Livin' the life...

A few weeks ago I posted about a new, snazzy Masters programme at Liverpool Hope Univeristy. Well today, I’m doing something similar and posting about an even cooler Masters programme being introduced by Birmingham City University – M.A. in Social Media. Commenting on the topic, the course convener stated,

“During the course we will consider what people can do on Facebook and Twitter, and how they can be used for communication and marketing purposes. There has been significant interest in the course already, and it will definitely appeal to students looking to go into professions including journalism and PR.” (Ref)

What’s interesting is that the university seems to be very highly rated in that field (“currently ranks second in the Guardian's Media studies, communications and librarianship table” according to here), so surely they must know what they are doing!

Seems that you can study anything these days! Surely that’s.. a good thing.. ..?

Ah, life’s problems, issues, difficulties, trying situations.. There are so many of them! At work, school, or even when trying to relax, or go on a vacation. Even if we don’t have direct problems, sometimes it’s almost as we relish in the desire to worry, to think “what if”, to compare ourselves to more “fortunate”. I wonder, do we really want to be happy, and content? Anyway, this week’s TFTW is a simple cartoon picture. It illustrates that no matter what we have weighing us down, Jesus is always there offering to help us. Regardless of what it is, He is there. Our problems were not meant for us to carry alone (if at all!). Our bodies and minds are to frail.. heart attacks, strokes, and cases of depression clearly exemplify this fact.

Therefore during this week I beg you to remember these words.. “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” 1 Peter 5:7.

Have a great week, and I beg you.. remember this verse when those problems, issues, difficulties and trying situations hit you this week.

If you are into any kind of development where drop-down menus are required (online or even on desktop), the Designing Drop-Down Menus: Examples and Best Practices article offers great guidance.

Very useful article - 10+ Best Firefox Addons for Security and Privacy !

I got this email a few weeks back, and I enjoyed it, I hope it will bring some joy and insight to your life as well.

The Healing Power of Laughter

One of the greatest stress relievers God has given us is laughter. It not only makes us feel better, but it actually releases healing throughout our system. When we laugh, it restores and rejuvenates what the pressures of life have taken out.

Proverbs 17:22 puts it like this, "A happy heart is like a good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing." Notice, when we're good-natured and full of joy, taking time to laugh and play, it's like taking a good medicine. That's what helps us to stay healthy. People that laugh regularly are 40% less likely to have a heart attack than people that don't laugh regularly. Laughter triggers the right side of the brain, which helps release creativity and helps us to make better decisions.

There is too much sickness in our world today. Much of it is related to sadness. It's directly related to the fact that we don't smile enough. We live uptight and stressed out.

But even during trials and hard times, God says to us, "I've got a solution. In difficulties, cheer up. In famine, laugh. Keep your joy." You can laugh your way to victory, to better health and to more energy.

God knows the end of the story. He knows the final outcome. The good news is you and I win. God always causes us to triumph. We should have a spring in our step, a smile on our face, joy in our hearts and unshakeable faith. God's plan for our lives is for good and He has the answer to our every question. Knowing this, we can laugh at the days ahead! (attributed to Joel Osteen)

More laughter people.. it has a very worthy purpose! Laugh Laugh Laugh!

Extensions undoubtedly have helped to make Firefox the browser of choice for millions of people out there. Well, it seems that Google has caught onto this, and now, coming soon are Google Chrome extensions. I must admit, I don’t really use Chrome, but I’m quite eager to see what extensions they come up with. After all, Google is very well known for its innovative mentality!

Check out more on the Chrome Extensions story here.

Yep. I heard it was on the news about a week ago, but I’m now feeling the pinch of it. YouTube has cut U.K. viewing of TONS of music videos. More often than not when I visit youtube now, I get a “This video is not available in your country.” message. Well, that’s unless I’m playing some hidden, obscure copy of The Kooks, The Streets, Kate Nash or some other UK-based artist. If you want to know more about this, check out the excerpt below and the full story, if you’re really keen.

