Random Fact Thread

[Carma]

-I waited to finish listening to my cd of The Subtle Knife today, but it sarted skipping.
-I'll have to see if it works in the other cd player.
-I finished the book ealier today.
-It was really good.
-Ah, now I see why, there's a scratch on the cd.
-I'll probably tell the librarian that.
-Congrats to Snicketface for getting mod.
-And happy birthday Antenora.
-I don't think I have any homework today.
-Good.
-We made cranberry sauce in cooking today.
-And some turnip stuff, which C thought was really good.
-The news just said that Brittney Spears is seelling one of her tops on e-bay for Kattrina.
-And there's some sort of harry potter lawsuit going on.
-Seems there's actually a band called The Wierd Sisters.
-Um, yeah.
-And my camera supposed to come back in about a week.
-I hopeKodak's fast.

[Antenora]

-There was a PJ-looking person at my school.
-I haven't seen him in a while, though.
-I've been busy today.
-I was just at Borders with my literature discussion group.
-The meeting didn't take as long as I thought it would.
-I got to it a bit late, though, because the person who was going to pick me up had to cancel at the last minute due to some emergency.
-My Spanish class sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish.
-And my Government class sang to me, too.
-Someone must have informed the teacher that it was my birthday, because I came in and found them all singing.
-I don't know why I was chosen as Foreboding Feedback mod.
-But I'll do my best at the job.

[deanna.]

-I have to go soon.
-But I thought I'd post here soon.
-I told my friend about 667 today.
-She's an ASoUE fanatic as well.
-She's probably gonna join.
-Woohoo.
-The Nameless Novel mystery thing yesterday was dumb.
-It was too easy.
-Lalala.
-I'm listening to Our Lady Peace.
-Again.
-Right now it's "Apology."
-'Tis my favourite one.
-Yaay for Snicketface!!
-Mods = <3.
-Now all she needs the little red five star Malicious Moderator thing and she'll be all set.
-w00t.
-OMG, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTENORA!!
-I posted in your birthday thread yesterday.
-And I also noticed that Derik had Amber's hotmail address as his MSN name.
-Weird.
-Ish.
-How was your literature discussion group meeting, Nora?
-I wish I was in a literature discussion group.
-*mentally joins Antenora's L.D.G.*
-Now I'm happy.

[SF]

-Thanks to all who congratulated me I'd quote all of you but I'm too lazy
-I'm still totally clueless to this whole thing, Tragedy has yet to contact me
-Have I mentioned that I made a duct tape purse?
-Well, I did, and my friend is paying me 10 bucks to make her one
-My teacher also wants me to make her one
-I'm too distracted to finish this...

[A. the Returned]

-I worked again today.
-It was alright.
-My feet are sore though.
-One of the weird customers kept checking me out.
-then I had to walk past him to get to the back room and when I came out he was standing in my way and I had to say Hi because he said hi first.
-People like that scare me.
-I don't think he realised how young I was.
-He was certainly a fair bit older.
-And I've always been able to pass as older than my age.
-He wasn't even subtle about it either he practically yelled it out to his mate.
-I told the guy I was working with, later.
-He said to ignore them.
-He's cool, he always gets into trouble though.
-His name is Chris and I think he's around 20.
-Today I was talking to a friend from Primary school on the net.
-I haven't spoken to her in years.
-It was good to catch up.
-Primary school was so good. I miss it.
-So we might catch up some time.
-The old gang togather again.
-I still see one of my primary school friends all the time at dancing.
-All three of them go to the same school but I think they drifted apart and now don't even talk to one.
-The one they don't talk to thinks I'm weird.
-I've spoke to her a couple times on the net.
-There's always something she disapproves of.
-My MSN nicknames, my cool hat photos, online forums.
-She can't understand why I'm so weird.
-But the other three of us are going to continue the diary we started in year 7 and never finished.
-Yzay
-*goes off to remininsce.*

[SF]

-*yawn*hello all
-'tis way to early to be up
-I usually don't post in the morning when I'm up, but it's pretty dead so I thought I would
-So I PMed Tragedy to find out whats going on with my whole mod-position
-I took a science test yesterday, and I find out the results today so I'm nervous to see how I did
-I've just yawned
-It's gloomy looking outside, not really sunny at all
-I don't want winter to come
-It's way to cold for my liking
-Stinking Ohio weather.
-I seem to be just rambling on, so I'll end this post and go stare blankly at a wall or something ;D
-

[Linda Rhaldeen]

