Dammit Google!

Every day we are barraged with various forms of advertisements from tv commercials, to billboards, to internet pop up adds. Based on the sheer number of adds I like most other people have been pretty good at tuning certain things out. Until yesterday I had vaguely noticed but never really paid attention to the Google advertisements on the right side of my screen for my gmail account. Google, with all of its data collection processes, probably knows more about me than I do myself. As such, the targeted Google advertisements, specially designed for me presumably based on the content of my emails, various Google searches, and numerous other messages paint an interesting picture of who I am. The list of advertisements consisted of:

Hot pockets
Halo Armor
D&D
Dungeons and Dragons Soda? (Not sure what this one is but here is the link)
Monk Shalhoub
Moving Companies
Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
Cooking Recipes
Nepal Travel
Video Quality Evaluation
Cabin Homes
Internet Stock Trading
Camping Tents

Now while some of these make sense, there are certainly others that are a bit of a mystery as I don’t ever recall searching for Video Quality Evaluation which after reading the link I still have no idea what it is. Regardless, what does the collection of these things tell me about myself? Does this make me sound creepy? Well perhaps not, nerdy . . . certainly. But, honestly, who does not love a nice hot pocket, while drinking a Dungeons and Dragon Soda, planning their future vacations to Nepal, and playing video games, while catching up on the latest episodes of Monk. Okay, perhaps there might be something wrong with me. I also had a similar experience with my first TIVO when my inaugural recording happened to be Queer Eye For the Straight Guy. I actually had to spend weeks convincing my TIVO that I was not in fact gay and that I was not interested in recording everything on television associated with the topic. I suppose the same is true with Google. If I wanted to create a cooler profile I should begin conducting random searches and writing emails with more flattering subject matter. Then maybe Google at least will think I am much cooler than I am.