Since I’m a geeky guy, I tend to love everything Google. I was naturally excited when Canada got Google Street View last month, and have already used it several times to find out ahead of time what to look for ahead of time when heading out to see a new building for the first time.

Street View of Playa del Carmen - 5th Ave at 10th St

And I’m sure that any reader of this blog knows that one of my favorite places in the world is Playa del Carmen on the Mexican Riveria.  So naturally I was excited to hear that the cars that snap the Street View pictures were seen in the Playa region at the same time as there were photographing Canada.

Well the wait is now over, I can virtual wander the streets of Playa now whenever I like!  Google Street View for Playa del Carmen (and the rest of Mexico) has now gone live!

There is a couple of disappointments… they must not have made arrangements with the city to travel down the normally pedestrian only Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue), which is the cities main tourist walk and likely would have been the highest viewed street in Playa if it was available. Additionally, it would be nice if they could get the Street View tricycle to drive along the beaches to give us that view too. But considering Playa did not even have street maps within Google Maps a few months ago, this is a major update. Now if they can just get a sattelite view that doesn’t have clouds over downtown Playa….

I’m off to bed, but I shall be exploring Playa tomorrow!

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I haven’t gotten into the NBC show Heroes, even though it looks likes somthing I would enjoy.  School comes first and so I have avoided getting into watching any series so that it doesn’t interfere (Dr. Who is my one guilty but pleasureable exception).  Karin is deeply into it, and so I have been careful not to share a lot of the spoilers I have seen, but the latest item I noticed should interest all the Heroes fans.

The website of the fictional Yamagato Fellowship, headed by Kaito Nakamura (played by George Takei). has appeared online.  While the site is intended to promote the show, it is set up with no mention of the show; but rather it is written as if we are within the Heroes world.

The site contains a mockumentary about Takezo Kensei, a new character from the past to be introduced this session.  This is not a spoiler, however, but rather an optional back story.  I may even sneak a few minutes to check it out myself, if I dare risk becoming intreged and then having to fight wanting to watch the show to know more.

As an example of a blog contest that requires a post, I’m presenting the newest contest I have come across. Why the newest, and not one from my backlog? Because this contest is being run in celebration of a milestone that deserves a post even if there was no contest involved.

Netchick, aka Tanya, is celebrating her 10 year anniversary of blogging next month!

That’s right, 10 years! When I reached the 10 year mark of just being connected to the internet, that made me an uber-geek. To have actually been blogging for that length of time is truly something special.

To celebrate, Tanya is holding a contest to give away a Nintendo Wii. You can enter one of two ways, the first being to post the above banner on your blog from now until the anniversary date of September 30^th; the other is to make a comment on her contest post that meets certain criteria. As always, visit the blog itself for the exact rules; you can click on the banner above to get to her contest details.

I doubt that Tanya even knows I am a reader of her site; but she holds a spot in my Local Blogs folder in Google Reader, one of the few folders I regularly check out even when life is too busy and I shouldn’t be. As I’ve mentioned before, if I am aware of a Vancouver area blog, I will be checking it out; but it has to be a good local blog to keep me reading. Tanya’s content is a well written collection of local events, personal events and dating stories. What sets her apart from other personal blogs is that even when she is complaining about life events or being single, she manages to come across as a happy person. Hopefully my impression is correct.

So pop on over to enter her blog contest, but do return to read what is going on in this net chick’s life.

Oh, and this would also be a Rebuilding My Blogroll post.

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I’ve been meaning to share this for about a week, but I lost the reference to it. If I saw this on your blog and didn’t give you credit, I apologize!

Ever wonder what the average family eats in different locations throughout the world? And what those average families spends on a week’s worth of groceries?

No?

Well, it’s a facinating project anyway. Check out Time Magazine’s photo essay showing What the World Eats.