My3Cents

During the time I was in the way, I had lots of good experiences, lived in some cool places. I have some "bonding" with high school friends that I got in the way with and we are now out. But the bad was so bad. Of course I didn't think so at the time. Only in retrospect do I realize all the harm that was done. Any good that happened was in spite of the way not because of it at all.

I'd say how wonderful life is now that you finally got your lesbian lover to go with you to the witches coven and do a tarot card reading. Just don't ever mention that you once voted for a democrat. (Sorry - I know it was a serious question, I just couldn't resist)

4 words. Eat less Exercise more Every diet that works boils down to that. An interesting perspective on same is in the book Dr Shapiro's Picture Perfect Weight Loss: The Visual Program for Permanent Weight Loss Before you buy it - look at it in a bookstore. You might be surprised at what you find. I was.

From things I've read in PC magazines it's a trade off. There is some small extra wear and tear on the hard drive each time you turn it off and on. But it uses up more power to leave it on. You could at least turn off the monitor. If you are on cable do not leave it on without being behind some kind of fire wall or security router. Too easy for people to hack into your machine that way.

Check out www.Froogle.com when you want to buy something - it's a google search but just for products for sale!

Feels good doesn't it? When you can finally talk about your past - even to complete strangers and not feel like who you are now is tied down by the dumb things we might have done then. Use the Force Steve!

Actually I know quite a number of old rich folks. The vast majority are married to people close to their own age, and a lot more than half are still on their first marriage - well above the national average. This has been documented in books like The Millionare Next Door as well. As for Victoria Secrets I was once in a friend's office and that magazine was in his waiting room and he told me a story about getting on a place and seeing one of the models. He didn't know why she looked familiar but they got to talking and the end of the story is "So, I've seen her with her clothes ON." Oh well, I guess you had to be there.

Bookworm, Hope & Oldie, I was at shelter island that summer. There were 4 weeks of camp as I recall. And yes the doggie show was played there. A lot of the audience was in their teens, living away from home that summer. There would be lawsuits like crazy if that happened today. Sunesis, Thanks for your post about Rochelle. I knew her but not well. I'm 48 years old. In all my years of life, I know more people who committed suicide in the way than I know who did outside the way. Most were on staff or corps or in leadership positions. I can't say if the way caused all those deaths, or just attracted unstable individuals and then exacerbated their illness. Then they had the audacity to cover up what actually happened. It was almost never mentioned in public. What a horrible organization.

I used to think disks didn't die but have had 3 crash in the last 2 years (of course I'm exposed to about 15 computers on a regular basis. The funny thing is the most recent two were both XP machines. The win 98s have done fine. But the real reason to backup is operator error. I've used backups more to find files I mistakenly deleted than for anything else. Second most often for when the database gets corrupted. That could be user error too - I don't monitor everything they do back there. Never had a fire or break-in so I do an off-site every week not every day. Use tape for that. ONSTREAM.com has a nice machine that gets 30 gigs on a tape, very fast. They say you can use it like a hard drive - you can find individual files that way but it's not that fast.

As I was writing my previous thread I realized, without McAfee and Norton Anti-virus and the work they do I would not have been able to recover from the few virus attacks I have had. As much as their programs it's their research, the info on their sites and the free software they make available when a new virus hits that I've used to help. If they didn't have some source of funds they wouldn't be able to do that. So I don't begrudge buying their stuff once in a while - I just don't install it [g] And yes, if you take all the precautions Igotout mentions 100% of the time you'll probably be OK. But haven't we all clicked on something by mistake once in a while? Oh and one other thing - DON"T USE OUTLOOK. or atleast not with an address book (so that kind of defeats the purpose) too many viri are written to take advantage of it's popularity. I've been using Outlook Express but just upgraded to v6 and it's crashing so much I'm moving to Eudora.

If you get a virus, you HAVE to have another computer. Immediately disconnect the infected one from the network and the internet. Log on with the other one and download removal software for that virus AFTER you have read about it. I did get a virus. And it was found by the anti-virus software. It asked if I wanted to delete the file and I said yes. Turns out with that particular virus it was the wrong thing to do. I don't remember the details but the virus corrupted a file needed by the Operating sytem so when that file was deleted, the OS went spastic. It was a fluke that by reading about it and pressing the PAUSE button at the right time (when was the last time you used the pause button) and typing blind - with the screen disabled - I was able to copy and rename a correct file to replace the deleted one. DON"T TRY THIS AT HOME.

