QuietThinker

Oh, yes it was George...definitely in theatres...but I don't think it's a give away to say not currently in theatres... ok, another line... "Aren't the police a dirty lot, hobnobbing with British soldiers!" "I heard that, Maureen Cassidy" "You were meant to, Constable O'Connor." ~QT

I saw them all at first...now they appear to be gone! ~QT

I didn't mean to bring the thread to a screeching halt...shall I choose another film? QT

My initial thoughts on this, Michael, are as follows (not promising to be coherent, I'm having a rough day)... TWI purported to offer: Peace Knowledge Security A more abundant life Answers to questions regular men have grappled with for centuries in a nice, tidy package Instant friends Keys to essential truths Guaranteed box seats at the bama a bama to go to Godly marriages Wonderful, healthy compliant children Healing Deliverance from affliction Confidence What was also promised, though, not in the black and white literature... A smug sense of superiority in the knowledge that you were right and everyone else was wrong A reason to ignore the interests and concerns of others if they wouldn't listen to your advice An excuse to stop your own learning processes in any other subject but TWI's interpretation of scripture and thereby the world I am not an arm-chair psychologist. I'm just writing down what I observed. That sense of wistfulness however is quite normal when considered in the following light: The disillusionment that comes with the recognition that you gave a good portion of your life in the pursuit of something which was ultimately unreal, just something made-up by men but didn't really exist in the way it was promised to exist...well, that's painful. Everyone deals with it differently. Some people come here and stay. Some people never come here. Some people come and go and come back again. Some people take on the mantle of telling "the truth of what happened" so that others might be warned. Some people just get on with their lives, chalking it up as an experience and looking for something better or more fulfilling. Were there good times and good memories for me? Of course. That those memories were based on a fundamental untruth, well, that's just sad. Like any loss, the loss of innocence can cut very deep. Yours thoughtfully, QT *edited to fix formatting

That's ok, John, I really was curious about the source...these things have an interest for me. Sorry, of course, to hear about your initial dog experience, though I just have to pipe up and say it wasn't a lab experiment forced on you...and because you were afraid after (which is understandable, yeah!), that is in part why it is unethical to perform such an experiment under lab conditions today. Also glad to hear you were successfully able to overcome your fears. Not everyone reports the same success. But, that's life, isn't it? We all see it and respond to things differently. Yours researchingly, QT

OK then... Here's one... A brave man is a brave man in any uniform, be it English khaki, Irish green, aye, or German gray

OK, George :) It's... The Bridge on the River Kwai ~QT

Hope your Birthday is dream-tastic! ~QT

*With a cheery wave and grin* Happy Birthday! Yours cake-ishly, ~QT

I know this one. I love this movie! Is it ok for me to answer? ~QT

While more than one experiment in Classical Conditioning has been performed, the classic illustration is Little Albert and the White Rat. John B. Watson, who was at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore at the time, and a contemporary of Pavlov's. Little Albert was 11 months old when the experiment began and, in fact, Watson was very successful in using the child's natural fear of noises to condition him to be afraid of the rat. The child was not cured. He left the hospital before they could try to reverse the effects. Subsequent data has shown that people classically conditioned in this manner tend not to overcome their fear, one factor being that they tend to avoid what frightens them. Additionally, once ingrained, the process is not easily addressed. This experiment took place in 1920 and you may Read the Complete, Original article here if you care to do so. The performance of classical conditioning experiments in such a manner are considered unacceptable and unethical by scientists today, for reasons we now see as obvious--the damage done afterwards and the lingering affects. I would be very interested to read the case you cite, John, and will happily provide more data to support what I've said here if you are interested. I've read this thread from the beginning, and have seen a lot of interesting responses. An inborn sense of fear is necessary for survival. To learn fear, possibly by having someone threaten you with continued dire consequences if you step out of the line of their particular code, is something altogether different. I know many people truly believe that twi brought/brings a release from fear. I see it simply as trading one frying pan for another--still roasting over the same insidious fire. Yours fear-freeishly, ~QT *text edited for spelling errors and formatting

