Posts by Jourles

29

Is it all just a 'Cosmic Crapshoot'?

by AK - Jeff in

jw
friends

first my faith in the wts went away.. later my faith in religion [for purposes other than fellowship] went away.

to date, my faith in the existence of the 'great cause' remains, but is tarnishing in some respects.

i have no clear picture of what we really are, where we are really going, and why we exist.

Jourles

I'm at the point in my life(and don't see this changing anytime soon) where I really don't care how we came to be or where we are going. Did "God" create us? Did we evolve from monkeys via a "Big Bang?" If SOLID proof existed, the entire world would have to believe one way or another. There would be no alternative choices in the matter. It's one or the other. For every "proof" that theocrats offer, the evolutionists break it apart. For every "proof" that evolutionists offer, the theocrats tear it apart.

We're born, we live together in an eff'd up world for roughly 80 years, and then we die. Personally, and I mean personally, I would rather not waste time trying to figure out where we came from or what is waiting for us after we die. In my view, it has no bearing whatsoever in my life or the people around me. You can go on a finding God binge for years and never come to a conclusion as to who God is, where he lives, where he came from or whatever else our puny little brain can conjure up. Does it really matter in the end? What if Allah is the one and only true God? What about Jehovah? The Trinity? Just because you're raised to believe in one or the other doesn't make that particular deity the correct one. There's over a billion Muslims who truly believe that Allah is the true God. There's roughly the same(maybe even less) amount of Christians who believe that Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus, or a combo is the true one. This fact alone raises many questions on both sides(actually, it is very multi-faceted if you look at world religion in general). What if the bible is just a book not inspired of "God?" What if the Koran is not inspired of "Allah?" How do we know one way or the other? We don't.

20

So, I sent him flowers....

by whyamihere in

jw
friends

ok, my husband is a packer fan and i love my bears.

last night he was so mad, throwing things, cursing like a sailor, basically acting like me, although, little more reserved.. i was in hiding all morning, giggling to myself, showing no emotion for the sake of our marriage...(lol .

so, i sent him flowers, with a sympathy card saying ....."sorry sucker"....lol.

Jourles

I just hate the ungodly sight of them.

Then you'll love my new tshirt design...

That's bird poop falling from the Cardinal in case you were wondering.

20

So, I sent him flowers....

by whyamihere in

jw
friends

ok, my husband is a packer fan and i love my bears.

last night he was so mad, throwing things, cursing like a sailor, basically acting like me, although, little more reserved.. i was in hiding all morning, giggling to myself, showing no emotion for the sake of our marriage...(lol .

so, i sent him flowers, with a sympathy card saying ....."sorry sucker"....lol.

Jourles

Well, it was nice watching the Cardinals lose and the Cubs making the playoffs!

I just know that little dig was for my benefit, wasn't it? I knew the Cards had no chance back in April-May. Which is another reason why I didn't go to any of their games this year.

Ahhh, but it sure is nice to say that the Cards have actually won a few WS's, including last year's. (3x for emphasis) When was the last time the cubs were able to make a winning WS tshirt or hat? Ummm, never? lol

Don't worry Brookie, there's always next millennium.

85

Who Would You Like To See As The Next President Of The USA?

by minimus in

jw
friends

even if they aren't running, who would you like to see as the next president?

?

Jourles

Ron Paul of course. The only reason why I recently registered as a republican.

13

Pics from Meh-hee-ko

by Jourles in

jw
friends

third year in a row(we really need to go somewhere different.

looking from the reef back towards the resort(dreams tulum).

this location is about 200 yards from the shore.

Jourles

Just got back a few days ago from Mexico. Third year in a row(we really need to go somewhere different). Stayed down in Tulum for a week and then back up in Cancun for another 4 days. I've posted the usual pics from years past and thought I would throw up a few different ones - ones that you don't usually see that often. My latest drive has been wanting to do more with night photography. Anyways, here are a few from the several hundred that were taken...(all of the water pics were from my wifes camera taken in an underwater housing) None of the pics were cropped or altered in any way. They were taken straight from the camera and only resized for the web.