-Congratulations to SnicketFace for her mod position.
-And Antenora, too.
-And late happy birthday as well.
-I changed my avatar to fit in with today's NN clue.
-Chocolate ballet slippers would be a wonderful thing to have.
-But I'd be tempted to eat them.
-After being extremely busy for the last few days, I suddenly have nothing to do, and I'm feeling a bit bored.
-Boredom can be weird like that.
-It's been cold and damp in Utah the past few days.
-But that's the way I like it.
-Because I like the way your nose and ears get cold and red in the cold.
-Plus I like to wear warm sweaters.
-And it's funny to watch people lament and mope around in cold weather.
-They act like it's the end of the world and make fools of themselves.
-Maybe I should go move to Seattle or London or something when I'm living on my own.
-I can't stand hot, sunny days.
-The other forum I visit has had almost no traffic in the past week.
-And this one is pretty slow too.
-Maybe I'll try for a really long post.
-I've been wanting to do that for a while.
-But I've never found the time.
-So I might as well do it now.
-A spur-of-the-moment thing.
-Although I usually don't do things spur-of-the-moment.
-So, what to talk about?
-I'll just start rambling, I guess.
-I apologize in advance to anyone that decides to read my rambling.
-I like to wear a silver dogtag.
-I have a pair of green jeans.
-My backpack is blue.
-My glasses have lavender-colored frames.
-I'm wearing a shirt with multicolored stripes right now.
-Even though I usually don't like striped shirts.
-But this is a special striped shirt.
-Because it's a turtleneck and it's really warm.
-The pants I'm wearing right now have a small hole in the knee.
-The right knee.
-I always get holes in the right knee, but never in the left knee.
-I wonder why.
-It's just one of life's great mysteries, I guess.
-The pre-calculus curriculum is really strange.
-It starts with algebra-type stuff, then has trigonometry, and then has more algebra.
-At least, the book we're using does.
-My math teacher was complaining about that yesterday.
-He enjoys criticizing the book we use.
-The other day, he questioned the intelligence of whoever wrote the problems in the book.
-Then he called a particularly frustrating problem a red herring, saying it had absolutely nothing to do with what we were trying to learn.
-With all the complaining he does about that book, I'm surprised he doesn't just write his own book.
-This post is starting to get really long.
-Not nearly long enough, though.
-I need more material.
-Ahh, I found some.
-Some of the older (as in older age, not older membership) members of the other forum I visit invented a product called "tomaccolate" several months ago.
-It's a chocolate/tomato/tobacco hybrid.
-I think it had to do with an episode of the simpsons, but I'm not sure.
-They claim that the customers are drawn in by the chocolate part, and become addicted to tomaccolate because of the tobacco content.
-They do all sorts of advertisements for their product, and it looks like one of them just posted the "quarterly report".
-I'll post some of it for laughs
-Even though the real reason I'm posting it is to increase the length of my post faster than I can type
-Here it is:

Jason (Fresno State Fan) and Co-founder of Tomacolatte Inc.

Tomacolatte Reports Second Quarter Net Income of $50Million

Chewing Gum Sales Improve

Tomacollate Continues Strong Performance

Tomacollate Market in Latin America Deteriorates

Materials Costs and Supply Issues Constrain Results

LAKE FOREST, Ill., October 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tomacolatte, Inc. (NYSE: Tom) today reported third quarter 2005 net income of $50 million, compared to second quarter 2004 net income of $10 million. Results include restructuring charges, net of tax, of $1 million in the third quarter of 2005, and $1 million in last year's third quarter. Third quarter diluted earnings per share were up 36% to $.49, compared to $.36 in the third quarter of 2004.

"Net income was slightly better than expected, despite a greater than anticipated deterioration of the Tomacolatte in Latin America," said Jason Orton, Tomacolatte President and Chief Executive Officer. "Higher materials costs and shortages of some key supplies constrained results. We expect these trends to impact performance in the next quarter as well.

"Nevertheless, the robust growth of the global Tomacolatte industry contributed to the continuing improvement in Tomaccolatte results in this sector, and Tomacollatte Europe continued its strong performance."


