The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[ian]

An apostate JW friend tells me they semi-volunteer for particular tasks. The obligation is, of course, part of the religion. There’s no obligation to convert anyone, as they have to see a pamphlet and find the light themselves.

[andyoxon]

My two pennies: they have made it their job, but they have no target beyond the knocking.

It’s a ‘God is watching so look busy/reward in heaven’ thing, I reckon.

I think there was a central edict a few years ago that all JWs have to put a certain amount of time into conversion/mission activities. Frequently see them standing, again in pairs or small groups, in the central shopping district with a display of pamphlets. I've no idea how they choose between that and door-knocking, which achieves greater interest or if they have any sort of target in terms of eg leaflets dispensed.

It's a striving to do good works to be amongst the chosen '144000', AFAIA.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I have seen their pamphlet and held it in my hand – do I have to actually read it to see the light? From what little I know of JW-ism, there are some beliefs I rather admire, such as their uncompromising rejection of militarism. But I don't want to discuss that with door-knockers cos then they'd come back and want to talk about all the other stuff!

[Cudzoziemiec]

Prompted by the 144,000, just googled to see how many JWs are worldwide. First return was rather grim:

BERLIN, March 10 (Reuters) - Here are some facts about the Jehovah's Witnesses and their community in Germany, shaken by a mass shooting at a Jehovah's Witness hall in Hamburg on Thursday.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/jehovahs-witnesses-some-facts-about-their-history-community-germany-2023-03-10

which refers to:

HAMBURG, March 9 (Reuters) - A gunman in Germany shot dead six people before killing himself at a Jehovah's Witness worship hall in Hamburg, authorities said on Friday, in an attack that is bound to renew calls for stricter gun controls.

Eight other people were wounded, including a seven-months pregnant woman who lost her unborn daughter, police and prosecutors said at a news conference.

Officials said they had been tipped off about the perpetrator but had not taken away his legally-owned gun before the shooting at an event on Thursday night.

It seems probably no sect is free from sectarian violence.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/least-six-dead-after-shooting-hamburg-focus-online-media-2023-03-09/
 

[Beardy]

I worked with a JW about 40 years ago and he was most reticent about discussing it with me. I was a fairly recent discoverer of atheism (having been brought up as CofE) and although not shouty about it, I was interested in other views. He really didn’t want to talk about it, so I didn’t push.

[andyoxon]

Prompted by the 144,000, just googled to see how many JWs are worldwide. ...

AFAIA it started out as an actual '144000' based on Revelations, but them became more 'symbolic' as their numbers grew.

[hellymedic]

O hai, Vendors of $STUFFS!
The more you pester me to review your product or service, the less inclined I am so to do. Keep up this heathen and unBRITISH practice and I'll give you a really really bad one.
Yes, Lloyds Pharmacy, I surely do mean you.
Kthxbai

This Unit heartily endorses the sentiment.

Purveyors of protein powder are pestering me for a review right now.

[barakta]

I worked with someone for more than a year before discovering she was a JW, she drank and smoked and I didn't even know she was religious. I discovered it when moving into her former office and she'd put up religious phrasing posters up high (not easily visible from standing height and behind book shelves) which she had forgotten to take down. I mentioned this and someone said "Oh they're F's she's a JW" and I was so WTAF.

F was one of these people who I think was v different between home and work; she was fine with LGBT people but I know one of her kids is LGBT and they were estranged before F died a few years after leaving our workplace. So I don't know if homelife was different to professional/work life...

F did mention that doorknocking was fun and people enjoyed doing it, getting out, chatting to people, saw it as a fun activity people wanted to do...

Haven't had doorknocks for ages, Covid has made JWs less inclined to it, just the shitty leaflets which go straight into recycling. Doorknocker spammers/scammers of all kinds get the "no thanks *close door*" treatment anyway.

[T42]

Haven't had doorknocks for ages, Covid has made JWs less inclined to it, just the shitty leaflets which go straight into recycling. Doorknocker spammers/scammers of all kinds get the "no thanks *close door*" treatment anyway.

A couple of boisterous dogs in the garden work wonders.

[T42]

Must have been a hell of a storm somewhere last night, the power went on and off and on again three or four times back of 23. Had me out of bed and charging round the place switching off beeping USPs and resetting flashing clocks.  It finally stabilised and let us get to sleep only to drop out again in the wee small hoors: redo from start. Then the bloody binmen came round at 0500 and again at twenty past - H&S forbids doing both sides of a street in a single pass, doubtless because Mummy never taught them to cross a road. Yrs trly is p'd off and knackered.

[L CC]

Was woken about half five by a mightily pissed off cat who wanted to come in. Went downstairs to let him in and got wet socks in the dirty protest from the other cat. Love my daughter, do not love mopping her cat's pee before 6.

Am considering a temporary cat flap. How much are doors?

[Cudzoziemiec]

Then the bloody binmen came round at 0500 and again at twenty past - H&S forbids doing both sides of a street in a single pass, doubtless because Mummy never taught them to cross a road. Yrs trly is p'd off and knackered.

