Doing the Creepy On the Cheapy

Short on cash this Halloween? Well, you’re not the only one in bad economic times. But, it doesn’t mean you have to ban Halloween from the house and turn off the lights October 31st to save money. There are plenty of ways you can still do Halloween; it just takes a little more imagination and a little attention to your budget. Even if you don’t have everything you need right in your house, you can learn to get loans of Halloween goods from friends, buy only inexpensive items, and use old items that you have lying around the house to make some fantastic Halloween decorations.

Borrowing From Your Buddies

Don’t let this option escape you, especially with so many people who have tons of decorations and trash lying around in their garages. Why not host a “Halloween trade meet-up” with your friends and have some fun while going over some old decorations and fun new ideas? You might find your friends are equally as sick of having the same decorations shown on their lawn year after year and can’t wait to trade or loan theirs out in exchange for some of your old things.

Inexpensive Items

Buy some spider webbings, some black and orange spray paint, some plywood, and some old thrift store dolls. You can make some really ghoulish home-made lawn and home decorations and your kids will have a blast to boot! Just cut the plywood into grave markers, add some spider webs to trees, carve a pumpkin, add some stuff broken dolls, or use spray paint on items to make them more in line with your theme.

Old, Broken, Items

Anything that is broken, in disrepair, or just plain spooky looking can be used to make lawn and home Halloween decorations. You can take old sheets and make goblins, old clothing can become a scarecrow with just a bale of hay, and if you want them doing something, you can have them running the old broken down lawn mower, complete with webs and fake dead squirrels under the wheels.

Apple Quarterly Earnings: Apple Investor Relations Conference Call

Apple Quarterly Earnings: Apple Investor Relations Conference Call

Now what we are concerning much is Apple Earnings for the 4th Quarter. According to latest news, Apple Earnings:Apple Investor Relations Conference Call – Apple earnings = $7.9 billion for its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter.The company has sold 6.9 million iPhones, 2.6 million Macs, and 11 million iPods. Wryly noting that “we sold more phones than RIM,” Steve Jobs says they’re still not sure how the recession is going to affect them, but whatever, bitches, they’ve got “$25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt.” Below is a statement for a better understanding of the numbers, this statement released after the Apple conference call that took place:

Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
6.9 Million iPhones Sold
Mac Sales Reach All-Time High

CUPERTINO, California—October 21, 2008—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter ended September 27, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million, or $1.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, up from 33.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.68 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.44 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

Apple shipped 2,611,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth and 17 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11,052,000 iPods during the quarter, representing eight percent unit growth and three percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 6,892,000 compared to 1,119,000 in the year-ago-quarter.

“Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone—we sold more phones than RIM,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We don’t yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple. But we’re armed with the strongest product line in our history, the most talented employees and the best customers in our industry. And $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt.”

“We’re very pleased to have grown revenue 35 percent and to have generated $9.1 billion in cash in fiscal 2008,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead, visibility is low and forecasting is challenging, and as a result we are going to be prudent in predicting the December quarter. We are providing a wide range for our guidance, targeting revenue of $9.0 to $10.0 billion and earnings per diluted share between $1.06 and $1.35.”

From the message above we can see that they think the Mac sales would have even been better if the economy didn’t suck and you assholes hadn’t waited for the new notebooks, though they’re not sure how the big impact of those things were. iPod marketshare is still over 70 percent in the US as of September, though most growth is abroad.

So needless to say, Apple will still be a big winner during the global economic crisis. What we want to is congratulation to Apple, hope apple earnings will increase next quarter, and we also hope the great depression will be over soon!

Zero Dollar Bill – Artist Laura Gilbert ‘values’ American Dollar

Where does Zero Dollar Bill come from? With the fin­ancial meltdown leaving many Americans wondering what a dollar is worth, one New York City artist Laura Gilbert gives us an answer — zero. Laura Gilbert plans to distribute 10,000 signed and numbered prints of the “Zero Dollar,” which looks like a dollar bill except it has zeros in place of ones, to call attention to the U.S. economic crisis. Laura Gilbert displays her artwork in front of the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.

According to New York Times:

Ms. Gilbert, who began working on the print after the fall of Bear Stearns earlier this year, sees the dollar bill as “symbolic of America’s stature in the world.” As a reflection of the crisis in the financial markets, she has tried to lower the monetary value of the print itself to zero by creating a very large edition of 10,000.

Now one thing is quite clear, economic crisis 2008 is very serious. Our dollars are losing their worth day after day.

Zero Dollar Bill reflects very serious economic condition we are facing, anyone who can solve the economic crisis will win reputation from the people. Who can? Obama or McCain? Who knows!

For more detailed information, you can visit New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/business/05suits.html?ref=business

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