This is a post where I feature a song that I like. I call these types of posts ‘Songs I Like.’ Enjoy.

I’ve never met Sara in person. I met her the same way many of us have, through her blog. We’ve traded comments on blog posts and messages on Twitter, but I was never as close to her as some others.

Sara has a lot of friends. It’s impossible not to love her once you’re introduced to her. I always felt so much compassion for her because of the things she suffered, due to a condition that ultimately left her home-bound,  locked in her condo with only her faithful dog, Riley.

Though physically constrained, her heart and spirit are impossible to contain, and Sara reached out across the vast expanse of the Internet, and made friends everywhere. I read everything she posted, amazed at her positive outlook in spite of her circumstances.

I won’t lie – since I’ve known Sara, my life has been the most difficult it has ever been (and has been a roller coaster ride that doesn’t seem to want to stop). I’ve struggled with depression and family conflicts and a myriad of other issues. Somehow, when I would find myself wallowing in self-pity, I would always think of Sara, and instead of dwelling on my problems, I would offer up prayers for her.

Often my prayers were angry and questioning, wondering why God would allow such a beautiful soul to languish in the prison of a body fighting against itself. It just isn’t fair. I’ve done plenty to deserve my troubles, and probably deserve much worse, but Sara did not deserve to suffer the way she has.

Sara never seemed to think of things that way, though (which just goes to show how much better a person she is than myself). She had determined to choose joy, regardless of her circumstances, and her example has inspired countless others to do the same.

I celebrated with Sara when her friends would come to visit or send her gifts, I laughed with Sara at the antics of the blog dog, Riley and I cried with Sara when she lost her father suddenly and unexpectedly about a year ago. The strength of her faith to continue to choose joy inspired me. She has taught me so much.

Joy isn’t circumstantial; it doesn’t sneak up and surprise you. When you know in whom you believe, and trust that He holds you in his hand, you choose joy.

Although I’ve been walking through one of the most difficult times in my life, I inexplicably have joy, because I’m choosing it. I am certain, though, I would never have been able to do that without watching Sara do the same.

My heart is heavy, though, because Sara’s doctors have told her she won’t be here much longer, and I can’t get used to the idea of a world without her. But again, I’m choosing joy, knowing that she is soon to enter eternity, finally free from the prison of pain, and reunited with her father – safe in the arms of Jesus.

Sara, I’ll see you when I get there.

Listen to it, and give it respectful consideration. You don’t have to take their advice, but you should at least consider it.

Austin Kleon believes all advice is autobiographical.

It’s one of my theories that when people give you advice, they’re really just talking to themselves in the past.

If this is true, in most cases, it’s likely that the advice you are getting is based on a very, very hard lesson that someone learned.

Experience is a brutal teacher. But you learn. My God, do you learn. – C. S. Lewis

Learning by experience might be extremely effective, but it is the hard way to learn. You may can save yourself some trouble by learning from someone else’s mistakes.

It is entirely possible to learn from other’s mistakes, just by encountering their story. They may not be giving you advice directly, but a careful examination of their story can help you avoid the same pitfalls that they had to fight their way through.

This principle is why Jesus used parables to teach, and why other philosophers created fables to explain moral principles. A compelling story invites us into the narrative, allowing us to have the experience by proxy, and possibly learn the principles of the experience without having to endure the same difficulties. This can work whether the story itself is a work of fiction or a retelling of a true-life ordeal.

Don’t treat advice as if someone is telling you what to do; they may actually be telling you what they wish they had done, or what they wished they had known when facing a similar situation. And always look for the moral of the story.

Media Companies are trying to stop the future from coming.

After Netflix announced their new price structure today, the most common question from commenters was if Netflix was going to increase the size and scope of their streaming catalog.

The problem with this question, is that Netflix is not entirely responsible for which titles are available for streaming. The main resistance to allowing those titles to be streamed comes from the content owners themselves who are either clamoring for more licensing fees or trying to ‘encourage’ customers to buy physical media copies by making a physical copy the only availablilty.

What the media companies really want is to continue to make piles of money selling a physical product that is very inexpensive to produce, where they take most, if not all, of the profit. The problem is, with the state of technology in this day and age, consumers want media at their fingertips. They want it available on their computer, smartphone, tablet and through their set top box. They don’t want to own a piece of physical media (most of the time). We are living in the age of the e-reader and the portable music player and smartphones that do all of that and more. We are moving music to the cloud, and still, media companies are clinging to their old business model while it shrivels and dies.

All the while, the media companies are crying about online ‘piracy’, when most of the ‘pirates’ are either people who would have never bought their product anyway, or others who just want to get the media when they want it, in the format they want it in and not be encumbered by draconian copy protection schemes.