Highlights from the quarter included the following:
In all regions, pricing actions enabled the company to recover increased materials costs in the quarter. This was particularly favorable news for the Tomacolatte businesses in Europe, which had not been able to offset materials cost increases earlier. However, materials costs are not moderating as much as the company had anticipated.
After delaying their launch to ensure quality and reliability, Tomacolatte began shipping its new generation of candy bars and ice cream. The company anticipates improved volumes in the fourth quarter of 2005.
In the quarter, net debt declined by $1 million.
Tomacolatte's business was awarded a five-year contract by the U.S. government. Tomaccolatte will supply more candy bars for soldiers stationed overseas.
Tomacolatte leveraged improved portfolio performance and strong investor demand for its $2 million wholesale receivables asset backed securitization ("ABS") transaction, confirming Tomacolatte funding capacity.
EQUIPMENT OPERATIONS - Third Quarter Financial Results

Net sales of Tomacolatte, comprising the company's core businesses, were $500 million for the second quarter, compared to $3 million for the same period in 2004, with most of the increase due to currency variations.


Tomacolatte Net Sales
Tomacollate net sales were $2 million for the second quarter, essentially unchanged from the prior year, but down 3% excluding currency variations.
Sales in Latin America declined by approximately 60%, excluding currency variations, continuing last quarter's sharp market contraction, in particular for combines. Sales in Europe were down 10%, excluding currency, in line with industry declines and the company's de-stocking actions. Sales in Rest of World markets were up 12% and up 4% in North America in a flat industry environment.
Third quarter 2005 production of Tomacolatte was approximately 2% lower than retail unit sales.
Gross Margin

Tomacolatte gross margin (net sales of product less cost of goods sold) for all products was $10 million in the third quarter of 2005, compared to $5million in the third quarter last year.


Tomacolatte gross margin declined slightly compared to the prior year's third quarter, as most of the improvement in North America was offset by a substantial decline in volumes of higher-margin products in Latin America and Europe.
Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA for Operations was $27 million for the quarter, or 8.1% of net sales, compared to $25 million in the third quarter of 2004, or 7.9% of net sales. Interest coverage was 5.1 times for the third quarter 2005, compared to 4.3 times for the prior year third quarter.

FINANCIAL SERVICES - Third Quarter Financial Results

The New Financial Services operations reported third quarter 2005 net income of $1.3 million, compared to $1 million for the third quarter last year. Improved yields on the wholesale portfolio and higher retail and wholesale ABS volumes were the principal factors contributing to the improvement in net income compared to the prior period.

Tomacolatte- Year-to-Date Financial Results

Tomacollate net income for the first 9 months was $129 million, compared to $74 million for the first nine months of 2004. Results include restructuring charges, net of tax, of $8 million in the first half of 2005, and $37 million in the first half of 2004. First half diluted earnings per share were up 72% to $.55, compared to $.32 in the first half of 2004.

NET DEBT AND OPERATING CASH FLOW

Operations net debt (defined as total debt less cash and cash equivalents, deposits in Fiat affiliates cash management pools and inter- segment receivables) was $8 million at June 30, 2005, compared to $10 million on March 31, 2005 and $18 million at June 30, 2004.

A decrease in working capital (defined as accounts and notes receivable, excluding inter-segment notes receivable, plus inventories less accounts payable), net of currency variations, contributed approximately $4 million to cash from operating activities, in the quarter. This decrease is primarily driven by an expansion of our accounts receivables securitization program, particularly in Europe, of approximately $3 million. This represents a further step in Tomacolatte's initiative to consolidate management of receivables within its Financial Services operations.

Tomacolatte OUTLOOK FOR 2005

Tomacolatte believes that for the full year 2005, the market will be at the same level as last year, although slightly different by region than was previously anticipated. Tomacollate expects that total industry sales in North America should be slightly lower than was previously forecast, but the new product offerings are expected to be better than last year by 5%-10%. In Western Europe, the industry unit sales should be down about 5%, as previously forecast. In Latin America, Tomacolatte expects that full-year industry volumes will be about 25% below last year. Industry sales in rest-of-world markets are now expected to be up slightly.

For the fourth quarter, the company expects its revenues from net sales to increase slightly compared with the fourth quarter of 2004. Including the effects of our increased spending for SG&A and R&D, Tomacolatte expects that net income, excluding restructuring costs, will be approximately the same as in the fourth quarter last year. Net of tax, restructuring costs for the fourth quarter are expected to be approximately $1 million.

Further, the company expects Operations to generate approximately $25 million of cash flow during the year, after including its third-quarter contribution to its US defined benefit pension plans of about $10 million, as previously anticipated. Tomacolatte expects to use that cash to further reduce Operations net debt, when compared with year-end 2004 levels.

Tomacolatte management will hold a conference call later today to review its third quarter results. The conference call webcast will begin at approximately 10:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. This call can be accessed through the investor information section of the company's web site at www.tomacolatte.com and is being carried by CCBN.



