Steve Swenton

Excellent!!! Interesting that there are emotions and inflections that are completely lost in print that are all there when spoken. Steve. ¥

Everything is looking good! Steve.

I remember when I was stationed in Okinawa in 1975 hearing about the Navagators from some who were in our group - the Hansen Christian Center. I never actually met any of these Navigators myself, but I recall several of our group who had met them. They described them as completely paranoid "fundamental" fanatics. The type who would not bend in their beliefs at all, even when proven absolutely wrong. Because of these witnesses, most of us tended to avoid anyone calling themselves a Navigator. With that in mind, it's a wonder they didn't break you, Galen, before you were transfered. Just a thought... Steve. ¥

When I lived in Maryland a few years ago (this happened in 1989) my brand new battery was stolen from my pick-up truck, and replaced with this dead-celled, swollen, dirty old dud battery. I called the police, and when I mentioned that the thief had left the dud in it's place, they said that they could not do much more than take a statement because the thief had left a like replacement. I asked, "what do you mean?" They said that there is (was?) an old law on the books that allowed someone to trade a horse for a horse, lantern for a lantern, a carriage for a carriage, an etcetera for an etcetera, from back in the 1800's sometime. This way, if a traveler had a tired horse, he could just swap it with one that a farmer or other person had and without their consent - but ONLY if he left the old one in its place. Apparently, this law applies to all kinds of things, including car batteries - working or not! This is one of those OLD outdated laws still on the books that worked in the thief's favor. Whether they ever got around to repealing that law since then, I don't know. Just a thought... Steve. ¥

Happy Birthday Shellon!!! :)--> May you have many more! :D--> Steve. ¥

As far as IP addresses go, if you use a dial-up service, you get a different IP address every time since you log onto a different server most every time. Using a dial-up service, therefore, would require even law enforcement (never mind TWI) to obtain a court order before the dial-up service would be able to identify you. This does not mean that it's impossible for someone who knows how to trace "back jumps" to come close to finding out who you are, just extremely difficult. See, even with dial-up, you log into the same group of servers, unless you travel out of your local area a lot. If you're on a DSL, or Cable Modem, or at your place of employment on a T1,T4, or ISDN service, you almost always log into the same server with the same IP address every time. This is far more easily traced than the dial-up method. Still, to obtain your name from the vast majority of IPs (Internet Providers) still requires a court order or a search warrant. Those few IPs who give out customer information just for asking are IMHO irresponsible. Just a thought... Steve. ¥

Reikilady, Oddly enough, that is what my daughter ended up doing. She took a driving paper route for the Wierton Daily Times® in Wierton, WV. Just like those cleaning jobs you mentioned, sometimes her customers don't pay for up to 2 months at a time. She has had to cut a couple of them off because they didn't pay by the 2 month limit. :(--> Most of her customers pay on time, :)--> and many tip well. :D--> Also, she only gets paid once per month, so she and her husband have to carefully manage the money for 4 to 5 weeks between paychecks. There are two other pitfalls with a paper route. The first is there are NO Vacations or time off of any kind. The only way to get time off is to get someone you can trust to deliver the papers for you (and, of course, you should pay them for doing it). My daughter has to deliver papers every day of the year, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter!!! If you have a driving route (like my daughter does), you MUST have access to a working motor vehicle at all times! If your car breaks down (God forbid), you have to borrow or rent one until yours is back on the road. Recently, her transmission went out, and she borrowed my car, and her mother-in-law's truck until her husband finished rebuilding her transmission. She couldn't use her husband's car as his brakes were out during this time, and it was either fix his car, or fix hers. If you get a walking route, you don't have this problem, but carry pepper spray. Party entertainer/organizer. Hmmmmm. Interesting that you mention that. My daughter's husband plays in a heavy metal band called "Tunnel Head". I guess you could call that a party entertainer. True? :)--> :D--> :)--> Just a thought... Steve. ¥

One other thing. My daughter got involved with a home based costume jewelry building company. Before doing that, she contacted several companies, and checked each of them with the BBB (Better Business Beureau) and the Chambers of Commerce (COC) where these businesses are located. The company she became involved with was recommended as good by both entities. When she started building jewelry for this company, they kept sending it back saying that it wasn't built correctly - NO MATTER HOW CLOSELY SHE FOLLOWED THEIR INSTRUCTIONS! Needless to say, she invested about $150.00 in components, and over two months building, and rebuilding these items until she just gave up and wrote it off as a bad investment. She also reported these guys to the BBB and the COC mentioned above. Oh yeah, she never got paid either. Just a word to the wise - Be Careful! Some of these home based businesses are scams. Steve. ¥

