Now you can add Emma Alvarez Site to your browser's search engines, because now it has a new search engine plugin. A search engine plugin allows you to make a search directly from your browser. In Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 you can find the search bar at the top righ. This means that you can search into the contents of Emma Alvarez Site from the search box of Firefox or any other browser that you use. You can add it just going here and clicking on the "Emma Alvarez Blog" name that is on the right of the icons. It is also linked from the line that you can find under the search box of emmaalvarez.com that says "Add Search To Your Browser". The new search plugin is hosted on Mycroft Project, a collection of Search Engine Plugins for your web browser. I have to thank Jordi R. Cardona for installing and developing this plugin. Jordi R. Cardona is a programmer, a Netbeans Community Partner, developer of the X3DV Module Suite for immersive 3D virtual worlds, and Co-Administrator of the Worldbuilders And Developers Community. You can check his page about virtual worlds and 3D: Hiperia3D News. And as some of you may know, he's my hubby too LOL :D

When Jules Verne was 11 years old he planned his first big journey. He would become a sailor. But his adventure lasted very little because his parents discovered him and took him back home. He promised not to travel anymore. He would just travel with his imagination. And with the imagination, Jules Verne make us all travel. With him, we've been around the world in 80 days, and we've make a journey to the center of the Earth, but with our imagination. Jules Gabriel Verne was born on February 8, 1828 in Nantes (France). He was the oldest of five brothers, and had always been a restless mind. Since he was a little child he collected scientific articles, and science was always of great interest for him. Following the will of his father, he studied law, but the idea of working as a writer was always on his mind, although his father ridiculed him for this, and this plunged him in a deep sadness. But he never surrendered. When Jules Verne went to Paris, it was a liberation for him. He met many intellectuals. Amongst them, Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas. Amazed by the scientific innovations of his times, he decided to make a project: create a new literary style that can talk about the advance of science, the projects of mankind to dominate nature and overcome the barriers of the establishment. But his father, horrified by the project of his son stopped to help him economically. So to make a living, Jules Verne wrote theater plays and sometimes operas of low quality. The demand of this kind of works was pretty high, so he had not much time for doing what he really loved. In 1856 he met whom will be his wife: Honorine de Viane Morel. He settled in Paris and worked as a financial broker. Very unsatisfied, he did his last attempt and turned a short novel that he already had written into his first big novel. "Five Weeks in a Balloon" was a big success. He was 35 years old and a contract that allowed him to live as what he always wanted: being a writer. For some time, he also was in politics. Alongside with H. G. Wells, both writers are considered as the fathers of science fiction. Albeit at last he may devote to what he always liked, the life of Jules Verne was not too easy. His son was interned in a psychiatric hospital during years. His very beloved nephew shot him in a leg, and he was lame because of this for life. Jules Verne was so devoted to writing that he even suffered from facial paralysis episodes. The health of Verne was very fragile. He was diabetic, and ended loosing his sight and hearing. On March 24, 1905, Jules Verne died in his home. There were a series of posthumous books published, that were revised by one of his sons, Michael. But Jules Verne left us a vast collection of works. Artworks of literature that were adapted to theater and cinema an countless times. Works that had an entertaining plot plus the reflection of great knowledge of science: geology, mineralogy, paleontology... Detailed descriptions of dinosaurs, ecosystems... All his works are detailed documentaries that imply an enormous investigation work. But the main thing in the works of Jules Verne is that without a doubt he was a visionary, a very advanced man for his times, that was even able of predicting inventions that years later became materialized, or even will be some day in the future. Jules Verne has made us and makes us all travel with the best of the winds: the imagination.