What a ridiculous regulation.

[nicknack]

Sciatica and sleep don’t mix.

[Beardy]

Then the bloody binmen came round at 0500 and again at twenty past - H&S forbids doing both sides of a street in a single pass, doubtless because Mummy never taught them to cross a road. Yrs trly is p'd off and knackered.

What a ridiculous regulation.

That depends on the road. It’s possible a regulation that exists to protect the bin men on a dangerous road on the route, but the manager responsible for H&S has just applied the rule to the whole route for simplicity.

[barakta]

Sciatica and sleep don’t mix.

Sympathy. Arthritis + vertigo and sleep don't mix either.

Yours, dizzily, &tc.

[Mr Larrington]

I have to read 400 five digit numbers off an LCD display and punch them into a spreadsheet. This ranks even above Coldplay in my personal list of Undesirable Things.

Bah!

[Kim]

I have to read 400 five digit numbers off an LCD display and punch them into a spreadsheet. This ranks even above Coldplay in my personal list of Undesirable Things.

That's the sort of thing that would have me wasting approximately 5 times the amount of time it takes to enter 400 5 digit numbers into a spreadsheet researching machine vision libraries, before giving up and entering 400 5 digit numbers into a spreadsheet.

Why nobody molishes a certified stopwatch that can write CSV files or whatever is a mystery.

[T42]

Then the bloody binmen came round at 0500 and again at twenty past - H&S forbids doing both sides of a street in a single pass, doubtless because Mummy never taught them to cross a road. Yrs trly is p'd off and knackered.

What a ridiculous regulation.

That depends on the road. It’s possible a regulation that exists to protect the bin men on a dangerous road on the route, but the manager responsible for H&S has just applied the rule to the whole route for simplicity.

Summat like.  It applied to the postie for a while too but they jacked it in pretty quickly.

[Mr Larrington]

I have to read 400 five digit numbers off an LCD display and punch them into a spreadsheet. This ranks even above Coldplay in my personal list of Undesirable Things.

That's the sort of thing that would have me wasting approximately 5 times the amount of time it takes to enter 400 5 digit numbers into a spreadsheet researching machine vision libraries, before giving up and entering 400 5 digit numbers into a spreadsheet.

Why nobody molishes a certified stopwatch that can write CSV files or whatever is a mystery.

This one has been modded with a connection not only to a debouncing gizmo, such that two operations of a tape switch only trigger the lap count once, but also to a hot-rodded mouse that will simulate doing a left-click. Position the cursor over the appropriate button in the pre-configured spreadsheet & voila! However, it still needs checking.  Also, the stopwatch thinks one lap about 90% of the way into James' 100 km record ride was about 4” slower than those either side of it, which doesn’t make much sense on a 250m lap

I've got the timing data from the velodrome’s system too, so we’ll pick the fastest

[Kim]

I have to read 400 five digit numbers off an LCD display and punch them into a spreadsheet. This ranks even above Coldplay in my personal list of Undesirable Things.

That's the sort of thing that would have me wasting approximately 5 times the amount of time it takes to enter 400 5 digit numbers into a spreadsheet researching machine vision libraries, before giving up and entering 400 5 digit numbers into a spreadsheet.

Why nobody molishes a certified stopwatch that can write CSV files or whatever is a mystery.

This one has been modded with a connection not only to a debouncing gizmo, such that two operations of a tape switch only trigger the lap count once, but also to a hot-rodded mouse that will simulate doing a left-click. Position the cursor over the appropriate button in the pre-configured spreadsheet & voila!

That's both useful and appalling in equal measures.

Also, the stopwatch thinks one lap about 90% of the way into James' 100 km record ride was about 4” slower than those either side of it, which doesn’t make much sense on a 250m lap

Wormholes, probably.

[Pingu]

I have to read 400 five digit numbers off an LCD display and punch them into a spreadsheet. This ranks even above Coldplay in my personal list of Undesirable Things.

Bah!

Sounds like a job for the work experience oaf. 

[Mr Larrington]

Need to put the data from the spreadsheet, the stopwatch and the space cowboy¹ side by side, but there was a Tour de France happening elsewhere.

The WWX Lackey has a full-time job on its hands keeping the spill-chucker running.

1: Newport velodrome's timing bod is a Steve Miller.

[Pingu]

Need to put the data from the spreadsheet, the stopwatch and the space cowboy¹ side by side, but there was a Tour de France happening elsewhere.

The WWX Lackey has a full-time job on its hands keeping the spill-chucker running.

1: Newport velodrome's timing bod is a Steve Miller.

Does that mean it's Miller time?

[Mr Larrington]

Subtract four seconds from the stopwatch numbers and it tallies with the spreadsheet to within a few thousandths of a second And there’s only a second or so difference between them and the pukka velodrome system.

Playing games with times in Excel is one of the least fun things you can do this side of the Tory Party conference.

[Kim]

Playing games with times in Excel is one of the least fun things you can do this side of the Tory Party conference.

There's a reason I forked CrossMgr and started learning Python...