Mister P-Mosh

Judging by the anger you seem to have here, you aren't healed. You are taking stuff that other people say about another person like they are talking bad about you. Sometimes life has unpleasant things, and this site is used to talk about them. No, people don't go to "him" because there is absolutely no proof of his existance. It's pretty tough to play hide and seek with the boogyman. The "word" is precisely what was used to hold people in bondage to begin with. I've done better without it than I have with it, mainly because it's just a book of fairy tales, a few good morals, and some history thrown in together. The "word" I learned in TWI didn't really answer life's questions or provide guidance that wasn't obvious. You've not even given a reason to believe that the "word" you hold so highly is any better than a Dr. Seuss book. I've not seen any "logic and truth" from it. Others may find some comfort in it, but that doesn't mean everyone does. Now for the sarcastic comment: I have a Microsoft ADO book beside me, if I quote a passage from it, will you go forth and connect to databases? You've not given any proof of God, therefore there is no proof that the "word" is more than a book written by many different people, and no proof that we should follow what it says, even if you can quote a verse or two. As far as the other part of your comment goes, in some cases you are right. In others, you are wrong. It all depends on the individual. Some here, especially if they were Corps that were kicked out after the woman was raped by LCM, will never heal completely. If someone was a part of TWI for 6 months, then they don't see what the big deal is. Either way, I think most people simply come to this site to learn what the truth of the matter is. Why do you think people are obsessed with digitally restoring JFK's murder videos? He's already dead, but they want to know the truth. Wanting to know the truth doesn't sound like a bad thing to me. People do the same thing for Everquest and the stock market. Perhaps it's sort of a hobby for some people, perhaps it's what they do to be social with people they knew in TWI, perhaps it's research for some. Outside of the "About the way" area, I don't think the organization is talked about that much. In the Open area, people talk about anything and everything that they want, usually not about TWI. In the politics section, I haven't seen the organization mentioned once that I can recall. Gossip is popular on just about any subject. Perhaps, or even worse, people like me that look at it a few minutes every once in a while during the day. The horror! Actually, this is one of many sites I surf, especially at work while I'm waiting on 30 minute database queries to run, or watching an automated process that I programmed run to make sure it is functioning normally. I don't GSurf much from home though, unless I'm bored and the wife is watching something I don't like on TV. Boredom is a far better motivation for me to stay active on the internet than obsession. Of course, every person has a different story and reason for being here. Yeah, just like those stupid people who keep obsessing over September 11th too. Let's just forgive Usama bin Laden, it's been a whole year and a half now since his people attacked. Let's just forget it happened and stop criticizing al Qaeda, because it only breeds bitterness. Well, add devil spirits to the list of things you have to prove to the rest of us. I for one don't think they exist. I wouldn't say that I have a lot of weak thoughts posted here, I'm pretty stubborn. I also can't judge something as being ungodly, because there is no proof of any gods existing to base ourselves off of. Anyway, you should calm down, and just let people post what they want here. If you feel they are in error, confront them in their post, then move on. There's no need to try and create a you vs. gscafe situation to validate your delusions of being picked on. If you like VPW and what he said, that's your choice. Feel free to discuss it, and others will feel free to discuss their thoughts too.

Don't make excuses, don't lie to them. Just tell them you can't go, or that you don't want to go, or that you have other things to do. If they bother you about it, ask them why they want you to set aside a certain day to witness when you thought that you were supposed to be a witness by the example you live and to talk to people you meet in everyday life.

Wait a minute...didn't they always harp on how you are saved by grace rather than works, and that God is no respector of persons? What's next, conditional salvation? If you don't go to a home fellowship twice a week you'll not get a crown of achievement at the bema?

I know what you mean. I did have some friends in, but they weren't really great friends that I care a whole lot to get in touch with again. On the other hand, my close friends who were innies are pretty much out now, even though their parents may not know that. One thing that bothers me here is that I have information on a few names I've seen posted, but I don't really want to reply because I feel like it's not respecting the person's privacy. Also, a lot of them are innies, one in particular is a branch coordinator and I'd hate to get him in trouble with TWI leadership because someone posted his name here.

Thanks for that link. We actually are trying to get in touch with someone who has a dog on that site now. Hopefully the dog is still available.

I saw that. I'll cross post what I mentioned here there, and hopefully more people will discuss it, because I think it's a very good observation.

