Posts by Jourles

Hmmm, not too many for online. Well, to be honest, I slacked pretty hard back when I attended in person. But these days, I want to learn. The thing is, I see some of my work colleagues getting degrees and I'm thinking, "Hell, if they can do it, I know I can!" Some of these people are dumber than a box of rocks, but yet they still make it through college. That alone was my greatest incentive for going back. If they can do it, I know I can.

What are you studying?

The degree track is labeled as Information Technology - Networking, but it is really geared for telecommunications. I've been in telecommunications for almost 14 years now and can't see myself doing anything else. This is my life and hobby. It only makes sense to study what I live for.

18

College -- Online vs. Classroom

by Jourles in

jw
friends

has anyone out there taken online classes only to obtain a degree?

i finally bit the bullet and will be returning to school in september.

i went to a community college many years ago, but never finished what i started.

Jourles

Has anyone out there taken online classes only to obtain a degree? I finally bit the bullet and will be returning to school in September. I went to a community college many years ago, but never finished what I started. This time around I will be going the online route 100%. Has anyone out there done both? Is the online side fairly easy, or hard, compared to a classroom setting? What should I expect? Finding the time to complete my schoolwork should not be a problem at all. I have plenty of time during my workday to study(I have about 7 hours of downtime during my normal day).

Just curious.

Jourles, of the soon to be Setters class

37

Will they Eliminate the District Convention?

by kid-A in

jw
friends

ok, i am now guilty of feeding into the "big announcement" frenzy on the board!

another poster made an interesting suggestion that the "hypothetical" big announcement may be the elimination of the d.c.. i think this is a real possibility.

its been cut down to 3 days from an original 8 days over the years.

Jourles

We have the same deal down at Qualcomm.

I went to the majority of my DC's at Jack Murphy (now Qualcomm). I don't ever remember hearing about getting the stadium for free in exchange for cleaning it. But then again, all the times I was there, we had food service too(a while ago). I would have been one of the first in line to sign up and clean it, but maybe it was a different ball game back then.(like that pun?)

I kind of miss the Umbrella City DC. Park your umbrella over you and take a nice nap in the Field Level. God knows that ALL of the shaded seats in the Plaza level were taken even before the gates opened.

16

I was forced to buy a new cell phone

by JH in

jw
friends

yesterday, i was mowing the lawn, and i had my cell phone on me.

it was in it's case and hooked on to me.. for some reason, it fell to the ground, and i was mowing the lawn walking backwards, and all of a sudden....i heard this loud noise under the lawnmower as if it was chewing something very hard.

so, i backed up the lawnmower another foot or so to see what was under the lawnmower.

Jourles

Pink?

37

Will they Eliminate the District Convention?

by kid-A in

jw
friends

ok, i am now guilty of feeding into the "big announcement" frenzy on the board!

another poster made an interesting suggestion that the "hypothetical" big announcement may be the elimination of the d.c.. i think this is a real possibility.

its been cut down to 3 days from an original 8 days over the years.

Jourles

There have been instances of them receiving the use of the facilites free of charge. In those cases, any money brought in was basically profit.

I'll use the Astrodome in Houston as just one example. Back when they still used it, the WTS had an arrangement in place with the city for the jw's to clean the Astrodome from top to bottom - just before the DC, and right after. The city got the 'Dome back in better shape than any 'paid' cleaning crew could do before or after any sporting event. The cleaning day was a BIG deal. It usually happened just a few days prior to the DC starting - sometimes on a weekend. Boatloads of jw's would come out for the Big Clean.(hell, it was always in the newspaper. why not show up and "give a good witness?") Mind you, none of these jw's get paid to clean the 'Dome.

In other towns, the WTS worked deals with the cities to receive facilities free of charge or at a very deep discount due to the amount of $$$ that would be brought in to the local businesses(hotels, restaurants, etc). In those larger cities where there would be multiple weekends held for the DC's, the city could actually bring in more money through taxes than haggling over the price of the venue. You see, the WTS holds the city's balls in a vice. They have the bargaining power - the city doesn't. The WTS can threaten to move the DC to another city which offers more favorable terms. Let's say the city receives a 6% tax from the local businesses. If the jw's spend a million bucks over a few weekends, the city gets a $60k cut. That's better than only getting maybe $5k-10k per weekend. And this is when the WTS threatens to move cities!

The WTS knows how to play this game. It is in their best interest to find a city that is willing to give them the venue for free. The city still makes money, and the WTS can make their money too. It's a win-win situation for both parties. And most business owners would love to have such a large convention in their town. They could care less if it was a convention of satan worshipers - they still would make more money than if there was no convention happening.

So is the DC going away? I would think not. It is a money generating scheme that works well for both the WTS and the cities in which they are held. It's especially good for the WTS when they get the venue for free. Just think of all that money coming in and them not having to pay for the convention site. Just throw out the ol' -- "Friends, we have a deficit of X dollars" line, and the bros will dig deep into their pockets without even questioning the amount.

19

all letters from the Watchtower to the body of elders up

by Dogpatch in

passing this on:

hi randy,.

i just wanted to give you a heads up (unless of course youre spearheading this operation) that all letters from the watchtower to the body of elders of worldwide kingdom halls has been posted at this link:.

Jourles

I think this is what everyone is looking for....

http://www.reexamine.org/BOE/boe.zip --- A zipped file containing everything in the directory.

17

BoE letters up (1977-2001), plus public talk outlines

by Jourles in

jw
friends

it looks like the 1977-2001 letters are up!

the '01-'06 letters will be forthcoming shortly i hear.. http://www.reexamine.org/boe/.

i would suggest downloading the index (3.8mb) first, then you can view/download a particular letter referenced from the index.

Jourles

Look for a zipped file containing all of the files soon...

17

BoE letters up (1977-2001), plus public talk outlines

by Jourles in

jw
friends

it looks like the 1977-2001 letters are up!

the '01-'06 letters will be forthcoming shortly i hear.. http://www.reexamine.org/boe/.

i would suggest downloading the index (3.8mb) first, then you can view/download a particular letter referenced from the index.

Jourles

It looks like the 1977-2001 letters are up! The '01-'06 letters will be forthcoming shortly I hear.

http://www.reexamine.org/BOE/

I would suggest downloading the Index (3.8MB) first, then you can view/download a particular letter referenced from the index. Rexaminer may sort these letters later, so I'm not sure if the links above will stay the same.

If you were in possession of the earlier letters, you may notice that these are text-searchable pdf's. These letters were scanned from copies which were not always straight. If the text appears slightly tilted, the OCR recognition process was likely skewed too resulting in some mashed words. You'll see what I mean if you try copying text from a tilted letter.

Enjoy!