Posts by Descender

I don't think most physical labor jobs or fork lift operation type jobs in my area require any college education, nor would a lot of other jobs, such as table waiting, bar tending jobs, clerical, wharehouse, or most jobs in stores like Wal Mart. But then again I see what you're saying because there is now such a glut of college educated people coming into a work force that only has so many jobs to offer. So, in essence, every time there is a position available, there are bound to be at least some college educated people vying for the job, no matter what the job happens to be.

I work with my dad in a small produce brokerage company and I have a BS in Advertising and Marketing. Do I use the skills I learned specifically for my degree at my job? Very little. Did I learn to think a little deeper through my psychology, sociology, philosophy, and history classes that were required for my degree? Yes. And did what I learned at college help me to finally make a decision to leave the JW's? Definitely. So I think it was worth the student loans I'm still paying.

My wife works for a fairly large company as their senior marketing manager, she has a degree as well. Because of the economy and because it's common knowledge that if you leave your job in this market that there will be 100 other people willing to step in and take your place for 1/2 the pay, her company increased everyones work load by 1 hour a day and then cut everyone's pay by 20%. The memo went out that they were not hiring, so whenever someone quits, that extra workload is divided up between everyone else in the department. So lately she's been stressed out of her mind. She says that they get applications all the time and all the people applying for basically any position all have bachelor degrees, some with masters and a few with doctorates. Basically you can have the pick of the litter if you have a job to offer, but not many have jobs to offer.

I know that here at the small business I run with my dad that I could tell one of the local Universities that we are looking for someone with a business degree (one of the top 75 business schools in America) with a 3.0+ GPA, that the starting pay will be $24,000 with a chance at making a percentage of the brokerage on sales made and I would have people lined up at the door by this afternoon.

College is the new High School. Depending on the college and what the degree is, it might be more along the lines of the new Junior High.

28

staying awake for over 24 hours...only once for me...you?

by oompa in

jw
friends

things become very surreal.............not many details for me....but i did cross center lane.....and nearly died in a head on..........you?.

Descender

I had a friend, in fact I still have him as a friend. He lived in Los Angeles back then (14 years ago), I lived in Arkansas. We were both JW's. He was a greaser then and he still is. Everyone still calls him Elvis to this day because he wears a greased pompadour hair style. Anyway, one evening, on a whim, after already staying awake all day, he decided to drive straight through from L.A. to Arkansas. He got to Arkansas the next night, about 21 hours later.

When he got to Arkansas, he'd already been awake for around 30 hours and that was a Thursday night. So he stayed awake all night and helped my friend mow lawns the next day on Friday. On Friday night, we decided we'd stay up with him to help him along in his quest for ultimate sleep deprivation. The next morning we went out in service and he was getting pretty loopy. He was looking pretty beat but he wasn't ready to sleep yet. After service, we went out to the lake and did some wake boarding and that evening we did a little drinking and watched a movie. I lived in an apartment that was attached to a detached garage next to my parents house and he decided to spend the night there on Saturday night.

I told him I was going to sleep because I'd been up for a long time and was feeling pretty beat and I had to be up to go to the meeting the next morning. He said he was going to continue his quest. So he sat down in the office chair I had in my small apartment to watch TV. He started talking to the person on TV as if they were really there and then, as if he's been shot, he stiffly fell off the chair onto the floor and that was it. His quest for ultimate sleep deprivation had ended at somewhere around 80 hours. I put a blanket over him and put a pillow under his head, that was Saturday night, and that's where he stayed until I left for work on Monday morning. When I got home on Monday afternoon, he was gone.

13

Ever get the surprise Saturday morning sheparding call?

by undercover in

jw
friends

a few weeks ago a couple of brothers stopped by my house on a saturday morning.

these were guys that i've been friends with for years and years.

there is no animosity towards them.

Descender

A little over three years ago I started getting called on by a couple of JW guys from the town I live in. I didn't ever know them from my witness years because I lived in another town back then. Anyways I told them that I was currently faded and was not interested in going back and being a witness, but I was nice enough about it that they kept on coming back every Saturday. At that time I had a fiance who was at my house quite a bit and I had a room-mate who had been a JW as well. He was down on his luck and his mom (the most devout JW in the world) would show up at my house pretty regularly to tell him he needed to return to meetings because that was the only happiness he could find in this system, etc.

