Smile, you're on camera!

My mom's going to love this post. It's going to fuel her conspiracy theories about the goverment and their secret cameras everywhere and phone-taps...and hidden agenda to rid Americans of their privacy.

she knows I love her. and love giving her a hard time.

but really, go check your DVR for a video camera, right?

I'm probably the last one on earth (the governmental personal internet-usage statistics log could back me up on this...) to check out Google Street Views.

it's pretty stinking amazing. you type in the address & you can actually SEE the place you're looking for. {granted, rural america hasn't quite been included yet}

But, in the bustling metropolis of Oklahoma City, they have us well captured. You can navigate street by street like you were driving your car right there. You can just imagine how handy this is for Aaron & I on the house hunt when we want to check out the 'neighborhood' and see (literally) what's nearby.

Here's the little car that's behind it all...

I know, not what you expected, huh? Not quite the spage-age unit I had imagined. All this can be done from my car?

Of course, now there are stories of people 'flashing' the google car, a group of 'costumed' men staging a series of 'wheres waldos' around the UK when they started photographing London, crimes in progress, the google-car hitting a deer...

and yes, although I have plenty to do, I've been typing in addresses all morning, checking out all this little feature can do. Chances are, friends & family, if I can remember at least your street name by heart, you've been googled. Not sure about the time frame of when these were captured, but we have a good idea of when they rode by our apartment complex. For others of you, we've seen your cars in the driveway!!. yes, you were home when this little beetle rode by your house. Dad, we saw the mini-winnie parked in back of your office. ...suddenly, the paranoia is starting to make a little more sense.

Aaron and I even managed to find the houses we stayed in when we studied abroad. We had fun virtually-'strolling' down the streets that we walked in Paris that summer. It was quite the visual trip down memory lane...We found the school we attended, sights we visited, shops & restaurants where we went, streets where we danced all night at the Fête de la Musique, and I found the site of the crêpe stand where my roommate and I were offered a job for a month (so the owner he could visit his family back in his home country of Sri Lanka)...in hindsight, man, we should have stuck around!

Here's Aaron's little "shack" over on Boulevard Murat -

He & his roommate stayed with a really nice Parisienne on the 6th floor, the fancy pad with the large balcony...

My roomie & I homestayed with a not-so nice couple (and their baby?)...they said they had 'un bébé', but in the month that we were with them, we never once saw him. made for some fun stories, and fun investigations. ah, le memories. All this googling made me pull out my scrapbook and relive some of the fun we'd had that trip, I found a note from our hosts where they'd chastized us for using all the hot water... oh, the chilly-showers of 30 Rue de jacob - we were there at the black door on the right, but the apartment was in the back three stories up, with windows that opened up to a beautiful courtyard. What an amazing opportunity, I'll say, it was one of my favorite things I've ever done. If you ever have the chance, (clearly) don't pass it up. Aaron & I can't wait to go back! ...I could tell stories for days...

Bon weekend tout le monde!

and you guys keep an eye out for those black helicopters.