There are quite a few people that leave on their own as well. I left on my own, although for different reasons than you would. I think it's better to leave on your own of your own mind than to be kicked out too. I'm not really sure why, other than the fact that I like to be in control of such things in my life. The thing is that TWI has already become a denomination. Even ignoring the doctrinal issues that press your mind, consider the priorities in the organization. There is so much tradition, legalism, and preaching rather than teaching. The way meetings have to be held has become a tradition now, with no room for improvisation or change to fit how things need to be. The "new dynamic church" is all but a memory now. The things you have to go through to remain part of TWI are rediculous. You have to give notice to your HFC and another HFC elsewhere if you want to attend fellowship with one of your friends one day. How much actual learning do you have? While verses are read from the bible, the things you are told to focus on for teachings and individual study are collaterals, Way magazine articles, and SNS tapes. When was the last time you were able to teach from the bible on a topic without being told to base it off of whatever headquarters wanted you to focus on? The whole idea of doing things, "decent and in order" has superceded the "new dynamic church." Things are no longer customizable to meet the needs of the individual, the individual is forced to conform to the desires of those in New Knoxville. The Way International is a denomination, a small, weak, weird denomination, but there is definitely not the spark of life that used to be in it.

To every man his own diet and his own metabolism within.

Sumo wrestlers traditionally eat this type of stew that is very filling. I've never tried it, but it's got a lot of stuff in there to help make you fat. A friend who seems to know more about them than I says they eat this meal once per day, but I don't know if that's true or not. Also, if you look at asians, they are not fat there, but there are many fat asian people in the U.S., so that helped me deduce that it was not genetic. Also, I can't eat bread usually because it always gives me hiccups. I have a hard time enjoying a hamburger most of the time anymore. However, I can eat stuff like rice all day, so it made sense to me to try and modify my diet to include rice rather than bread. The whole thing just fell together from there.

If you're ok with that, it's good, but nutrasweet is a chemical combination that has adverse reactions in some people, such as myself. If someone takes nutrasweet and gets migraines or dizziness, you should stop taking it immediately.

Eat like you're Japanese. How many fat Japanese people do you see? They eat carbs, lots of rice, etc. and still are not usually fat. My wife and I have been eating steamed rice a lot with other food. Carbs are not a bad thing, and I think that Atkins guy is still a quack, even if you get results from his diet (I don't think it's healthy, even though you lose weight.) Anyway, here's a typical day of food in the Pmosh household. Breakfast: Toast, with juice, sometimes yogurt (for the wife, I hate the stuff), and sometimes fruit. Lunch: Steamed rice with either chicken, shrimp, or just vegetables alone. Sometimes sushi instead if we go out to eat. The other alternative for lunches will be something like a hot sandwich with turkey or turkey-ham. Supper: We go out to eat a few nights a week, generally to nice places or Souper Salad. Other nights we stay at home and have something similar to what was listed as lunch meals. The main key is to avoid fried foods, lots of red meat, and that's about it. We take vitamins to make sure we have all of that we need, but we eat healthy fruits, vegetables, juices, etc. just to make sure. We mostly eat seafood and chicken when we do have meat. A huge key in losing weight is exercise. My wife and I will be starting exercising again soon, so I will have to start upping my complex carbohydrates quite a bit as well as the protein. I used to lift weights before, so I do know enough about the diet to gain muscle and lose weight. My wife just wants to lose weight so she won't be eating exactly the same as me. Anyway, there are lots of factors to go into dieting that can't be addressed here. Your age, sex, weight, willingness to exercise, etc. all factor in. If you can work out and raise your metabolism, you won't have to eat some weirdo starvation diet like the Atkins one.

Sort of off topic, but have you ever thought of trying to make money off of spam? There have been some successful lawsuits against spammers recently. Also just barely on topic, there's this one jerkoff that I forgot the name of, but he's been getting rich off of sending spam for companies. An article was written about him on Wired or ZDnet, which was read by some people on Slashdot. Eventually, the people discovered his home address, phone number, etc. and started ordering crap sent to his house. He was getting lots of junkmail and telemarketer calls. Unfortunately, the guy didn't understand that he is guilty of doing the same thing, and complained about all these "stalkers" who are sending him that crap. He claims to be just an honest businessman trying to make a living. Spammers are scumbags, ugh.

Imagine, if you will, a world where Netscape was not bought by AOL. Imagine if Mozilla developers had tried to listen to users and build something faster, and more functional than Internet Explorer. I found this browser, and it's called Phoenix. Basically, it is Mozilla, but it's a trimmed down version that is just the browser, and loads just as fast as IE. I've not run into any problems with it so far with Java, dhtml, Javascript, etc. There are some Mozilla specific things that don't seem to work, as it's version 0.5, but these are not that important (themes, etc.) It does have tabbed browsing, and it can block popups (including an exclude list so popups on gscafe can work) and a few other nice features so I'm probably going to drop IE to use Phoenix for now on.

Thanks, I will check them out later tonight with my wife, who is the one that wants a dog to begin with. She is looking for a small dog, because once we decide to settle somewhere and get a house, I'll be getting another wolf (or more, if I can have enough land for them to be comfortable.) No problem, sometimes I'm not always clear. The only state I've seen dogs sold in pet stores is Arizona, but there may be others that do it too. My requirements for a dog is that it is small, can be housebroken, doesn't make too much noise, doesn't shed too much, and is fairly calm. To me, cuteness is secondary but to her it's first priority. Anyway, thanks again for the info Dot. If and when we get a puppy, I'll post about it here.

