@exwhyzee for years it made me miserable. Over time I just got used to day dreaming a few hours. With technology I can surf the web now at least. The hard part for me is service as it is a total waste of time but I only do it once a month anymore. But it still sucks.
SloppyJoe
JoinedPosts by SloppyJoe
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33
Who still goes to meetings and out in field service?
by SloppyJoe injust curious as to who on here still regularly attends meetings and goes out in service?
as i sit at the district convention i can't help but think who else out in the crowd is just like me.
doesn't believe what they hear, but are still here..
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33
Who still goes to meetings and out in field service?
by SloppyJoe injust curious as to who on here still regularly attends meetings and goes out in service?
as i sit at the district convention i can't help but think who else out in the crowd is just like me.
doesn't believe what they hear, but are still here..
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SloppyJoe
Stand there, don't ring the bell or knock. If they do answer ALWAYS introduce myself as one of Jehovah's witnesses as this gives about a 95 percent chance of them not being interested and if they still take literature I don't do a return visit. I have a 100 percent success rate of never starting a bible study.
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33
Who still goes to meetings and out in field service?
by SloppyJoe injust curious as to who on here still regularly attends meetings and goes out in service?
as i sit at the district convention i can't help but think who else out in the crowd is just like me.
doesn't believe what they hear, but are still here..
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SloppyJoe
Just curious as to who on here still regularly attends meetings and goes out in service? I do both. As I sit at the district convention I can't help but think who else out in the crowd is just like me. Doesn't believe what they hear, but are still here.
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Fading & Feeling Lost ... Part 2
by What Now? insorry to keep dragging this on ... but this is really the only place to vent right?
so basically it's going on 4 months now that we've had zero meeting attendance, and for the last 2 months we have not reported any service time (prior to that, when our service group overseer would send a text asking for our time, we would report 4 hours each, for our "family study").
in my last post, i talked about how we were having a really difficult time beginning a new life outside the organization.
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SloppyJoe
There are many people who may disagree with what I am about to tell you, so read this as only one option. My background is I learned the truth about the truth fifteen years ago. To this very day I still go to meetings and out in field service. I was raised a witness and and all of my family are in. Leaving would have meant I was going to leave all that behind. I HATED everything about the religion. Over time I came to realize that showing up for meetings and sporadically going out in service, I didn't lose anything. I went to Christmas parties at work and their birthday parties. I didn't go out in service for nine months straight and reported time every month. For me it was a small price to pay to keep my entire life. I realize some will say its better to just walk away, for me it just wasn't. Going to meetings and being able to chuckle about things that change just makes things easier. As far as your kids celebrating holidays and birthdays that would make what I did pretty difficult. Growing up I had cousins that had "presents day" around Christmas and their birthdays but it wasnt outright celebrating. Again I only say this is just one option. I am sure there are hundreds of people here who have gone though what you have and can offer advice.
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43
Protesting
by zound inis watchtower baiting apostates with this new awake?.
"is protest the answer?".
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201307/is-protest-the-answer/.
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SloppyJoe
I have to agree, protesting OUTSIDE of a convention just reinforces what most already think. It did when I saw them. The idea of placing cards in bathrooms is really a great idea. You do it in secrecy, and anyone that reads it also gets the card in secrecy. I think that would be a much wiser method. Doing exactly as they say, yelling and screaming, outside just reinforces that you're crazy and are a tool of satan in their minds.
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How does TTATT affect your marriage??
by Crazyguy injust wondering of those of you that have left or are fading and have married ones still in, how is it going, is there hope or is the marriage doomed?
wondering what are the percentages.
i'm fading fast but wife is zealous as ever and we don't talk spiritual things at all anymore.
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SloppyJoe
I was raised as a witness and so was my wife. Years ago when I started reading about it I never really knew how to go about getting married as I knew if I left I would be unhappy because I would lose my entire family. Finally I realized that I could plant the seeds and see what type of response I would get from women. This blew up in my face more than once. My wife now was also raised as a witness and responded very nicely to my remarks . In a way it is nice that we were both raised witnesses, so we both understand our backgrounds but both don't believe in any of it. Although we still have to go to the meetings and field service and likely always will, it is nice that we can laugh and joke about crazy stuff. My wife would walk away tomorrow if I said I would. I was reading on here the other day and she asked me what I was reading. When I told her, her eyes lit up with interest. I was reading about the change of the FDS to just being the governing body. I jokingly said you had to know what was believed before the change to understand the change now. She laughed and said you're right, lost interest and did something else. All these years she has been going to meetings and she couldn't answer with certainty who the FDS was supposed to be. That is a lot of daydreaming at meetings.
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38
What was your crisis
by JG inwhat was your crisis of conscience, moment of clarity, epiphany or realization?
i am so interested in what got you thinking.
blessing to you,.
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SloppyJoe
For me it was good old America Online! I was just a teenager growing up in the mid 90s and the internet was a foreign concept to me. Then I discovered a chatroom called JWs and Friends in AOL's chatroom list. After being there looking for girls lol, there were many apostates in the room as well. I already had some type of doubt going on because although I wouldn't "talk" by typing to them I would read what they had to say. Eventually I got on this site, freeminds, read Crisis of Conscience and here I am nearly 20 years later, still attending meetings and going out and service lol. While I know many people on here would think I am nuts for never leaving, after a few years of HATING anything to do with the religion I realized, that a fade or leaving would mean leaving my entire family forever. My whole family, aunts and uncles on both sides of my family are all witnesses, so I would have to give it all up. My family actually is close and get along very well. For me knowing the truth about everything makes it easier in the sense that I never felt guilty ever again, never worried about being destroyed. It gave me a sense of inner peace knowing that although I have to sit through 2 meetings a week, hey at least it isn't still 3, and go out in service irregularly, no one will bother me and I don't lose anything. I went to college, got a good job, and do everything that I enjoy doing. Ironically I married a witness woman who is more of an apostate that I am and she never read any books or web sites. So now we get to laugh about what people do and say. It isn't the most ideal situation but I have accepted it and moved on as for me it is the least painful.
