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Hi Soopa,
Hope this is of interest. RoadsideAmerica.com received a request from a textbook publisher, who'd like permission to use a print-resolution image of yours (your winter view of the Middlegate shoe tree).
 Let me know if I should pass on your email contact to them so they can connect with you. They were fine with a fee of $XXX. for 1/4 pg b/w image use in the textbook (hope that's okay -- I negotiated before they let me know it wasn't our photo they were interested in!). We usually email a book publisher the high rez image and then send an email invoice. Thanks, Doug Doug Kirby Publisher, roadsideamerica.com http://www.roadsideamerica.com/Office: PO Box 429 Middletown, NJ 07748-0429
The real kicker is that those photos were like, the second or third set of photos I ever took with my fancy-shmancy digital camera and, novice that I was, I didn't keep high resolution versions of everything like I do now. *head desk* | |
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 nother of my favorite entries of all time. I posted the following entry on February 25, 2004
"The San Rafael Swell: Claiming Soopageek Peak"My trip across Utah this weekend took me over a lot of new road. Of particular interest was the stretch of I-70 between Green River and Salina, Utah known as the San Rafael Swell. Geologic processes pushed the mantle of th Earth up into the crust, breaking the brittle sandstone and creating a huge rock dome in the middle of the desert. Over the millenia, wind and water has whittled the rock away one grain of quartz at a time, leaving behind stark monoliths and deep canyons. Approaching from the east, the swell is a dramatic site, with huge slabs of rock turned on its end pointing at the sky. This area, known as the San Rafael Reef has been nicknamed "The Silent City" because of its city-scape-like view against the horizon. Trucks coming out of the pass are dwarfed by the massive layers of vertical rock.  ( Tons more pictures of my hiking adventures ) | |
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 technically staked my claim to this little corner of LiveJournal over 6 years ago, in February of 2001. For the first two years, I didn't really "get" LiveJournal; I made no effort to make friends and posted sporadically. For all intents and purposes, I count the second week of July in 2003 as the real birthday of my journal. I began friending complete strangers and keeping a regular chronicle of my life. In that time I've made a lot of wonderful friends, reconnected/maintained friendships with distant people, and even met my lovely ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) welfy because of this place.
As a happy birthday commemoration to my journal, and for a walk down memory lane, I thought it might be fun to pick my 5 favorite journal entries ever and post one per day through the business week. Some of you may not have been around when they were originally posted and since they're my favorites, I think these are worthy of being recycled.
This first one is long, and at the time I posted it, I didn't have the ability to post images in-line with my text, so I've decided to re-edit it the way I would have liked to have posted it originally. Unfortunately, I had a really cheap digital camera at the time, so the quality of the photos isn't all that great. It's about my first visit to Niagara Falls, originally posted August 8th, 2003. If you feel this a bit too tl;dr for your attention span, may I at least encourage you to check out the final three paragraphs. It's for those three paragraphs that this is one of my favorite things I've ever posted here.
 esterday when I got to Niagara Falls, NY, I found a tour stand off the highway. They let me park there for 8 bucks and called me a cab. My cabbie, J.C., was a middle aged dude who had been driving cabs for over twenty years there in Niagara. He was full of advice on the best things to do, at the most reasonable prices. One interesting tip he gave is, if you're gonna do one of the boat "mist" tours, that rides out into the spray coming off of the falls, do it from the U.S. side, the lines are a lot shorter.
There's a reason for this. Niagara Falls is actually made up of three falls: American Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and the Horseshoe Falls.  The Horseshoe Falls is the one which is the most famous and largest of the three. Virtually all of the pictures you see of "Niagara Falls" are of this one. It's crescent line, a cool term I learned that means the place where the water crests over the rock. wraps in a horseshoe shape nearly 3,000 feet around. Water spills over this at a rate of 675,000 gallons per second. The main part of the river creates the Horseshoe Falls, and is therefore shared equally by Canada and the U.S. with both countries having parks at either end of the crescent line. The American and Bridal Veil Falls both lie on the U.S. side of the Niagara Gorge, and are created by two islands which lie in the stream of the Niagara River, Luna Island and Goat Island. Bridal Veil Falls is no more than maybe 50 feet wide, while American Falls is rather large, over 1,000 feet along it's crescent line. However, since these both lie on the U.S. side, the best view of these two falls is from the Canadian side. Also, due to the nature of the mist that the Horseshoe Falls create, it's best view is also on the Canadian side.