Looking from the reef back towards the resort(Dreams Tulum). This location is about 200 yards from the shore. The water only gets to around 6-7 feet deep out at this point.

Part of the reef which you can swim out to.

I think they were hungry.

The central chamber of the spa at Dreams Tulum.

The beach area at the Tulum archaeological ruins.

This guy was funny. He was eyeballing me wherever I moved. Kind of reminded me of the Dramatic Prarie Dog.

This is one of the courtyards at Dreams Tulum. It was taken around midnight. Just as an fyi, it's not really this lit up(it's much much darker out). I used a 50mm f1.7 prime lens with the aperture fairly opened up, WB manually set for the Tv and Av, and a several second shutter time. It takes a lot of finesse to get night shots to look good.

The tallest pyramid on the Yucatan peninsula - even larger than Chichen Itza's. Plus, you can climb it, unlike Itza. It is called Nohoch Mul and is located in Coba.

The view from the top looking down. My calfs were burning by the time I got to the top. I thought I would be a tough guy and do a quick stair-step to the top. Trust me, a very unwise thing to do(esp in that heat and humidty). And I'm even in great shape... If you miss a step going up or down on this bad boy, you're going home in the cargo hold of the plane, if you know what I mean.

Our hotel back up in Cancun(Dreams Cancun). It's also the only hotel in Mexico where you have dolphins in the resort. They are in the lagoon area right next to the lower pyramid section.

View from our room at night.

The dolphins right below our balcony(they had 6 total). They didn't have them available for the "experience" due to a couple of the males vying for dominance. But the trainers would still go out three times a day and have them do their tricks.

Was able to get this couple dancing under the gazeebo. This was taken around midnight.

Just a different angle of the gazeebo taken late at night with the moon diffused behind the clouds.

We had our trip narrowed down between Ireland and Mexico. We ended up going with Mexico because I had heard that Ireland had received an ungodly amount of rainfall over the summer. Something like 60-70 straight days of rain - during the "warm" season! Oh well, we probably will hit Ireland next year regardless of what the weather will bring. I'm just dying to go over there!

283

Time again for........ Congregation roll call

by Jourles in

it's been a while since this topic has been brought up.

use it as a chance to see if there is someone you might know from years past.

1973-1976 --- lakeside, ca??

Jourles

*boink* for the newer folks.

24

Did you ever choke while offering prayer?

by Jourles in

jw
friends

of all the times i was called upon to say prayer, i only remember choking once - but it was such a big choke i totally embarrassed myself for days on end afterwards.

and this one time wasn't even at the kh, it was in a home right before we were going to pre-study the wt.. there were roughly 3 elders, their wives, and some other close friends of mine in the living room.

i'd say there were around 10 of us total.

Jourles

Of all the times I was called upon to say prayer, I only remember choking once - but it was such a big choke I totally embarrassed myself for days on end afterwards. And this one time wasn't even at the kh, it was in a home right before we were going to pre-study the WT.

There were roughly 3 elders, their wives, and some other close friends of mine in the living room. I'd say there were around 10 of us total. Seeing that there were 3 elders there in the room, for some reason I thought I would be in the clear and not have to offer prayer before we studied the WT. Wrong. The bro who was going to conduct asked me to say prayer. Like I already admitted, I wasn't expecting this for some unknown reason. I started off and after about two sentences, I absolutely lost all thought processes in my head. I mean, it was a TOTAL BLANK. I was gasping internally for any word to get myself going again, but I couldn't come up with anything at all. It had to be literally 30-45 seconds before my mind came back from lunch. I even opened my eyes and stared at the floor with a look of bewilderment on my face while shaking my head in disbelief that I was choking right there and in a big way. I noticed in my peripheral vision the elder conducting peeking over to see what the problem was. God, it was horrible. Thankfully, nothing like this ever happened to me in the hall. But even to this day, just remembering that event makes me cower in embarrassment.

