Video of the spinning penny, a commentary on Autism..

I tried to post a video I did with pennies, which is hard to explain, but was unable to post it. Once again if any of you have a suggestion let me know...
Thank You ^_^

Illustration for my story about the bus system.

Unfortunately I am for some reason unable to post the comic I drew for this story. I'm gonna try to post it, but if it doesn't work i don't know what I'll do. If any of you have a suggestion please let me know... Thank you ^_^

Just Thinking....

I was wondering what you all would think about cleaning up the trash around our areas... Do you think it would help colorado springs improve its trashy look and get other people involved? Maybe we could make posters to raise awareness?

Architecture of Colorado Springs

The architecture in Colorado Springs is something to marvel at. I was downtown this weekend and noticed all the old Victorian houses and the Pioneers museum. I love the architecture of the “old day” compared to the cold restrictive architecture of today. I like going downtown because out of all the places in Colorado Springs it is the most inviting. Every time I’m down there I dream of some day living in a place like that. I believe that architecture plays a key role in how we live our lives.

Colorado Springs, a Trash Heap!

I went on a walk today and was appalled by the clutter along the side of the street. As I walked I began to wonder why people litter. The thing I saw most was cigarettes and bottles of all different varieties. I saw so much junk that it made me sick. Why doesn’t our city care to clean its streets? I want to do a project about the filth on the streets to bring awareness to the destructiveness of the citizens in this, and other cities around Colorado. In this project I would go on a walk and collect the junk along the streets and label with the cities name. I know when I come to Colorado Springs I don’t want to see it as a trash heap!!!

Connections between Chapter Three and the McAllister House

Through further research about my beloved historical museum, I have made a few connections between our text, The Virtual Widow, and the McAllister House! I never thought a twenty-first century tome about film history and virtual perspectives could have anything in common with a nineteenth-century home in Colorado Springs. No...the McAllister house was not written by Anne Friedberg and no it is not 357 pages long. I know my sarcasm is simply building scintillating tension and now I have you on the edge of your seats. Well you might as well slouch back into your culturally constructed bad posture- I don't have anything THAT profound to report. If you remember, in Chapter Three Friedberg addressed that between the 17th and 19th centuries, European citizens were taxed by the number of windows their house possessed. Thus, glass became a governmental standard for the measurement of economic success. Well...this trend must have jumped ship and scurried over to the Wild West of the then booming United States. In the McAllister house, I've been instructed to share with tourists that the cottage's pocket windows were incorporated to evade a similar window tax. You see, the windows travel the full height of the parlor and dining room, and on hot summer evenings they were swung open, like a door, to allow air circulation. Well, since homes in the early decades of the Fountain Colony were intermittently taxed on the number of their windows and doors- such pocket windows helped to save the McAllister's some major bucks! On years that homes were taxed on doors, the pocket-windows were propped open to assert that they were actually doors. Then on years they were taxed on their doors, the pocket-windows were kept shut and curtains elegantly draped to showcase their obvious existence as paned windows. Nifty huh?!?!? I have to say my heart swelled with pride for Major McAllister and his architect when I first stumbled across that tidbit in my studies. How extraordinary! I would never have come up with such a scheme in a million years.

Friedberg also asserts that glass was used as an indicator of wealth and status. This notion of material being a measure of an individual's wealth also parallel's my research of the McAllister House. First of all, Fountain Colony did not have the timber available to support the construction of homes for the invading Colorado immigrants. So Major McAllister, like all his neighbors, imported the materials for his home's construction. However, since he was a man of means, Major McAllister spared no expense and brought only the best bricks, steel, wood, marble and GLASS by train from Philadelphia for his quaint Victorian cottage. Could you imagine shipping glass from so far away on the rickety trains of the nineteenth century? I couldn't. I've been on my fair share of twenty-first century railways and I don't know how panes of glass could survive contemporary voyages, let alone a voyage more than a century ago. The McAllister's also had the marble for their fireplaces and mantles quarried and shaped in Pennsylvania then transported to the Colorado prairie. Perhaps its because I'm a pessimist...but I don't think I would have had the faith to let such precious materials travel so far with no guarantee that they would survive. Anyway- both the glass and marble as well as the fortune it took to ship all the materials so far are what attest to the financial value of the McAllister house. If any of you have ever visited, you'd know that the place is so teeny that its value could not be accurately estimated by its size alone, unlike it's colossal cousin- Glenn Eyrie.

Please come see me at my favorite spot in all Colorado Springs- McAllister House Historical Museum!

Snow in May

We've all been wondering when is it going to get warm. Come on already, I mean its May. Especially this morning when it was trying so hard to snow. Just be glad you're not in Lander. Over the last two days they got twelve inches of snow. Already today most of it has melted and the weekend temps are forecasted to be in the 80s this weekend so it won't last. And we think we have weather extremes.