 So naturally this is where most people go to view the falls. This, over the years, has created a rather ironic contrast. On one side of the border sits a country known for its culture of consumerism the world over with a view of restaurants set back behind the trees and a few souveneir shops. Standing on the Canadian side, viewing across the gorge, the only thing you really see on the skyline are the tips of a few hotels above the treeline, the marquee of the Hard Rock Cafe, and a hot air balloon ride that is tethered to the ground which rises and falls occasionally. On the Canadian side of the gorge is a massive skyline filled with a Seattle-esque "space needle", skyscraper hotels by Sheraton and Marriot, and casinos. Also the other Hard Rock cafe is visible, and the gawdy, colorful facade of the MGM building. There's also some sort of skyride which goes up and down on its steel frame with blinking lights and one of those "gravity drop" rides operated by the World Wrestling Federation called "The Pile Driver".
( Read more... ) | |
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just got back on the road after being off for nearly a week, hanging out with welfy in Western PA. I had a great time and took hundreds of photos. It occurred to me that I haven't posted a photo mix since March. So without further ado, here's a random assortment for your amusement, in reverse chronological order. As always, feel free to ask about anything which strikes your fancy.
( +17 More... it's insane!!!! ) | |
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*gulps* | |
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have about a 3.5 hour drive to finish up this trip to Columbia and no idea what I'm doing next. I've loaded up the music player with B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Babes in Toyland... now there's a combination. Fubu's currently napping in the cubby hole above the driver seat. Yesterday though, I took a fun picture of her looking down at me while I was driving.
 Best. kitty. ever. - Tags:fubu, photo
- Music:my two hands are scorched from holding this torch
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s threatened promised yesterday, you get to gander at my legs. For those of you who may not have been around last year when I did it for the first time, here's a little trip down memory lane. If you want to know the reason why I did this last year, here it is.
I had a lot of fun with this last year and I think some of you did, too, whether as participants or simply voyeurs. SHOW US YOUR GAMS isn't a competition but a challenge to show a little harmless skin and be creative. Last year there were all sort of photos: candid shots at work and home, art photos, humorous poses, playful, sexy, erotic. It was... exactly what I was looking for; a varietyof styles and ideas as different and unique as the people who made them. This year I'm hoping for the same. I'm hoping to see some repeat participants from last year, and I'm hoping to see some more of you take-on the challenge who may have been shy about it. While this challenge was born out of my love for lady's legs, it's not about who has the greatest legs and it's certainly not limited to the ladies. It's about maybe stepping a little outside of your regular comfort zone one time out of the year for a little fun.
Feel free to email your photos to show.us.your.gams@soopageek.com. Be sure to tell me whether or not you would like them posted publicly or friends-only. Also feel free to invite any of YOUR friends to participate.
If you happened to click the first link above, or have my photos from last year forever burned into your memory, then you know that as a measure of good faith, I do exactly what I'm asking of you. I have my own body issues and certainly don't think anyone is interested in seeing my pasty, hairy legs. But it's in the spirit of SHOW US YOUR GAMS that I present mine and I hope that you'll return the favor.
I was feeling rather saucy the afternoon that Welf and I were taking pictures a couple of weeks ago. After watching her mug for the camera for a couple of hours, I decided to show her what *I* was work'n with when she took over the camera and proceeded to give her a strip tease.
( Soopa strip! Click... IF YOU DARE!!!! ) | |
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 ast week when I was home, welfy and I spent an entire day taking pictures and riding around the beautiful Kentucky-spring countryside. It was this day which I referenced in my last post as being the greatest day ever, and it was. We spent the first few hours of that day getting dressed up and taking pictures. She had some new fishnet stockings she wanted to show-off. It had been a while since we had done one of our amateur photo shoots with her as the model. Many were taken of the NSFW variety and a select few may someday grace these pages on the elective filter I made for such things (hint for newer friends).
At one point, Welf took the camera and turned it on me. Much goofiness ensued, but one of them is probably one of the best photos ever taken of me, which is saying a lot since I don't consider myself to be the most photogenic person in the world.
 Of course, this is nothing compared to the hundreds of pictures I have of her from that day. I am truly, the luckiest guy in the world.  I can't wait to get home this weekend. - Tags:photo, welfy
- Music:i'm not a nice boy, i never was
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 his morning I got out and took some photos of an old railroad bed while waiting to be loaded at a customer. It occured to me that since declaring the Daily Logs and Daily Photos experiment a failure, that I haven't taken, or posted, very many. Maybe I was burned out by doing it on a daily basis.
But I have been taking some.
Last November, I posted a big mess o' random photos taken between June and October of last year. I thought it'd be fun, armed with some fresh photos from today, to do one of those posts again. For your amusement, here's a collection of 30, un-posted photos from November of last year until today, more or less in chronological order. If you're curious about any, feel free to ask about it in the comments.
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he report of my death is an exaggeration.
