half the world away

heya

in truth (as i always strive for), and to be completely honest (which i sometimes am), i wasn't really aware of the fact that i had "google" location or tracking or whatever it is switched on. no doubt i pressed some button or some setting to activate it without concentrating. but it turns out that this is not an issue, look you see. far from it, as a lovely bunch of stats turned up in an email. 

some consider it creepy, immoral, wrong or just plain legally dubious that all of these "smart" devices what we have appear quite clever at monitoring us, and all that we do. certainly, often i have noticed that the subjects of conversations i have with my phone in the room mysterious leads to adverts for whatever it was that the topic related to popping up on adverts. but, google, facebook, apple and what have you have all promised that they do not use our devices for monitoring us to make more effective adverts. the lack of profit each company shows each year is surely proof of such. 

my phone pretty much (more or less) went everywhere i did, then. like the majority of people, in this day and age i feel obliged, if not compelled, to keep the device with me at all times. i suppose it is so for "just in case" reasons. also, it would be quite silly to leave something so useful sat at home. one rather unexpected element (or aspect) of this, then, is that google appears quite aware of everywhere that i have been, and did some nice summaries of it, as well as some fancy stats. 

perhaps it is so that i am simply just, well, simple, and easily pleased or amused. nothing wrong with that, if more of us were so then the world might be a better place. but, it did tickle me to see that, apparently, my combined miles for one year came to the equivalent of travelling a half way around this planet of ours. it seems like a lot, especially as i did not leave a nation or cross a border, and of course it was that year (2020) where any sort of travel was mostly frowned upon. 

as the above illustrates, then, i remained well and truly within the United Kingdom for the year that was the year 2020. specifically, i suppose, the English part of it. but, then, again, i got to within reasonable distance of the ostensible borders for Wales and Scotland, kind of. for the life of me, though, i cannot quite recall the details or specifics of my visit to the so-called "north west", named such, i think, simply as it is north west of london, rather than being all that north in (or within) England. for some reason quite a few parts of that area - in particular Manchester - seem to try and make a big deal or fuss of stating their "northern" credentials, which is fine, i guess, but they are not the "proper" north. 

not recalling any of the how, when or why i was in the north west at some stage, at least not in a definitive way, isn't that much of an issue. so peculiar and strange was last year that i even manage to forget that i spent some decent time down in that there london (innit), which is most decidedly south. 

very wise, indeed, of my phone, and them people what do the google and all that, to give such prominence off of my visits to Yorkshire. also, plus points for, out of all of them cinque port things what i went to, showcasing the wonders of Margate. 

would i, to go back (rather than forward) to an earlier point, consider myself bothered or worried in respect of just how much my devices, and them what do google and that, seem to "know" of me and much or all of what i do? not especially. as i did mention earlier, they seem to be using it to, as they say it, "tailor" ads and that for me. yeah, ok. sure, i only keep buying things like, for instance, David Bowie recordings because of an advert. absolutely true, that. as they can't advertise cigarettes, sadly for them they cannot coin it in by showing ads which would be the most successful on me. 

finally, then, the so-called (by me at least) "Greta effect" of all that lockdown business during the, and truly for want of a better term, ipso facto first invisible war effort against the new plague. extremely little driving got done for them three (3) months, then, and my walking (note the l) levels increased a good deal. undoubtedly this helped to save some dolphins, or whatever. 

right, well, that's that. i am not at all sure any of this is of all that much interest to anyone, but if so then so much the better. whereas i cannot see how one would do such, please don't use stuff in the above, or anything here really, for any malicious or naughty stuff, thanks. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!