I was blamed for my son's autism. *shrug* I knew it as a crock, cerebrally knew it of course, but I won't pretend that it didn't hurt. It was normal to blame someone's believing, because it then became easy to shift the focus from the very right question which would be this... Dear Leader, You said if I followed all these steps and completed all these things on the believing check-list, then I would be delivered--or not have suffered affliction in the first place. Please reply as to why, then, having completed these actions, your promised plan is not working. Thanks in advance, A. Believer Easy answer: You gave "place" to the devil and your believing faltered. It's not our teaching that is flawed, it's your thinking. I have a t-shirt upon which are little dancing characters meant to represent bacteria. I wear it at work. It reads: Be nice to bacteria, we outnumber you 100 trillion to 1. Take it for what it's worth...cause I'm jus' sayin'. Yours anti-bacterially, ~QT

A Poem about my Computer... with humble apologies to Jonathon Swift for completely nicking his sonnet, A description of the Morning A Description of my Computer --an ode to PC repair Now hardly here did I think to find such a coach Appearing, because of my laptop's death approach. Now, me from my tangled bed had flown, and softly stole to post these problems my own. The slipshod fan inside the Dell Inspiron was poor, gummed with hair, drop'd once too often to the floor. Now, PurpleCow read these boldly posted cares And came into GSC chat to catch me unawares. The lavender bovine with bookmarks began to trace The repair plan, guiding my hand in his place. The periwinkle PC's command was read, with text deep, Til drowned in my pitiful wails the error tones did beep, With each successive attempt, and a part bought fairly cheap, I performed assisted surgery and a sense of hope in me did creep, Until the repair guru's instructions caused life in my lappie to leap. The chatroom flock returning day by day sees, A Cow and a Thinker's progress and impassioned pleas. They watched, helping, on the forum and from the stands until, at last, I was able to present, a working lappie in my hands. And it is with great happiness that I report my laptop seems to have made an eleventh hour turnaround. It is off life-support, no longer intubated and dependent on my desktop for its life processes. The patient appears to have made a strong recovery, and I can only, once again, thank everyone who helped me--especially PurpleCow who gave so much of his time, when he didn't have to do it. And to everyone here who posted, or cheered in the chatroom...I say thank you and thank you and thank you. And here, I do sincerely hope, ends the tale of the Laptop Very Sickly. Yours high-speedingly, ~QT

Well, that's what they like to tell their mates down at the pub, at least, Dooj.... Yours sniggeringly, ~QT

Have happy one, Jard...and many, so many happy returns of the day! ~QT

ROFL Rolling on the Floor, Laughing... ROFLPIMP Rolling on the floor, Laughing, P***ing In My Pants ...and other various derivatives...you get the idea. Yours 'Net-lingo-ishly, ~QT

It's better and better, Excath :) I've not had the courage to follow La Vache's instructions yet...I'm a little non-plussed, but I'm sure I'll think of some way to entice him into helping me. I rather think PC likes a puzzle! However, the novel pages have been sent to the editor, before deadline even. Whoohoo! My work projects are safe and sound and in progress... and the lappie I scoffed off ebay Saturday night arrived today. It even seems to work! So, things are looking up. I really want to re-work the present laptop though... Now, it's personal *mwahahahahahaa* Yours PC-Geekingly, QT

Mother I'd Like (to) #### ...beginning with F. Sounds like a winner, whoever he is....erm...not. Yours acronymically, QT

CMAN, thank you very much for the idea. I've stored it away too. My update is that this HDD external thingy worked well enough for me to retrieve the vast majority of my data. You've all been wonderful...I'm not sure what to do next...reformat it, I suppose and reload XP, but, the most important things like my writing, my school work, lab work, and psd files are all safe and sound, on THIS machine's HD and a thumbdrive too, for extra protection. PurpleCow, Hap, Bluzeman, Paw, Cman, you're all terrific... and thanks too, to my chat buddies, who commiserated! yours data-storingly, QT

Everyone we knew, Chef, had that "Paul of Tarsus" pic.. framed... and out on display. <_< Yours eyes-rollingly, ~QT