 I've been inconsolable for a week because no one had LJ-nudged me. You can thank navygreen for giving me my first ever nudge. As a result of my phishing expedition a couple of years ago I had grand plans for your fuckers. Anyone know where I can unload several pounds of thermite and magnesium powder in a hurry?
For those of you not following LARM's journal, he's going to stay with me an extra week since my company is short on equipment at the moment. They're going to pay him extra as compensation, of course, I get the luxury of having a good, and cool, student on board for a while longer. Last week, we were afforded the opportunity to drive by the Oregon Shoetree, which was the first I had ever encountered. I had never been back to it in all these years and my only photos of it were taken with the really awful camera I had at the time. It's nice to finally have some quality photos of it.
This past weekend was spent at home, spending time with welfy and socializing with friends and family.  On Saturday, Welf, LARM, and I went to Cincinnati to meetup with Patty and her beau to see Doug Stanhope perform. After the show he was gracious enough to pose for a quick photo with us in the foyer of the club. Patty sent me a text message the next day to let me know that Doug was in a car wreck later that night and apparently is in pretty bad shape. I haven't been able to find any news about it anywhere but hopefully he'll be okay. With the possible exception of Lewis Black, I can't think of another comic working the American club circuit right now that matters as much as Stanhope does.
On Monday, while I was spending time with my kids, Welf visited with janietrain. When I was done with the wee-Soops, I joined them only to discover that brianjedi had joined the festivities at some point and a game of Karaoke Revolution had begun. Somewhere, there exists a really embarassing video of me doing "Respect" that will likely grace Welf's journal in the very near future.
I may have been mistaken in assuming that the new Modest Mouse album would be the album of the year if my current last.fm charts are any indication.
 Now I gotta find time to read your journals. What's been goin' on? | |
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he official estimate I received was $2,800. Fortunately, they were able to find all of the parts locally and they anticipate having it finished by this evening. That'll give me a chance to get nearly a week's worth of driving in before going home this weekend for my birthday.
The toothache is doing a lot better. The Pain has subsided considerably, but the left side of my face is still puffy with swelling. I find it amusing, so I thought maybe you would, too. I look not unlike a stroke victim.
 About a week ago I finally joined Last.fm and began scrobbling my listening habits. I hunted down a few people who have accounts there = to their LJ name. If you're on there and interested, feel free to add me. I have a feeling this'll be a fad for me and that it won't be an enduring pastime. At the moment though, I'm having a lot of fun with it. I had grown out of the habit of listening to music while I was on the computer and it's kinda kickstarted me into doing that again. Also, I could always use more friends on Netflix.
Finally, a couple of pictures, just 'cause they're purty. 
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December 11 - Tulsa, Oklahoma December 12 - Alda, Nebraska ( +5 More ) | |
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December 4th - Weed, California Mt. Shasta December 5th - Olympia, Washington Origin of a Band ( +5 More ) | |
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November 27 - Frankfort, Kentucky Christmas Kitty
November 28 - Frankfort, Kentucky Erin's Midnight Milkshake
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esterday, the drive between Ft. Worth and Abilene, Texas was treacherous. There were high winds and precipitation with temperatures approaching freezing. The result was a mix of snow and freezing rain.
As most of you know, bridges freeze before roadways because the cold air can circulate on all sides of the pavement. In high wind, bridges are also the worst place for gusts because there are no hills, trees, or buildings blocking it. This combination of factors makes this particularly dangerous for big trucks, a 14 foot high "wall on wheels" so to speak. Yesterday on I-20, was like driving through a graveyard of trucks.
This Schneider truck lost it on the bridge you can see right behind him.
Later down the road, another truck was jack-knifed in the median, apparently after losing control coming across the bridge at the top of the hill.
If you look closely in the picture above you can see another trailer on the other side of the bridge at the top of the hill, sticking up in the air. Here's a better look. And if you look closely in THIS picture, you'll notice there's a third truck on the right side of the highway lying on it's side, obscured by the guard rail.
I'm not sure if they got tangled in each other on the bridge and both lost control or if they are independent accidents, but it was rather sobering to see three wrecked trucks at a single bridge. I was just thankful to get through my day without incident. The winter driving season is here!
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made a threat last week to begin taking a daily photo. My initial goal was to take a photo at the beginning of my day, every day, and post them as a collection once per week. I've been faithful in my picture taking, but have decided to expand the scope of this project somewhat. I still plan to take a photo at the beginning of every day, as it may be the only picture I feel inclined to take. But if I do take other photos and I feel one trumps that first one, it will go in its place.
I will take at least one photo every day. I will choose exactly one photo from that day for the weekly entry, which I will post every Monday morning as a collection. Those of you on the ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) soopaphoto feed will sometimes get a sneak peak at them when I upload them on Sunday.
These photos go back through last Saturday, so there are 9 photos in this maiden collection. Enjoy.
