Livin' the life...

Anchor -Hebrews 6:19
"Adverse circumstances surrounding us could easily drive us into despair. And yet we have a hope that keeps us from sinking. That hope rests on Jesus, and what He did for us on the cross” - Michael D. Waters (Source)

What more do we want!

Not with a bang, but with a whimper. Yahoo! is unceremoniously  closing GeoCities, one of the original web-hosting services acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $2.87 billion. In a message on Yahoo!’s help site, the company said that it would be shuttering Geocities, a free web-hosting service, later this year and will not be accepting any new customers.  (Full Story)

Ah.. another one bites the dust. I remember back in days gone by, when I was at Tripod (now Lycos Tripod), with my 25mb of space, and popup ads everywhere. I wonder if that will be next.

This article was interesting...

“Most people don’t really know how many calories their every day food contains. Or how hard they actually have to work to get rid of that extra energy. So make 2009 a year when you make conscious decisions and stop the weight sneaking up on you (Source)”

Pizza is just ridiculous! Shessh!

Enough said! Have a blessed week, and thank you M.C. for sharing this poem with me.

LOL!! (Source)

This is quite nifty! Read below..

Customers at a new branch of Sainsbury's in Gloucester will generate electricity when they drive over 'kinetic road plates' on the entrance to the car park.

The devices will convert the motion of the cars into enough energy to power the tills inside the store, reducing the amount taken from the National Grid.
The Dorset scientist behind the idea predicted the devices would soon be seen in shopping centres, petrol stations and ports across the country. They are already being trialled at distribution warehouses but it is the first time they have been installed at a supermarket where they can be used by ordinary consumers.

You can check out the full story here.

I trust you’ll enjoy this little poem for this week’s TFTW.

Sometimes I ask the question,
"My Lord, is this Your will?"
It's then I hear You answer me,
"My Precious child . . . be still."

Sometimes I feel frustrated,
'Cause I think I know what's best.
It's then I hear You say to me,
"My busy child . . . just rest."

Sometimes I feel so lonely
And I think I'd like a mate.
Your still small voice gets oh, so clear
And says, "My child . . . please wait."

"I know the plans I have for you,
The wondrous things you'll see;
If you can just be patient, child,
And put your trust in Me.

I've plans to draw you closer.
I've plans to help you grow.
There's much I do you cannot see
And much you do not know.

But know this, child . . . I love you!
You are precious unto Me.
Before I formed you in the womb,
I planned your destiny.

I've something very special
I hope for you to learn.
The gifts I wish to give to you
Are gifts you cannot earn.

They come without a price tag,
But not without a cost;
At Calvary, I gave My Son,
So you would not be lost.

Rest child, and do not weary
Of doing what is good.
I promise I'll come back for you
Just like I said I would.

Your name is written on My palm,
I never could forget;
Therefore, do not be discouraged when
My answer is . . . "Not Yet"

(Author Unknown)

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV) says:
"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace."

Have a great week!

English has now acquired its millionth word, according to a website monitoring the extraordinary emergence of new English throughout the world, including slang, word-marriages with other languages and the thousands of new terms spawned by the internet. ...

The Global Language Monitor, however, accepts as a word any coinage that has gained sufficiently wide usage: this includes hybrid words in Chinglish (Chinese English), Hinglish (Hindi English), Spanglish (Spanish English), Hollywords (terms created by the film industry), computer jargon and words forged by the internet.

Appropriately enough, the 1,000,000th word accepted as genuine yesterday was “Web 2.0” which was defined as “the next generation of web products and services, coming soon to a browser near you”.

Three other terms narrowly lost out to “Web 2.0” in the race the million mark: “Jai Ho!” a Hinglish expression signifying a major accomplishment; “slumdog” (made popular by the film Slumdog Millionaire), meaning a child slum dweller, and “n00b”, a mixture of letters and zeros which is a mocking term for a newcomer in the online gamer community. (Full story)

Web 2.0 .. ha.. sounds rather staged! I think n00b would have been more appropriate, as it’s been around muuchhhh longer!