Google-owned video-sharing site YouTube is silencing music videos in the U.K. after negotiations with the country's Performing Right Society (PRS for Music), which collects licensing fees for artists and labels, failed.

"Our previous license from PRS for Music has expired, and we've been unable so far to come to an agreement to renew it on terms that are economically sustainable for us," a statement from YouTube read. "There are two obstacles in these negotiations: prohibitive licensing fees and lack of transparency. We value the creativity of musicians and songwriters and have worked hard with rights-holders to generate significant online revenue for them and to respect copyright. But PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our license than before." (Full story) (or BBC article)

.. ah well. There goes a number of my playlists.

My msn nick for the latter portion of this week contained the words from a popular reggae song back in the Caribbean. Specifically the words were, “Haven’t I told you Jah go bless us, and make us strong..”. On Friday, a friend instant messaged me and queried the use of the name Jah in my nick, as opposed to the full name, Jehovah. Their query was particularly related to the shortening of the word Jehovah (to Jah), and the possible disrespect to our Lord, that this might connote. This was all under the assumption that Jehovah, and not Jah, is a name used to refer to our Lord in the Bible.

Being very confident in the authorized (and not disrespectful) use of Jah as a shortened version of Jehovah (I had this discussion with someone a few years back), to respond to their query, I quickly did a (online) search of the Bible. To my surprise however, I could not find Jah! At this point, I must admit, I started to sweat a bit, because (1) Jah is commonly used by Rastafarians in a slightly different context (the song above is sung by a Rastafarian), (in using the words of the song in my nick, I assumed my meaning of Jah instead); and (2) simply put, disrespecting our Lord is not something I’m too keen on doing!

After searching a bit more, to my comfort I found the name Jah, neatly tucked away in the (“old school”) King James Version (we were initially only searching NIV and NKJV). After discovering this, I also remembered a few other names that are commonly used to refer to, or represent God’s name so I decided to dedicate this week’s TFTW to them. Below I list the most common ones and where you may find them i.e. Bible versions and chapters/verses. Hope you find it useful! Oh, and it’s always important to remember The Trinity in discussions such as these! (For reference, I used BibleGateway as the main source of information.)

LORD – (this should need no justification!) (notice it is capitalized)

JEHOVAH - Psalm 83:17-18, Isaiah 12:1-3, Isaiah 26:3-5 (KJV) (notice it is capitalized)

JAH - Psalm 68:3-5 (KJV) (notice it is capitalized)

YHWH – seems to be Hebrew for LORD. For example as a footnote for LORD in Exodus 6:3 (NKJV), they write, "Hebrew YHWH, traditionally Jehovah" (Ref). Also, in Exodus 6:2 (NLT), it states, “I am Yahweh—'the Lord.'[a]”; the footnote for [a] reads, “Yahweh is a transliteration of the proper name YHWH that is sometimes rendered “Jehovah”; in this translation it is usually rendered “the Lord” (note the use of small capitals)” (Ref)

Yahweh - Exodus 6:1-3, Exodus 17:14-16, Exodus 33:18-20, Exodus 34:4-6 (NLT)

YAH - Psalm 68:3-5, Isaiah 12:1-3, Isaiah 26:3-5, Isaiah 38:10-12 (NKJV) (notice it is capitalized)

It’s only a few names, but I think these are the most commonly agreed ones. For further study, you may also want to have a look at a few other names (some of which are Hebrew) i.e.: Yeshua, Abba (Aramaic for Father - Mark 14:35-37 - NIV), El-Shaddai (El-Shaddai, which means “God Almighty,” is the name for God used in Gen 17:1; 28:3; 35:11; 43:14; 48:3. - Exodus 6:2-4 - NLT), and Adonai.

Have a blessed week!

(Thanks for the idea for the TFTW topic J.H.)

A British man fed up with his wife's complaints advertised her for sale -- and got a number of offers.

