Posts by SweetBabyCheezits

36

University after leaving the Watchtower?

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

hello, you sexy sassy posters of jwn.

i'm starting this thread in the hopes of finding... uh, hope.... and sharing it with others who are in a similar boat.

i'm looking for input from anyone who meets the following criteria:.

SweetBabyCheezits

Many thanks, Designs, St. George, and Sir Rob for your valuable input! Bro-hugs and reps all around.

Designs, did you maintain a F/T job while you were in school? Any kids?

And welcome, Rob! Is this your work ? I'm just going to assume it is. Outstanding, young squire!

I'm just trying to figure out how I'll budget my time if I go after a degree while my kids are still young. I can make personal sacrifices for this but I don't want to miss out on their changing lives. But I'd also hate to put it off until I'm 55, assuming I even live that long. Really, it's not so much a question of should I go back but when should I go back?

A little history: In 1997, with the blessing of my JW parents I attended a local community college and took a year's worth of classes to get a job in the [exciting!] field of drafting. It wasn't my first choice but I had few options and no clue what I wanted to do to support a family back then. As it turns out, I landed a CAD job in our smallish town before finishing my second semester of college. Of course, the JW view then was to "get only enough schooling for a job that will allow you to stroke Jehovah's [ego] more often." So once I secured a job, I finished up the semester and never went back.

Now that we're no longer mind-cuffed (my wife and I were DF'd in fall of 2010 for apostasy), I want knowledge for the intrinsic value, a formal education for the experience, and the freedom and opportunities that are (more readily) enjoyed by degreed professionals. As far as my career goes, I've been with the same company for 14 years and, after several position changes, I now have a salary that some BA/BS-degreed professionals earn, excellent benefits, a [slow-growing] 401k, etc. Why walk away from that? Well, while it's a great company to work for, I take no pleasure in my current job and we can't stand the area where we live (hot/humid summers, Southern Baptist-dominated town with very few free thinkers, no university, few purely secular options for kids' activities....). Unfortunately, since I have no degree, I wouldn't make half my current salary if I start over somewhere else doing the same thing. So now we're making some major decisions and trying to determine whether or not a degree should be a goal for the immediate future or 20+ years from now.

For the time being, I'm trying to take advantage of free educational tools like khanacademy.org and all the free iTunes university lectures and courses I can get. I'd like to build up my knowledge base prior to starting so that I can drop into some advanced programs if at all possible.

36

University after leaving the Watchtower?

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

hello, you sexy sassy posters of jwn.

i'm starting this thread in the hopes of finding... uh, hope.... and sharing it with others who are in a similar boat.

i'm looking for input from anyone who meets the following criteria:.

SweetBabyCheezits

Hello, you sexy sassy posters of JWN. I'm starting this thread in the hopes of finding... uh, hope.... and sharing it with others who are in a similar boat. I'm looking for input from anyone who meets the following criteria:

raised by devout JWs
skipped university after high school due to WT propaganda
got married and had one or more kids
woke up later and left the WT
decided to invest in a real university education
not made of time or money

If you're out there, I'd love to hear your story on this thread, and especially the answers to these questions:

What was your overall goal? (Education for the intrinsic value of knowledge alone, career opportunities, satisfaction of obtaining a degree, etc...)
What major and level of degree were/are you seeking?
Did you get the degree you wanted? Or are you still working on it?
Were you able to balance time with family, work, and school without going crazy?
What sacrifices did you have to make, if any? Was it worth it?

How about it? I'll give +50 JWN cred for each reply that meets criteria. I'm not even gonna tell you the street value of that is in today's market.

Thanks in advance!

SBC

79

Can you be in Love with two persons? My Dilemma...

by Intel in

first, don't laugh.

i'm not some adolescent teen that is confused about his relationship.

what i am going to relate here has become a maior hard ship and is really gnawing at me.

SweetBabyCheezits

This decision must not be taken lightly, Intel. You need to find a quiet place to think and then ask yourself a very important question: Which one has better boobs?

Jokes, of course. (kinda) Seriously, though, if neither of these two women are the "sharing" type - which is completely understandable - you're the only person who can decide which one to let go. I think it will take a lot of empathy to make the decision that's best for everyone involved but someone is going to end up hurt. You might be able to mitigate some of the pain for some involved but it doesn't look like you can have your cake and eat it, too, in this case, polygamy. Life is unfair.... as Randy Pausch said, 'We cannot change the cards we are dealt, only how we play our hand.'

Put yourself in their shoes and play out the different scenarios. And not that you should ignore your own needs completely but you have a little one to think about now. You made a decision (along with your ex) to bring a child into the world and now the mature thing to do would be to assume your part of the responsibility in making sure that kid has the best life possible. If there is ANYTHING you can do for the sake of the child, I personally think that should carry a lot of weight in the decision.

Of course, this situation sounds incredibly complex and my opinion shouldn't be valued anymore than the next stranger on the Internets. Ultimately, you may just have to settle this using the aforementioned boob criteria.

35

SMART phones: I got my first iPhone

by Terry in

for my birthday, my daughter (who works for apple) got me an iphone.. yes, i was using an old motorola flip-phone until now...like a geriatric captain kirk.. and i wondered why people had been giving me those strange looks before.... .

anyway, imagine my reaction to the mammoth technology contained in an iphone.. talk about a miracle, this qualifies.. i'm particularly impressed by the onboard gps.

i can type in a destination and the phone already knows exactly where i am and will plot a destination map onscreen.

SweetBabyCheezits

Dagney: OH, and TED, of course.