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22
401K, do you still have one?
by DJK inseveral years ago i considered starting one.
didn't understand it at all.
the hr dept where i work had closed and to start a 401k i had to do it online.
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SloppyJoe
Yes I do. Here is the REAL low down on 401ks, 457s, and all the other plans that there are. Just putting your money in and letting it sit there is NOT the way to manage these accounts. This is the common information that the "experts" will tell you and I because we generally listen to whatever they tell us. This concept became very popular in the 90s when the stock market just kept going up and up and all you had to do was let your money sit there. This is also when many people started getting into the stock market because it was so easy. The truth of the matter is the "professional" traders NEED us to leave our money sit there and take the losses and gains so that they are able to manipulate the markets in the directions that they want them to go. Professional traders make money in markets that go up and markets that go down. Our retirement plans are set up to only make a lot of money in markets that go up. In reality this is YOUR money and it is YOUR responsibility to manage it. NO ONE cares about your money other than YOU. Generally these plans have different options to invest your money so that no matter what market condition you are in you can still be making money. The strategy of dollar/pound cost averaging works in a market that is trending higher but we are in a VERY delicate economy which could VERY well end up in a depression. If that happens these markets will continue to fall. Your dollar/pound cost averaging will only lose more money. This is not over yet. Also the stock market will be the last to recover, its the first to fall but the last to go back up. How does someone manage their own money who generally has no idea or time? Well that is me and I have been successful with it. First every 3 months review what you are investing in and make sure you are in the highest yielding returns available to your plan. Also you must educate yourself on what mutual funds are and what each mutual fund you are invested in is actually investing YOUR money in. I can tell you that the time to move your money out of the market was not JULY of 2008 but November/December of 2007. How would someone like you and I know how to do this? Well if you paid at least some attention to the markets the forecast was there. Using Google you can find out a lot of information on future market predictions as I was able to move my money to an interest bearing account in December of 2007 against the advice of every "expert" out there. What were the results? Well had I listened to them I would be down 40-50% in my account. Presently I am up 4% in my account for the year. Not to shabby for a non expert in my opinion. So what do you do if you didn't move your money out? At this point you have to decide if you are willing to accept that there is the possibility of additional losses from 20-40% more in your account. If a depression happens than this is very likely and could be even more than that amount. If you can't accept that I would advise moving your money into an interest bearing account. As you must understand the money you lost in your account IS LOST. People will tell you it is only a loss if your account is cashed out, but you'll never get that money back unless the market goes back up which in cases like our economy can take many YEARS. What should I do with my money now then? If I were you and you really aren't sure what you are doing with your retirement plan I would advise instead of contributing money into your account to stop doing that and use that money to pay off your home mortgage as that is actually going to be of some benefit to you. At least it is accomplishing something using it in that way. Our economies will not be rebounding in 2009 nor 2010. The stock market will not be rebounding anytime soon.
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cruises
by pratt1 in.
has anyone gone on a cruise for vacation?.
i am going to the bahamas on holland american, leaving from ny and since i've never gone before, i don't know what to expect.. what was your experience like?
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SloppyJoe
I've been on many cruises, with Carnival, with Royal Carribean and with Holland America. If you're looking for a peaceful atmosphere, the best food and the best service than Holland America is the line to use. The only drawback is if you're looking for an upbeat exciting week you're not going to get it on Holland America. The cruise line is mostly used by older 60, 70, and 80 year old crowds, probably because they would rather have better food and service than a party atmosphere. As far as tipping goes on Holland America they have what is called a "No tip required" policy. What this means is they don't add any money into your bill to tip your cabin steward, head waiter, busser and maitre' de(sp?). They ask that you tip them as you feel necessary. More than likely you'll be very impressed by the service they give you as we all were. Also if you can have a group of friends go with you on your cruise. This gives you people to hang out with and socialize with while you have "at sea" days, as well as people to hang with when you go on excursions. Personally my favorite cruise was Royal Carribean. They had good food and good service as well as a nightlife. But Holland's food and service were still better. I wouldn't go on a carnival cruise again. Bad service and bad food. Hopefully you like eating because somewhere on the boat food is being served 24 hours a day. And if you're a big drinker well they'll get their monies worth because that's how these boats make money, drinks are far from cheap. But cruises are probably one of my favorite types of vacations. Enjoy!
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What is your definition of........
by SpiceItUp in......beauty?.
i know the whole sentiment of beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
even rod sterling had his say on the matter (boy i loved that episode).. what is beautiful in your opinion?
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SloppyJoe
A woman being beautiful involves much more than looks alone. While her appearance
plays a role, it requires much more to obtain such a status in my "beauty book".
Some men may only care what she looks like to consider her beautiful. While there are
many very pretty women out there which I have caught myself drooling over from time to
time, it takes more than that for me to give her the beautiful stamp of approval. For me it
also involves what her personality is like. A woman who is pretty,but also out going, sure
of herself, sweet, nice, funny, and likes to watch television in her underwear would obtain
such a prestigious title.