Rocky

My favorite! :D

I tried chewing tobacco once and was sick... but not for that long. LAE, so, your father's related to Gene Autry.... but you're not? I'm !

I'm glad you have it in perspective then... :P AND I AM NOT a squirrel, flying or otherwise! Your graciousness, which knows no bounds (foul lines?) is appreciated!

This IS a family web site right? If it was just us old folks, we could all share the strangest, funniest, weirdest place(s) we had sex...

Of course we all know how easy it is to jinx a team in baseball these days....:P So, perhaps the stRange stRanger fan might want to temper his comments, lest they become bulletin board material -- especially for the other teams in the AL West! And ahem... Mr. Mstar, it wasn't more than a few days ago that YOURS TRULY also became a member of the 4000 club!! :D

I bet that is more fun. Over the last several months, I've watched several programs on the History Channel and National Geographic Channel on various aspects of Freemasonry. So, it's sorta been demystified for me. Definitely NOT as big a deal as Wierwille/twi and other churches/religions have made freemasonry out to be. BTW, my real last name is a trade name (in a European (romance) language) that translates to Mason in English... hence, I had just a smidgeon more interest than I otherwise might have had. But, I'd still be interested in reading about your experience(s) with Freemasonry and how that compared/contrasted with twi. Also, one time at a minor league baseball game here in Phoenix (before the Diamondbacks were born), an old guy with a walking stick that had the compass and square on a piece attached at the top of the stick, once asked me "Have you ever traveled East?" I figured right away that he was asking me if I was a mason... of course, I told him no... but even that was intriguing enough that I never forgot it.

I likeee!!!

Don't they have a web site that broadcasts streaming video of the event? I think I may have watched one year... or tried to anyway.

Doesn't surprise me a bit! Btw, my daughter, now 17, was in 7th or 8th grade (a few years ago) and was getting picked on by several boys at school. Now, I'm short, but Amy (who decided to be a vegetarian at a time when she needed protein from chicken and turkey to energize a growth spurt) was then even shorter. But taking after me in other ways, she's never had a problem asserting herself. I got a call one day from school that she was in trouble... had kicked a boy... and made it REALLY count, if you know what I mean. I think she got an in school suspension (the school didn't want to reduce state revenue, which was based on attendence) for maybe a couple of days. Needless to say, none of the boys picked on her after that.

AAACCKK! I had Cox Cable before either Dish or Direct. I absolutely hated them... they were by far the worst. AND... ANY company that points to how well they did in customer service ACCORDING TO J D POWER & Associates... IS LYING. JDPower and Associates is a company that other companies can PAY to get them to say how well they do. IMNSHO, a TOTAL fraud. There's background to my opinion, but I won't go into it here. It's my understanding that soon all broadcast channels with have to be broadcasting in DIGITAL format... which supports HD (1080i) and Enhanced Definition (780i) which are both digital formats. I don't know the date.

I don't know what local area stations you are needing, but it's my understanding that you CAN get local channels just about everywhere in the US with DISH... as I do. Do you mean that your sat DISH is in the same location? Because the satellite (orbiting the earth) may not be in the same area. There are a couple of other equipment possibilities... but you should be able to get a tech (ask them to send out a technician supervisor, and you are likely to get the best one(s) they have) to figure it out fairly easily once they get out there.

Wow... a junior high girl that wasn't a bully? That's pretty amazing in itself, at least from the perspective of how things are these days... I know I was pretty shocked when my daughter was that age. Quite an eye opener about teen/tween girls...

Dish also has their own DVR... I was just using Tivo because it's a recognizable name for a DVR system. I've had this happen with Dish AND Directv. Storms are infrequent here in the Phoenix area, so it's not a big deal to me. Plus, I have an antenna ON my dish so that I can get local HD networks over the air, in addition to whatever I get by satellite. I'd like to have an HD DVR... but I understand they are very expensive (>$700.00).

