Free Tax Advice from the Peacock

If you still haven't done your taxes (or did them yourself and wound up owing the government $2000 so decided that there is no shame passing them off to your parent's accountant one last time), you have exactly 16 days left. While the free tax services, such as TurboTax, are great, they do charge you if you need certain sections explained. Avoid the fee and call up the tax experts the Today Show has standing by just for today to answer all your tax questions (what the hell is a AMT tax and should I care?) for free.

Call 877-NBC-4-TAX (877-622-4829) between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. EST, Monday, March 31.

Finanical Wingnut Explains Crisis...Amusing.

This nymag article actually tickled me. Read it.

"I don’t know anything about money. I don’t mean that I’m not a financial expert. I mean that, when it comes to money, I’m functionally illiterate. I don’t like to think about finances, and on the rare occasions that I do, my thought process goes like this: I have a job. I earn money. I spend most of it. The rest I put in a savings account. That’s it. People who know about money are always yelling at me, because they can’t believe I’m still throwing away money by renting (mortgages are confusing) or not diversifying my portfolio (what portfolio?). And I freely acknowledge that people who think a lot about money will invariably accumulate more of it than I will. And I’m okay with that, since the trade-off is, I don’t have to spend my time thinking about money. "

The State Department Addresses "Romantic Scams"

My roommate got a check for a thousand bucks for living abroad in 2003 and I want a piece of that action. I'm fishing around on the Gov't's site and what! alongside health advisaries for int'l travelers there is a Romantic Scams section.

Birthday Girl with Ben Chapman was a great movie, but can heart-string tugging really be that big of an issue?

I guess so. These are all real excerpts from the State Departments run-down on "Romantic Scams."

"the targeted person is led to believe that he or she has a chance to attain something of very great personal value (financial reward, a romantic relationship, etc) in return for a small up-front monetary outlay."

Elements of a Scam – Key Warning Signs: Scams involve one or more – sometimes all – of the key signs below:

• Photographs that the scammer sends of "him/herself" show a very attractive person. The photo appears to have been taken at a professional modeling agency or photographic studio.
• The scammer has incredibly bad luck-- often getting into car crashes, arrested, mugged, beaten, or hospitalized -- usually all within the course of a couple of months.

Gorgeous People in Trouble – The Damsel in Distress

"The Expected Payoff: If he is sympathetic and assists her through her sudden crisis, the boyfriend stands to gain a large degree of gratitude from the young lady. If all goes well, her gratitude for his emotional support will translate, he hopes, into significant goodwill and affection from her when they finally meet. "


Scammer: How re you today?
American: I'm doing well. You are SUCH a pretty woman!
Scammer: Where did we meet -- on African Singles or Single Me?
American: Dreammates, maybe?
Scammer: How’re you doing?
American: I'm doing fine..............are you in Hawaii?
Scammer: Nope get hooked up with little problem here
American: "Hooked up with a little problem?" Explain, please.
Scammer: You care to know? I don't think you can help me out of this mess.
American: Well..........tell me and we will see.
Scammer: My dad he's from us and my mum is from Spain. So I’m a honest lady. And I’m trustworthy lady. And I don’t like people cheating. Right now I’m in west Africa. There was a guy that I met when I’m still at home in Florida (two month ago) so the guy told me that he love me. And I told him that I love him too. So he traveled to west Africa. He called me and chat with me on the phone. He really felt in love with me. So he said I should come and visit him in the hotel. So I went down to west Africa, to the hotel and we meet each other in person. But I don’t really know that the guy doesn’t love me. We have fun and know much more about each other together in the same room. And the next day I can't find this guy any more he ran away with all my money and my goods. All I need now…
American: All you need now?
Scammer: Your help. If you can help me to raise fund and I will pay you back when I get back to the States.
American: How much do you need?
Scammer: $500 US dollars.
American: Don't you have a credit card?
Scammer: Yes that [swear word] stole everything away from me.
American: Which credit card is it?
Scammer: American Express.
American: Did you call them to let them know?
Scammer: Yes, I did and there is nothing they can do about it.
American: Not true.
Scammer: Please help me out of this mess and I will pay you back. If you don't believe me then bye.
American: For someone who seems to need help, you have very short patience, why is that?
Scammer: Oh, patience? Is that all you have to tell me when I am stuck here?
American: No, but I would like you to explain what you did to extricate yourself from your situation first. You might have some options.............
Scammer: What option? Please tell me.
American: Is Amex your only credit card?
Scammer: Yes.