So did any of you bros out there ever choke like this?

125

As a JW were you ever counseled about clothes you wore, or lack thereof ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

thought this could get interesting discussing experiences.

i for one was trying to reach out for ministerial servant again in the early 90's , had been one before, and was assigned to carry the microphones one meeting.

had an elder call me in the back room and say , " brother flipper, i noticed looking down towards your shoes that you are wearing white socks today.

Jourles

I always dressed pretty well but there were still two pieces of clothing that brought a little heat on me more than once.

Back around 1991-92, I was in the El Cajon, CA Valley congo. My bookstudy was held in a home that didn't have air conditioning. So during the hotter summer months, I ditched the jacket and substituted a long sleeve dress shirt instead. To me, in my mind, I was dressed appropriately for the heat and the type of meeting(bk study in a home) and didn't think anything of it. Well, I was recently baptized and so the lone elder in our bk study group(does JD Johnst__ ring a bell to any SDiegans?) finally had another brother(me) to help out with prayer and reading. There was only one other bro in the group and he rarely attended. To my surprise, the first time I came dressed like this, JD opened with prayer AND read the paragraphs as well. I thought I was in deep doodoo for something seeing as my privileges were just stripped in front of me without explanation. I had no clue it was due to my "non-jacket" appearance. Afterwards, he told me that I had to wear a jacket to say prayer or read for the group. I did it like a good little jw for a little while. But there were times that I just forgot(I was probably thinking about the heat and sweating through the meeting) and would go back to the ol' trusty long-sleeve. I really didn't think anything of it.

A very similar experience also occurred when I lived in Breckenridge, CO. The bk study group for that area met at the wealthiest family's home -- the Knick_____'s. We had a few more bros in this group. Upon seeing that the people who went here actually made themselves at home, almost literally, I decided to try something out. No shoes were allowed in the house so everyone brought slippers from home. I kid you not, the bk study conductor's wife wore bunny slippers. You would think the Secretary of the hall, who also happened to be our bk study conductor, would be pretty lax in enforcing the dress code seeing that his wife wore bunny slippers every week. Apparently not. I tried wearing a cardigan sweater one night and noticed, quite conspicuously, that I was not asked to say prayer or read. The elder didn't say anything to me afterwards either. The next week I tried it again and the same thing happened. Only this time he told me afterwards that I needed a jacket. It finally clicked with me - I mean really clicked. You mean to tell me that I can avoid saying prayer or reading the paragraphs simply by not wearing a jacket? Sweet.

I can't remember how many times during the following years I intentionally left the jacket at home and wore a cardigan or a long-sleeve shirt instead. These were also my awakening years when I began reading H2O. The rebelliousness only increased from there.

So for you lurkers out there wondering how you can start fading, I say start with losing the jacket. Once the prayer and bk study or WT reading privs dry up, you're on your way. Meeting attendance closely follows.

28

How Many of us Have Shared Our Stories on JWD ? Helps us Know you Better

by flipper in

jw
friends

just thought of starting this thread because of the problem of living in an emotionally disconnected society as we do.

some of us have shared our personal stories with you all, my wife and mine was , " the story of mr. & mrs. flipper ".

i think it would be good to share some insight into ourselves , then perhaps others on the board will be understanding more deeply about posts that we start.

Jourles

Nothing to hide here:

Getting busted on here and the aftermath

My boring life

43

Will the Book Study ever be dropped from the weekly meetings?

by RULES & REGULATIONS in

the book study is one of the most useless meetings.

the same books have been studied 3 or 4 times.the meeting takes only an hour but takes up most of your evening.

and, it is one of the least attended meetings.. why haven't they combined the watchtower study with just question and answer and then follow with the book study with just question and answer?

Jourles

I can't believe no one has made this comment yet....The real reason why they won't get rid of the BS is because it doesn't cost the WTS or congregation any money out of pocket to hold them. Plus, if an accident or anything bad were to happen, it would take place on someone else's property and not theirs.