What kind of company would try to start a new search engine now? Years after most people have grown accustomed to plugging queries into Google or, less often, Yahoo, anybody hoping to shake up that state of affairs had better bring both persistence and a pile of cash to the table.

In other words, it might help to be Microsoft, which launched a search engine called Bing (http://bing.com) on Wednesday.  (Full story)

I .. don’t really see why MS did this, but, I guess we’ll see how it goes. I heard it started quite strong, even coming before Yahoo! in some categories, but I’ve also heard that its ratings are dropping rapidly.. seems users are over the hype? Anyway, we’ll see how it goes!

Last night, whilst watching a movie I saw a little boy, probably the age of 12, risk his life to save his younger brother. When asked why he did it, he simply responded, “It’s Alehandro [my brother], he’s family!”. This willingness to put another before oneself reminded me of a real-life incident in Barbados recently, where two young lads drowned, one trying to save the other. I don’t intend to take away from this tragedy, but really, how great a love is that! Love that was willing to sacrifice it all to come to the aid of another. Hmm.. wait a minute, that sounds like the story of Jesus’ sacrifice all over again! Actually, during His short time on this earth, Jesus spoke at length about such unwavering love. One of His most well-known remarks is, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13, NKJV).

Serving others, and putting others before ourselves was one of Jesus’ primary teachings. Don’t take my word for it, open your Bibles to Matthew 20:26-28, or Matthew 25:33-40. In whatever area you can imagine, we as Christians are expected to serve each other. Frankly put, it’s a very serious expectation of our lives here on this earth, and one I don’t think we should take too lightly as Rick Warren highlights in the excerpt below..

“At the end of your life on earth you will stand before God, and he is going to evaluate how well you served others with your life. The Bible says, ‘Each of us will have to give a personal account to God’ (Rom 14:12, NLT). Think about the implications of that. One day God will compare how much time and energy we spent on ourselves compared with what we invested in serving others.
At that point, all our excuses for self-centeredness will sound hollow: ‘I was too busy’ or ‘I had my own goals’ or ‘I was preoccupied with working, having fun, or preparing for retirement’. To all excuses God will respond, ‘Sorry, wrong answer. I created, saved, and called you and commanded you to live a life of service. What part did you not understand?’ The Bible warns unbelievers, ‘He will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves,’ (Rom 2:28, NLT) but for Christians it will mean a loss of eternal rewards.” (Rick Warren: Purpose Driven Life, pp.231-232)

Remember your purpose here and work actively towards it, none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. We are commanded to love and to serve, nothing should keep us from these tasks. Whoever you are, wherever you are, you have a calling, get to it!

Facebook today integrated OpenID, crossing a major landmark in the openness of social networks. The step is even more significant as Facebook, the biggest social network of them all with over 200 million users, was considered resistant to being "open" -- until now.

If you're planning on joining Facebook, then OpenID integration would make the biggest difference. If you already have a Google Mail account (which supports OpenID) then all you have to do is enter your email credentials and your new account will be populated automatically with your data.

Existing users get this benefit as well with an account-linking feature, so you can link your MySpace, Gmail, Yahoo and other accounts with Facebook, reaping the benefits of automatic login. This means a whole lot less passwords to remember. All your OpenID enabled accounts will use the same login credentials and all your contacts will be automatically searched on Facebook.

Another advantage OpenID integration in Facebook brings is that once you are authenticated into Facebook, you are automatically logged into into every site using Facebook Connect (including your blog, if you have one). So far, the big focus in on Google, helping you friend on Facebook all your Gmail contacts. (Full Story)

Interesting. It would get an A for convenience, however I wonder a bit about what statements such as “your new account will be populated automatically with your data” really mean. Exactly, what data is shared? ...

Yesterday the weather was great and today and tomorrow it seems like we’re in for more of the same! Looks like we may have some type of a Summer after all! (Photo source – MetOffice)