Personal Trainer For Rich Peoples' Pups

We've discussed second jobs before and in light of current economic trends, we're going to make side gigs a regular topic.

Today I check out Craigslist part-time jobs and this one was my favorites:

Do You Want to Get Paid To Jog!? (Upper East Side)

Running Paws, Inc (www.runningpaws.com) the original dog fitness company is looking to add another Dog Runner to our expanding team of athletes.

MUSTS!

* Comfortable with dogs of all sizes (and truly loves animals) * Able to handle 2 large dogs at a time * Able to run at least 4 miles daily (you must be in exceptional shape) * Cold/Snow/Slush/Wind/Rain/Heat/Humidity resilient * Own a cell phone * Have a clean criminal record (for bonding purposes) * Hold U.S. citizenship or legal working documents. * Minimum 5 month commitment * Available to begin working immediately * AVAILABLE FOR WORK BETWEEN 11am-3:45pm (MON thru FRIDAY). Please do not respond to this listing if you can't work 11am-3:45pm (MON. thru FRI.)

Expect to earn between $175-$225(free and clear) weekly (aprox. 2.5-3.5 hours daily).

IE $15 bucks an hour for running large dogs. If no taxes involved, this could improve your fitness and your wallet thickness level. You'd have to be unemployed or work nights or be a student for it to work. Or a writer.

On a scale of 1-10 - I give this job a 8 for cool/rewarding, 3 for pay per hour, and a 2 for benefits to your career.

How We Should Benefit From A Recession - But Won't

A recession is good for people who don't have a lot of money because they can buy stocks and homes on the cheap. Home prices are falling, but not enough and especially not enough in New York.

The Gov is working to stabilize home prices by creating safety nets for homeowner's who got into mortages that they now cannot afford. Government-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been given the leeway to lend more aggrressively to people facing foreclosure to help them get into homes they can afford.

Two effects of this policy: people get out of contractual agreements and the new terms lower profits for the bank. Losses in profits always trickle down to consumers (unless its Uncle Sam on the losing end.)

The second effect is that the indirect government bail-out will keep people in homes they never should have bought. The market should be correcting itself by gettting these folks who bought beyong their means out of their homes causing the price of homes to plunge starkly. That's when we step in and buy a house. This isn't going to happen.

Oh, yeah. And all this D.C. tampering is definetly being paid for with additional taxes.

We Don't Pay Much In Taxes - But This Still Sucks.

This awesome MarketWatch article explains in plain language how the last 5 years years of willy-nilly government spending (especially in regards to the Iraq War) will be paid by us...soon.


"Well, folks, the party's over. Campaign rhetoric won't hide America's excesses, denial, incompetence and arrogance much longer. No matter who's elected, taxes will increase to cover massive debts. Greed has driven America's great economic engine into a "debt contagion" ditch with a recession, bear market, price inflation, and weak job and housing markets ... you bet your taxes will increase. "



READ IT 10 reasons your taxes are going up

I Am Not A Sheep...My Company Made Me.

To the anonymous party who came out to defend their "my brain is empty, but my heart is full" signature saying it's company policy:

In the best possible scenario, that only means your company doesn't "get it." In that case, you should change the words to read: "Please consider my intelligence before replying to this email."

BUT far more likely you work for a company that is exploiting green marketing ploys to grow profits. If you work for a hedge fund, car company, oil company or monster truck company that is claiming to be green - take a closer look at their kind-hearted moves to benefit Mother Earth. It probably fattens wallets more than saves baby seals.

I'm not alone, AdAge agrees that corporate greed is motivating green moves and I think between the two of us - all of you with furrowed brows and wagging wooly tails can just take our word for it that Green doesn't = good.

Which Candidate Has the Most Online Friends?

An article in the Times today, Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On, looked at how the "young" are spreading information via social networks and blogs (like here!). How enlightening. However, there was another really fun presidential candidate list tucked in the article that I thought I would add to our gathering of Which Candidate Sells the Most Bling?

Here is Which Candidate Has the Most Online Friends:*
McCain: about 140,000
Clinton: about 330,000
Obama: about 1 million

And Obama wins again!
* This total includes MySpace and Facebook friends and is according to the Times. I half-heartedly did the math myself, and it looks about right. I'm not too concerned since I got the info. from such an established news source and I would never, ever, question their accuracy.