Here's my experience with faxing. 1 - Receiving Plain old Paper fax. It has the advantage of physically showing up so you SEE it even if you haven't checked email. It can be filed etc like all paper. Receiving via Winfax (ie the computer answers the line and recieves the fax). It can be printed automatically upon receipt - mine print 2-per page but can be as many as 4 per page (or not at all) thus saving paper. And you can later print full size pages if you want. You have an electronic copy which you can back up. You can use rules like email (delete, file, forward, copy) based on sender, etc. You can even modify the electronic file (insert a graphic signature, notes etc). and then re-send it. I have used this to type info in fill-in-the blanks. Admitedly more tedious than paper but cool. It can automatically forward after receipt to another fax number, or by email, or can alert your pager. Not important if you don't travel or only have one office. I use it even at home to get emails of faxes that have come in late to office. SENDING - I need a fax machine to send paper. But when I've got a document on my computer (a word file, or a web page) to fax, I fax it right from the computer - my fax software looks like a printer so I "print" to that software and then it dials out through my fax modem. In my experience this does look cleaner on the other end. We use this with Goldmine to broadcast faxes to our many clients. It does tie up a computer but simpler than doing with a fax machine. I have never send a fax with one of the internet services. I understand they are good if you want to broadcast a fax to a lot of people, but I'm not sure how you give it the graphic look you want. Perhaps you upload a template or something. Hope that helps.

I have to agree with you. I have one (I forget which) and scan for viruses about 5 times a year. and I would NEVER run with it enabled to monitor everything - slows me down too much. Not only that, but some of the speed never came back even after I uninstalled it. But I'm running a Pentium 3 and win 98. I got my kids a Pentium 4 w/ Win XP Home and since they do a lot of downloads I INSIST Norton anti-virus run all the time buttoned up and even checks for updates every 4 hours. They've caught a few downloading games from Kazza. Were they real virusses or just fooling the software? Don't really know but we deleted them anyway. Since their machine is connected to the others in the house I insist on safe sex! The amazing thing to me is I thought the machine would feel real sluggish but it doesn't, though I haven't tried running it both ways. Two other things that makes me feel OK about the way I do it without virus scan on my machine: 1. I have stuff backed up (though even mirroring to another disk can infect the other disk before you realize it) better to also have rotating tapes so you always have a back up that is a few days (if not weeks old). 2. I always have another computer around so if one gets in trouble and has to be shut down or disconnected I can log on with another machine, download clean-up software, make boot disks, whatever. If I just had one machine I'd have more protection running on it. FYI - for years I never got a virus. The first one I got came from a dealer when I bought a used machine. Never bought from him again. I have gotten a couple others in the past 3 years, but not much more of a hassle than other computer glitches I've experienced.

j2.com used to be called jfax.com I'm not sure if this is what you want. There are services that allow you to log on their internet site or send them something by email that they will deliver via fax. There is a cost involved. They have a free level of service, but it only works the other way. They give you a fax number (not in your area code) and someone sends you a fax, it ends up in your email. Kinda cool. I have it and have Winfax v10 (probably worth upgrading to if you fax a lot). It has a feature where after a fax is received it can send it anywhere. I have it sent to my j2 number so if I'm traveling (or home after work) I get it in my email. I also have call-forward busy and call-forward no answer on my fax line that goes to my j2 number so I use the fax line to call out on (saving the regular line for incoming calls) and know I won't miss a fax. kinda complicated but it works (usually)

Unfortunately with email you can't hear the tone of voice. So those words are best communicated verbally. On a similar note, I've heard it said that a mark of a gentleman is that he never insults a person unless he means to.

Dot, One way to think about the answer to your question is to look at the life expectancy in places where they have a lot of medicine, hygene and yes preserved food. Compare that to places where the lifestyle is more "natural". I think you'll find that in general the life expectancy is longer. And you'll also find more deaths that have their roots in "lifestyle" activities (too much food, fat, smoking, alcohol, too little exercise). In spite of this the life expectancy is longer. Does that answer your question?

