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Posts Tagged ‘Christmas’

Have you heard? Microsoft to aquire rights to Christmas (North pole)

I seen this in Craigslist and I thought I would share it with you in its entirety. Suprised Microsoft haven’t actually tried this. The original poster is not known, but can be contacted here through the Craigslist email.

NORTH POLE (API) – MICROSOFT announced an agreement with Santa Claus Industries to acquire Christmas at a press conference held via satellite from Santa’s summer estate somewhere in the southern hemisphere. In the deal, Microsoft would gain exclusive rights to Christmas, Reindeer, and other unspecified inventions. In addition, Microsoft will gain access to millions of households through the Santa Sleigh.

The announcement also included a notice that beginning Dec 1st, 2009, Christmas and the Reindeer names would be copyrighted by Microsoft. This unprecedented move was facilitated by the recently acquired MS Court. Microsoft stated its commitment to “all who have made Christmas great,” and vowed to “make licensing of the Christmas and Reindeer names available to all at a modest cost.” It is believed that the guidelines for licensing these names, will be due before Halloween 2010, will be very strict.

When asked “Why buy Christmas?” Bill Gates replied “Microsoft has been working on a more efficient delivery mechanism for all of our products for some time, but recognized that the Santa Sleigh has some immediate benefits. We’ll use it first for the next release of Windows and Office 2010.”

In a multimedia extravaganza, the attendees were shown a seemingly endless video stream of products that make up the deal. It ended with a green and red version of the Microsoft logo, and a new Christmas 7 trademark, leading into the announcement of the first product from the deal.

Vixen, the new Director of Holidays and Celebrations said, “The first step is to assimilate Christmas within the Microsoft Organization. This will take some time, so don’t expect any changes this year.” She continued, “our big plans are for next year, when we release Christmas 7. It will be bigger and better than last year.” She further elaborated that “Windows Xp and Vista users who sign up with MS now will get sneak previews of Christmas[7] as early as November first.”

Christmas 7 is scheduled for release in December of 2010, though one unnamed source said that it is dangerously close to the end of the year and may slip into the first half of 2011. An economist at Goldman Sachs explained that a slip would be catastrophic to next year’s economy and the nation’s tax revenue, possibly requiring the IRS to move the deadline for filing income tax returns to three months after Christmas, whenever that was. “But it could be good in the long term,” he explained. “With Microsoft controlling Christmas, we may see it move to May or June, which are much slower months for retailers. This may serve to even out the economy over the year.”

When asked if other holidays are being considered, Mr. Gates explained that “Christmas is the flagship of holidays, so we wanted to start there. Not all holidays are available for sale, and the remaining will have to show a good long-term business,” suggesting that holidays with a short history may not be in the plans.

Though specific terms of the agreement were withheld, a Santa official confirmed that the deal was “sizeable, even for a man of Santa’s stature.”

Some analysts think that Santa has saturated the Holiday market, and is looking for a means to expand his business to year ’round products and services. Others contend that the Jolly Red Man is looking to retire in Cancun Mexico.

A spokesperson for the most famous Reindeer could not be reached for comment.

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I’m Dreaming of a Late Christmas?

The world's first Christmas card, made by John...

Image via Wikipedia

Due to the falling economy, many retailers this year has tried during the Christmas Season to offer better deals than in the past in hopes of luring in shoppers. It has worked to an extent, but what about a late Christmas? The deaks may be good now, but they are usually as good, or better during the tax season. he reason why is that one, the retailers know that most shoppers will be “loaded” and the amount of money will be tempting to be spent. Two, the retailers need to clear space for new products and to get rid of what was not sold during the Christmas season. So is it wrong to give gifts past the holiday? With todays economy, most would understand the financial situation many families are going thru. Ironically, Russia, Georgia, Egypt, Armenia, Ukraine, FYROM and Serbia celebrate on January 7. This is because of their use of the traditional Julian Calendar, under which December 25 falls on January 7 as measured by the standard Gregorian Calendar. So in part, Americans may perhaps be winging to the same tradition, but because of financial constraints. The holidays is not ment to be a measuerment of wealth thru gift giving, but a measurement of wealth thru giving from the heart.

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Local Family Barely Getting By

Almost over a year and a half ago, Keith Stoneberger, now 40, was doing fairly well financially. He was making enough to cover the bills and to put food on the table on a week to week basis without much of a worry. The only thing that would hurt him if there were to be a major repair bill on a vehicle. The rising gas prices at the time affected him and his family some, they were still able to keep afloat. Keith was diagnosed in early part of 2008 with severe osterioarthritis in his right hip, that occurred from an injury involved in an accident about 10 years earlier. Keith at the time worked as a plumber and noticed that it was hard for to get around because he was in too much pain. After his diagnosis, he had set down with his supervisor one day to discuss a leave of absence because Keith would need a total hip replacement. Later that day, he had learned that he had been fired.

“At first, I wasn’t worried because I had the skill set to move to another company. After looking around a few days, I decided to apply for unemployment because work was slowing down for everyone I talked to and they weren’t hiring and I didn’t want to get caught going a couple of weeks without any money” Keith explained.

“The economy seem liked it just started collapse then and I thankfully, I started to get unemployment.” Keith’s wife Lisa was able to obtain a job locally to help add to the unemployment that he was receiving. “I had already recieved my hip replacement surgury and I can work. Since I had been fired, I applied for over 200 jobs, even the ones I don’t qualify for. I am just hoping and praying that something will come abound before this winter.”

This winter, Lisa will be on unemployment from her seasonal job and the ends will be harder still to meet, especially since Christmas is coming up. “Thankfully we have a landlady that understands what is going on and I visit Page One monthly for food. All my unemployment is exhausted and I really hate being a house husband.”

Keith is on the computer daily, looking for work, learning new skills, applying locally. “I guess you can call me a jack of all trades, a master of none. I even know computers, enough to get started and I am learning anything via the internet. I am a quick learner and it does not take me long to know something. I am going to apply for a pell grant to learn a new skillset because with the total hip replacement, I will not be abe to work as hard as I once loved to do. The problem is my family needs help now. I need a job now.”

“I keep reading that the so called experts are saying the end is in sight and everything is getting better, but I am alos reading that a company is laying off x amount of employees because there is no one buying their products.”

Keith’s situation is not the only one in Page County. He is just one of many that is finding it hard to make ends meet.

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