"OUVIR ESTRELAS ..."

Merry Christmas!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 15:14:00 +0000

Photo Contest "IN SEARCH FOR INCREDIBLE"

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:22:00 +0000

Hello my friends!!!

My son got shortlisted just recently with a photo/storytelling contest in the Netherlands. He is among the 10 finalists from Holland. Now its a voting phase, to move on to the final stage. Help is deeply appreciated, simple stuff.

Over the link, find a few thumbnails below.

http://www.insearchofincredible.com/nl

His will be the "Al-Maghrib, Morocco", with a cover photo of usually some Arab typography, or a motorcycle/tapestries.

Simply click "STEM NU" (vote, in dutch) , type name & email (no third parties will be sent), and "VERSTUREN" (send, in dutch).

This is his photo:

Thank you so much! :)

Alaa Wardi

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:30:00 +0000

What a talented and creative guy!! I love that!!!

Happy Eid-Mubarak !

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:32:00 +0000

Get lost, Mubarak !!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:37:00 +0000

You go 30 years late!!!

Pegasus

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:32:00 +0000

Pegasus is one of the best known fantastical creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine horse, usually white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. He was the brother of Chrysaor, born at a single birthing when his mother was decapitated by Perseus.

Greco-Roman poets write about his ascent to heaven after his birth and his obeisance to Zeus, king of the gods, who instructed him to bring lightning and thunder from Olympus. Friend of the Muses, Pegasus is the creator of Hippocrene, the fountain on Mt. Helicon. He was captured by the Greek hero Bellerophon near the fountain Peirene with the help of Athena and Poseidon.

Pegasus allows the hero to ride him to defeat a monster, the Chimera, before realizing many other exploits. His rider, however, falls off his back trying to reach Mount Olympus. Zeus transformed him into the constellation Pegasus and placed him in the sky. There are theories that ascribe the origin of Pegasus to Pihassassa, the ancient god of thunderstorms in Hittite mythology. Hypotheses have been proposed regarding its relationship with the Muses, the gods Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, Apollo, and the hero Perseus.

The symbolism of Pegasus varies with time. Symbol of wisdom and especially of fame from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance, he became one symbol of the poetry and the creator of sources in which the poets come to draw inspiration, particularly in the 19th century. Pegasus is the subject of a very rich iconography, especially through the ancient Greek pottery and paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance. Personification of the water, solar myth, or shaman mount, Carl Jung and his followers have seen in Pegasus a profound symbolic esoteric in relation to the spiritual energy that allows to access to the realm of the gods on Mount Olympus.

In the 20th and 21st century, he appeared in movies, in fantasy, in video games and in role play, where by extension, the term Pegasus is often used to refer to any winged horse.

Source: Wikipedia

Google...Google

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:02:00 +0000

Darth Google

Wish you all!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 12:39:00 +0000

Attention!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 12:38:00 +0000

White Flowers

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 11:30:00 +0000

Season's Greetings!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:50:00 +0000

Darfur, Sudan

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 23:42:00 +0000

The Last Waltz

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:23:00 +0000

How good a hug is!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 21:50:00 +0000

It's wondrous what a hug can do.
A hug can cheer you when you're blue.
A hug can say, "I love You so"
Or maybe, "I hate to see you go."

A hug is "Welcome back again,"
And "Great to see you! Where've you been?"
A hug can soothe a small child's pain,
And bring a rainbow after rain.

The hug, there's just no doubt about it
We scarcely could survive without it!
A hug delights and warms and charms,
It must be why God Gave us arms.

Hugs are great for fathers and mothers,
Sweet for sisters, swell for brothers;
And chances are your favorite aunts
Love them more than potted plants.

Kittens crave them, puppies love them;
Heads of states are not above them.
A hug can break the language barrier,
And make travel so much merrier.

No need to fret about your store of 'em;
The more you give, the more there is of em.
So stretch those arms without delay
And give someone a hug today!!!!

A No Reason Hug !
Hugs are very special things
Everyone knows it's true
There simply is no better way
To say, "I care about you !"

Between two friends it brings a smile
Or cheers a heart that's sad
It turns anger into laughter
And makes you both feel glad !

So today this greeting comes along
With a hug meant just for you
But there is no special reason;
I simply wanted to!

Street Art by Alexandre Farto aka Vhils

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 23:34:00 +0000

The 24 years old portuguese graffiti artist Alexandre Farto (Vhils) started with a traditional graffiti “bombing” and later he passed on to the street art and has been doing this for the past 3 years. The whole world is considered to be his home town and the point of inspiration. The old town of Lisbon and his room are his most favorite places, where Alexandre loves to work or see the art of the others. At nights he explores the process of burning, and if got some more time he would finish one trick, visit some train watching spots and sleep for a long time…

Vhils oversteped the limits of graffiti. So now when going to a future work-of-art place he‘s taking not only spray bottles of paints, but also a perforator, a hammer and some scratchers. After spraying the drawing he “deepens” it taking off the plaster and paper in some spots. That‘s why his stunning works-of-art are considered to be the 2-D sculptures. His art is poetic, complicated, usually concentrated to essential things which we have abandoned for our short-time wishes. In some way they are saying that it is possible to come back and feel happiness again...

