I know the story- ever since you saw The Fellowship of the Ring you've been curious if not looking for a home like Bilbo's- well, look no further than this website.



See? I'm not kidding. This is a REAL house.. you know.. living here might even hone your stone-throwing skils or calm your need to cause trouble.

Thanks Tyler.

Are you out of jail right now? You are in the 99/100 group.

One of every 100 Americans is in Prison

Read it and .. well, think. I guess.. MSN:

NEW YORK - For the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator. It urges states to curtail corrections spending by placing fewer low-risk offenders behind bars.

Using state-by-state data, the report says 2,319,258 Americans were in jail or prison at the start of 2008 — one out of every 99.1 adults. Whether per capita or in raw numbers, it's more than any other nation.

At least now there's a widespread, effect-conscious motivation to keep low-risk offenders out. Would it really be so damaging to free the stoners??

This, IMHO is truly a cloud with a silver lining, vs the old GD song quote. Its problems like this that get rules changed. And rules like this that change could mean a better future for countless numbers of individuals.

After one of the coziest winters of my life, comes the inevitable turn of spring. Being lucky enough to have a place that sits on a river, this week has brought me glimpses of ice melt, ducks, red wing blackbirds, skunks, and even the beaver that lives in the ground right across from my back porch. The snow is no loner fluffy and billowing but chunky, slippery, wet, and a general nuisance. Most days make it over 32, though record says that March is the snowiest month, even if it doesn't last. Even if winter dies hard this year, I'll be grateful. I've never had a happier winter, much due to circumstance but mostly location of my life- in the resort mountains, where everyone, and i mean EVERYONE is glad to be. Even more so, the skiing is legendary, and the trails for snowshoeing are well packed and used, though always seem to be totally vacant of visitors when I go for hikes. Despite its thoroughfare status the 25 minute drive to my studio is largely effortless, scenic, and never gets old.

This weekend I get to return to Portland, Oregon, to watch my cousin get married. Whee! Travis is taking his first Board Exam today, then flying to Denver to meet me. We get to spend the next three weeks together here, as he gets back on a snowboard and gets to go to my Denver show. I am also looking forward to my sister's first Colorado visit March 7 while Travis is here. Not really that much room in my house, but dang it'll be a good time.

At the end of three weeks Spring will definitely be here, but Travis will start rotations and he will be gone for quite awhile. Probably longer than we've ever seen together. Even though having him around for three weeks may be "quite enough" for the moment, especially since he will be without transportation, I am already looking into solutions for not seeing him after some time. Do I take weekend road trips? Cutting 14 hours out of a weekend just for drive time is excruciating, especially not getting credit at my job for off-property worktime. Then again, what is all that about anyway? Doesn't salary mean that I should be able to do my work at any time? There are elements to this that are starting to turn the gears, and showing me that I have the tools to make myself happy no matter what be the criteria. I can do it. I know that its possible.

I am grateful to the universe for the input on my life- even grateful in hindsight for all the scary moments that were simply challenges and tests. This is going to be another one of those. Most decidedly, its not a question if I can make it or not, but more of how I "work it" so that I don't mess everything up- so that I get what I want and still make sure that I can get back up if I fall down.

There will be a frost every night here through May, when they taper off and run occasionally even through June. Last year's June frost killed off the berry crop that left the bears hungrier and more aggressive than usual. This year, the snow run-off is bound to flood my backyard and rise up to the porches of some of my neighbors.

Its not always obvious when the best time to plant seeds is. I have begun my cultivation of my summer already, getting ready for the work it will take to make progress in my own life. Seeds on the windowsill is usually a good start. But plant too early, and they'll need to go in before the threat of a frost is passed. Lucky for me, the slower the better, and I am able to slow it to a stop if I have to. I am also able to plan growth for windows of opportunity and not need a steady rate to stay healthy. As long as it makes it there on a yearly basis. I can think it out ahead of time if I start now. I can do it, and face even more once the goals in sight have passed. But the threat of a frost never ever disappears. Its only just made easier by planning ahead and having resources to rely on, but weather is weather and the human life has its seasons, and the a-synchronious seasons of everyone else. We can plan for the best, and get the worst, and visa versa, so when is it really time to plan anything?

The time, is when you want it. When you feel it inside. When to ignore it or stamp it out is to pour bleach on the very essence of your soul. We've all done this to ourselves, using outside logic or our own minded confusion as the excuse. Our mind says we don't deserve it, that we can't, that other events justify the end of this. It is a bitter end. Its quick, but its messy and it hurts. We do it- we bleach it. In this act, we truncate ourselves. We truncate our growth, and we brand it with the mark of bitterness: attachment to fear. We wonder why simply wishing things away only makes us sad. Then we try to walk away and forget, thinking that happiness is a butterfly that lands on some people, but not us. And then we use this event to justify the same act for ourselves or others in the future.

