Russ Hall

The coolness of e-commerce

Russ — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:38:19 +0000

America’s Best Dance Crew

Russ — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:20:37 +0000

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.

exercise equipment

Easy taxes and the benefits of donations

Russ — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:03:28 +0000

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.