a robot, i am not » Photography

Vancouver Before and After

jritch — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:40:43 +0000

Learning what its like to live in Vancouver now has me wondering what it was like to live in Vancouver even 10 or 20 years ago, especially since so much of the city’s growth has taken place since 1980. These photos from the Miss 604 Blog really demonstrate that growth,

Downtown Vancouver in 1919

Downtown Vancouver in 1966

Downtown Vancouver 2009

welcome to the Midwest

jritch — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:49:06 +0000

Editors Note: The original intention was to post a description of my Summer 2009 roadtrip closer to the time that it occurred, but now 2010 is approaching and since I’m not even half-way through I need to get on this!

When we drove through Gary, IN fighting through the traffic and then seeing Chicago’s skyline in the distance, my breath was nearly taken away. A gorgeous cluster of brilliant lights, penetrating the night sky. I could see why Batman was filmed here. We drove through the multi-lane highways and towards the place of our couchsurfing host for the next few days: Patrick. Emerging off the Interstate and onto the road, I was shocked at the number of cars parked along the streets. There was no space for additional cars! We eventually got lucky and found a spot though. Walking up to Patrick’s place we realized we were starving. It was late, just before 10pm and a Chinese place let us order from them as they were closing. Such nice people!

We went up to Patrick’s apartment, introduced ourselves and ate the Chinese food. Patrick was a great guy that really loved Couchsurfing. He had just hosted a girl for several weeks! That’s dedication. We were exhausted and couldn’t join him on his night out with friends from the Pitchfork Music Festival so we re-arranged the living space and hit the mattresses with exhaustion.

I vaguely remember what happened, but Jane and Erby definitely did. Patrick’s roommates walked in and called friends complaining that more couchsurfers were there and that they were tired of having people sleeping on their floor. The next morning, we awoke, went out to get some Cuban breakfast and discussed this turn of events. How unfortunate, Patrick was such a great guy but it was uncomfortable to stay where we weren’t wanted. After getting some trip planning done at a coffee shop, we returned and found the roommates there. When we explained that we’d only be there for a few nights, they were relieved… they thought we would be there for another month! Apparently the last guest had exhausted her welcome.

We set out and about the city, to see the Miraculous Mile. The Threadless store, The Hancock Center, the deep dish pizza, the walking around lost, the concert at Millenium park. It was all fantastic. Free classical music at millenium park was the best moment of the trip so far, and maybe even one of the highlights of the entire trip, now that I’m looking back. Amazing acoustics with the backdrop of a city. Brilliant. The rail line that would take us back to our lodging was out so we waited for a bus that was absolutely packed and we found another way home. It took us about two hours to get back and we just ended up taking a taxi anyways.

The next day we went downtown to catch the art museum before it closed, but it closed early because it was a Sunday. So we went to the International Museum of Surgical Sciences for a super gross-out experience. We closed out the stay in the Capitol of the Midwest by partaking in a movie with Patrick. We saw Food Inc., the film adaptation of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. He enjoyed it and it gave us a great talking point for burgers and beers at The Counter afterward. We had some belgian waffles with a fun street vendor and said our goodbyes and passed on our many thanks.

The next morning we set out around 7:30am for Sioux Falls, SD to beat the worst of th Monday morning rush hour traffic but to also ensure that we left around the same time Patrick did for his grocery clerk job. We had a long day ahead of large roadside objects and nothing was going to keep us from seizing that day.

Chicago was a fantastic experience, and a frustrating one. The largest US city I’ve ever visited while driving… it was full of cars! Even taking the bus a few kilometers took an hour or more on these grizzled and gridlocked streets. A fun place to visit but because of the big business mindest, the prevalence of chain stores and the high cost of living I knew that this was one place I’d never want to even accidentally end up living in.

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Post tags: photos, summer 2009 roadtrip, travel

on the road to Chicago

jritch — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:14:22 +0000

welcome to Kentucky!

The drive from Nashville to Chicago tied for our longest drive of the road-trip. Rarely did we have a full day of driving that was as long as this one. We started out by heading to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. It is the longest cave system in the world! But unfortunately, the crowds were mammoth as well and we could only do the “self guided discovery” tour for small kids and those too lazy to call ahead with reservations. This place was a circus. Cabins were next to the cave entrance so you could stay overnight to enter the caves! A quick tour through the discovery cave and we got the idea, this place was cold and was underground. The history of Mammoth Cave was quite interesting though, early settlers even set up a hospital in one of the caves because the cool air eased the pain of tuberculosis sufferers.

mammoth cave was crazy

Just outside of Mammoth Cave National Park was Cave City, KY which was one of the tackiest places we drove through. We made a stop off at the Wigwam Hotel #2 and as we took photos, a guy driving by made native sounds by quickly waving his hand over his mouth. We giggled at this but sadly it was probably the only entertainment available in Cave City. The infrastructure of hotels and tourist traps like Dinosaur World! was a vestigal remainder of the happy motoring past of the United States, where oil was cheap and cars were plentiful, the hotels had clearly seen better days because they were mostly in disrepair.

even you can sleep in a wigwam!

Driving further up I-65 took us to the KY Stonehenge, which was in the yard of a house. Strange. Only stranger thing? A truck trailer attached to a car.

if only this was at walmart so I could put it on people of walmart

In Louisville we ate lunch at the birthplace of the Cheeseburger, Kaelin’s. However, Kaelin’s had been closed down and an Irish pub/sports bar was just opening at the same location. We had caught them on their opening day. The burger tasted great and the coffee washed down the tackiness of Cave City. After driving through Louisville to see Colonel Sanders’ grave (the one of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame and surprisingly a 33 degree mason) we lost Erby in the traffic and he accidentally headed off towards St. Louis while Jane and I saw the world’s largest bat at the Louisville Slugger baseball bat store in downtown Louisville. We were only in Louisville for a few hours but it looked like one of the nicer towns to live in.

ah, the colonel

We then crossed over into Indiana for a whole lotta nothin’. Corn and other junk for the rest of the drive. Indianapolis looked like a lifeless city. Probably like Uptown Charlotte in the late 80’s. A traffic jam due to construction kept us out of Chicago for a few extra hours, Gary, IN is a mess. We finally found a place to park in the Chicago neighborhood of our CouchSurfing host… my first reaction was, “What a skyline! So many cars!” Everywhere was a street sweeper zone so parking was limited, and so many cars…

We were famished and a little Chinese restaurant let us take some food out even though it was 1 minute before they closed. We met up with our CouchSurfing Host and slept hard, preparing for our two full days in the capitol of the Midwest.

And all it took was a little exposure to Kentucky and Indiana to finally conclude that the Southeastern US is aggressive weird. We only concluded this after speaking with our Chicago CouchSurfing host Patrick, but the seeds of the idea were sewn after the Jesus signs, the KY Stonehenge and more. I will have more to say on this soon.

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Post tags: summer 2009 roadtrip, travel, united states

what does a nuclear plant’s cooling stack plume look like?

jritch — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:56:01 +0000

outside the window @ work I noticed the plume from the cooling stack at the Catawba nuclear station

This leaf looks exactly like a donkey

jritch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:21:27 +0000

This leaf looks exactly like a donkey

HDR images from Long Beach and Louisiana

jritch — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:01:34 +0000

Here are some of my favorite HDR images of recent days from trips to Louisiana and Long Beach. I’ll have some more soon but these are some of the best so far!

You can view all these and more at my Flickr account