Actually it was just the adoptions. However, the Petsmart near me only has some company that only does dalmation adoptions. I'm going to check out a few more, but that's pretty lame in my opinion.

I've started looking for a dog as well. It seems to be almost impossible to get a dog in Oklahoma. For starters, Petsmart has a pretty crappy selection. No offense to the dogs, but the one near me ONLY does dalmations. I don't hate them, but they're not a very good breed of dogs, especially for apartment living. The adoption places are only open from 9 to 5 on weekdays. I can't take time off of work to go get a dog, if they want me to adopt one they need to get off their lazy butts and be open during hours that real people can go there. I work from 8am to 6pm normally, so I'd think if they want to place dogs into good homes they need to accomodate their hours for those who are not unemployed. Puppy farms may be cruel sometimes, but at least those people wanted to make an effort to help you get a dog. The shelters and such don't seem to put forth much effort at all. They do a good job of caring for dogs, but a horrible job of helping you get one. Of course, this is probably just how things are here. When I lived elsewhere, the people running the shelters cared about the dogs AND about helping people find pets that are right for them. The two don't need to be mutually exclusive, but I guess that's the way things work here. After all, you can't expect much from a state that produced LCM.

Funny, I would have pegged you as a Macintosh lover.

Well, I'll use an analogy. Let's say that the internet is a neighborhood. Within each neighborhood, you have houses which are the personal computers. In your house, there are many doors, which would be like ports. You may keep the front and back doors locked, but a bad guy might find his way in the garage door. On the internet, bad guys often test ports to see if there is a computer they can get into. It's just like a burglar that goes door to door and jiggles the handle to see if it is unlocked. He may try an entire neighborhood until he finds an unlocked door. These bad guys on the internet have programs that test a whole "neighborhood" of computers to find one with a port he can connect to. Depending on what type of firewall you get, it blocks something from getting in. A software firewall on your PC will block the ports on your computer, and not let anything out onto the internet without your permission. Think of it as locking a door both from the inside and outside, and you give permission to who goes in and out. A hardware firewall is more like a gated fence. It puts up a barrier outside of your house that has to be unlocked. This is usually best if you have a few computers on a network inside your home. The best solution, in my opinion, is to run both a firewall on the network and one on each computer. It's like having a locked gate on a fence around your house, but you keep all the doors on your house locked too.

Actually, the Windows Messenger SPAM has been going on too. Here is an article about it. I recieved one once, even though I had my NAT/firewall box on, and ZoneAlarm running on that desktop (turned out I had the PC in the DMZ of the firewall and forgot about it) but was suprised that someone could send it over the internet.

Actually, if you tell your machine to...I forget what it's called, but it's one step up from hybernating, it will be instant on in a way. Theoretically, you could have an instant on machine, providing you don't have to load things from a hard drive.

Damnit... My laptop has been ....ing me off quite a bit lately and is taking forever to turn off. It's a 1Ghz Athlon with 256MB of RAM running Windows XP. I knew it was slow, but I didn't realize how slow until the other day when I used my 850mhz PIII with 128MB of RAM which booted very quickly into XP. I've gone through the registry, fixed problems with ZoneAlarm, and tried a few other things but the stupid laptop still takes forever to start up or shut down.

I second this. AdAware is great. The only thing I have a slight problem with is that I run KaZaA lite, which puts a fake piece of spyware on your machine so KaZaA will run correctly. AdAware can't tell the difference so it picks up the fake spyware as the real thing, but you can make an exception for that.

I'm 25, but I feel old for my age. :D--> Actually my parents' friends (TWI or otherwise) always thought I was older than I really was because I would talk to adults like I was an adult, and wasn't too crazy as a kid.

Recently while going through an airport during one of his many trips, President Bush encountered a man with long hair, wearing a white robe and sandals, holding a staff. President Bush went up to the man and said, "Aren't you Moses?" The man never answered but just kept staring ahead. Again the President said, "Moses!" in a loud voice. The man just kept staring ahead, never answering the president. Soon a secret service agent came along and President Bush grabbed him and said, "Doesn't this man look like Moses to you?" The secret service agent agreed with the President. "Well," said the President, "Every time I say his name, he just keeps staring ahead and refuses to speak. Watch!" Again, the President yelled, "Moses" and again the man stared ahead. The secret service man went up to the man in the white robe and whispered, "You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?" The man leaned over and whispered, "Yes, I am Moses. But the last time I talked to a bush, I spent 40 years wandering in the desert!"

If I were you, I'd double click on it to see what it has to say. It should pop up a screen with a bunch of stuff saying, "Critical Update blah blah blah" or "Service Pack 1" in a list. I think from there there should be a button to download all of it, and it will go back down to the corner of the screen. It will take a while to download, then it will ask you to install the updates. Once you install them, it's going to ask you to reboot so when you do that be aware to not have unsaved files open in Word or whatever you are doing.