TED talks are the cat's meow.

35

SMART phones: I got my first iPhone

by Terry in

for my birthday, my daughter (who works for apple) got me an iphone.. yes, i was using an old motorola flip-phone until now...like a geriatric captain kirk.. and i wondered why people had been giving me those strange looks before.... .

anyway, imagine my reaction to the mammoth technology contained in an iphone.. talk about a miracle, this qualifies.. i'm particularly impressed by the onboard gps.

i can type in a destination and the phone already knows exactly where i am and will plot a destination map onscreen.

SweetBabyCheezits

Terry, did you get a 4S? I'm still using 4 but bought my wife a 4S for Christmahanakwanzika and she's been using the hell outta Siri for reminders, lists, and transcribing emails/texts. If you have the 4S, check out some videos to see how other folks are using Siri for practical purposes, aside from asking things like "Siri, where's a good place to hide a body?"

Favorite free utility/productivity apps:

Dropbox - my favorite cloud storage & personal server - syncs PC folders to iPhone & other devices, acts like standard file folders in Windows Explorer
Mint - manage your finances, set budgets, track everything
Grocery IQ - if you're the grocery shopper in the family, this will make it less of a chore, especially after you make your first list and reselect items to go on the list the following weeks

Honorable mention:

Find iPhone - in case your iPhone ever gets stolen or lost, you can track it, lock it out, play a sound, and display a message on the screen
RedLaser - snap a pic of any barcode and let it retrieve the goodness, compare pricing and places to buy
SEP - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - mobile version of the website

Favorite free photography app:

Snapseed - great non-destructive image editing tools

If you like problem solving, this is a sweet game (demo is free, full version is a couple dollars):

Contre Jour - pure audiovisual bliss, great mechanics & piano score makes this one a rare 5 star game, IMO... that said, iPad version works better than iPhone version, since larger screen allows more precise control, but still very entertaining on iPhone

28

Continuing (for dear EP)...

by AGuest in

ep - "you know, i never really had anything against you.".

ep - "so, we're cool.".

ep - "maybe none, but i've nothing better to do.

SweetBabyCheezits

I, for one, love having special knowledge. My Lord's name is Postdiction and he suggests something major is going to happen in your life in the future, EP. So look out. I called it. I mean He called it.

Most predictions from such figures as Nostradamus and James Van Praagh are written with such seemingly deliberate vagueness and ambiguity as to make interpretation nearly impossible before the event, rendering them useless as predictive tools. After the event has occurred, however, details are shoehorned into the prediction by the psychics or their supporters using selective thinking — emphasize the "hits", ignore the "misses" — in order to lend credence to the prophecy and give the impression of an accurate "prediction". Inaccurate predictions are omitted.

Reminds me of a particular 1914 prophecy, when ol' CT shot the barn door full of random holes and then proceeded to paint the bullseye around the largest cluster.

238

Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible

by flamegrilled in

perhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.

1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).

sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.

SweetBabyCheezits

Hey, gurrrl, how you doin???

238

Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible

by flamegrilled in

perhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.

1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).

sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.

SweetBabyCheezits

Well, crap. My formatting got screwed up when I posted and now I get an error when I try to edit it. Looks like I really wanted to emphasize the last few paragraphs.

238

Active JW understands flaws in WTS doctrine but believes in the Bible

by flamegrilled in

perhaps this is a common topic for newbies on the site, but i have browsed for a while and not seen this exactly answered.. as an active jw who understands the flaws in wts doctrine, but believes in the bible, how do i identify a form of worship that meets all the criterea:.

1) by this all will know you are my disciples if you have love among yourselves (john 13:35).

sure i know that not all jws do this, and that people from other religions or non-religious people do this also, but as an official doctrine jws will not kill one another in war, and in general there is a genuine effort to exercise "agape" love not widely found in the world at large.. 2) preach the good news.

SweetBabyCheezits

Hello, FG, and welcome!

You sound open-minded, sincere, intelligent, and intellectually honest.... (If I may quote you:"But I am open to revision on that one if persuasive evidence is presented to the contrary.") It's probably best left for another thread to discuss why you still have faith in the Bible, though starting with that could amount to a real time-saver so I might take the liberty here.

You're clearly open to revision of your views - albeit within the realm of Christian doctrine - if presented withpersuasive evidence. But I suspect you, like many of us, didn't have the same stringent requirements for evidence when you were first persuaded to put faith in El Bibel. This presents a cart-before-the-horse scenario... when a person latches onto a belief as a matter of faith and only years later, after developing logic and reasoning skills, demands evidence to sway him awayfrom his faith-based beliefs.

"The great trouble with religion — any religion — is that a religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge those propositions by evidence." - Robert Heinlein

(To be fair, Heinlein could've added "and remain a religionist" at the end since some *do* judge by evidence.)

You also mentioned that there's "no point preaching anything to an atheist unless you can first convince them that it's reasonable to believe in a God." This is true. And why shouldn't that be the status quo? That is the default state, the zero position - a lack of belief in any particular god or gods. Sometimes this is mistaken for agnosticism, which deals with knowledge: that we cannot know one way or another if god exists.

IMO, a person should only be persuaded (by evidence, of course) to move from that default position once he is an adult. Otherwise, what better time to 'convince an atheist that it's reasonable to believe in a God' - and then a specific description of god - than when he happens to be a gullible child, no less likely to question the existence of Santa Claus?

That's all just my opinion, though, and like yours it is subject to revision.

3

Special delivery for Scully

by SweetBabyCheezits in

jw
friends

free honey badger in your inbox.. .