FYI

Spring begins in the northern hemisphere around the months of March, April, May, or as reckoned astronomically extending from the vernal equinox. As in summer, the axis of the Earth is tilted toward the Sun, and the length of daylight days rapidly increases as latitude increases. The northern hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to "spring forth", giving the season its name. Snow begins to melt, and streams swell with runoff and spring rains. Most flowering plants bloom this time of year, in a long succession beginning even when snow is still on the ground, and continuing into early summer.

Severe weather most often occurs during the spring, when warm air begins to invade from lower latitudes while cold air is still pushing from the polar regions.

Umbrella, Trench, and cab tricks to follow.

Which Candidate Sells the Most Bling?

The Village Voice has a piece, How to Wear Your Vote, on D.C. jewelry designer Ann Hand, who has been creating rhinestone pins for presidential nominees since 1996. I guess cool, but the best part is that she keeps track of which nominees sell the most pins. As of right now the scores of those still in the race are:

Clinton: 190
McCain: 246
Obama: 648

WOW! Now, I could have a lot of fun finding as many stereotypes as possible admist the results of which candidate can sell the most bling (and speculate why certain others cannot), but I'll leave that up to you. Feel free to share!

Please consider the environment before printing this blogpost.

Having a little green tree and "please consider" on your email signature pretty much says you are well-meaning, but don't get it.

Can the hoards of people doing this consider the fact that almost no one prints electronic mail?! Can we throw all these people in one room and figure out what there shared DNA is so we can map the "sheep" gene?

Please consider my nerves before reminding me on the half-hour that you are concerned about paper waste while you sit smugly at your energy sucking PC, in your air-conditioned building in your child-labored produced threads.

Happy Monday.

So That's What's Going on with Our Economy

There's a great - and very accessable - piece in the Times today by David Leonhardt explaining exactly what the hell is going on with our economy, and why the word "subprime" is so important. Check it out: Can’t Grasp Credit Crisis? Join the Club

Oh, You Politicians are so Crazy

Well, it's good to see that even though the economy is going into a recession, we're poisening our earth, and it seems every country on the globe is involved in some kind of war, polititions are just as focused as ever on finding ways to be coniving and hypocritical. Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York, has just been caught meeting up with a high-priced prostitute in a Washington D.C. hotel, as reported today by the NYTimes. Well, hopefully his wife Silda will do as Hillary did, empowering women everywhere by pretending that nothing ever happened.

Update: being the cheap-ass I am I was curious how much a "high-priced" hooker really costs. Hufington Post answered that question with blurbs from the wiretap, one which says, "Client 9 - believed to be Spitzer - paid $4,300 for a woman named "Kristen" to come from New York to D.C. A portion of that money, however, likely went to credit for future appointments". As Suze Orman says, if you purchase thinking ahead you'll always save. See the full piece on Huffington Post here

How Cute, My First Credit Card

I have finally applied for my first credit card. (Ok, so I did open a Banana Republic card for the 25% discount, but I've only used it twice.) After doing some careful research I decided I was willing to get a credit card with a higher APR but better benefits. Being the frugal (some would say cheap) person I am, I know I'll never spend more than I can pay off each month. But, even with that in mind I decided against a reallly "benefit friendly" card and stayed a bit more conservative with American Express Blue. AmEx Blue has 0% APR for up to 15 months (we'll see what the "up to" actually means when I starting using it), and fixed 4.99% APR forever and ever after that. Now, I am definiatly a credit card virgin, so I might not be following warning signs, but all signs on Consumer Reports suggest that American Express Blue and Blue Cash are pretty "good" cards.

I'll let you know if I actually get approved (considering Lord and Taylor denied me just a few months ago). In the meantime, if you love your credit card let us know!

Check out the Mint!

Hello CityBroke brethren! I have been away but I need to tell you to join the Mint like today! It is totally kick ass! You register and then you log into your bank account and credit card accounts through the site. On one dashboard you manage your money. I can't even remember any of my passwrds so after I got that sorted out I was able to get everything important in one place. The BEST part is that analyses how you spend your money. Like, 52% of my income goes to rent. Seriously - GO MINT!

Getting My Act Together for Retirement

I finally got around to opening the Roth IRA I have been thinking about for over three months. I first dropped my 401(k) contribution to 3% (from 6%) - which is the amount my company matches. The extra cash I'm now earning will go straight into the Roth. I opened my account through Fidelity because there is no fee to invest and no minimum balance (unless you want to put your money into funds, in which case there is a minimum balance of $2500). Also, I have gotten on the phone with reps over there about 20 times and they are really helpful. You can do the entire thing online, but the most confusing part was finding the form to give your employer for a direct deposit. That can be found here under "use this form". Let the retirement savings begin!