November 18 - New Braunfels, Texas
November 19 - Zapata, Texas
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'm fond of saying that life happens faster than the speed of LiveJournal. At least it should. I know it does for me. Every few months, I find myself with directories full of photos that I never did anything with; just shoved them in a folder on the hard drive or an album of my photo gallery. I never showed them to anyone, never wrote about it.
I find time for the big things, the important things, the interesting things but a lot still never makes it to my LiveJournal. And I like sharing photos. What's the point of taking a photograph in no one sees it?
To combat this frustration, I think every month or two I'll do what I'm getting ready to do now: gather a small group from all these photos and just present them with no exposition, no explanation. Maybe they amuse me, or the subject matter is interesting. Hopefully you'll think so, too. Feel free to ask anything about something you see which piques your curiosity, or just enjoy them for what they are: something pretty to look at.
As a point of reference: there are 32 photos, all from June 2006 through October 2006.
( See them all )
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 ince moving to Frankfort, KY, I've spent a lot of time driving around my new city, sometimes with my girlfriend, other times by myself. If there's one thing I've discovered , it's that no matter where you live, there's always something interesting in your own backyard if you're willing to get out and find it.
Kentucky's capital city sits on the banks of the Kentucky River in the central part of the state. The river's use for industrial purposes such as transportation and power have long since vanished, but remnants of it remain. The most notable of these are the dam and locks system just west of downtown. What has become on of my favorite local restaurants, Jim's Seafood sits high above the river overlooking the old dam. In fact, their slogan is "The best seafood by a dam site!" Inside Jim's, there's a room devoted to the preservation of the area's industrial legacy with photos, essays, and articles. The land upon which Jim's and several other nearby establishments rests used to be a hemp factory which used the flowing waters of the Kentucky River to turn a millwheel.
I discovered all of this one afternoon while driving about Frankfort alone. Jim's has an outdoor patio-deck, and just around it, is a small footpath leading down to the river and the edge of the dam. I took the foot path that day and descended from the hot asphalt of Jim's parking lot into the cool shade of riverbank oak, maple, and sycamore. I later stood on a concrete precipice beside the dam, the water roaring over it. I didn't have my camera with me, however.
As I stood there, I look across, up, and down the river. In the distance, downstream I saw something on the opposite bank. I wasn't for sure what it was, but it was huge and I had a good idea. I went back to the car and followed the highway over the river. After about 30 minutes of trying various road, I finally found myself in the vicinity of it. I parked the car in a small parking area and headed into the underbrush which led down to the river.
It was what I thought it was. But I still didn't have my camera with me! I went home, but, I knew my girlfriend would kill.me. if I didn't take her, so I waited until she got off from work and told her I had a surprise for her. A boat....
...a really, big boat.
In fact, it was an old freight barge. Years of fluctuating water levels have deposited rich, fertile silt in the cargo hold allowing grass and trees to take-root and grow there.
( Read more... )x-posted to abandonedplaces and urban_decay | |
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(continued from last week)
returned to the mine entrance with my tripod and flashlights. I carefully lowered everything down into the hole then carefully placed my feet into it. I lay on my stomach and crawled backwards into the opening. It was about a 45 degree slope of loose gravel and sand from the hole.
I was now facing the doorway which I had been able to see from outside. There were some markings in orange spray paint, and the doorway obviously led to a mining passageway.
I ducked inside the doorway. The passage was about 5 feet in height, making it necessary for me to stoop as I moved through it.
( Read more... )
x-posted to abandonedplaces and rural_ruin | |
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(continued from yesterday)
he Coolest Thing I've Ever Done, was down a dusty old mining road just outside the remote semi-ghost town of Austin, Nevada. I had no idea what was in-store for me when I began my expedition to get a closer look at Stokes Castle two years ago, until I began following the dirt road beyond the tower further into the hills. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the considerable risk I was taking to continue down the road. Large, commercial trucks aren't really designed for traveling in all-terrain environments devoid of asphalt. Without a trailer, there's no weight on the drive axles, yielding very little traction. Additionally, the road was narrow with lots of low branches hanging over the road and tight switch-backs as it wound up the mountain.
I began to see additional remnants of the area's mining history. The first impressive thing I found lay about a mile into the hills from Stokes Castle. It was an old stone structure, it's door sealed shut with an iron gate. The rear wall had collapsed taking a good portion of the roof with it.
I stopped the truck and went to inspect. With the collapsed wall, the barrier on the door had been rendered useless, as anyone could easily access the interior. When I first visited it two years ago, I did go inside, but it was rather uninteresting so I didn't bother with it for this reunion with the structure. There were plenty of other interesting things here to get excited about.
( Read more... )x-posted to abandonedplaces and rural_ruin | |
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