How cool is the internet? Last weekend, I mentioned Patrick Roddie’s beautiful book Hips in a blog post on this, my humble personal blog (with its worldwide readership of five, maybe even six people). Then just yesterday, none other than Mr. Roddie himself pops by to leave a comment on that post. I’m not sure how he found me – either via the referrer logs of the server(s) hosting the page I linked to over at Chronicle Books, or else via some active search for links to that page, and/or links containing key terms in general (like “Roddie”, “Hips”, and such). I can’t find that post in Google at all (not yet, anyhow), so I’m kinda stumped. I may just have to e-mail him to find out… And while it’d be *very* cool to hire him as our wedding photographer, (a) we’ve almost sealed that deal with Jason Raposo, and (b) I don’t think that when he made the offer, Mr. Roddie realized that the wedding is going to take place roughly 2,500 miles from San Francisco. But I do know that I’m going to seek him out at Burning Man, and see if I can get him to autograph my copy of Hips.

Speaking of being away from San Francisco, I’m posting this entry from a conference room about 680 miles from San Francisco. You can get a bird’s eye view of the *very building* I’m sitting in via the super-cool Windows Live Local (formerly known as Microsoft Virtual Earth). This is Microsoft’s answer to Google Maps, and while each service has its strengths and weaknesses, there are two features of the Microsoft offering that everyone MUST check out. The first is the “bird’s eye view”. While all the major mapping services have satellite views of varying currency/quality, Windows Live Local has *aerial* shots. So instead of looking straight down, from space, you’re looking down at a (roughly) 45-degree angle, from a (relatively) *very* low altitude, and zoomed in *super* tight. They don’t offer bird’s eye views of all map areas, but the major metro centers in the US have good coverage, and I’ve already killed a few hours gazing at bird’s eye views of various landmarks, natural wonders, friends’ homes (I’m not linking to those – you five all know where you live), and so on. You can choose between two different zoom levels, and (by clicking on a compass in the left nav bar) change the orientation so that you’re looking down from the north, south, east, or west. The other cool feature, still very much in preview mode, is a massive database of STREET-LEVEL photos, that you can navigate (using your arrow keys) as though you were actaully driving (or walking) around on the map surface. They’ve only got parts of downtown Seattle and San Francisco available right now, but it’s so much fun to just play around with that I just don’t care. It’s not all that useful yet, even if you’re in one of the two cities listed, but it’s truly thrilling to get an idea of what the near-term future holds for online maps and directions. Can you say “virtual self-guided walking tours”?

Speaking of nice views, we ended up going to Daniel’s Broiler last night, instead of Monday night. On Monday, it was McCormick & Shmick’s. Not bad, for a chain, but not quite as good (nor, in fairness, as pricey) as Daniel’s. Quick recommendation: Daniel’s Broiler is an *excellent* steakhouse, with beautiful views – the location we went to is in downtown Bellevue, on the 21st floor. Ask for an end cut of the prime rib – if you’re lucky, you’ll be served by the very same (Buddhist) gentleman that waited on our party. It’s horrible, I know, but being served a perfect slab of rare meet by a smiling vegan just put me over the top…

I also found out (over dinner at Daniel’s, as it happens) that Salish Lodge is much closer to Seattle than I’d thought it was. That means I *really* have to get there on one of these Seattle trips. Apparently, their breakfasts are the stuff of legend. And if it looks familiar to you, you’re probably – like me – a fan of Twin Peaks.