If media companies would make their products available when and how the customers want them, at reasonable prices (not $30 for a Blu-ray, thanks), they would more than make up in volume what they lose in profit per unit. Would it negatively affect physical media sales? Perhaps, but those are most likely going to continue to decline regardless, due to the changes that technology is bringing to the culture.

The movie and television industries need to take a look at the music industry and see how much it has struggled due to its failure to change its business model to capitalize on technological advances. The technology shift affected the music industry much earlier than visual media, and should serve as a warning to the movie and television industries to get some vision, or get ready for a very hard road in the years to come.

If the grass really is greener on the other side of the fence, chances are someone had to shovel a lot of manure to get it that way.

It is easy to get caught up in comparing our lives to other’s lives, and seething over how much better someone else seems to have things.

Sure, that person might have your dream job, but it wasn’t handed to them. They may have worked tirelessly for years to earn that opportunity. They might have a horrible boss, or terrible hours or an even worse working environment.

Another person might live in a nicer house or drive a better car than you have. But, you are not paying those bills, either.

It’s not healthy to engage in those comparisons. That is a waste of time and energy. It’s more productive to determine what you want to achieve and focus your efforts and energy to working towards those things.

Don’t want something just because someone else has it. There is no satisfaction in getting something out of that kind of desire.

When I read this post over at Mandy’s blog, it got me thinking.  The aforementioned post was the result of a writing prompt that asked the writer to imagine they had 15 minutes left to live, and with that knowledge to write the story of those last moments.

If that thought creates immediate anxiety in you, you are probably normal.

Then I saw this post that lists the top five regrets of those on their deathbed.  Feel free to pop over and read it, but I will summarize them here:

1. Not living a life true to themselves, but rather living to others expectations.
2. Working too hard or too much.
3. Not having the courage to express their feelings.
4. Not staying in touch with their friends.
5. Not being happier.

If you thought about the story of your last 15 minutes, were those regrets among your thoughts? What would you want to say, and to whom would you say it? What would you want your friends, your family and the world to know about you? What would you have tried to change?

The bigger question to me is – is it possible to live a life that, in the end, won’t be burdened with regrets? Could we be more intentional with our energy, our efforts, our words and our actions and do the things we should while we have the opportunity?

Chances are, your life is not what you want it to be.

Negativity is easy because the things that are wrong are not hard to find. It almost seems more natural for your mind to search out and focus on those things that you don’t like about your life. It is rarely productive to think this way.

A continuing focus on the negative will sap your mental (and even your physical) energy and destroy your motivation. The end result will always be a mindset of despair. Eventually, you will have convinced yourself that there is nothing you can do to overcome the things that have brought you to that despair.

Despair is a very poor starting point for getting anything accomplished. It makes it extremely difficult to conjure any productive or creative thoughts and to find any energy to do anything. In this state, everything you do becomes a burden, making you further resent your current situation.

Then comes the disenchantment and the restlessness. The overwhelming desire to escape. The detachment from the present, when the focus turns to the should-have-beens and the never-will-bes. The temptations you would easily resist begin to become more attractive, since they seem to offer a change from what has become the ordinary and the mundane. Your negative attitude will affect the quality of your work and your relationships, and instead of working to solve problems, you’ll only be creating more.

From here, it will only get worse, unless you counteract the negative thinking pattern.

The number one thing you can do to begin to reverse the negative thought patterns is to actively and intentionally look for good things in your life, and when you find them, be grateful for them. Especially the things that you probably take for granted right now. Like the fact that your car started, or that you survived your commute into work.

Try starting a gratitude list. You can start with only one thing. Every day, read the entire list, and try to add at least one more thing .

Making gratitude a part of your life will do wonders to change your perspective. As your perspective changes, you may find that the life you have is not the life you thought you had.

I use my Xbox 360 to watch Netflix streaming video pretty heavily. I don’t own an Xbox 360 Remote Control, so I have to use a wireless controller to navigate in Netflix and pause or stop videos.  Using a controller to do this can get to be inconvenient, since most of the time it is going to sit idle long enough to power off, on top of the fact that you still need your television remote to adjust the volume.

I could have purchased the Xbox Remote, but that would still require using two remotes. Since I have Comcast digital cable service, I have the Comcast-provided multi-device universal remote control.  It was already programmed to control my television, but I had not programmed the Auxiliary (Aux) device.  Since I had an available device slot on the remote, I did some internet digging and found some information posted on A/V forums as to how to program the Comcast remote to control the Xbox 360.

(This works with the Comcast Universal remote with the RED Select/OK button and the On Demand button.  It may work with the universal remote with the GREY Select/OK button with a different remote code, but I have not tested it.  You can see the remote information here.)