"Nagging Wife. No Tax, No MOT. Very high maintenance -- some rust," wrote Gary Bates, 38, in a small ad in Trade-It, more usually used to buy and sell cars or household goods. (Full story)

Lol! I wonder... *heh

Internet giant launches Google Voice phone service.

Google has your Web searches. Now it wants your phone number.

The Internet search giant on Thursday is announcing a service called Google Voice that assigns users a phone number that consolidates voice mails and text messages from their various phone numbers and stores them a single location that can be accessed remotely. Google Voice also lets users make phone calls over the Internet. (Full Story)

There's no stopping this lot!

University programmes seem to be getting more and more diverse, to cater to ANYTHING under the sun. I remember when I saw The University of the West Indies (Cave Hill, Barbados) offering an M.Sc. in Cricket Studies, I was quite shocked! The West Indies has been known for their cricket for decades, but still, an M.Sc.?!

Anyway, today I found another very interesting programme being offered by the Liverpool Hope University. It's an M.A. in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society. Imagine that! Assuming this university did their research, this means that there was actually demand for such a course! Why.. it bewilders me! I've also heard talk from a friend that some other university plans to start up a B.Sc. in Manchester United Studies. Now... really??? :| Anything goes it seems. Talk about "specializing".

"Life is hard, and then you die", these are the words that I have been constantly tempted to confess over the last few weeks. It seems like every time things look as if they could go my way, a HUGE roadblock emerges that makes my life, just, plain HARD! Last Friday was the straw.. no wait, the last 200-ton brick, that broke the camels back. While attempting to get a necessary (and arduous) task done over the last few days, I made a silly mistake, which ended up costing me time, money, and "peace of mind". I prayed beforehand for things to go fine, after things flopped, I asked God all day that things would get better, but in my opinion things got progressively worse. And unfortunately, there will likely be setbacks from my mistake. At that time, what else could I scream but, "Life is hard, and then (..after a few years..) you die!"?

Some of you may comment, "But Jason, you write these TFTWs every week, and you have even commented on issues such as this before and highlighted options to help during these times; why didn't you call them to mind when in the scenario on Friday?" My reply? I tried. I tried very hard, but with barely any sight of light at the end of the tunnel, I simply lost it. I got frustrated, and lost it.

After explaining my situation to a friend on that same day, I got a text reply saying, "Just remember this. God is always in control. Whether situations go the way we want or not. He is in control." Guess what.. For some reason, this really helped. It proved an eye-opener, and I immediately started to think, well, then, there must be some purpose for my troubles, maybe a lesson to be learnt? The timing wasn't right? (God's time IS perfect!) Or maybe it is to teach me that when I'm faced with constant pain, instead of throwing my hands in the air and shouting, "Life is hard, and then you die", I should confess, "I have tried to do things right, however things have not worked out, but Lord, with your help, I'll try again!"

When we're faced with problems, or sticky situations, even when we think we've perfectly done "our part", or "all we can do", let's remember Bible verses like this.."but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:3-5) Yes.. there is purpose to our struggles and tribulations. Let's remember this well.

May we all have a great week, regardless of what is thrown at us!

5 Great Microsoft Web Services You Probably Don't Use - is a pretty useful article from PCWorld that looks at 5 of Microsoft's better services online. These include Windows Windows Live SkyDrive, Live Sync, Live Mesh, Microsoft Office Live Workspace and Microsoft's Virtual Earth 3D. I suggest you especially take a peek at SkyDrive and Microsoft Office Live Workspace. Enjoy!

It gets worse...

A psychologist is urging people to get off Facebook and other social networking sites, and get a life instead. Skip related content

Dr Aric Sigman says the amount of time we spend with each other has slumped dramatically and in turn is damaging our health.

He says our devotion to such sites could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels, and the function of arteries, and influence mental performance.

Levels of hormones such as the "cuddle chemical" oxytocin, which promotes bonding, altered according to whether people were in close contact or not. (Full Story)

hmph!