Vhils is creating on walls, wood, metal, paper, billboards, prints and art instalations...

Visit his site at: http://alexandrefarto.com/

3 Stages of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:15:00 +0000

Tulips Fields in the Netherlands

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:39:00 +0000

Johannes Vermeer

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:38:00 +0000

Johannes Vermeer, born in Delft in 1632 and buried in the same city on 1675, was one of the great Dutch masters of painting, though only about 30 paintings by him are known. He specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of middle class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings. Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, using bright colours and sometimes expensive pigments, with a preference for cornflower blue and yellow. He is particularly renowned for his masterly treatment and use of light in his work.

Source: Wikipedia

Happy Eid Mubarak !

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:08:00 +0000

To all my dear Muslim friends!

Die Slowly

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 14:47:00 +0000

He who becomes the slave of habit,

who follows the same routes every day,

who never changes pace,

who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,

who does not speak and does not experience,

dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion,

who prefers black on white,

dotting ones i's rather than a bundle of emotions,

the kind that make your eyes glimmer,

that turn a yawn into a smile,

that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,

dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,

who is unhappy at work,

who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,

to thus follow a dream,

those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives,

dies slowly.

He who does not travel, who does not read,

who does not listen to music,

who does not find grace in himself,

she who does not find grace in herself,

dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,

who does not allow himself to be helped,

who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops,

dies slowly.

He or she who abandons a project before starting it,

who fails to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know,

he or she who doesn't reply when they are asked something they do know,

dies slowly.

Let's try and avoid death in small doses,

reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.

Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness.

Pablo Neruda

Plain and Simple

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:57:00 +0000

"God made us plain and simple,

but we have made ourselves very complicated."
Ecclesiastes 7:29

"Fall of Giants" by Ken Follett

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:40:00 +0000

Fall of Giants is a magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in the Century trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families – American, German, Russian, English and Welsh – as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women’s suffrage.

These families find their lives inextricably entangled as, in a saga of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, Fall of Giants moves seamlessly from Washington to St. Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.

As always with Ken, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. It is destined to be a new classic.

Brazilian Baby dancing Samba

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 11:56:00 +0000

Stop Human Trafficking - Denounce it!!

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:41:00 +0000

Know It

Human trafficking -- also known as "trafficking in persons" -- is believed to be one of the fastest-growing criminal industries in the world. Human trafficking involves the recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining of people for the purpose of various forms of exploitation. Victims are often controlled through force, fraud, or coercion. While it is commonly thought that human trafficking is the smuggling or movement of people, in fact, the crime involves exploitation and control. Victims of human trafficking can be men or women, adults or children, and U.S. citizens or foreign-born immigrants.

Human trafficking can be difficult to recognize. Human trafficking victims may be forced to work as prostitutes, domestic workers, landscapers, in restaurants and bars, as forced panhandlers, in cleaning and janitorial jobs, in nail salons, or in other roles.

See It
Victims are often kept out of sight and are afraid to reach out for help. The following may be signs that someone may be a victim of trafficking:

Workers who have had their ID, passport, or documents taken away
Workers who show signs of physical and/or sexual abuse, physical restraint, confinement, or torture
Workers who show signs of emotional abuse
Workers who are being threatened by or are in debt to their boss
Workers who are under 18 and are involved in the commercial sex industry
Workers who are not free to leave or come and go from their place of work as they wish
Workers who don't seem to be receiving payment

If you think you see a human trafficking situation, you should ask the potential victim the following questions. These questions were compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Can you leave your job or situation if you want?
Can you come and go as you please?
Have you been threatened if you try to leave?
Have you been physically harmed in any way?
What are your working or living conditions like?
Where do you sleep and eat?
Do you sleep in a bed, on a cot, or on the floor?
Have you ever been deprived of food, water, sleep, or medical care?
Do you have to ask permission to eat, sleep, or go to the bathroom?
Are there locks on your doors and windows so you cannot get out?
Has anyone threatened your family?
Has your identification or documentation been taken from you?
Is anyone forcing you to do anything that you do not want to do?

Report It
If you are a victim of human trafficking or would like to report a tip regarding suspected human trafficking, contact police in your country.

Venus de Milo

noreply@blogger.com (Ana Cristina) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:18:00 +0000

Aphrodite of Milos, better known as the Venus de Milo, is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most famous works of ancient Greek sculpture. Created at some time between 130 and 100 BC, it is believed to depict Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans) the Greek goddess of love and beauty. It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. Its arms and original plinth have been lost. From an inscription that was on its plinth, it is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch; it was earlier mistakenly attributed to the master sculptor Praxiteles. It is at present on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

(in Wikipedia)