I Always Feel Like

Somebody's Watching ME....

If you remember the old Rockwell song (with Michael Jackson singing backup), you should run that song through your head while you read this post. With the release of Google Earth, virtual sightseeing has become a reality. You can visit Niagra Falls or the Grand Canyon from the comfort of your desk, and that's a good thing. Because those places are far away and full of tourists. You can get a similar experience--although not quite as cool--using Google Maps. I'll admit, I've wasted an hour or two checking out areial photos of downtown Manhatten, the Golden Gate Bridge and of course any cool Air Force Bases I could find.

I'd heard that Microsoft had a similar service called Windows Live Local but I was sure it couldn't be as good as Google's. So I checked it out today and for the most part I was right, Google is better, except there is one REALLY cool feature on the MS site. It's called Bird's Eye View and it's not availabe in all areas but it IS available directly above my house! Where Google uses old images from before we moved into our current house, the birds eye view feature on Live Local uses a fairly recent oblique angle shot of our neighborhood.

It's spooky how much you can see in this picture. It was probably taken while I was at work one morning, because you can see only the black Saturn in the drive and the lighting is pretty soft. Down the street is the street sweeper which comes by before noon. I'm guessing it was in the last 8-10 months because I can see the white gravel I added to the end of the drive less than a year ago. My bet is that is from early fall of last year because I can see brown patches where the St Augustine grass grows but green on the Bermuda. The bluish-grey truck in the street near the house is the neighbor's Ford Ranger, and if you dig around in some of the other nearby bird's eye pics, you can see why it is parked going the wrong way. They are backing it out to allow their big, ugly brown suburban out of the car port. In our back yard, I am baffled by the white specks, but the blue speck in the middle of the yard is the kids' slide. You can even see my grill directly behind the back door.

I'm astounded by the detail in that picture. As the years go by, I know that the picture quality will just get better and better. I guess this means I won't be able to run around naked in the backyard anymore. Too bad.