Today’s Question of the day was submitted by GNL:
What can you tell us about yourself that may be surprising to others?
Me:
I grew up in a very strict Christian (7th Day Adventist) home. So strict that the movies and even bowling allies were forbidden places lest ye be lead astray. Not completely wrong btw. Anyway, my very first day riding the bus to school included catching the bus at a very large public HS. We attended a private 7th Day Adventist school but the school was so small it did not have it’s own bussing capability. Anyway, I was afraid of these public school high schoolers and was sure they would harm me for being Christian so I sang loud enough for everyone on the bus to hear, “Jesus Loves Me” so I would be protected. Sounds crazy, but true.
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If I may enquire … Are you still a SDA? If not, what caused you to move away from their belief system? If you choose not to answer, that is cool too. Thanks.
I am nondenominational now. I have a high degree of distrust for/in ANY large group/organization. I believe in God and I believe religion is a + for society.
I have a small nitpick on the SDA church. It was my belief that I was being taught that only SDAs would be able to go to heaven. My father has told me, over the last 10 years or so that I was not taught that. Well, that’s how I remember it. Maybe I’m wrong.
I see problems with every religion. How can ANYONE claim to be the one and only right religion?
I do believe, one day there will be a great deception led by TLPTB.
Thank you
I second that thank you.
I’ve had profitable encounters with many SDAs over the years, GLOCK…
…and not a one of em ever had that exclusivist attitude about their way being the one and only way. Most of em were quite reasonable and a few were excellent debaters.
My family tree is quite in your face about religion. In fact, they believe they are to proselytize. People tend to not like that so much.
No, for sure, I am not against SDAs. I believe they and Ellen G. White have gotten many many things correct.
Your post is spot on, GNL. It’s funnynotfunny how religion brainwashes. Mom went to a Catholic school. The teachers were nuns and they did their best to indoctrinate the kids that the world was a scary place, and you were going to hell if you weren’t Catholic. Because she lost her dad at an early age, she had to get a job. She worked at a dime store, she dealt with all kinds and saw that non Catholics were not the heathens nuns made them out to be. When she brought it up, the nuns insinuated that she was wicked.
I learned to ride a dirt bike at age 45. I wish I could still ride. It was fun! Sadly, my joints can’t take it anymore.
Most fun you can have with your clothes on, buddy
Try mountain biking at 67 if you want to talk about sore joints.
I saw guys racing motorcycles at what must have been 70 yrs old. Of course racing on a black top and riding a bumpy dirt bike…not so much the same. Until you dump your bike. Even then, 120 miles an hour and 25 miles an hour on dirt..not the same, either.
Try mountain biking and mogul skiing at 70. The sore joints only last a day and they are worth it.
Still mountain biking but I have about one mogul run a month skiing.
If there isn’t a powder day, it don’t ski much at my age.
I got a green belt in TKD when my son was getting active in the sport. I was 45 and then I had brain surgery.
I know about the joints. Lots of good oils help. I make them myself mostly, now.
I have a green belt in TKD, too Ghost. It was a gym class in college. We’d have to show up early and run miles before class started. Then we’d warm up with kicks and strikes, practice forms, one step spar, and finally we’d spar. When I turned in my transcripts, they told me I needed a “real” gym class. WTF? I ended up taking walking, ffs.
I stayed in great shape but didn’t really learn a lot about sparring.
I will vouch for you it was great exercise! But, very little real martial arts, to be honest. All that freaking gear!
We spent a fortune.
Maybe an old Honda XL/XR 600 with soft, worn out suspension…
Glock lives in a one mile radius of Langley, VA, I don’t.
That’s your big reveal? I poured my soul out to you folks and this is all I get from you. 🙂
Ok Donkey…here is some pouring…
All my life the number 34 kept popping up all the time all around me. It was crazy. Here are just a few instances.
It was my laundry number in boot camp. It was my nephew’s number on his HS football team (he is like a son to me and I helped raise him in some ways – his father wasn’t around). My father had a cooler throughout by boyhood with 34 on it (I have it now).
I would see 34 in the strangest places all the time.
I would get tickets and look at the numbers and the last two would often be 34.
I had two keys that were extremely important and they both had 34 imprinted on them.
The last two numbers of my zip code was 34.
This went on and on and on constantly until it became a running joke between me and my wife, until the worst day of my life in 2009. I was 59 years old.
I was alone in my home and was doing a study of the Psalms. I would read one a day out loud…then write about in in my journal.