Here’s how to get all of the functionality you should need to use your Comcast remote on your Xbox 360:

1. Press the AUX button on the Remote.
2. Hold down the Setup button until you see the AUX button flash twice.
3. Press the following number combination on the number pad: 2 1 7 0 8 (0 5 2 2 for the remote with the grey select button). You should see the AUX button flash twice if you entered the code successfully.

The OK/Select button on the remote is locked to operate the receiver, so in order to have that function work with the Xbox 360, you need to program another button for that function (A/Green button on the controller).  I remapped the A button on the remote (located just under the DVR controls) for this function(these instructions may not work for the remote with the grey Select/Ok button). To do this:

1. Press the AUX button on the Remote.
2. Hold down the Setup button until you see the AUX button flash twice.
3. Press the following number combination on the number pad: 9 9 4.  You should see the AUX button flash twice if you entered the code successfully.
4. Press the Setup button once.
5. Enter the following number combination on the number pad: 0 0 0 0 1.
6. Press the A button.  The Aux button should flash twice again.

If you want to undo the remapping of the A button, repeat the above steps, but  press the A button twice instead of entering the number code.

After you have reprogrammed the remote, you should be able to control the Netflix app on your Xbox 360.  The functions/buttons are as follows:

Select(A/Green) – A button
Back(B/Red) – Exit button
Play –  Play Button
Pause – Pause Button
Stop – Stop Button
Fast Forward – Fast Forward Button
Rewind – Rewind Button
Navigation – Directional buttons (surrounding the OK/Select button)

The menu button on the remote will take you back to the video details in Netflix, depending on the screen.  I’m not sure which controller/Xbox remote function that equates too.  The Power button also seems to work to turn the Xbox 360 off/on.

For the best results, make sure you have good line-of-sight to the Xbox, because the IR reception seems to be tricky at times.

I’ve used this with Netflix quite a bit, and it has worked very well.  I have not tried it with the Hulu Plus app yet, but it should work similarly. As with anything like this, your mileage may vary.

Determine what is most important to you.

Align your priorities accordingly.

Do not spend more time and effort on a lower priority while neglecting higher ones.

For anyone unfamiliar, Hulu is an online video service created by a consortium of television networks that allows you to watch television episodes and movies online for free (with advertisements inserted).  I used Hulu in its internet browser only incarnation to watch an entire season of Burn Notice some time ago, but since Netflix rolled out it’s Xbox 360 capable player software, I’ve been content to watch my streaming shows and movies on my television. On-Demand from my cable provider does a good job of filling in the television gaps for the more recent shows that Netflix does not offer.

Hulu has since rolled out a subscription service, Hulu Plus,  that provides access to more content, both via their website, and through applications for supported devices (iPhone, PS3).

Since the Hulu Plus video player rolled out to Xbox Live members and offered a free month’s subscription, I thought I’d give it a try.  In general, I found it very similar to Netflix in its interface and functionality.  After using Hulu Plus to watch several television shows, here are my observations:

• Finding shows to watch is not a simple and straightforward as it could be. Netflix does a good  job here, with it’s genre categories and recommendations creating a list of icons to scroll through.  Hulu Plus has a similar display, but not nearly as many divisions, or icons displayed.  There is a search function as well, but not all of the resulting shows can be watched on the Xbox 360 (listed as web-only). Which leads me to my next point.
• Not all of Hulu’s library of shows is available on the Xbox 360. Hulu has a number of shows listed as web-only, which is confusing.  It’s somewhat understandable that Netflix has much of it’s content listed as Disc-only, but for a service that is entirely for streaming video, forcing a paying customer to watch something on his computer instead of his television doesn’t make sense.
• The show selection is not that great, especially for a for-pay service. At least in my opinion. There are a number of shows I would gladly watch on Hulu Plus, if they were available. Sadly, most of them aren’t.
• There are still advertisements before and during the shows. I can understand having advertisements during a free trial period, but once you become a paying customer, at the least, the number of ads should decrease.
• The interface still needs some work. Especially when watching back-to-back episodes in a series. When the video ends, you are returned to the start screen for the current episode, instead of going back to the episode list, or the start screen for the next episode.  It is a minor gripe, but it does get annoying.

The question remains, is it worth $7.99 per month for the subscription service?  The jury is still out.  If I find shows that I want to watch enough to pay the the monthly charge, I may keep the service just for convenience sake.  And since you can only watch Hulu content outside of a web browser when you are a Hulu Plus subscriber, the convenience of having it available on other devices might be worth it.  At this point, I’m going to enjoy the free trial, and worry about it when my free ride is up.