Russ Hall

For those of you who haven’t caught one of the live or rerun versions of America’s Best Dance Crew on MTV, you’re missing one of the craziest and cool shows on television right now. It’s just terribly impressive to see how some of these people move their bodies and move their bodies in unison with each other–sometimes independently, if that makes sense. Anyhow, it gets the Russ stamp of approval of a watchable television show and they’re getting close to the finals. So, as long as they don’t institute any stupid rules that screw over the teams, it should continue to be awesome. Newbies are on Thursdays at 10 (right after Lost). Check yourself.

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As a single, 24-year-old guy with two jobs and no investments, doing my taxes is pretty easy. In past years, I’ve had Mom help me because she’s an accountant, she enjoys doing it, and I know that it would get done right. But, this year, for convenience and speed sake, I decided to give it a shot and it was terribly easy. I was able to free e-file, so I chose H&R Block’s Tax Cut website and it worked pretty wonderfully. Granted, it basically walks you through every step, and as long as you don’t mess up anything too complex, it’s pretty easy. Commercials will tell you that the tax preparers will help you find every little bit of money you’re entitled to and you can see all of the options that could help you get that, but I wasn’t trying to milk the system for anything. One item that is kind of appealing is tax credits for donating things. Rewarding citizens for helping their fellow men might be a better situation than just taxing us and giving that money to others does seem more satisfying. And I remember, when I was working at Sprint, how much I appreciated the fact that you could donate cell phones that would end up in battered womens’ shelters. Car Angel (www.carangel.com) is a non-profit company that uses car and other donations to make videos for kids and teens. They have given away over 2.4 million videos. Money raised is used to make the videos like this one. So, if you’ve got an old beater, make a car donation and get some tax money back next year.

You got this movie and I’m gettin’ hitched. Looks like we both had a good month.

Most of the way through American Splendor and I’m really enjoying it. My favorite part is the interviews with the real creator of the original comic, Harvey Pekar. He’s this off-the-wall, gloomy guy who laughs and basks in his gloom. It reminds me of my dad…a lot. I’m pretty sure that this is almost exactly how he was over the last couple decades. I’d like to travel in time and be with him in his favorite times to see how he was and what he was like. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t want this to get too personal about other members of the family. But, watch the movie. It’s good. It’s happily pessimistic and wonderful.

I love piggyback rides.

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So far, I’m fairly disappointed in the commercials for the Super Bowl this year. It seems like Bud Light is the only actual sponsor besides Fox plugging their own stuff–which seems like a dumb idea because most people know Fox’s lineup. I’m expecting some better commercials as the game progresses, or it’s just gonna be a huge disappointment. Beer is cool, but I’m kind of expecting something more–maybe some women in corsets, other beer companies, some cool car commercials… I dunno, something great. Now there’s a plug for the commercials on Myspace. Who cares if all of the commercials suck?

Sometimes, I make bad shopping decisions when I’m drunk. I’m willing to admit that. With that in mind, I wonder if that ever happens to people with a whole bunch more money to spend. The past week, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to buy Yahoo!. My guess is that Steve Ballmer was sitting around with a fresh bottle of scotch, browsing for a good game of backgammon to play online when he found Yahoo! Games. As he went on a spree of victories–owning the kid’s room, he drank more and more until he realized that he really wanted to own the kid’s room. So, he sent Bill an email letting him know his decision, then dialed up Jerry Yang with his proposal.

Hey, it could happen.

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Sometimes, when you turn a frown upside-down, it looks like a handle-bar mustache.

I found this cool site called LogoYes where you can use flash to create a sweet logo. When I was playing around with it, I decided to sort of invent a company that I have been toying around with called Fox Interactive Development. I don’t know if it would actually work because it might be associated with the television studio of a same/similar name, but a slight adaptation would be all right. It’s pretty awesome, and although I have absolutely no design skills, it was terribly easy to whip it together. It starts with the option of choosing an image for your company: Hi-Tech, Bold, or Flair. They have a pretty expansive selection of artwork to use in your logo and a nice selection of fonts to fit whatever feeling you’re trying to convey in your image. After you finish your logo, you have the option of seeing it on business cards, which might be one of the most useful features of the site.
The entire process only took a few minutes, but the results look like something that I’ve seen designers spend a lot of time working on. With a little time to ponder and maybe some sketching, this is probably the most effective way for non-designers to put together branding for a new business or a revamping of an established business. And, with 100 free business cards, this is a pretty good investment. So, if you’re looking for logo design, check out LogoYes. The above thumbnail is a screenshot of the development area near the end of the project.

So, I already wrote one post about people that suck: blind spot drivers. But, I thought I would address another issue that I ran across the other day. Strolling down to the bathroom after a heavy lunch at work, Centro with solitaire in my pocket, expecting to get some quality alone time… I opened the door to the stall to see little droplets of liquid sprayed on either side of the seat.
My guess is that the urinal was already in use, so a careless visitor to the Quest center decided that he would use the stall, opened the door and figured, “Oh, my aim is probably OK.” No sooner than he had unzipped, the first bits of the stream were already splashing on the edge of the seat. “Too late now,” he thought as he contemplated lifting the seat. He might not have even thought that, as he was too full of himself to clean up the seat after doing the damage.
What a deutschbag seat peer.

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