Exactly... and if you, Belle, live in a rural area with low population density, that may be the case for you too. If you live in/near a good size metropolitan area, there might be more techs available.

What you AND Dot each described in the last two posts could just as easily be just simple application of the defense mechanism -- DENIAL. ALL of us do it to some degree. However, the gal at Dot's job, according to Dot's descriptions, did more than just lie to herself. But your husband (ex?), that sounds like he was mainly deceiving himself, rather than trying to convince others of something he would have known to be otherwise... THAT, we ALL do. However, again with the disclaimers, I'm not a mental health professional, so anything I say is just guessing anyway.

Well, I was always the runt in school also... somewhat exacerbated by the fact that I was pretty much the youngest one in my class every year... started K at age 4. Never had a problem with the academics. BUT I really was never significantly bullied. I got teased (verbally) all the time... this even continued into my time in the USAF... in basic training we were all pretty close to the same age, but being 5' 1" and in basic, it was, at best, a curiosity for many. But I really never had a problem getting bullied, that I can remember. Good chance that two factors contributed to that. As TomStrange has mentioned in another thread, what I lacked in physical stature, I made up in attitude. AND I had no shortage of taller friends... I just really never was in a situation in school, that I can remember, when I felt physically threatened. One time that came close was when, as at 10th grader, I tried out for the baseball team. My athleticism was lacking, so I didn't make the team. I remember one school staff member/coach being verbally abusive about my height... I ended up being the team equipment manager that year. The head coach stuck up for me and told me I didn't have to sink to the other guy's level... that was pretty much it. And I would hope that my recollection is good in that I don't remember bullying anyone either.

I had Dish before I had Direct... then I voted for Dish again.... sorry for the flipflop... Seriously, I did have Dish first... for about 3 years. Then I had Directv for about 3 years. Directv has SERIOUS customer service problems, and it ain't JUST about paper bills. It's about EVERYTHING. They S U C K. When I sold my house in June 2005, I bought a manufactured home outright (no mortgage) AND a 50" LCD (HD) TV. Direct has (at least had then) FAR FEWER HD channels. There were things I had to get used to when I changed back to Dish, but I am FAR happier now than I ever was with Direct. I had a similar problem early on like you described Belle. It ended up being that the installer failed to properly AIM the DISH. That could very possibly be what you're experiencing. Once I got someone out here to check it out, they fixed it and I've not had any problems with it since. ALSO, the TIVO works FAR BETTER with DISH than with Direct. With Direct, it took time to fast forward through commercials. With DISH it's a snap... VERY quick. When I called Direct to end service with them, they were so arrogant that they TOLD ME I would be back with them soon. THAT was the height of hubris, from my perspective. So, IF you have HD and/or TIVO (DVR) you'll probably be happier with DISH, once they fix your signal problem. IF you do NOT have hd/tivo, I don't know whether you'd be happier with one or the other.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

GOOD! I'd rather he stick to baseball. :P And mstar... congrats on Post #3000!

They sorta do this in NCIS (Tuesdays on CBS), but one of the characters is a movie trivia nut, so they sometimes mention the name of the movie too... And another of the characters, the Israeli on loan to NCIS (Ziva) speaks plenty good English, but is not familiar with or idioms... which inevitably leads to several malaprops in each episode. I think THOSE are hilarious.

YIKES! :blink:

wheeeeuw! Glad to hear it. :P

Hey Belle, sounds like you could make some money consulting Scott Adams (author/creator of Dilbert)! :D

I had no idea... please Kathy, that wasn't about you... I was just being goofy... sorry if I offended you. :wub:

Walter (in case you didn't know him while in twi) was very close to wierwille and taught some classes, but he left (or was kicked out? I don't know which) probably also during the 1980s... he's the one who first made a big deal about (for many of us anyway) "the only day of the year that's also a command!" Walter was generally a good guy... I'm scratching my head, and my memory on this is foggy, but didn't Walter's mother marry one of Wierwille's brothers at some point?