McDonald's Knows We Heart Free Food

I'm not sure how many of you remember a few months back when Taco Bell was giving away free tacos - but I sure do and it was as delicious as ever! Well now McDonald's has realized just how much everyone loves free food and is offering their new McSkillet Burrito FREE with any purchase of a drink tomorrow and Friday (Feb. 28 and 29). What's in the McSkillet you ask? Well go here and you can see all the goodies inside, including melted cheese, yum! Make sure you go during breakfast hours, and the drink you buy has to be a medium or a large. If you figure out the cheapest drink you can buy and still get a free burrito, please post below.

Best Mexican in Brooklyn, So Cross that Bridge!

Monday night I recovered from a long weekend of drinking at a fabulous restaurant named Chavella's in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The restaurant is very tiny - it seats only about 20 people - but everything is freshly prepared and the prices are insanely cheap (I actually felt guilty for at least 10 seconds). Because of the small size you are served promptly AND it's BYOB. What's better?! But if you're not in the drinkin' mood they also have Jarritos, which we all know are delicious. If you don't already live around here, I bet you'll never go, but then you're an idiot. The tamales are great, the tortilla soup is awesomely spicy, and basically everything else I haven't tasted is probably delicious (menu). For five of us to eat (a lot) the bill was $50. (Rumors are the brunch is killer. They deliver.)
I got this image off the blog Brooklyn Skeptic - they also reviewed, and loved, Chavella's

Chavella's
732 Classon Ave (b. Prospect Place and Park Place)
2, 3 to Eastern Pkwy or 4, 5 to Franklin
MAP

Fresh Directly get'n fresh with Singles

I love Fresh Direct. It's competitively priced yuppy shopping at its best. And when you live on the 4th floor, the delivery service is clutch.

I'm scoping out winter produce when I see they are having a V-Day promotion for the poor saps with no lovebug. I have yet to check out the menu but I'm expecting hi-fat content and generous serving size. If you can rally a few roommates, definitely get your waters/alcohol/TP/milk/canned food delivered. check it out!

Not Living "City Broke"

Well, as our *many* readers may have noticed we haven't been posting much this week. This is for two reasons: iSpend has a new job earning her at least a few hundred dollars more. iSave, frankly, has been a consumer whore, is not being frivolous with her spending and thus has nothing to blog about except how to spend way to much on clothes, the bar, eating out, albums, concerts, groceries, a plane and train ticket, and unnecessary pet stuff like a cat hat (which the cat hates). This all may be due to the fact she drank heavily at least 5 nights last week.

But don't worry! We'll be back on our feet and cheap as hell soon enough. iSpend is staying in tonight to save some cash - always a good move.

The Staten Island Ferry: New York's Best Bar

If you're looking for a cheap beer and great views, go no farther north than Water Street. The Staten Island Ferry not only provides a great view of Lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, they also offer (if I remember correctly after pounding about 5 of them) Coors tall boys for $3, and Corona bottles for about $4. Beat that LES! Not to mention that the ride itself is free and about a half hour each way - the perfect amount of time to blur your vision enough to make Staten Island seem inviting. Hint: take all tourists here! They will love it.

Take the R, W to Whitehall Street, 1,9 to South Ferry, 4,5 to Bowling Green, or J,M,Z to Broad Street.

Hey Hil, Love the 'Brows

"A little-known fact about Hillary Clinton: She had great eyebrows in high school," writes Marisa Rindone in a Forbes.com book review of the latest book butting into other people's business, Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers. This book is full of different women's memories and observations of Sen. Clinton. Rindone highlights "Marie Brenner's memory of seeing Hillary Clinton standing alone on the beach at Hilton Head only days before Monica Lewinsky became a household name...". So does this mean Hillary is not a robot? Let's pick up a copy and find out.

For the full review go here

Gladwell's Tipping Point convincingly challenged.

So Blink was fun, but trite, right? The contempt chapter was golden though - I think it was 11 - read that bit if you haven't.
Regardless, Gladwell is a pretty smug and furry dude.
This research geek at Yahoo thinks McGlad's business-as-usual (the Tipping Point is composed of other peoples' studies and theories and collected by the Hair) Influence theory is basically wrong. Check out excerpt and read the article.