So his mom knew about my worldly fiance and my fading situation. My buddy that lived with me usually stayed out all night at bars where he met and brought girls home. One Saturday, a couple of girls, one of which just happened to be an ex-JW, had come over to hang out with my roommate. They brought lots of alcohol, which I happily imbibed. Anyway, it was a Saturday afternoon, I was drunk and sitting on the front porch with this ex-JW girl who happened to be disfellowshipped from the congregation in the town I lived in. My roommate was in the house with the other girl. About that time the JW's drove up in my driveway. The ex-JW girl ran inside and left me to fend for my drunken self. It just so happened that word had gotten out that I was the return visit that day, and instead of two JW guys, it was the one JW guy that always came and a JW girl I used to date back when I was a good JW.

I was fairly sauced, not so much that I was stumbling around or slurring my words, but enough that I wasn't thinking straight about what I was saying. Anyway, they were talking about how things had changed since I'd been out and it was a more loving organization, blah blah blah. About that time, the door cracked open and the ex-JW girl said that I was needed inside. I told her that I'd be a minute. The JW girl on my doorstep that I used to date asked who that was and I said, oh that's such and such, do you know her, she's disfellowshipped from your congregation. The conversation went on for a little bit and they left.

Within the week my buddies mom told him that she had heard that I was now an alcoholic that was no longer with his worldy fiance, but instead I was dating an ex-JW. She thought there may be judicial committee forming to deal with this issue and she also thought he should move out because I was obviously bad association. None of it was true, I was not an alcoholic, I was not dating the ex-JW girl, I was still with and got married to my worldly fiance later that year, and as far as I know, nothing judicial was ever done about my situation.

21

Singles! Looking for a dub to marry?

by Newborn in

jw
friends

did you know about this site?

i didn't, however i'll keep looking elsewhere, grrrr.

http://www.jwmatch.com.

Descender

Wow, I went on there and searched my state and the first person to pop up was the girl I lost my virginity to 14 years ago and subsequently got disfellowshipped for soon afterwards. If I wasn't happily married to a non-JW I might think it was a sign. :P

68

Make Your Prediction:The Next President---- McCain or Obama???

by minimus in

jw
friends

tuesday night, it will be 100% obama.. who do you think??

?.

Descender

Well, I think it will be Obama. My dad is the perfect life long model republican, he owns his own business, he lives in a red state - Arkansas, sadly to say, he is still pretty racist, and he watches Fox news all day every day for his news. He told me that he was very disappointed in the way the Bush administration had run this country into the ground. So today was the first time he has ever voted democratic because he thinks Obama will actually make some changes in the country, whereas he thinks McCain will keep the country status quot. If my hard-core republican dad votes Obama, I think Obama is going to win.

20

Denied re-instatement

by MMae in

i am curious: how many of you also experienced this, as i did?

prior to my own experience i had never known of anyone who had "served their time," attended meetings regularly, and in everyway demonstrated a good heart, being turned away.

but then, i guess i wouldn't have, would i?.

Descender

After my first disfellowshipping I wrote my letters to the elders at 2 months, 4 months, and 6 months. I was denied in my 2 month and 4 month meetings. In my last letter I stated how repentant I was and all that stuff and alos related the corinthian disfellowshipping where the guy was sleeping with his step-mom after his father died and how he was reinstated within 6 months according to the chronology in the NWT Bible. I Got reinstated with my 6 month letter.

After my second disfellowshipping I didn't even write a letter until almost a year after I'd been going. The commitee that met with me were asses and told me that they didn't know if I'd ever do enough to return. They really didn't like me. I was going to another congregation but I still had to meet with the original commitee that disfellowshipped me 4 years before and a commitee at my current hall everytime I wrote a letter.

After that first year I decided on an annoyance tactic. I started writing a letter to the commitee every month and a half. They had to hold a meeting with me everytime and if they hadn't called to schedule a meeting after one week of me sending the letter I'd call the head elder of my commitee and bug him about setting a time to meet with me. It took awhile, but they finally gave in and reinstated me around the two year mark.

