one of the funniest stories i have read in a long time!
not my own but found at another forum.
last week while travelling i stopped at a zany brainy store and saw that they had a blimp for sale.
There was an urban legend about that, IIRC.
Went something along the lines of a truck full of inflated (with helium) adult dolls hits a bump, and they go flying off. Old lady driving behind the truck sees all the bodies going up and thinks it's the rapture, so she jumps out of her car.
and you dont know if they are still jw's and they aren't sure if you are and there is this awkward chat and then a quick seeya?
or is it just me?
I think the point of the original poster was more of a...making contact after some time away. This is especially pertinent if someone moved OUT of your area when you were both JWs and is looking you up on the net, and chatting with you or shooting emails or something. Especially formerly close friends.
It's all like....well, it's like a dance, you know? Trying to find out....are they still in? Do they think I am? Are they trying to find out if I'm in? What happens if they are in and find out I'm not? Should I play like I am? Is it worth it? etc, etc.
I've done that twice recently, reading through those emails is funny. Actually, the first time, I *WAS* still in at the time, and the guy contacting me (my best friend growing up) was not. I had to know, so I kept asking probing question. "What did you think of such and such part at the last assembly? How did you like the article in such and such Awake!". He played along like he was in, and I, as a good JW, really pushed the point, since I couldn't talk to him, after all, if he wasn't still in.
I'm actually glad he played along, as if he hadn't I'm almost sure I would have cut him off. It was more than a year after we got back in touch before I actually did leave. I think I could hear him exhale in relief halfway across the country when I told him.
a young woman i work with, and her husband, have been trying unsucessfully for three years to conceive a child.
she first took fertility drugs and then went for artificial insemination.
those methods have failed and now they are proceeding with in-vitro.
[quote]1/3 of all pregnancies end in miscarriage[/quote]
Actually, it's much, MUCH higher than that. *MOST* pregnancies fail within the first 4 weeks (it was like 75% or so), so the 'mother' never actually knows she was pregnant - no missed period or anything.
[quote]They have spent, or will spend, over $10,000 on trying to become pregnant.[/quote]
Which is very little compared to some. A JW couple we knew (when 'in') tried to do this route. I think they are in the $50-$60k range spent now. I mean, they are DESPERATE. Funny thing is, they really don't make that much money. They've spent more on *trying* to get pregnant than their house. If I understand correctly, they are so far in debt they couldn't afford to raise a child if they had one...but they keep trying. Almost pathological.
[quote]Has your coworker thought about adoption? For the price of 2 rounds of IVF, your coworker can adopt a kid.[/quote]
This seems a more reasonable alternative to me. Of course, 'reasonable' used very loosely here. I can't imagine anyone actually WANTING a child anyway, so going to such lengths or cost for one just baffles the mind, even adopting.
The *real* problem with adopting is...it isn't just a simple matter of going out and finding a spare child somewhere. We can't grow babies outside of a womb yet, and if the adopted child is by an American, odds are very, VERY good that 'womb' will come looking for the child someday. Even in the best cases, the child, when grown, may look for their biological parent. In many ways, an adopted child never has as complete a connection to their adopted parents as their biological ones, and that thought may trouble an infertile couple looking for a kid.
OTOH, you have the option of adopting foreign children. This obviously significantly reduces the odds of the birth mother coming looking for their kid later, but then you have all the potential mixed-race family prejudices that, unfortunately, still manage to plague our society.
(Again, though, I'd see being infertile as quite a blessing, so I'm speaking more from seeing others go through all of their and their thinking/reactions than my own thoughts.)
while reading minimuses post under "friends" about a sister who kept up auxillary pioneering even though her 5 year old daughter died, it brought to mind a similar story that happened just 2 months ago in a large cong.
an elder serving in that cong.
for many years now, lost his wife to heart complications.
[quote]# of cases of fibromyalsia especially among the women?[/quote]
I think this is a case of a 'disease of the weak' syndrome - chronic among JWs, women in particular (as that is really the only way they can get attention in the congregation).
Fibromyalsia now. Was TMJ before. And 'chronic fatigue' before that. Etc. etc.
Ever since the 'Asleep!' started publishing headline articles on diseases it doesn't hurt a JW's reputation to have (like AIDS or an STD would), JWs have been continually coming down with one or another of them.
where stephanus finds these things, i dunno.
but they are frikking funny!
this one was stolen from tower two...go wild.... .
Guy on right: "Are you sure we should sign this UN agreement? Won't the publishers be stumbled?"
Guy on left: "No, they won't be fooled by the stumbling blocks that I got. I'm still, I'm still Jaracz from the block."
.
http://www.carlbaldwin.co.uk/glendance/
(yeah, this is lame, i know, but i did laugh, so.....)
http://www.carlbaldwin.co.uk/glendance/
(yeah, this is lame, I know, but I did laugh, so.....)
i have been considering religion and god recently... and to some extent the jws religion.. i was in a video games shop the other day, looking for a few good games for my xbox console.... i found myself thinking "would god look favourably upon me if i brought this game".... the game in question was 'mortal kombat' (one of the more violent games).
this is one of the main reasons i did not purchase it.. i think i have succumb to jw logic.... is this the right way to be thinking?.
ahhhh..... wtt
Kinda OT, but....
So, errr, SYN....have any thoughts on the Doom3? Or, have you even seen it in person yet?
well it looks like we will be sending our troops home, as we dont have to worry about iraq retaining, creating, or using weapons of mass destruction anymore (wmd).
the iraqi dictator has sent a note to the chief u. n. weapons inspector informing him that he (has just now enacted legislation making wmd's illegal.
this wonderful news was announced by a gleeful hans blix just today at a televised meeting at the u.n.
No, I mean, I do not know what to make of it as in "What on earth was the point of that?"
If true, what would that accomplish? If he really has no WMD, then such a 'law' has no meaning and has no effect anyway....if he really wanted peace, he'd just let the UN inspectors have free reign for now. (Not like that would stop the US, anyway)
OTOH, if he DOES have WMD, again, what does this accomplish?
That's what I don't understand. This supposed 'law' has no value politically - what's the game here?
well it looks like we will be sending our troops home, as we dont have to worry about iraq retaining, creating, or using weapons of mass destruction anymore (wmd).
the iraqi dictator has sent a note to the chief u. n. weapons inspector informing him that he (has just now enacted legislation making wmd's illegal.
this wonderful news was announced by a gleeful hans blix just today at a televised meeting at the u.n.
You know, I really have no idea at all what to make of this.
.
i heard it reported on npr that scientists have decided that the universe will keep expanding, not collapse back in on itself.. i found this to be very comforting.. joel
(no offense, I've just been DYING to find a thread I can use this in!)
