Hope R.

Mike - sometimes letters in a word can trigger a post to go into the moderation queue. I've had my posts go into the queue, and couldn't figure out what word or words I'd used to trigger it. Then I saw that sometimes words within a word could make that occur. I'm sure that a moderator has looked at your posts and approved them. I know they are busy people and appreciate the work they do to keep GS as problem free as possible. Hope R. color>size>face> P.S. No valium - but I've got some Prozac - perhaps that would help! Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Happy New Year... Got this email this morning from Paul V.D. (eek!) Highest of the High Kristina Linder Perez - 1970 verse 1 All He ever did was die for me, all He ever did was care. Some people only sit and cry for me, but i know my saviour is there. chorus And standing great and tall,is the meekest of them all, that's Jesus Christ my saviour in the sky. And like a light on crystal falls He gathers flowers and he calls, that's Jesus Christ the highest of the high verse 2 Men talk of love, they talk of peaceful times they blindly seek the truth in other men. But how can doutful leaders really set us free when they themselves fear the lions den? chorus Verse 3 Daily we must die to self,and make Him lord trading what we like, for what is true. Every high thing must submit to His abiding word. No terror here He cannot see us through. chorus Verse 5 In our every weakness Christ will make us strong Step by step we seek the narrow way breathing life eternal, it's His Father's song moving ever closer to His day. chorus Those are the original words... Ted may know the Way-ized version, which is the one I remember. Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Crud - I shouldn't have rushed to buy the first DVD! I'm gonna have to get the extended version now... or rent it. I guarantee that after ROTK runs, there'll be a boxed Special Edition set just in time for Christmas 2004! Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Buck... I am blushing... really... you should see me... Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Just watched FOTR with my 12 year old today on DVD. Elrond does explain he was there, 3000 years before when Isildor cut Sauron's hand off and took the ring. Elrond led Isildor up to the edge of Mount Doom and told him to destroy the ring right away, which we know Isildor did not do. I knew Elrond had one of the elf rings, and Galadriel... but didn't remember that Gandalf had one. After watching FOTR again - I'm still peeved about the way they portrayed Galadriel. She's just too freaky and creepy for me. They also leave out almost all the gifts she gives to the fellowship when they leave Lothlorian (other than the phial of light she gives to Frodo) - as well as the Lembas, which is mentioned in TTT - but with no explanation of what it is or what it does. Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Yeah Buck - guilty as charged. That was "Living Waters" the Sickth Corpse Way Prod band. Highly talented, mostly ignored. (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). My maiden name was Harmon. The song was called "Glad You're my Family"... Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

I heard Seth was back in. True? Oy... I witnessed to him a zillion years ago. How about Bonnie? She was still in last I heard. Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Buck - I emailed Paul V. for the lyrics. He emailed me back and told me he'd send them my way - that Kristina lives nearby. He's got his own website: Tricarico Music. There are some old pics on there some of you might get a kick out of. I love that song, too. Mostly because it was one of the early tunes that didn't have any TWI jargon in it... nothing about "the abundant life" or "believing equals receiving" type stuff. It was pure hearted. Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

The Highest of the High All he ever did was die for me All he ever did was call my name You can only sit there and cry for me But I know my savior remains CHORUS And standing great and tall He was the meekest of them all That's Jesus Christ, my savior in the sky. And like a light on crystal falls He spreads his love on all he calls That's Jesus Christ, the Highest of the High Men may talk of love, they talk of (?)changing times(?) They blindly seek the truth from other men. But how can countless sinners really make us free When they themselves fear the lion's den? CHORUS... and standing great and tall (Last verse - memory fogs up)... it starts with Give your heart to Jesus.... I'm pretty sure Kristina Linder from "Selah" wrote this. Socks???? I defer to you, bro. Hope R. color>size>face> P.S. Buck - I just emailed someone I know will know all the lyrics. If he emails me back, I will post them again! Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