Forward looking statements. This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including statements regarding our competitive strengths, business strategy, future financial position, budgets, projected costs and plans and objectives of management, are forward-looking statements. These statements may include terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "should," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "outlook," "continue," "remain," "on track," "goal," or similar terminology.

Our outlook is predominantly based on our interpretation of what we consider key economic assumptions and involves risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ. Crop production and commodity prices are strongly affected by weather and can fluctuate significantly. Housing starts and other construction activity are sensitive to interest rates and government spending. Some of the other significant factors for us include general economic and capital market conditions, the cyclical nature of our business, customer buying patterns and preferences, foreign currency exchange rate movements, our hedging practices, our and our customers' access to credit, actions by rating agencies concerning the ratings on our debt and asset backed securities. Political uncertainty and civil unrest or war in various areas of the world, pricing, product initiatives and other actions taken by competitors, disruptions in production capacity, excess inventory levels, the effect of changes in laws and regulations (including government subsidies and international trade regulations), technological difficulties, results of our research and development activities, changes in environmental laws, employee and labor relations, pension and health care costs, the cost and availability of supplies from our suppliers, raw material costs and availability, energy prices, real estate values, animal diseases, crop pests, harvest yields, government farm programs and consumer confidence, housing starts and construction activity, concerns related to modified organisms and fuel and fertilizer costs. Additionally, our achievement of the anticipated benefits of our profit improvement initiatives depends upon, among other things, industry volumes as well as our ability to effectively rationalize our operations and to execute our dual brand strategy. Further information concerning factors that could significantly affect expected results is included in our Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2004.

We can give no assurance that the expectations reflected in our forward- looking statements will prove to be correct. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. All written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors we disclose that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements.

-That was longer than I thought it would be.
-I wonder if that counts towards the length of the post.
-I guess I'll find out.
-It seems that the spelling of tomaccolate has not become universal.
-It was spelled several different ways in that report.
-*pause*
-I don't like the smileys that Proboards have.
-I found some much better ones.
-For example:

-Those ones are colorful smileys.
-And therefore much better.
-Even though I hardly ever even use smileys.
-It's kind of interesting how this thread has evolved.
-It used to actually have random facts.
-But rarely does anymore.
-I'm getting tired of writing.
-I'm going to post soon.
-Even though it's probably not long enough.
-If it's not I'll edit my post, I guess.
-Well, here goes.

Edit:
-How are you supposed to find out how many characters your post contains?

[Dante]

-I find out by sticking my posts in MS Word and then doing a Word Count (which also gives the character number).
-That would be in its pre-posted form, to include coding and such.
-Anyway, I am now positive that I've got a cold.
-I'm really snuffly, and I feel rather bad.
-I felt better while I was walking home, though.
-Maybe it's a fresh air thing.
-If so, I'll go stand outside for a minute soon.
-My Government class this morning was easy.
-It was the birthday of one L., who is extremely bubble-headed.
-She brought in balloons and wore a tiara.
-Mr. F. had mislaid £10,000 for the politics game, though, so we ended up having a wacky true/false quiz instead.
-And earlier, I finished my Maths homework, which was actually rather easy.
-And then Mother took me out shopping.
-I got a black fedora and a long black coat, so now I can dress like Lemony.
-Also, I reserved a copy of B12 at a bookstore.
-They didn't know the title.
-I asked because I thought it was worth a try.
-I guess all the boxes they ship out probably say on them something like "Book the Twelfth" rather than the title.
-And they probably have a message stating "Do not open until October 18th."
-We really need to get a mole into the printing factories.
-Which I presume exist.
-Or deep into HarperCollins.
-Any volunteers?
-The sky's pretty grey here.
-and I have some orange to eat.
-I quite dislike orange.
-My shopping trip counted as my time out today, so I'll be at home all evening.
-I don't know what I'll do with the time, though.
-Maybe read more of Crime and Punishment.
-I should be able to finish it fairly soon.

Edit:

-When B12 comes out in Britain, maybe I'll scan the cover and make an avatar out of it.
-After all, the British cover won't be on TheNamelessNovel.com, and they probably won't put the right picture up on Amazon.co.uk for ages (they didn't with TGG - they still had the teaser cover up for a month or so after the book was released).
-Unless Brett's pulled a TVV and used the same cover for both.