The character of Red Sonja appeared for first time in nº23 of Conan The Barbarian. Her scriptwriter was Roy Thomas and her drawer was Barry Windsor-Smith. The character of the warrioress of Marvel was based on one of the stories by Robert E. Howard (the creator of Conan. To know more about his read this article), to be more precise, in "The Shadow of the Vulture". Although other similar female characters had appeared in the stories of Conan, like Jenna or the daughter of Zukala, Red Sonja had some elements that made her very appealing for the reader. Red Sonja was a brave warrior, very attractive, with a strong personality, independent, and somewhat arrogant. The story of Red Sonja is the following: she was 17 years old when some mercenaries killed all her family. They killed her people and set fire to everything. The chief of the band raped her. A cry of pain got out of her mouth and she claimed for vengeance so loud that Scathach, the Red Goddess, decided to help her and told her how to handle weapons and fight. In exchange for that, she will never make love with any man in her life unless he beats her in combat. Sonja lived alone, and grew without protection, and learn to hate and how hard life can be. When she was eighteen, she became a famous warrior and thieve. Her fame of wild woman was very widespread. When Red Sonja joins to the soldiers that fight against the Turianians, she mets Conan. Conan feels a big attraction for Red Sonja, not only for her physique but also for her personality and her way of fighting. In all their adventures, Red Sonja always abandons Conan, she seduces him and abandons him. The first clothes of Red Sonja where some trousers, and a chain mail. Later, these where replaced by something similar to a metal bikini. In one of her adventures, Red Sonja finds the man that raped her. But he is half dead and she cannot take revenge on him, and invokes the demons that torture her. Since that day, Red Sonja fights against sorcery, in addition to working as a brilliant mercenary for kingdoms and kings. When Red Sonja meets Conan paired up with Belit the pirate, Belit feels terribly jealous. When Belit died, there continued to be a powerful attraction between Sonja and Conan, but because of her promise to the goddess, this relationship was never possible. Red Sonja has her own comics where she is the main protagonist, and not only one more of the characters that appear in Conan. Maybe there were too few numbers. But her tenacity, her bravery, and her long red hair turned her into an unforgettable warrioress of Marvel. Images (in order): Red Sonja I, by Valzonline; Red Sonja, by Anjum; Red Sonja Cover Sample, by RodGallery; Red sonja OIL, by imaginante.

The story of Daedalus and Icarus comes from the Greek mythology. Icarus was son of Daedalus, an architect, inventor, and sculptor, that was very well-known in Athens. The Goddess Athena herself had instructed Daedalus, and he felt very blessed for this. But his nephew Talos was equal or better in his profession. This tortured Daedalus deep within, and the jealousy grew inside him, so one day, Daedalus threw Talos off from the temple of Athena. So Daedalus was found guilty and sentenced to death, but he escaped and went to Crete, where King Minos welcomed and protected him. One day, the wife of Minos, Pasiphae, asked Daedalus to do a strange work: a wooden cow of the size of a real one, to fool the white bull of Crete. And a new creature was born, a being that was half bull and half man. It was called the Minotaur. After this aberration, King Minos decided to hide this creature, so he asked Daedalus to build a labyrinth where the Minotaur could never find the exit. The Minotaur only ate human flesh. So Minos ordered that the Athenians gave him human sacrifices. Theseus, son of the King of Athens, decided that he had to assassinate the Minotaur, and convinced Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, to help him. Ariadne gave a ball of wool to Theseus. Ariadne hold one of the ends of the thread, so he may come back to the entrance. That way, he may find the exit of the labyrinth. And he killed the Minotaur. Daedalus had had a son with a slave, and that boy was called Icarus. Minos was very enraged for the death of the Minotaur, and blamed Daedalus for that, so he shut up him with his son Icarus inside the labyrinth that Daedalus himself had built. Daedalus, after some time thinking in how to get out of the labyrinth, only found a way to escape: through the air, because the labyrinth had no ceiling. Daedalus built two pairs of wings with feathers and attached them to their shoulders using wax. And this way, they started to fly. Daedalus warned his son Icarus: "Don't fly too high, nor too low. If you fly too low the feathers may get wet with the sea, and if you fly too high the wax that hold your wings may be melted by the sun". But Icarus was so fascinated with the dream of flying that is the dream of every human, that he did not follow his father's advice. Icarus flew so high that the sun melted the wax that attached his wings, and fell to the ocean and died drowned. The sea where Icarus died was called the Icarian Sea. Daedalus arrived to Sicily, and King Cocalus took him under his protection, but Minos continued to chase him. Daedalus took revenge on Minos boiling him when he was having a bath with the hot water that Daedalus had installed in Cocalus' palace. This way, Daedalus avenged his son Icarus. Images (in order): Icarus, by eWKn on deviantART; Minotauros, by DocUhu on deviantART; Theseus and Ariadne, by IdleProdigy on deviantART; Ikarus fell, by ~darick on deviantART.