I have similar experiences to what both Mr.Ham and Belle posted. I won't even speak about it, since it gets my back up, so to speak. But, what really bothered me...something I've continued to suppress in my ulcer-generating personality...was the separate set of rules...one for leadership and toadies, and another for us regular joes. As many of you know, I've spent the weekend battling a computer problem, so I'll put it in PC (that's not politically correct, I mean Personal Computer) language. It was like the L&T's operated under XP with the nicest systems, and the rest of us muddled through with dinosaur 486's running on Windows 3.1. Examples: We are "above the world and were to ignore offshoots". However, when B*b and C*nst*nce D*rnell discovered my husband had an acquaintance with a man and his family who were then attending CES fellowships, my husband was instructed to renew that relationship (as a good little goose-stepper, he had already given up all his ex-way, non-way friends), infiltrate the family, and acquire the written materials so that B*b could look them over. Yeah. Like I believe that was the only way they could get ahold of those books. Anyway, the most disturbing part of that was the utter glee with which my husband, 007 of The Way, undertook his task. He arranged a golf date with this man, got him to talk about CES, feigned real interest, got the stuff, B*b perused it...made copies of everything...and it was returned to the friend, who was, then, told in no uncertain terms just where he could shove his "devilish" materials. Now, in case anyone is thinking that b*b acted on his own, a rogue LC with an agenda, I shall simply point out that I was in the Limb Home, PRESENT, as he discussed this on the phone with LCM. So, yeah, it was endorsed. What sort of tactics are those? I don't think I need to answer that question. Now...had any one of us hatched a plan to, say, infiltrate a rival business-person's environment, take their possessions under false pretenses, copy them and use them for our own purposes, and then basically expect that person to thank us for the foot-reaming...? Well, I think we all know what the counsel would have been. Other areas in which I think the institutionalized duplicity occurred, that I can personally attest to: Fear and intimidation tactics used to coerce certain behaviors (like coming to my job and making their presence known the first time I tried to leave my husband). That's according to the Word, if you believe it, ... just how exactly? Marriage counseling performed by those without any skills in conflict resolution and with no *other* material to help them than what they'd been taught in TWI. The bible is our only source of faith and practice, every answer to every question and problem is there. Indeed? Interpersonal dynamics are not as simple as the leadership would like to believe. I suppose if they were, their own behavior might have reflected it. Using the time and specific talents of believers for "the benefit of the household" which translates to "Do this for us, but you will receive no credit" and yet, leadership breaking their arms to pat each other on the back. And...what about the artists and other really talented people used without any sort of compensation to produce unique, lovely and often amazingly beautiful cards to send to HQ for birthdays, events, etc. It seems like every time a dog farted we were sending cards to HQ. They benefited spiritually by giving their time, so they were told...yeah, well, those things took hours and those members were still expected to be at every fellowship and event...and run their families...and work their jobs, etc. I'm sorry, the abuse of individual talent was codified in twi, there was an intricate plan for exploitation. I've posted about some of these things in specific before, but... ...is it not the very epitome of hypocritical behavior to manifest, time and again, an observable standard for one section of a group and to have another for the rest? Yes, as it has been posted before, some pigs were, in fact, more equal than other pigs. I do not, as some may speculate, remember every moment in twi as evil. I have some very good memories and I miss the people I knew and cared for. This cannot, however, negate the truth of the standards as they applied to leadership and then to the *ahem* household at large. I was told to eschew my "earthly family"....until we needed money, and then it was ok to touch them for some cash. Believe bigger? I did...I believed I could run my own life better than the unqualified, arrogant, damaging people who were somehow in a position of authority. And, I do. So, that's a "yes" for hypocrites. Yours non-hypocritically, ~QT