I was past depressed for two reasons. My Father was dying and he was headed to hell. He had been a wonderful Father in all ways, but he was angary with God over his Mother’s hard death when I was 4 and other tragedies, and I knew he had never, ever made his peace with his creator, sustainer, and especially his savior. He would shut me down hard whenever I brought God up and/or the eternity we both knew he was getting ready to step into.
My consulting business was collapsing because of the Great Recession. In 2007 I had made more money than the previous three years combined…but now every single one of my clients had let me go because of their recession drop in sales…I had no income…and my business dream was turning into a zero cash flow nightmare. The rural land/farm I had dreamed of buying/building was fading fast away.
A dying lost Father and a failing business left me crushed.
I started reading out loud from the psalm of that day’s study, here were the words that as they came from my lips filled my spirit with an energy I will not attempt to describe with mere words…I started sobbing and crying as I was reading them:
4: I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
5. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces will never be ashamed.
6. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.
The split second I read out loud the word ‘troubles’ my heart was breaking and then the phone rang.
On the other end was a VP from the largest company in the country in the industry I was consulting in. I had done some work for him in the past. He wanted me to drop everything I was doing (which was nothing) and presented me with the one of the largest contracts of my career to date…and it led to many, many more contracts.
Later when I checked my e-mail my younger sister (also a committed Christian) had sent me a glorious, excited message on how my dying father had just told her he had accepted Jesus…and after they talked she knew now we both would see him again…and not to worry anymore!!! I read her e-mail aloud at his eulogy.
The words above I had read aloud that were answered that day were from…PSALM 34.
I finally knew why the number 34 was important.
God really does work in mysterious ways.
Awesome, Mark..Thanks for sharing.
Damn good story Mark. Now that is some pouring. May your cup runneth over.
Something very similar is happen with me.
For the last several years I CONSTANTLY see repeated numbers , especially on digital clocks. 2:22, 3:33 just this second looked at my computer and ..12:12 make the hair stand up on my arms. It happens a dozen times a day. I wake at night 3:33, 4:44, 5:55. Eerie as can be. Whatever this is hasn’t been revealed to me.
This is kind of funny. I have seen 11:11 on digital clocks hundreds of times in the past few years. I’m not the only one, and I read somewhere that when that time comes into view one is doing/thinking the right thing. Dunno, but it would appear that we live in a simulation. Way too many coincidences to be explained as random. The speed of light and that ice is lighter than liquid water, for examples, are not laws of nature but programming rules for this iteration of the game we live in.
Those 2 verses from Psalm 34 are some of the very few verses I’ve been able to memorize and they stay in my memory.
Thanks Mark.
Wow… I’m the 34th upvote, will be looking for that Number, thanks
Asking…you are my hero…just read the Psalm!
Dogonet…I was hoping the upvotes would end up at 34!!!
?? 2 spooky 4 me. 🙂
I hate stupid questions.
(That’s irony for those who think I’m being critical.)
I hate 5,000 word jokes on every Friday Fail MEME post. FF is for MEMES.
Ran for California State Senate in 1994. Ended up being the most expensive Senate race to date in CA thanks to a 50/50 split in the Senate. Went to every candidate forum, was on cable debates, was published in and covered by all the local papers, despite supporting actual freedom. My opponents spent over 3 million dollars to defeat me. A great experience that helped spread the ideas of liberty and freedom to all my potential constituents.
Very nice reveal about yourself. I hope you didn’t just dox yourself.
I’m a long way from that race.
I sleep naked. Guess who…
Admin. Can’t be Avalon. Women don’t sleep naked.
Yes, that seems to be true according to my experience. Why is that? If you want more dick action, sleep naked. I tell me wife that all the time.
You just gave the answer to your own question.
Wanna bet????!
…I know one that does.
My inate suspicions are … I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. My rationale is …. the women you see who protest topless are the ones you most vehemently don’t want to see topless.
I’m looking at areas to buy a summer home in Canada for a time when UNvaxxed can cross the border. I’m going to do the reverse flip of what most people would do. I made this decision after watching this movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfN7YWIIfVw
You won’t like the legal reporting that may come with owning a property outside the US.
When I was 16, I biked with another girl from Germany to Amsterdam and back, about 10 days round trip. Slept in youth hostels or tent. Was a great experience, but in an era before cell phones my parents must have had sleepless nights of worrying. I am so grateful that they let us be free and adventurous when we grew up. All the truckers honked even then.
Did you bike naked?
In the eyes of the truckers we did, I think.
Niiiiiice. 🙂
Go watch the movie … HOSTEL. Afterwards, count your blessings.