Suz, A "date" can be one of three things. One is a fruit from a certain palm tree. The second is a position on a calendar. They're not talking about those two "dates". The third is a meeting, usually with romance implied, between a man and a woman. The reason it is called a "date" is because it is usually pre-scheduled for a certain day and time, like the date on a calendar. Many things can be done on a date, go to the movies, play a game, go have dinner at a restaraunt, etc, etc. Hope this helps... Steve. ¥

My sister-in-law works for a hospital in Baltimore, MD as a medical transcriptionist (she transcribes Doctor's dictation to a Word document [why does that sound so odd?]). I'm not exactly sure how she got the job, or where to look since she's been doing it for over 11 years, before the internet was available for such things. You might check with hospitals where you live to see if they use a transcription company. You could check with software companies, or on-line publishers. You could also check with Haynes or Chilton to see if they have on-liners compile their automobile manuals. That's about all I can think of for now. Any one else? Steve. ¥

ROTFLMAO!!! :)--> :D--> :)--> You guys are great!!! Steve. ¥

I got out of TWI back in 1987 while the internet was still strictly government/college only. I was on the Prodigy service until 1995 and posted on the "Religion" board often. In 1997 I found and posted on the CES board under the name "Thumper" (long story). I happened onto Transnet's No Way Out magazine, but never posted anything there. After that I found Waydale, though I posted under a pseudoname there, I am still using it here, so I ain't tellin' - for now. Like a couple of others have said, I was lead to GS through a link that someone posted on Waydale just about a week before it closed. I started using my pseudoname here, but started posting as me about two years later (after Paw moved here from Easyboard). So, here I am. :D--> Just a thought... Steve. ¥

...I'm talking about God. :)--> Which God? :o--> The God of this world. That's the devil! Not the devil! :o--> Ya know, Jesus!! :D--> Jesus who? Gonzales, Ramerez, Martinez, Jones, Christ??? --> Besides, Jesus Christ is not God. Didn't you know that? --> AARRRRRGH!!!!! Just a thought... Steve. ¥

Hi Rottie Girl!!! Anna and I were involved with Amway way back in the early 1980s (pre TWI) when I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC (got into it there) and 29 Palms, CA (Anna ran the business from her parents home in Maryland until I got off of active duty). We tried everything we knew/were told to get our "business" working both with and without a "downline", as it was called. We even attended one of those weekend conventions (cost at that time was $110.00 for the both of us - That would be around $700 to $800 in today's dollars). What we found out at that convention was that we had stumbled on some sort of religious cult based loosely on the Southern Baptist religion (we were good Roman Catholics at the time). The religious part of it (we were told) was strictly the work of the "upline" and had nothing to do with Amway itself. Our "upline" were Jacksonville businessman Bill Britt (at the time a "Direct Distributor"), and his "Diamond Direct Distributor" (the guy running the show) was Mickey Hamlet. One thing that I hated about distributing products for Amway was that they didn't let you advertise, or open a store (or store front) to sell the products. They were adament about cold calling people, keeping DETAILED customer lists, annoying your family, friends, neighbors, and so on to get them to a "plan" meeting. They also told us NOT to mention that it was an Amway meeting, but to string them along until they came to a meeting. It took Anna and I a while to figure it out, but it turns out that holding those conventions is really where the big money is - NOT in the 10 member downline or the product sales. Of course, you're not allowed to hold a convention unless you're at least a "Ruby Direct Distributor" (Amway is big on gemstones). Another thing we found (the hard way) is that the IRS is VERY strict with MLM companies. We were audited in 1986 and the IRS wanted to see every S-1 form we ever filed, even previous to 1985 which was the year for which we were being audited. Fortunately, Anna kept good records (back then). The reason that the IRS agent gave for needing to see the forms was that the IRS, in general, regards such businesses as tax shelter businesses and that many of their distributors were/are regarded as trained tax evaders. I can see why that is since one of our supplemental training tapes dealt with ways to get around income taxes by using home office expenses, household expenses, business expenses, and credit card interest (you could do credit card interest back then, but not now), among other things. We quit Amway after the audit, mostly because we weren't making much at it and we had deducted a lot of expenses, which was what triggered the audit in the first place. I'd definitely be very cautious of any MLM company that is like this. Just my experience... Steve. ¥

This is cute. I didn't know George W. Bush could play the banjo! :D--> Just a thought... Steve. ¥