Don Graniero played guitar in "Glad Tidings". Kevin McCave played the sax, and sometimes Doug Coyle. Paul Cooper was Anna's husband and GT's drummer. Many of them went to the Miami/Broward country area of Florida after graduating the 7th Corps - similar to what "Living Waters" did in NJ after we graduated the 6th. Socks... d'ya remember who else was in Miami back then - it was around 1979/1980... Robi - you reading this? I know you'll remember. Hope R. color>size>face> Life, what is it but a dream? - Lewis Carroll

QQ - "Mythtery" - brilliant! Do you mind if I use it or do you want royalties? Tilda - toooo funny. Good to see you again. Mike - you need to remember the diverse group of people you are addressing. Not everyone here reveres VP the way you do, probably fewer than you can count on one hand. When I first left TWI, I was a defender of VP, not because of his teachings, but because I thought he was a genuinely sincere man who only wanted the best for his "kids" (gag me now). In the past two years, I have come to learn that he stole most of what he "researched", made Bill Clinton look like Prince Charming, and had a very, very dark side that only a few were witness to. I'm not going to tell you to stop your appreciation of VP - just take off the rose-colored glasses and see things the way they really were. You'll be surprised how clear things appear when you're not seeing them through your "waybrain". Hope R. color>size>face> Rafe, I got a needle and a match - I could probably get that splinter out for ya pretty quick! I promise it won't hurt! Happy New Year!!!

Oaks - If you look at the link I put up in the other thread, they have some spoilers for the ROTK film, too. LOTR Move Changes When I read the film changes for TTT - they seemed to suggest that the elves that were leaving Rivendale were heading to Lothlorien for safety. I didn't get that from the movie at all. But they also had some scenes listed that weren't in the movie at all. I can't seem to get to the site right now, but I'll look later. Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Thanks RB - I fixed it... had that http: in there twice... I hate when that happens! Hey - did you look at the site? Whaddya think? Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

For all you Google addicts, you've just GOT to try the Google Viewer! It displays pages found through the Google search as a continuous scrolling slide show. It has buttons to stop, start, fast forward or slow down the scroll. It is SO cool! Another search engine site I read about in a review is Vivisimo (vivisimo.com). It somehow goes out to multiple search engines, including Google, and then groups the results into clusters of information that are easy to browse. Try searching for "The Way International". This is great stuff. The internet is getting "smaller" every day. Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! [This message was edited by Hope R. on December 25, 2002 at 20:15.]

The second thing I did after we got booted was to put our name on the Cortright list. I have found many old friends there that don't care to contribute to ex-Way forums but who want to find people and have other find them. It's one of the oldest ex-Way sites around and has provided me with links to others that I probably never would have found without their list. I've always wanted to thank them for the work and maintenance they do there - so now's a good time to do so! Thanks Cortrights! Hope R. color>size>face> Zix - I received some Ex-Way spam as well, but it was more recent. It may have come from someone reading our profiles from the old GS or this site. I emailed the two I received and asked them to take me off their list. They did. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

I know what you're saying about Gimli... but the biggest and loudest laugh in the theater came from his two worded line... you know which one I mean. Don't tell me Jackson didn't do that on purpose!!! Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

What did you all think? Gandalf's fight with the Balrog was mind-blowing. The battle of Helm's Deep was amazing. Gollum was brilliant. The special effects were the best I've ever seen. They took a lot of liberties with Tolkien this time around, but if I hadn't read the book recently, I probably wouldn't have known it. Zix? Oaksie? Anyone else see it? Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

I've been friends with a group of 7 women for a few years. We all met when our kids were in elementary school together and became friends. We celebrate our birthdays together by going out to lunch. It's a lovely bunch of warm, intelligent, opinionated women who I thoroughly enjoy being around. When we first got friendly, we got into a conversation about religion. I was still in TWI at the time, but wanted out. I knew it was going to be really difficult to explain it to them. When we finally got around to telling each other what church or what religion we practiced, I said, "I'm in a cult!" Then I briefly told them about TWI, the early years, why I got in, why I didn't like it now, and why I was staying. They didn't blink. They asked some questions, but for the most part, it didn't phase them. I told them when we got out, and we all drank a toast at lunch that day. Last week, we had our annual Christmas luncheon. We were talking about places we'd been and I said something like "In 1974, when I lived in San Antonio..." One of them asked me what I was doing in San Antonio... a few of them smiled and said "the cult!" We all had a good laugh... Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