I have watched the movie. I also count my blessings often. I have done many more things whiccould have either end in adventure and triumph or in disappointment, injury or death. I am a stronger person now because of these things.
God blesses the bold, courageous, and enterprising.
I biked from Wisconsin to Seatle when I was 20 and on my way to Alaska. Montana is one big state.
Here are two for you:
I played guitar in several Death Metal bands back in the mid ’90’s. Released a number of albums and even made it into the Heavy Metal Museum. The sad part of that is that all the terrible things I wrote about back then have all come true.
Currently, I love to stage and photograph American made midcentury dolls acting as children would have acted in the ’50’s & ’60’s. It is my way to poke at woke culture. It was the only thing I could think to put on Instagram that wouldn’t get me canceled.
Have you ever posted any of your music? Didn’t you post a video of you talking about how devilish marketing is? Was that you?
1)— I actually believe choking-the-chicken is a Mortal Sin, and despite my jokes about it, it is not something I do.
2)— I have never ever said to another person face-to-face, “go suck Diseased Donkey Dick”. But, I have told people “go fuck yourself”, I am sure, thousands of times.
3)— I have dated Jewish women several times and for long periods, and even black women (twice). I am not kidding.
4)— There are people I would murder if I knew 100% that I could get away with it.
BL, QOTD- Who WOULD you murder Stucky, if you could get away with it ? 🙂
”
Thank you for asking. Probably you.
Now, FUCK OFF!!! lol 🙂
I am serious about what I said. But, seriously, do you think that’s something I would reveal on the internet?? Probably not, since you have that smiley face ending. But, just in case, some thoughts I will take to the grave.
Oh, Stuckenheimer, please look at the picture of all my OLDER cousins below and let me know if you laugh out loud…
It really is very funny, if you ask me!
Well, God did issue a command to replenish the earth … looks like your family wants to go it alone.
My Granny Fannie married her first cousin Elzie when he was 18 and she was 14. They had three kids before she really knew what was causing it, she told me one time. I asked her how come she had eight more kids and she said she decided she kind of liked it.
She made me laugh. Eleven kids. Grandpa died young of tuberculosis. My parents were married by then and my father helped her qualify for my grandfather’s small railroad pension and social security benefit, which was enough then to support a frugal family willing to work and put in a big garden.
Granny Fannie had a huge garden, of course.
When she died she had 47 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
1) are you sure about that?
2) Seriously? I don’t want to call you a liar but…
3) are you sure you want to reveal that?
4) I believe you. In fact, me too.
Choking the chicken? What did that pore little chicken ever do to deserve being choked?
There is not one thing I could tell folks on TBP that would surprise them.
Irritate them, annoy them, charm them perhaps, but surprise?
Seriously, Glock. I tried to come up with something, but I’ve done some outlandish shit here.
1960, before I was even there at my Granny Fannie’s. How many cousins did you have?
Granny Fannie’s favorite little baby front and center. She visits and cares for my mother now and sometimes we meet, greet and eat.
God loves me. That might surprise some of you. And I don’t think that kid on the far right had any underwear on. That’s a surprise.
Ghost,
I exempt your from this QOTD…indeed you have poured out your soul and life experiences many many times. There is something charming about a person that bares all.
LOVE
I’m glad you got that in the spirit it was intended.
But, next time I have lunch with my mother and that baby? I’m going to ask who the little chub is on the end without her panties.
My first vax. I was 5 years old, and in kindergarten, they took us to get vaxxed. I think it was a polio vaccine and it was delivered by gun. I saw people getting shot in the arm, and I didn’t like the idea of it at all. When it was my turn, I asked the Nurse. Does this hurt. She said maybe a little. She shot the gun. Boom! I immediately got nauseous, then wobbly and passed out. I did might best ever since then to keep away from creepy doctors and nurses.
I only went to the 3rd grade, I’m really not as tall as I sound on the internet and I once believed that capitalism was greater than the tooth fairy. The shame is often unbearable.
I’m six foot tall with DD’s tatas and I play the accordion. I’m the fastest gun in the west and have an IQ of 210. I can ride two horses while standing and have a tattoo of Texas on my butt.
I believe the part about your IQ but the rest, not so much.
My God! You sound just like Little Egypt! I had no idea!
You had me at accordion or one of those words. 🙂
In the 1980s, I moved to a new city and met a girl there several years later. She was in car traveling on a busy four lane city avenue with her cousin. They were in town for their relative’s funeral. They honked at my friends and me as we were walking along the avenue in pursuit of pizza. We waved back and they pulled over to a side street to talk.