Final Image Preview: In this tutorial you will learn how to make a space scene from scratch, create glowing effects, and glowing shapes. For downloading the wallpaper click the image For this tutorial, I used the following photo called Cyber Girl, by Kristy Victoria.You can see her work in her gallery of Deviant Art. Open a new document in Photoshop with this size: 1280x1024, and a resolution of 72, and filled with black. Make a new layer filled with black. Set the blend mode to Screen, and add a Filter>Noise>Add Noise, with the settings: Amount 12%, Gaussian, and Monochromatic. Once you do this, adjust the levels with Image>Adjustment>Levels to 65, 1.00, 99. This generates stars. To add nebulae to this space scene, create a new layer and use Filter>Render>Clouds. Then, change its blend mode to Overlay. Double-click the layer to open the Layer Style dialog. Select Gradient Overlay, with these settings: Blend Mode-Overlay, Angle 52º and Scale 93%. For the colors, pick a gradient that has strong colors like a rainbow. Add a new layer just before the last, and create a big star using Filter>Render>Lens Flare. Use Brightness 109 and 105 mm Prime. Place it like in this photo: An the result must be something like this: Now it's the time to use the photo of the girl. You can use the Magic Wand Tool to select the white parts of the photo and then drag the girl to your document. Then, use the Lasso Tool to roughly select the hair, and use Select/Color Range to pick the white that remains in the hair and delete it. Place the layer containing the girl under the clouds layer, and Transform/Skew and Scale to change the girl so it looks more integrated in the image. Now, add some layer effects by double-clicking the layer of the girl and selecting Outer Glow, and these settings: Blend Mode-Normal, and in Elements: Technique-Softer, Spread 0%, Size 16 px. Duplicate the girl layer, and place it below the original, and apply Filter/Blur/Motion Blur, with these settings: Angle -49 Distance 82. This will integrate the girl even more. Duplicate the layer of the girl again and move this copy under the previous, and use Filter/Render/Fibers with Variance 16 Strength 4. Double-click the layer, remove the Outer Glow effect, and add Gradient Overlay, with Blend Mode-Normal, Style-Linear, Angle 121, Scale 89. Then add a Layer Mask, and use a gradient to get the following result: Everything that you place below the clouds layer is affected by the color overlay. Add some stars in other layers under that one, using my Sparkle Stars Brushes. The glowing ribbons are created with the Pen Tool, and brushes. Just draw something curved with the Pen, and select a brush (for ribbons, you can use the "Drop Shadows Brushes" that come with Photoshop). Select the Pen Tool again, and right click the path and select "Stroke Path", with the option "Simulate Pressure" checked. After that, apply these effects to the ribbons: Inner Shadow, Outer Glow, Inner Glow, Gradient Overlay. For downloading the wallpaper click the image

Giger is one of those artist that leaves no one indifferent. His style is surrealist, Gothic, very close to the universe that Lovecraft described in his stories. He defines it as bio-mechanical. Hans Ruedi Giger was born in Chur (Switzerland) in 1940. Since he was a child he felt attracted by the night, the mystery that dark places emit. Early, he began to wear in black. His favorite place of his home was always the darker place. Years later, he called his workplace "the dark room". He studied architecture and industrial design, and for some time he worked in interiors design, but since 1968, he was devoted to art. He did several album covers and in the 80s he met Deborah Harry (Blondie), a punk muse. Giger did an album cover for her in which Deborah was pierced by acupuncture needles. This cover surprised many people, because it was a surrealist work with an horror touch, and call the attention of many to the artist that made it. In 1977 he did one of his most important works, that brought him to fame: the design of the extraterrestrial creature Alien, and some of the scenarios of the movie. He also took part in Species, and other movies like Poltergeist and Batman Forever, amongst others. His esthetics, his fetishisms, made him a very influential artist. His books of illustrations are famous best-sellers. Giger has a museum devoted to him in Switzerland, in the city of Gruyeres, and a pub, the Giger Bar, which is a mandatory destination for all his fans. But Giger is not only a brilliant illustrator. He is also an amazing sculptor, a very original interior designer, who fills each of his works with an unmistakable mysterious halo. And all this turns H. R. Giger into one of the most important fantasy artists in the world.