- A parable for more normal economic times - Suppose you get an unsolicited letter from a stock broker who says "I predict the market will go up (or down) next month, invest with me." You do nothing about it and the market goes the direction the letter predicted. The next month you get another letter from the same person with another prediction. The market does exactly what this person predicts. After 6 months of letters followed by the market doing what was predicted, you figure this is a person who really has a clue so you invest. That's anecdotal evidence. If you'd done a scientific analysis of this person's preditions (if they would let you) you'd have seen that the first month they sent out 10,000 letters - half predicting an up market and half predicting a down one. Which ever way the market went they never mailed again to the half that got the "wrong" leter and only mailed the second month to the half that got the "right" letter. This time as well they split the group - half predicting a rise and half a fall. After 6 months 156 people would have gotten a letter 6 months in a row predicting the correct market direction. Are you still as inclined to invest? The point is that reading about people or even studies is not the same as being involved and doing or even just analysing the research. As a lay person there are just things you cannot assess without seeing the raw data and having the training to know what to do with it. Most of us don't have either - that's why we have different jobs. In situations where professional expertise and training is required, a lay person just has to trust the professionals. Not blindly, of course, But with the understanding they know more than I even if I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express. Unfortunately the way taught us not to trust anybody except them. And look where it got us. Perhaps it's time for some to take another look at our opinion of professionals.

Thanks Hope. I like that even better. And Paw - you're doing a great job. I know how crazy setting up a new site can be and one as big as this - SHEESH! And THANKS

Paw, This place seems much faster than ezboard and other than one thing looks the same to me. I miss seeing the last person to post to a thread. That's often how I decided wheather to read it or not - that and who started it. I'd rather see the last poster instead of those stars. just my 2 cents. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. -JOHN

Hope, You said we were drawn into TWI because we LIKED the whole idea of being "likeminded" with other people? That "singleness of heart" and "undivided loyalty" was like a magnet for many of us? I think that's true. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, I think depends on how intensely the person feels this desire or need and how the group takes advantage of it. When you & I got involved, the way did not abuse that desire in it's followers as much as it did in later years. As it got better at manipulating and taking advantage of that need or desire then more and more people left. Those that are still there probably have that need to a dysfunctional degree. In other words, I think there's a continuum not a sharp point at which it becomes good or bad (I won't say cult-like or not because that word has other pieces to it). Maybe there are even two continuums - one for the degree of the need in the person and one for the degree of the group to use or abuse that. When I was in therapy, my shrink used the term "closed society" to indicate situations where your work, home and social lives are all tied into the same group of people. Cults are like this to an extreme, but to a different degree, and for a different purpose, the military, police and other professions are closed societies as well.

Radar, Interesting thread. I went to high school with Chris Geer, he was a few years older than I. We got in the word about the same time, and I served under him when he was limb leader of Massachusetts, in 1972-75 or thereabouts. I also happened to be on a phone hookup the night he read the passing of the patriarch. He was at least as psychotic and meglomaniacal as VPW. I didn't surprize me that Geer was armed or that he had people restraining Don, though I didn't know of the bad blood between them. A fact I don't hear reported much is that Geer said he was back in the US because of a death in his family (his grandfather I believe) and took that time to come to HQ. After the corps meeting that night, I called up to give him my condolences as an old friend and spiritual brother. It was 2 weeks before he called me back and it was so bizzare talking to him. I was there when the conspiracy stuff started - Geer ran one of the first "way homes" as the limb home of Mass - a home owned and donated (or at least used with consent of) Linda MacDuffie. So you can blame him for the way home concept too. I couldn't verify that he started it - my guess would be that he certainly gave vpw an outlet for the more wacky ideas. And between the two of them they were like two bad boys with too much authority and money. Geer, by the way, got married in the first "mass wedding" at the rock of ages (don't know whose idea that was) but those later morphed into the corps weddings. Geer was a person who threw all he had into serving someone else and worked so hard on all the meaningless details as if that were a badge of honor. I remember someone had given the limb of Mass an old printing press and he would be up till all hours jiggering with it to get it to print some monthly newsletter he sent out. Never occurred to me at the time he probably would have saved money (not to mention time and hassle) just to take the thing down to a print shop and get on with his life. This was a mentality of "poverty" and making do that pervaided the way. The original idea behind way homes was to save money and enjoy living together. They didn't get controlling till much later. Nobody every said "Hey, if god is a god of abundance why don't we just make enough money to live where we want?" Geer was a fanatic about it and loved the macho image. He loved guns and dogs and secrecy and paranoia. As did vpw. Now that I read your post I'm not sure who inspired who more, but they sure did feed off each other. I never heard of Java - I got out too soon for that I guess.