I just heard this Barry Manilow story today! A friend of mine was in New York and was invited to go to the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center by a friend of hers who is in the TV industry. She and her friend were ushered to the dressing room of "Saturday Night Live" to wait for the big event. She said all these famous TV folks were there, and so was Barry Manilow. He had just performed and was headed back to his dressing room when she saw him. She said to her friend "he looks awful". Her friend told her that the food in the SNL dressing room was sparse because good ol' Barry had it all moved to HIS dressing room, leaving slim pickin's behind for all the other guests. Her friend also told her he doesn't "mingle" with the regular folk... Sheesh - what a snob! Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

IMO, all they have to do is tell people it wasn't their policy to mark and avoid, or have no debt, or pets, or (fill in the blank)... it was Craig's policy! That way they're off the hook! He's the scapegoat - and he's gone! I guess they can blame him for anything that comes up that innies have questions about. I know it's been brought up that in order to be in TWI in the last half of the 90's, you had to be fairly adept at lying. You couldn't tell the truth if you wanted to continue going to their fellowships because you feared being put on "spiritual probation" or M&A'd. For example: If I didn't feel like going to fellowship, I would usually say I wasn't feeling well that night because, God forbid I tell the truth - that I just plain didn't want to go. That would be one more shovel of dirt on my TWI grave! When we bought a new vehicle, our business put half down and financed the rest. When asked how we paid for the vehicle, our answer was "the business bought it". It wasn't an out-and-out lie, but we didn't give them all the information either. God forbid we tell them we took out a loan on it (which was none of their business to begin with). We'd be put on "probation" that day. There was a couple here who bought a house. Their parents gave them a huge chunk of change for the downpayment. It was an offer they couldn't (and shouldn't) refuse! They told the BC that they were renting. When the BC discovered the truth - he immediately kicked them out and let the entire branch know about it. He said their lie was worse than the fact they went into debt. But we all knew they would have been kicked out for either offense. So to teach that people it's okay to lie doesn't surprise me at all. IMO, it's a common practice. Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Linda, Socks... Did you know that God is left handed? He has to be... Because........... Ready?........... Jesus Christ is sitting on his right hand!!!! Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Sunesis - Was it "Laugh-In" or "Shindig"? Gawd, I hated bubble gum music. And it's funny... so much of what we wrote and performed in Way Prod was SO bubble-gummy! ("It's not by works, Maggie Muggins..."; "Just keep it simple, that's how I am..."; "My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, o say can you see what's goin' on?", etc.) Yuck. Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

The Atlantic Ocean as seen from Long Beach, Long Island, NY. Three words... Childhood Family Home Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! [This message was edited by Hope R. on December 12, 2002 at 6:35.]

Besides Handel's "Messiah" and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "Gloria in Excelsis Deo", I love the smooth jazz GRP Christmas CD collection. Dave Grusin, Nelson Rangell, David Benoit, Lee Ritenour, Diana Krall and the like. I also have a very cool Christmas album by a group called "Wind Machine" and another by "Acoustic Alchemy". But of the radio played Christmas songs, my very favorite is Springsteen singing "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"! Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Socksy - I'm a lefty, too! But I couldn't play the guitar left-handed any more than I could write right-handed. Guess I'm fairly ambidextrous... the only things I really use my left hand for are writing and using a fork. My "crutch" is a thumb-pick. When I first met Richie D., he played with one. I always loved to finger pick, but only used my thumb, and index and middle fingers because the other two were braced on the bottom of the sound hole to hold my hand in place. I asked Richie to lend me one to see if I could use it. It was like magic! Once I got the thumb pick, I could position my hand without needing to brace it and get the use out of all my fingers for picking. Only problem is that now if I don't have one with me, it's really awkward to play. I always carry one or two in my purse because I never know when I'm going to wander into Sam Ash! Now I need to remember to carry around a capo! Last week I was there and they had an Eric Clapton Martin hanging on the wall. Ahhhh - what a NICE guitar! Had that one been there before I bought my Taylor, it would have been a hard choice to make. Hope R. color>size>face> Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!