Choosing a good web hosting service is one of the most important tasks for a webmaster. It can limit what kind of design you choose for your projects, because not all web hosts are the same. For example, some give you website building tools, and others may provide FrontPage Extensions or not. Also, the situation may be the opposite: you may have an already built website and need a host that supports all the features that you need. WebHostingRating.com is a new web hosting rating site that would be one of your best web tools for choosing a host. This site provides you with all the information that you may need. For example, you can find a directory of providers, their features, customers reviews... There's also a section of web hosting awards, that lists the best ones for many categories, so you can know what is the best to host a Drupal or Joomla site, or which is the best for an eCommerce site. To choose a good host is as easy as browsing the site and looking to the left sidebar, where you can click the category that best suits your project, and get instant recommendations, ranked and reviewed. Some of the informations provided are: Disk space and monthly bandwidth. Pricing and technical support. Available coupons. Content management systems that can be installed, like for example Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal. Number of subdomains, parked domains or multiple domains. If they provide you e-mail or not, and its features. File manager, website building tools, web programming languages supported. E-commerce features. Security features. For example, look this review of one of the best ranked services, InMotion. And if this is not enough for you, there's also a big article section of web hosting tutorials, in which you can learn about many topics, for example how to install the popular Wordpress blogging software in cPanel. As I said, before making a decision, first check WebHostingRating, and you won't repent.

I've done these Photoshop brushes. They are horoscope signs and names, with glows. And I want to share them with you. Download them for free, but before please read and understand the terms of use. Terms of use These brushes are free to use in commercial and non-commercial designs, as long as you follow these conditions: - The brushes can't be sold. You can sell the designs you make with the brushes, but not the brushes themselves. - They must be downloaded clicking the links from this article in blog.emmaalvarez.com. If you like the brushes and want your visitors to download them, place a link to this post, so they come and download them from here. Don't directly link them. - You can't redistribute the brushes without my explicit consent. If you want to pack them in a clipart library, cd or dvd, or anything else, ask me first. - You can't claim these brushes as yours. - Don't use these brushes in racist, sexist, hateful or blaspheme works. - You can link back and name blog.emmaalvarez.com in your website or designs, but it's not required, although I will appreciate it. Horoscopes Click here to download

Obama has won the Elections. And in spite all those opinions that make emphasis on the African-American nature of the new President, I would emphasize his talent. Obama has not won the Elections for being black, he has won because of being the best. And by the way, it was about time that an African-American became the President of the U.S.A. The brilliant career of Barack Obama has been decisive in these elections. Obama is a man of principle, of strong moral values, that has, with no doubts, captivated the whole world. His determination, knowing how to control the situation when they have to take decisions about the economical crisis, his generosity and loyalty to members of the opposition... Obama has proved to be a great man. His tears when he lost his grandma moved many of us. Obama is a real man, with real feelings. Today I heard a woman saying that today she didn't felt African-American, that she felt herself American. The dream of Martin Luther King has become true today. And also the American dream that says that everybody can reach the highest level with effort and hard work. Congratulations, Obama. Congratulations, America.

After eight years of silence, the mythical rock band AC/DC comes back with "Black Ice". Their previous work was "Stiff Upper Lip", published in 2000. "Black Ice" has 15 songs: "Rock 'n' Roll Train" "Skies on Fire" "Big Jack" "Anything Goes" "War Machine" "Smash 'n' Grab" "Spoilin' for a Fight" "Wheels" "Decibel" "Stormy May Day" "She Likes Rock 'n' Roll" "Money Made" "Rock 'n' Roll Dream" "Rocking All the Way" "Black Ice" The band is still loyal to their style, and some people compare this work to the mythical "Back In Black" of the 80s. Alongside with this album, AC/DC will start a tour that will last for more than one year. You can get informed of the tour tickets in their official page: http://acdc.com/ Although I must say you that many of the tickets of this tour are already sold out!!! Albeit the band was born in 1973, founded by the Scottish brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, the pass of time couldn't put an end their music, nor the death of the charismatic singer Bon Scott. Their style, far beyond time and trends, has made of this band a classic of rock music, getting fans of all ages during decades. In the following video, you can see the making of the music video of the song "Rock 'N' Roll Train", which is the promotional single of "Black Ice".

"The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven" -Martin Luther King- There's nothing like watching a storm from the warmth of home. Enjoy these: Photo by Angelrays Photo by Principia Aesthetica Photo by Pear Biter Photo by Brentbat Photo by Bob Jagendorf Photo by Bob Jagendorf Photo by Johny hanging head down from the tree Photo by TysonA Photo by Adam Baker Photo by Adam Baker Photo by TysonA Photo by Aussiegall Photo by Brentbat Photo by Tlindenbaum Photo by Soupboy