[Antenora]

-Wasn't the British TVV slightly different from the US one?
-Maybe it was just that the crow's wings were outside the frame, rather than completely within it.
-If I had chocolate ballet slippers, I'd eat them.
-They'd be no use for actual ballet, I think.
-Judging from what I know about ballet, the slippers need to be tough because a dancer puts their whole weight on the toes.
-A chocolate pair wouldn't last long, and they might melt if it was hot enough in the theater.
-It's really hot and dry today.
-There's smoke in the air, from brushfires someplace.
-My literature presentation went pretty well.
-It wasn't as hard as I feared.
-My group sat at the front of the class and talked about Crime and Punishment, mostly about the character Raskolnikov and the general setting.
-The class and teacher would ask us questions, and we'd answer.
-I had some things to say, and since the teacher smiled while I talked, I guess I did well.
-I was nervous, however, and I fidgeted around a lot.
-Hopefully Ms M won't take too many points off for fidgeting.

[SF]

-Thank-you Linda, but I'm still totally clueless as I still haven't gotten my title or anything
-Although it was a nice attempt, Linda, you didn't beat my record, as I hit the character limit and had to use two posts
-I passed my Science with an 88% which is ok
-Not as good as I would have liked

[Dante]

-I think that the British TVV and the American ones were exactly the same.
-If there were any differences, they must have been tiny.
-I just checked.
-The crows' wings do stick out of the frame, and Klaus seems to have a different expression.
-And some of the colouring might be different.
-I guess it could be a re-paint of the same picture.
-Because Helquist does paint them, doesn't he?
-I read that somewhere.
-I had vegetable soup for dinner.
-And a random bacon sandwich, for no clear reason.
-Neither were very good.
-I've started craving foods.
-The pizzas and puddings at my favourite pizza place, for example.
-And Skittles, the most addictive of all sweets.
-Except those weird tiny things which I haven't seen in the shops for years.
-Oh, and apparently I'm going to some dentist appointment next Wednesday, to check out my mouth ahead of my half-term multiple tooth removal (to allow my wisdom teeth room to grow, or something).
-Apparently, that may well take several hours, so I probably won't be going out next Wednesday.
-And the Wednesday after that, if I calculate correctly, I might go to the cinema to see the new Wallace and Gromit.
-That'd be the day after B12's release, wouldn't it?
-Gosh, it's close.
-Now, what was I going to say?
-I think my day at school tomorrow shouldn't be too bad.
-I have Economics in the morning, which is fairly tame, if dull.
-It mostly involves note-taking.
-And I have two different teachers in my two English Literature lessons in the afternoon, so that should add variety.
-It might be the day when we're savaging dolls for some reason.
-If so - excellent. That should take up plenty of time.
-And I'm handing in homework to that teacher, too.
-I just hope I get an easy day tomorrow as I feel pretty awful right now.

[Linda Rhaldeen]

snicketface said:

-Although it was a nice attempt, Linda, you didn't beat my record, as I hit the character limit and had to use two posts.

-I didn't think I'd beat it, but it was worth a try.
-I admire your patience in writing such a long post, Face.
-I get to be in a newspaper.
-Someone who works for the newspaper saw me and interviewed me about an aspect of the school for his "person off the street" opinion about five minutes ago.
-Yay.
-I've never been in a newspaper before.

[Rowan]

I saw Corpse Bride again.
I liked the movie
But I couldn't stand the other people in the theatre.
There was a large group of people, looked like they were around 14-15
And they would not stop talking through out the movie.
And every now and again they kept turning on a really bright flashlight.
It was really annoying.
I love working at my campus's library
The only thing I don't like is I get a lot of ink on my hands when putting away the newspapers.
So, while on duty I wash my hands when I am able.
I just realized that I'm a little behind on my Creative Writing assignments.
I really aught to do that.

[Antenora]

-I've been in a newspaper before, I think.
-My name was mentioned in an article about a spelling bee, but I don't remember which one.
-I've been in about three spelling bees.
-And once I was in the school newspaper at my junior high.
-They were interviewing people about what they'd take to a desert island, if they could only take three things.
-I can't remember which three things I chose for the hypothetical desert island trip.
-And when I think about that question now, I have no idea what I'd choose.
-Corpse Bride was a cool movie, indeed.
-Government class should be interesting tomorrow.
-We're discussing the political spectrum, and various political ideologies.
-I don't know what I got on that government quiz we had last week...
-Today in class, I said something that annoyed the teacher a bit(I can't remember what it was now), and he said "I haven't graded your quiz yet..."

[raoawr]

Are you applying to college this year?

My fish died. For the past few days every time I saw her I'd start crying because she looked so sick.

I still have to start my homework. I got home at 7:30, made my dinner, ate my dinner, showered, and now it's 9.