Where in the World Is Doug Philips (Who Is a Tool)? Part 8

[nausicaa]

1 hour ago, Palimpsest said:

I thought that VF didn't celebrate Christmas, so there was nothing magical about that. 

One wonders whether she has ever managed to get anything "real" done at any time of the year.  Oy, Beall!  September is back to school time for most children.  So you were sitting around making memories, traveling and trying recipes instead of homeschooling.

She makes herself sound like an idle idiot.  There is nothing inspirational about Beall.

She really does sound idiotic in that post. And while I can understand lamenting not getting things done over the holidays--why are September and October suddenly included in that? She's seriously stating that she just threw out an entire third of the calendar year every year? 

Like you said, September is back-to-school time for kids and "get focused again" time for a lot of adults. Libraries and community centers start a lot of their programs then. And considering summertime was for trips and family vacations--when exactly did these kids do schooling? I really didn't know the Philips family was this disorganized. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I really hate this kind of thing. I actually think it’s a good quote but it shows how incredibly ignorant she is of public school. Does she not know what IEPs and gifted services are? Public schools have programs in place designed for children who have special needs. Would she know what to do if one of her children was either gifted or had a learning disability. Professionals in public schools are highly trained to help these children with special needs. I think that the children in fundie homes with special needs are far worse off than if they were to attend public school. Beall is lucky her kids are most likely average and she doesn’t have to attend to any special needs. Because she would be fucked. 

[DomWackTroll]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Yeah, there was so much Peak Crazy with VF, but there have been some great spinoffs (the Bradrick! Kelly Implosion, recoveringdaughters, the Phillips Family post-VF diaspora, people returning to dressing normally, the inherent and continuing snark-worthiness of ALL THE BOTKINS) and one can be sure there are more to come. 

This is how I feel, too, @Howl. Yes, I miss the LARP-ing and the weddings and the conventions, but I'm optimistic. Why? Because many of these people are simply batshit crazy, and they will find a way to express it come hell or high water. Doug's hiding right now, but it's probably only because he's planning some kind of grand comeback. It's not like he's going to suddenly turn "normal." And think of all those big, big VF families, many of which still follow Dominionist teachings. It's like the Kennedys: statistically speaking, how long can we possibly go without a scandal/controversy?

[Howl]

3 minutes ago, DomWackTroll said:

Doug's hiding right now, but it's probably only because he's planning some kind of grand comeback.

That, or Esquire is in major hot water over some legal issue or another -- ethical, moral, who knows -- and he's laying low. 

[AnnaSofia]

I personally think he's broke, otherwise he'd be running around Europe, offering free photography/videography services to more Lady Flo types in an effort to build his "brand" someplace where his past is less of an issue.

Right now he seems to be working on getting his Bowden project picked up, probably because it's the only real iron he has in the fire at the moment.

[Fundie]

Alyssa welch’s Latest Instagram post.....

 

defintely leaves me thinking that their is some truth to the assumption that her and Robert have split.:(

[AnnaSofia]

I have mixed feelings. My main takeaway from that epically long courtship story she posted back in the day was that she was really never very enthusiastic about him, even when she was writing it, years later. That said, I was impressed that he seemed supportive of her, and since they both seemed to realize how toxic the VF/ATI lifestyle was, I had hope for them.

In any case, it can't be easy to end a marriage after more than 20 years, and so many kids.

[Howl]

Which Alyssa Welch is she on Instagram?  There are quite a few of them. 

[Fundie]

Hope.chronicles

[AnnaSofia]

The post seems thought out and pretty self aware. I wish her the best.

[Howl]

hope.chronicles, the yoga lady?  

[AnnaSofia]

I lost track of her IG for awhile* (I think she either went private at one point, or maybe changed her ID?) but that looks like her.

 

 

 

*I don't actually follow any of the fundie accounts, I just view them on the web as long as they're public.

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

What @DomWackTroll and @AnnaSofiasaid.  DPIAT preached loudly against pagan Christmas and harangued people who wanted to put up pagan Christmas trees.  While running special Christmas sales.  

Yes. As Jesus said, you cannot publicly celebrate both Jonathan Edwards and My birthday, so pick 'em.

Seriously, I always figured that the anti-Christmas verbiage spewing from Doug's mouth & blog was part of the pseudo-Calvinist, neo-Puritan crap they all claimed to believe in. Profiting from Christmas sales -- now, that's a different matter!

[Hane]

My all-time favorite Hazardous Journey was the one where they were supposed to go on a daring testosterone-fueled hike up a glacier. I took great satisfaction in reporting that, in Reykjavik, I met a woman who had spent her 60th birthday doing just that!

[Anonymousguest]

As a long time homeschooler I tend to think of September as a new beginning. The new school year always held lots of promise of new growth and adventure. Christmas was an interruption, so January was more a time of getting back on track. And I feel the same now that I'm not homeschooling and my kids are all in school. I'm teaching (other people's kids, lol) now so it's the same new starts excitement. And I have similar "New year's goals" to be more organized, meal plan, etc.  I find it odd that someone who has spent the last 30yrs teaching in some form wouldn't think of September like this. It's hardly an epiphany.

