Bill Gates can bite me. I’ve turned off Smart Tags. Have you?

Salon reports that consumer confidence is up again. Which is nice, but the best part of this article are the ridiculous metaphors economists use to describe the news.
 
“The economy is clearly coming out of hibernation and beginning to move about,” said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo. “But it’s still pretty dark in the woods.”
 
WHAT? Another good one:
 
National Association of Manufacturers President Jerry Jasinowski said the figures were “like a ray of sunshine in an otherwise stormy sky.” He said that “while I don’t think the clouds are going to fade right away,” the numbers “show that the storm is beginning to moderate.”
 
I suppose if this is what it takes to make economics interesting, so be it.

Well, Chuck and Camilla finally kissed in public. It doesn’t look very passionate though. In fact, I’d say Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie showed more spark than these old fogies do. Of course, I guess you’re not exactly going to slip your boyfriend the tongue when his mother, the Queen of friggin’ England, is standing right in front of him, are you?

No way. Hey Brigita, she’s pregnant. This story just gets worse and worse.

The Loch Ness Monster is ’caused by seismic waves’, says an Italian scientist. How very un-romantic. As if tourism in the UK needed another blow.
 
Tangent: A good friend of mine was up visiting Scotland a few years ago when we were both here as students. He wasn’t staying far from Loch Ness, so he decided to walk there along some nature trail. He was nearly there when suddenly he turned round a bend and came upon a couple “having intercourse.” Oh, did I mention my friend was studying in the seminary to become a priest at the time? Hee! He was so embarrassed he turned around and snuck back to the hostel without even seeing the Loch. We still kid him about it to this day. (He ended up leaving the seminary a few years later.)

Snookums: I had this crazy dream last night about psycho animals with guns trying to take over the world.
Me: Ha! Why do you always have these silly boy G.I. Joe dreams?
Snookums: Don’t make fun! Pandas with rocket launchers are scary.

I was going to update you all on last night’s Survivor episode but I just can’t. It was too awful. James is gone. Charlotte is the only member of Helang left. Ular are being so mean and petty and terrible that they’re even making me feel sorry for the whinging tart. All the good guys are gone. Only the bad guys are left. I hate Jackie. I hate Zoe. I hate Eve. I hate Richard. Only a victory by Mick or Pete would make this travesty marginally more easy to take, and I don’t rate either of their chances very high. It sucks. I’ll watch til Charlotte is gone next week, and then that I’ll quit. I don’t want to see one of those bastards win.

I just noticed a link to a My Yahoo! Survey while checking the news. I filled it out even though I’m ineligible for their stupid sweepstakes. From the angle of the questions, it looks like our old friend Yahoo! is finally starting to consider charging for their services. They wanted to know which publications I subscribe to offline and whether I’d be willing to pay for access to that content online. I said no. I do get most of my news from their service, but it’s not like that’s the only way I can possibly get information. If they shut down, I’ll go elsewhere.

“Oh, what a cute little… zorse? zetland?“

You can now see the last 100 Google search terms people used to find this site. Man, there are some weirdos out there! (Hello to any of those weirdos reading this.)