Check out this link (in Italian - very long) that I received from my Italian correspondent.
JV
this idea was brought up on another thread today, but i thought this particular angle deserved it's own thread.
have you ever noticed that jws that have completely swallowed the kool-aid are really whacked in their thinking when it comes to interpreting life's events.
bb, "because i got the parking place and they didn't.
This is the only way God could possibly answer prayers for parking spaces and sunny days...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0cG11lTS1E
I prayed for no commercials. Sorry, I'm not on Jehovah's list any more.
JV
1960's the watchtower pictures showed jesus clean shaven and with short hair {watch 1954 p.511 "why do watchtower books now show jesus with short hair and no beard?
....because he is shown that way in representations that are older than the traditional effeminate looking pictures..."}.
yearbook 2011 p.57 "a bearded man named eric showed up at a congregation in the united states {oh god a bearded man!!!
Back in the late 1980s when I worked for Tandy Corporation (Radio Shack), they hired an IBM castoff to be a Senior VP. He immediately imposed a new dress code on all Tandy store employees and corporate managers. This even included employees out in little franchise Radio Shacks located in the desert or in the Ozarks. They insisted that we all use the then popular "Dress for Success" model (John T. Molloy, 1988) whether we ever met the public or not.
"Dress for Success" meant that you had to have the "IBM salesman look." Wool blend suits, white long-sleeved shirts, conservative ties. You had to cut your hair up over your ears, shave your sideburns above your earlobes, and lose all facial hair.
This caused a great deal of distress among African-American store managers since facial hair was very much in vogue within that community at the time. Plus many African-American men suffer from skin irritations due to shaving. In spite of numerous requests for waivers, the Tandy SrVP would not budge, not even for medical waivers. Several long-time managers were fired for not following the edict to the letter.
At the time Tandy Radio Shack was trying to compete with IBM in the computer sales and integration market. The market they were competing in included school districts, government entities, and small businesses. To Tandy upper management having the field sales teams dress in the IBM manner made sense. But Tandy's requirement also applied to service and repair people, headquarters support staff, and part-time Radio Shack store employees. That made no sense at all.
The Watchtower Society must have read that book around the same time, because it seemed that beards and mustaches became verboten around the early 1980s. I remember growing up that we had two or three middle-aged brothers that wore beards in my Kingdom Hall (1955-1965) and quite a few younger brothers had neatly trimmed mustaches. One brother looked like Santa Claus and a KH servant looked like James Mason as Captain Nemo in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
After Tandy implemented its dress code, a major industry magazine (maybe Computer World) came out with an editorial article about the changes forced on Radio Shack employees. I think that what they wrote applies equally to elders and other male Jehovah's Witnesses that follow the Watchtower's dress codes:
"Let's face it, Radio Shack may be trying to make their male store managers and computer techs 'put on a new face' in an attempt to compete with IBM. But the truth is that a doofus without a beard is still a doofus..."
JV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxv6r9fuo74&list=fl868j_zisuing3g1hj8rtjw&index=7&feature=plpp_video.
discuss...
My JW sister breastfed her children until they were 5 years old. She picked up that idea from somewhere within the JWs, but I never was able to locate the source and she never shared it with me.
JV
lance?.
you doing alright bro?
we miss you around here.
Randy,
You have a PM.
JV
Venice, CA 1951
Mar Vista, CA 1952-53
Riverside, CA 1953-1966
==> wha happened? My wife went to Fairfax 1966-1970. Elders terrified her with tales of damnation (prep for 1975) for our three baby girls if I did not repent and go back. What years were you there?
JV
we're already being innundated with the drivel that is the us political process.. propaganda, right and left.
no one wants to discuss or debate, they just want to shout in each others faces.. so, here's the rules:.
you can discuss politics as long as you are discussing things.if you just post copy-and-paste propaganda it will be deleted.if you post it in anywhere but the politics area it will be deleted.if it's the inane "obama can't prove he was born" or "romney is an alien" crap then it will be deleted.if you repeatedly violate the above, including trying to get threads shut-down, then you will be deleted.this has been a public service announcement on behalf of the "i dont' give a shit, the government always gets elected" party.. .
That's why we love you, Simon. Another measured and appropriate decision by the webmaster. Thank you.
JV
.
look no 94: yin-yang.
http://indicetj.com/pdf/estudo_2_jehovah.htm.
Before you judge this new contributor too harshly, check out his website and look at the article about the Masonic hand signals. I'm not saying that I support everything that is being claimed, but what he suggests makes for interesting conversation.
There has been a great deal written on the subject of subliminal imagery. I remember reading Vance Packard's book, "The Hidden Persuaders" back in the 1970s. But much of what is claimed is true. It applies to the colors on a box of corn flakes, a soft drink can, and book covers. Some will attract and some will repel. People are drawn to imagery based on their nationality and ethnicity.
My guess (based on some training I took during my professional career) is that most of the fashion and perfume ads in magazines like Vanity Fair and Esquire have little teasers implanted in them. Sometimes all you have to do is to look at an ad upside down or sideways and images will pop right out at you.
So don't be so quick to poo-poo the possibility of the artists and Photoshop technicians at Watchtower HQ art department either (a) having a little fun at the Governing Body's expense ("Oh, yeah. See if those old geezers can see the ram's head in this image when they approved this article..."), or (b) having some direction by the article writers who want to leave more of an impression on JW sheep than boring words written at a 4th grade reading level.
I realize that some of the examples shown in the past are a little over the top or extremely long stretches of the imagination. But on the other hand, ask yourself, "why did the artist choose that particular picture on the wall or put that upside down, gravity defying wrinkle, in Jesus' robe?"
Indicetj: You have an email coming your way.
JV