The girl and I start dating weeks later. On our first date, we hung out together all day on a Saturday, played some frisbee, and I introduced her to my roommate’s brother from out of town, who, today, is a world famous head coach of a U.S. professional sports team.
That night, we attended a party hosted by a friend of mine. At the keg, the host of the party asked if that was my girlfriend. When I replied in the affirmative, he gave me hard time regarding how young she looked because I believe he was likely jealous. The host of that party also later became a world famous head coach of a U.S. professional sports team.
A year after that first date, I get a job in another city and, over time, make friends with a coworker. One night, at a bar, I introduce my girlfriend to my coworker friend. While discussing our backgrounds, how we met, etc, we learn that, in the 1960s, my coworker’s parents sold my girlfriend’s parents the house she grew up in and that my coworker, as a kid, lived on the same acerage just before my wife moved there as a young girl. WTF? No shit. The girlfriend became my wife and the coworker has now been one of my closest friends for going on four decades now.
What were the odds of that particular coincidence occuring in a random universe? Pretty darn low if you ask me. In fact, the stars had to align near perfectly for that chain of events to time out the way it happened. Like Forest Gump’s feather on the breeze: it is all either random rollerball in a cosmic pinball machine, or according to some divine plan, and perhaps a little of both.
Awesome. I have had several incredible serendipities in my life. Yes, it has to do with Prarabdh Karma Fate, just as Forest Gump described. One was meeting my wife. Another one was of this fellow homesteader; my mind kept telling me you recognize this guy. He stopped by one evening while we were playing music around the firepit. He told me the story of being a junkie on Diversey and California in Chicago back in the 70’s. I searched my mind and yes, I was about 16 and walking down the street in Chicago near Diversey & California. I see this drugged out guy maybe 5 years older than me. I wondered why someone would choose such a shit life. He was all pockmarked and easy to recognize. Here was the same guy and he was homesteading a few hundred yards down the road in Seward Alaska. He played us some trumpet and went on his way. That was probably the strangest as we had no close ties at all.
In the 90s was skiing in Aspen on Ajax. Quad lift. A woman got on wearing a horrible retro jacket. I joked w/ her; her luggage was left in Stapleton and would be there tomorrow. I said you sound like “Joisey”. Yes, grew up in Short Hills, live on E. 77th now. Her, where? Mississippi but live in NC. Oh she said. Have you ever been to Lenoir? My answer, so I assume you and Janet Hostetter Wilson are friends, along with Henry (her quirky husband). I had been married to a women from there.
Her – I was her Main Of Honor. She & I dated off & on for 10 years.
I like ABBA.
LLPOH’s anthem
Loved the girls in the tight jumpsuits. Smoking!
Swedes are fucking crazy about ABBA. Guess it’s a pride thing, although losing Volvo to China had to sting. ABBA in Sweden is still like Elvis used to be here.
I remember when Volvo had to change their entire car manufacturing system so as to overcome rampant absenteeism. Swedes didn’t like going to work every day, because Welfare State! The changed so that each car was entirely built by a team of several people, so that if there were absences 1) the entire team could cover, and 2) so that the team would shame the absent people for letting the team down. As you can imagine, it wasn’t very successful. Seems teams are less efficient than assembly lines – who knew? (Me, by the way). And seems that Swedes were hard to shame because Welfare State! If you pay people not to work – well, they won’t work.
So off to China for at least some of Volvo.
Why would anyone reveal that? 🙂
Only thing that y’all don’t already know about me.
Did I mention the girls were smokin’?
Ok, I accept your reveal. 🙂
Menthol or regular?
I have tried four times to post a comment here and every one disappeared into the ozone. Methinks there is mischief about.
Sometimes there’s a lag when I try posting and it’s enough I have to wait. Could be “man with no name” countermeasures.
Admin ,
Something is amiss. Is it my net server or something else? I post infrequently but without problems. Today I tried several times to post a comment and each time my comment quit and disappeared before I was finished.
Any thoughts?
Gryffy
Its a sporadic Cloudfare spam trigger. Wait 30 minutes and you should be good. So easy even a caveman can do it.
Yabba dabba doo, I like ABBA too.
I look and somehow come across as this compliant someone or no one, but I’m not compliant, and I never will be. Ho hum and yawn. People are shocked when I tell them I’m not compliant with shot policies. Thanks GNL. Probably not shocking here.
I was born on Friday the 13th.
I. Am. Not. A. Racist!
Are you white? If so, you must not have gotten the memo.
You be waysis.