via - ASCII Hotel

I saw this and got the idea of posting urban exploration photos scanned as ASCII art. As a large image they would look interesting, more derelict and digital.

Should #ghost signs be restored? It gives me a funny feeling, as if something important is being lost, or faked or ruined in some way. I don't think a ghost sign can be restored perfectly. Even if it can be, should it be? Does it lose it's history when we try to restore it. Like patina on antiques, is a ghost sign something which keeps value once it gets updated or cleaned?

Eddy's Bread Ghost Sign Restoration Project

Salisbury, NC Ghost Sign Restoration Project

Take Only Photographs; Leave Only Footprints

Urban Exploration is about exploring in all areas, not always with permission. You might stand on the street and take photographs from a safe distance. You might wander into a storm drains, tunnels and sewers. You might climb to the highest rooftops and take a photo of your feet hanging over the edge looking down at the world below. You might go inside abandoned industrial buildings to photograph huge and mysterious machinery. You might go looking for signs of ghosts (and find raccoons) in a ruined farm house. You might venture into hidden, forbidden or just unknown areas of a city and photograph sites unseen. You might love finding a ghost sign, or a ghost town. The adventures are endless. Just dress accordingly, wear reliable footwear and pack your map and a camera into your trusty backpack before you start.

Have you ever read something by H.P. Lovecraft?

Lovecraft was an urban explorer himself. He liked exploring old houses especially. In his books I've read descriptions of the old places which bring poetry to them I envy (as a writer and explorer myself). Anyone who has explored an old house, especially those who have explored many of them and still love finding yet another, will treasure reading Lovecraft's short stories.

I knew about his books for a very long time but thought they were too gruesome and frightening for me. I think that would have been true while I was still a young woman of high school age. But, now that I am nearing 50 and a seasoned explorer... they seem more like stories I've heard before. This is no fault of H.P. Lovecraft.

His stories were horrifying, terrifying and gruesome enough at the time he wrote them. But, like an old house, we have become weathered to horror, especially when it's in fiction. Lovecraft read horror, modern people see it in movies, which is far different than reading it in print.