On the teetering edge of self-acceptance, the directions that grow within us are sometimes booed down by learned behavior or external obstacles. To stay in line, stay steady, and keep walking in the same circular pattern are more important than whims, desires, and fantasy. The thing is, that happiness is a temple, and it begins with these small things. It starts with whims, desires, direction, and fantasy, and when followed, can become a miraculous self-existing force that is reinforced by its best defender, you. The trick is, to get over all the crap in the mind, and allow ourselves to believe that what exists within us is truly the most important thing in our lives. After all, it is the only thing we truly have. And despite what this culture says, your mind deserves a side-lining to your heart. Just because your mind speaks English we often think this is the only language we know. We started out with something else, that verbal language has helped us to forget.

At this point in my life, where happiness has bloomed and practically spun out of control, the plan of true self-fulfillment is ongoing, and borderline obvious. Not obvious in a sense that psychic things happen or people are telling me what to do- just the opposite. Things that need a change surface, I have a look around, and realize the gain to make by making a somewhat risky change. I actively sniff it out. No stupid crap is going to undermine the beginning, the existence or define the end to my efforts for me. Besides its gotten me this far. Risky, why? Because I've never done it before, but they happen every day. In a practical sense even, tackling enormous personal goals is best accomplished under subconscious motivation, as the mind is least likely to get in the middle with its laundry list of penal codes and skeletons.

Now what further decision is there to make? Do I deserve it? Is that the question?

"Its simple, so says the Captain. Face forward. Move slow. Forge ahead." ~GUSTER

Yeah i know its got an ad.. but still worth watching. Be sure you're not around anyone who can't hear you laughing.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A community celebration of Womens' History Month
Featuring new work by .carolinecblaker. and a dozen others.

Where:
HABITAT Gallery
828 Santa Fe Dr
Denver, CO 80204
303.534.9740

Please join me on March 7 from 6-9 for my first ever Denver Friday Gallery Walk in the Santa Fe Arts District. I am so excited to be a part of this event- it is truly a landmark in my career. Please come and walk the galleries and stumble into Habitat.

Featured works will be the newly finished EVE, and Head, as well as "Ask Me", the ol' favorite sunburst one.

For more information please visit WHPArt.com

If you live in the Vail Valley and are unable to make it to Denver for this event, there is also a silent auction on March 8- I will be donating one piece to the Vail Valley Charitable Fund. You may come in and bid!!

March 8, 2008
International Women's Day
Artist's Reception & Silent Auction
@ Loaded Joe's
Avon, CO
4 - 7pm

Trav croons Sinatra



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Gotta love my adorable crooner! The above video was shot while testing the cameras for operability prior to the snowboarding excursion.

Have you been to Yahoo! Answers yet? NOO?

Its great. I mean, probably much better entertainment than porn or regular chat rooms. Its better than most internet interactive entertainment, because its real people in real time pursuing knowledge. NERD!!! no wait hear me out- Someone asks a question, and everyone can answer. Get answers to anything. Theres no banter, no back-and-forth, no fights. You can thumbs-up thumbs down people too. Collect points, score contacts, and set some folks up with, well, what they asked for!

The reason that this is my guilty pleasure is that I've found that I can't get enough of the Religion and Philosophy section. Its mostly full of Christians making self affirming questions and expecting answers as such. At night, there are a few like me who creep in there and throw a few burrs in their jammies. Theres a lot of fun to be had with Christians when you challenge their beliefs. Tonight, Travis was like "what are you doing?" and I answered "Playing with the Christians."

You too can help answer:

Are you a virgin again if your a born again Christian and want to wait until marriage?

Are your children at risk if homosexuals speak out more?
and, not in religion:
How come alot of people think that dragons are monsters?

Anyway, if you find yourself there, look me up, email artist at carolinecblaker.com or profile .carolinecblaker. Add me too.

DISCLAIMER-rant: This is not meant to offend anyone, and if it does- well, I'm not really that sorry. I generally don't agree with taking offense to anything. Even if this makes me selfish, I'd rather be selfish and open than "nice" and bottled. I think that being bottled causes a lot of problems for a lot of people- it definitely used to for me. Go ahead and leave a comment if you wish about how much I suck. It'll probably feel really good to be open about it. ;)

The almighty snowboarding video!!! Love it and laugh- and let me know what you think.

In the Ottowa Herald of Franklin County, Kansas, "Brave Newspaper Press Operator Will Stop 'Muslim Fundamentalist' Barack Obama"

LMAO.. be sure to read the ensuing commentary- priceless comments. (will open in a new window.)

One small exerpt:

"The Democratic Party actually intends to put a Muslim fundamentalist in the White House. Yes, you read it right. They want to put a man of Muslim origins in the White House.

Barack Hussein Obama hit the campaign trail from nowhere and continues to gain momentum as his political handlers crank out generic catchphrases to lure the unsuspecting voter with words like hope and change.

Now there s nothing wrong with hope or change. It has been our tradition as a nation that when we get tired of something or someone, we exercise our constitutional rights and throw them out. That's why we asked our representatives for term limitations. But to even consider turning over the reins of government to a Muslim fundamentalist would be, as my grandmother used to say, throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

LIke everyone else's grandmother still says, "Better keep your mouth shut if you have no idea what you're talking about."