OK...here's the latest. Initial problem stated. Follow protocols through chkdsk and attempts to reinstall XP through recovery console. chkdisk never gets any farther than 58% at one point. The Lavender Bovine (PurpleCow) hand holds me through latptop surgery. I take out the hinge cover, lift up keyboard, vacuum out machine, clean it up, replace parts. Open memory cover plate, re-seat memory. Re-seat the HD several times. While the computer then runs *cooler* and doesn't sound as dire, chkdsk /r is still unsucessful. I acquire a "2.5" USB 2.0 One Button Back-Up HDD Enclosure". Again, the Periwinkle Prince (PurpleCow) leads me through removal of the lappie HD from its case, remove adaptor, straighten pins with a human surgical implement, affix it to HDD and hook it up to this machine. Use PC Inspector File Recovery tool to start trying to get data from HD. Sometimes I see a tree, sometimes not. Sometimes the process locks up this machine. Sometimes not. A friend over in the UK has suggested Stellar Phoenix. He is making that available for me today off his server. I will update my success with that as I get it. Today, I will be working with PC Recovery and hopefully Stellar Phoenix. Effort thus far: 1 weekend devoted to project, and still counting...5 total hours sleep...and more owed to PurpleCow than I can begin to say. However, I'm willing to owe vig to anyone else too. SO, other suggestions are very appreciated. Oh, and yes, Hape4me and rhino have leant their advice--most gratefully accepted. And many sincere thanks to all the sympathetic chatters! *trying to look on the bright side, still* Yours most terrierishly, QT

Rocky, I don't always agree with everything you post. In this case, however, I do. Oh, yes. I do. I live in *big cough* the 4th nicest place to live in America, according to the an article on MSN yesterday. The mean income is about 150K. I'm a full time student, work full time, and have two kids, one with serious special needs. My income is than half the median income... Ah well, I don't even want to do the math for everyone. It's too depressing. Post-divorce, I struggle to stay in this area, but, my kid needs his school. Anyone wonder why, then, I've been up for two days straight trying to salvage my laptop-on-life-support? Heh. QT

I had a relatively long-term assignment in France for a while. My landlady made artichokes this way...I have had great success with her recipe, and while I think it's much better (taste-wise) to use fresh artichokes and make your boullion, I have made it with frozen artichoke hearts (retrimmed the leaves) and canned boullion. (Apologies to Sushi...as it has mushrooms) Artichokes and Mushrooms Ingrediants: 2 1/2 dozen baby artichokes, smaller the better 2 onions 3 garlic cloves 3/4 pound Mushrooms 2 T Olive oil 1 lemon 1 C boullion 1/4 pound prosciutto 1 T chopped, fresh parsley 1/2 T Butter Cut the stems of the artichokes and trim the leaves until you're left with the little hearts, about 3/4 of an inch wide. Cut about a 1/2 inch off the top and cut the hearts lengthwise in half. Soak them in the lemon water (Add the juice of 1 lemon to enough water to cover the artichokes). Bring water to a boil, blanch artichokes for five minutes. While you're doing that, chop the onions and garlic. Clean the mushrooms with a cloth (really clean them if you pick your own), and cut into 1/4 inch slices. Heat the olive oil in the skillet, saute the onions and garlic until translucent. Add mushrooms, salt, pepper (to taste) and lemon juice. Saute over high heat for a couple of minutes, then, reduce heat, cover and let the mushrooms lose their juice. Add the blanched mushrooms and the boullion. Simmer together, uncovered, until the artichokes are tender. I use the classic skewer test to check for doneness at pretty regular intervals. Finally, add the prosciutto, cut into cubes. Mix well and then turn off the heat, to let them steep together to blend the flavors (this really kicks it on the second day). Reheat well, add the butter. Add salt only if needed. Add a little pepper and some chopped parsley. I find this is delightful with chicken, but is best with a dark bird like pheasant...and is nice with veal or ham, too.

Thanks Paw and Bluzeman... PurpleCow kindly stayed up all night in the chat room and directed me in the ways you have described...unfortunately, we are at the stage where my HD isn't recognized at all...and PC suspects an overheating problem, as do I. However, following the doctor's orders, I'm repeating my steps. and I bought a n/used lappie off Ebay last night, and once this is sorted, I'll be happier. It's good to know the data can be retrieved, though I despair of having everything I need for Tuesday's lab. Thank you both! ~QT