So, I'm going down 90 and I'm looking at all the traffic.  Wait a sec, where is it?  I see all these cars and no traffic! 

I'm in Chicago, going down the highway just looking around in Virtual Earth, and I gotta say, "This is pretty damn cool!"  I remember watching video of a keynote speech by Bill Gates in which he had someone on stage with him, going through what was happening with Virtual Earth.  I remember thinking "Wow, that is pretty neat.", but I hadn't tried it out until today.  I hooked up my Xbox 360 controller to the laptop and flew around quite nicely. 

Now, the only problem I had with it is that the buildings definitely don't look as great as I imagined they would (I was in hybrid view tell me if I'm doing something wrong here).  I understand that it is a relatively new thing, and I would never complain about the product. It is awesome as I said.  Moving around on the planet didn't disappoint me, it excited me.  I want to do something with this, and I want to do something big.  There is a 3d model importer for the Virtual Earth world, which I will be trying to do. 

I went to Chicago, New York, Dublin, Stockholm, Vatican City, Las Vegas, San Jose, and a few other places.  But I am disappointed that there is nothing for San Antonio...somehow my city got skipped over in the 3d department (the Alamo is there so someone should get some kudos for that one but there is nothing else).

With all that, I have decided that I will add a few projects to the list of stuff that I want to do this summer/year:

1.) add some models to Virtual Earth from San Antonio (gotta represent)

2.) model my parent's house in New Jersey (or maybe I'll get my little brother to do it)

3.) on a separate but related note, I would like to model the University of Texas at San Antonio in 3D and then load it into an XNA game so that it can be navigated in its entirety (indoors and out) using the keyboard or the 360 controller.  (I'll probably add the university in over at Virtual Earth as part of the same project.

I will be sure to chronicle everything, and will likely put together more than a few tutorials during the course of the summer so keep a heads up.

If anyone wants to help out, shoot me a message so I can keep you apprised.

Go Microsoft!!