All in all, it was a big waste of time. I stopped attending meetings about 6 months after being reinstated the second time. I was never disfellowshipped for having doubts, but being disfellowshipped and seeing the way I was treated sure helped any doubts I had to grow until I finally knew that it wasn't the truth. So I send a thank you to the elders that disfellowshipped me. If it weren't for those guys I'd probably be an elder instead of a happy, holiday celebrating, college educated guy married to a beautiful worldly girl who has lots of free time on my Tuesday and Thursday nights and Sunday mornings. :)

51

First rock concert

by JK666 in

i have recently talked with other members on jwd about the first time they went to a concert.

it was interesting the different choices of artists, and the age we were when we finally went to one.. my first was after i got my driver's license, so i was 16 years old.

i went to see a concert with black oak arkansas, foghat, and montrose (when sammy hagar was just a pup).

Descender

I was actually thinking about this the other day when my younger brother, who's 22 told me that he has never been to a concert. I guess my parents stopped going to concerts after my brother was born.

I remember my first concert. It was The Kendalls and I was 5 years old. It wasn't really rock. I guess it was kind of a John Denver type country music. I remember the blonde singer though. I thought she was the prettiest woman I'd ever seen and told my mom I was going to marry her when I grew up.

My 2nd concert was when I was 7 or 8 years old. It was Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. I went with my parents and my aunt, uncle and cousin. I remember getting up out of my seat and dancing with my cousin, who was 9 years old at the time. All the adults were laughing and clapping and that just made us dance that much harder. That was a really fun time now that I think back.

After that I didn't go to another concert until I was 18 years old. But come the mid nineties my group of JW friends started hitting concerts all the time. I seem to remember tickets being pretty cheap, around $20 or less for almost any concert we went to. we saw any concert we could get tickets for. The ones I can remember off the top of my head: Bush, No Doubt, Goo Goo Dolls, STP, Steve Miller, ZZ Top, Foo Fighters, Spin Doctors, Better than Ezra, Verve, Wallflowers, Collective Soul, Sarah McLachlan, Sherryl Crow, Aerosmith, and even Britney Spears. There were a lot of good shows, and I don't know which one was the best. But I remember the worst. And that was Britney Spears.

107

Remember when assemblies were fun?

by Aphrodite in

jw
friends

i just remembered when i was a kid and we would go to the assembly, it was fun because we got to buy new clothes and put extra effort into looking good.

when we would get there you could save your seats and even save some for your friends, then go off looking for them.. i used to love our circuit assembly because of the food.

it was at the assembly hall and there was a big kitchen, some of my favourite brothers worked in that kitchen, sometimes i was allowed to go in and help.

Descender

The boring talks were never fun, the sitting for hours on end was never fun. But back in the day getting together with your buddies every day was fun. Getting there a little early and eating the breakfast danishes with your friends and checking the girls out was fun. When I was old enough, actually sitting with a big group of my friends and passing notes around during the sessions was fun. After the sessions were over, it was fun to go explore the city we got to go to the assemblies at.

We would all head to a nice restaurant, walk around the town afterwards and see if we could find something interesting like a street party, in Oklahoma City we saw the Spin Doctors playing one night. In Kansas City we went to a Stone Temple Pilots concert after an assembly one night. Another night after an assembly we went to see Speed at the movie theater and afterwards did 360's in the parking lot and had fun being chased around my mall cops.

One of the guys in the group I hung out with was good looking and had no trouble drawing the girls in. We'd always, usually through him, meet a lot of girls at the assemblies. We met girls that lived in the areas and several times we ended up going over to one of their houses for a party after the assembly. One time skinny dipping and hot tubs were involved. One night (the first assembly day) I actually met a very attractive girl at the assembly that happened to be staying with her sister's family in the same hotel we were staying and we ended up hanging out every night after the assembly back in my room making out.

So I'm going to have to say, yeah, I rememer a lot of really good times going to the assemblies.

31

American tax rebate: How will you spend yours? Will it help the economy?

by Gopher in

it appears that both political parties and economists are agreeing on the need for a tax rebate.

the white house has a proposal in mind, and the democrats seem to be in line.. so will this help head off a recession?

and will you "do your part" .

Descender

I don't really see how throwing more money into the economy is going to help anything. With so much extra money being thrown back in, won't that drop the value of the dollar and in turn help raise prices once again? Which would in turn cause people to cut back on their spending after they've used up all their newly acquired free cash.

But as far as what I'm going to spend it on. A new water heater.