Aquarium

I wanted to do a little comparison to the wild dolphin and whale pictures...

I went to the Denver Aquarium last month with my boyfriend and got this video.

It was so crowded with little kids who's eyes were wide open with excitement.

Fish and Sea life are not something that so many people get to experience touching stingrays and little sea creatures.

Out to sea

It seems as if my blogs have to do with water this time around. I was just in Cabo San Lucas and got some great dolphin and whale pictures. The vastness of the ocean was crazy there was nothing to be seen for miles and it really made you feel at the mercy of nature. These animals were so majestic it couldn't even capture the feeling of size and closeness of the water being splashed. In colorado we definitely dont think about how much we miss out on by being land locked.

On a construction truck. . .

I thought the numbering/ letter system at these apartments could have been a little clearer. lol. Each building was like this.

These are some photographs I took of the Incline fire last summer. It was caused by multiple ligtning stirkes in one area. I could see the blaze right outside my bedroom window. It was scary to think that if the fire spread, Manitou Springs, my home town, could burn down. Fortunately the fire crews got to it in time, and with the help of air support, were able to get it under control. I have not hiked up there since the burn, but can imagine the damage it caused, as I could see the orange glow from miles away. It makes me wonder what happens when fires exist in the wild, without civilization to tame them, and put them out. Wouldn't they continue to burn forever? And kill everything in it's path? What makes it stop spreading? I am thankful to the fire crews in Manitou Springs for saving my home town.

Comentary on Colorado Springs bus System

Standing in front of a bus stop the young man stares in disbelief.

As of January 1, 2010

The Metro Transit

Will run from 6:00am-6:00pm

The last bus leaves the terminal

At 5:15pm.

No weekend services.

No apology for inconvenience listed, the young man’s disbelief turns to anger as he shifts his shoulder bag and wonders how he is going to get to class. He begins to think about how screwed up life has become in Colorado Springs, hell, in the United States in general. Just as he begins to curse the entirety of Colorado Springs inefficiency a middle age women walks up carrying a briefcase, dressed in a lovely white dress.

“Why the long face?” she asks as she approaches the young man.

Startled the young man turns with surprise to face the women. When he notices who she is he is even more shocked.

“What are you doing here?!” He half asks half demands to know.

“I was laid off…” the women says in a hushed tone and repositions her briefcase to her left hand.

“Oh…” says the young man ashamed he even asked. As he looks down into the pavement he continues to contemplate how screwed up life is; here he was standing at the bus stop with the same women who had greeted him every morning for two years from the driver’s seat of the bus. Now she was laid off and he was out of a ride. They continued to stand at the bus stop as cars passed aimlessly by.

Railroad Tracks

These are some photographs of a trip i took to Cripple Creek last year, and of the train ride I took there. I always enjoy getting out of the city and driving up to the mountians, at any chance that I can get. Now that I look at these images again, I think of the irony of the the railroad tracks running through nature, instead of the highways that I usually drive. It is refreshing to visit older towns, where simple values are clear.

Dark Light

Under the mountians dark and tall

Shadows lay in places deep

Beneath the sky

A heavy world

A Few More Mountain Shots!

So this just looked really cool to me! The other day I was leaving class and as I came out of Columbine I noticed I could see the snow blowing around on the top of the peak, but it was sooo nice here. It looked so pretty, so out came the camera!....

I know its kind of hard to see the snow from this distance, but it just looked too cool. And honestly I'm still in shock that we got snow, rain, and warm sun all in one day. Granted yes I have lived in CO my whole life, you'd think I would be used to it by now, but it still shocks me! And I'm having to remind myself that it is May too because these mornings when it is snowing or sleeting it feels like its still February! Anyway, glad the semester is coming to an end, it has been a long one for me!

Spring

You know spring is here when you see the flowers starting to bloom. I took these pictures during my last walk downtown. This is just the first of many flowers to come in the next few weeks. I can't wait till they all are blooming. These flowers are definitely changing or livening up my dog walking landscape. It's so exciting!

Antlers Park

I ran across this sculpture in Antlers Park downtown. I have walked through this park many times and can't believe I have never seen it. It seems to blend in with the surrounding trees and faces the back of the park that is close to the fence of a child care center. Even though I have walked through this park with my dogs many times, it still amazes me that I am still discovering many things I have over looked or missed. Still discovering the hidden in my everyday routines.

I think all of has heard this saying,

"You can't see the forest for the trees"

I took this picture (on my phone camera - that is why it is a little blurry) at one of the parks I pass walking my dogs down the Santa Fe trail. We made a stop off of the trail by some trees and all of the trees framed and blocked the views of everything. I thought it was a great perspective on how we all go places but sometimes miss what is around. Either by only looking at what is in front of us (not stopping to look around). I would have missed this neat shot if we did not stray from our usual trail walk.