[AnnaSofia]

15 minutes ago, Anonymousguest said:

  I find it odd that someone who has spent the last 30yrs teaching in some form wouldn't think of September like this. It's hardly an epiphany.

I think Beall is just seriously burnt out and grasping at straws to stay motivated. She seems to have hit a plateau on her keto diet, her oldest is leaving the country, she presumably won't be there for the birth of her first grandchild, Doug is in the wind as always, and she (and at least a couple of the kids) are selling plasma at sketchy interesting places for cash. She seems pretty adrift at the moment, and all the faux-motivational language just makes it sound even more sad.

[Howl]

55 minutes ago, Hane said:

My all-time favorite Hazardous Journey was the one where they were supposed to go on a daring testosterone-fueled hike up a glacier.

More like testosterone addled, but to your point, yes, yes exactly.  

Many years ago, my yoga group went out to Hovenweep National Monument as part of a weekend yoga retreat.  We were hiking out to one of the outlier ruins, and were draping ourselves backwards across nearby friendly rock outcrops for chest openers, a relatively vulnerable position.  About then, a family group of a dad, mom, and two little kids went by.  The dad was rocking the biggest holstered side arm I've ever seen, before or since.  It's all about perspective and perception.  Well, that, and some people just need to be big macho swinging dicks in their own minds.  That. 

 

[Palimpsest]

4 hours ago, Hane said:

I took great satisfaction in reporting that, in Reykjavik, I met a woman who had spent her 60th birthday doing just that!

 She wasn't a manly man and wasn't taking that huge risk for Dominion so it doesn't count.

3 hours ago, AnnaSofia said:

She seems pretty adrift at the moment, and all the faux-motivational language just makes it sound even more sad.

No, she's up shit creek without a paddle and all the denial in the world won't help.

I hope Virginia is at least getting some semblance of schooling.  I also feel for Honor and Providence. 

[Mrs. Bean]

14 hours ago, Fundie said:

Alyssa welch’s Latest Instagram post.....

 

defintely leaves me thinking that their is some truth to the assumption that her and Robert have split.:(

What’s her handle?

found her, and I concur

[ophelia]

15 hours ago, nausicaa said:

Like you said, September is back-to-school time for kids and "get focused again" time for a lot of adults. Libraries and community centers start a lot of their programs then. And considering summertime was for trips and family vacations--when exactly did these kids do schooling? I really didn't know the Philips family was this disorganized. 

I wonder if they were always this disorganized or if Beall just stopped caring after VF's falldown and Doug more or less disappeared. 

[nausicaa]

20 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

As a long time homeschooler I tend to think of September as a new beginning. The new school year always held lots of promise of new growth and adventure. Christmas was an interruption, so January was more a time of getting back on track. And I feel the same now that I'm not homeschooling and my kids are all in school. I'm teaching (other people's kids, lol) now so it's the same new starts excitement. And I have similar "New year's goals" to be more organized, meal plan, etc. 

I have no kids and have been out of school for nearly a decade and I still think of September as a new beginning. Even more so than January. It's my "get it back together" restart time after the break of summer. 

I suppose it's fine if Beall happens to think of the year differently, but I'm still giving side eye to her statement that for at least 1/3 of the year, she has no schedule and no plans, as a homeschooling mom. Considering how many summer trips they used to take, when did these kids have lessons and schedules?

[Quinquagenarian]

Interesting that Beall recalls starting back to school in college years but not the years she taught school before marriage. 

Also, weren't birthday cakes also verboten the VF era? I wrongly asserted it was birthdays but DPIARBT did used to go on and on to commemorate those, but I think the birthday CAKE was somehow a lunar/pagan moon thing that was despised.

 

[acheronbeach]

On 9/4/2018 at 10:19 AM, Hane said:

My all-time favorite Hazardous Journey was the one where they were supposed to go on a daring testosterone-fueled hike up a glacier. I took great satisfaction in reporting that, in Reykjavik, I met a woman who had spent her 60th birthday doing just that!

I loved that one too because if you have any familiarity with Iceland at all, it's clear they just drove around the ring road and hit up a few of the extremely touristy sites no more than a couple hundred metres off the road.  They cropped and edited out the other tourists/brochure stands/parking lots beautifully.  

[MamaJunebug]

On 9/5/2018 at 12:25 AM, ophelia said:

I wonder if they were always this disorganized or if Beall just stopped caring after VF's falldown and Doug more or less disappeared. 

BF — Before the Fall - they had staff* to handle all the mundane little trivialities that get and keep a home and family organized. 

*Unpaid staff. And in at least one instance, molested unpaid staff. 

[Howl]

I was contemplating this today.  Like, Beall, I live in Texas, just a bit further north.  September brings with it the HOPE that there will be a break from the oppressive heat of summer.  A puff of cool air from a cold front.  A night that will fall below 75 or 80 degrees.  It does somehow feel like a change is on the way, even if we have to wait until Oct or even mid October for real change.   Real fall (trees changing, cool/cold weather) won't happen until early November.  But still.  When September rolls around, the possibility is there, when it's not in August. 

By December, I'm at my annual low.  We're heading for the shortest day of the year.  I'm in a semi-hibernation state.