"Watts believes this is because a trend's success depends not on the person who starts it, but on how susceptible the society is overall to the trend--not how persuasive the early adopter is, but whether everyone else is easily persuaded. And in fact, when Watts tweaked his model to increase everyone's odds of being infected, the number of trends skyrocketed."
read the Fast Company article

A Great (free) Subway Pastime (that does not include reading)

I have recently discovered something almost everyone else is aware of. No, not Chai Tea...podcasts, baby. My favorite (ok, only) podcast source is the ever-friendly NPR.org. They have over 604 podcasts available including shows such as Fresh Air, Car Talk, Talk of the Nation, This American Life, and all the other "good" shows (a.k.a. ones I actually liked to listen to as a child on family road trips). My favorite? All Songs Considered - a great way to learn about new artists and old favorites, and Bob Boylan's voice is like a soothing melody. The best part is you can sign up for a free "subscription" for most shows and they just update your iTunes, Yahoo or Zune playlist with each new show. If you don't have an MP3 player, listen to the shows online.

Craigslist Gem

Does any know a good match for Rodger? He and I met for a "friendly" coffee this week and we aren't a match but he is something special. Can you say Scrabble wizard?!
Joking but seriously - doesn't he sound slike a little lamb?
Check it out!

Intelligent atheist white man seeks sweetie
Date: 2008-01-08, 11:45PM EST

I'm a single atheist white man, 54, reputedly intelligent, with unusual interests in politics, science, music and dance. I'd like to meet a woman with varied interests, curious about the world, comfortable expressing her likes and dislikes (I hate struggling to guess), delighting in her ability to fascinate a man and in being loved tenderly, who values joy, truth, beauty and justice more than "success"--so we can share bouts of intense, passionately kind awareness of each other, alternating with tolerant warmth while we're absorbed in other aspects of life. My 23-year-old child, the Free Software Movement, occupies most of my life, leaving no room for more children, but I still have room to love a sweetheart if she doesn't need to spend time with me every day. I spend a lot of my time traveling to give speeches, often to Europe, Asia and Latin America; it would be nice if you were free to travel with me some of the time. Reply and we'll see where it leads.

Best 9 seconds of my day

Check it out

Call it a Spring Awakening

I want to let all our readers (Marshall) know that I realize I haven't been writing about being cheap lately and it's not right. I'm going to start blogging again 'bout being poor and ways to cheat people/the system.

Love,

iSpend

The author of the book I am reading was nearly murdered!

I am reading Snow by Orhan Pamuk. It is amazing. 7 people were arrested for trying to kill him. That is messed! Read more.

Ron Paul Top 10 Donors

Ron Paul gets all his dough from individuals. This list shows where most of his backers work. He's kind of the cool kid, isn't he? Google, Microsoft, Cisco...and check out the armed forces rallying around the Man who wants to time travel to pre-FDR days in terms of gov't spending and has always been against the war in Iraq.
The weird one is General Dynamics -
General Dynamics is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat vehicles and systems, armaments, and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and mission-critical information systems and technologies.
Why is anti-war Ron Paul being backed by both sides of the military industrial complex, albeit individuals? Hmmm..maybe GD is transitioning to non-combat self-described "business machines?"

Google Inc
$22,250
US Army
$21,018
US Navy
$14,105
Microsoft Corp
$12,863
Huffines Communities
$11,850
US Air Force
$10,950
Cisco Systems
$8,900
Verizon Communications
$8,351
Ford Motor Co
$7,650
General Dynamics
$7,100

thanks opensecrets.org

Hell Yeah! we have the same presidential picks as TechCrunch!

Barack & McCain! I'd be happy with either. (well, the VP's do come into play at some point)

Go Michael Arrington! TechCrunch is my favorite tech news source and often non-tech news source and they've announced who they back. Granted, it was fun reading the New York Times and finding out "Why Rudy sucks," but TC outlines why these candidates are good for technology and entrepeneurs which may prove an important endorsement. It's cute that all the TC readers voted for Ron Paul. He is pretty lovable.

"Senator Obama talks about the future with a sense of optimism that the other candidates seem to lack. America has done great things in the past, and we can do great things in the future, so long as our leaders support our home-grown and immigrant entrepreneurs, or at least get out of the way. "

"[TechCrunch is] endorsing Senator McCain as the best candidate from that side of the aisle. Senator McCain, more so than any other Republican candidate, is at least willing to go on record on any issue we brought up in our interview with him... he’s made it clear that he’ll address inequities that arise from his hands-off policies on net neutrality and mobile allocations, which other Republican candidates refuse to do. And his positions on Internet Taxes, H1-B visas, China/human rights violations and other issues are strongly pro-technology. Romney and, to a lesser extent Huckabee, by contrast, have shown little inclination to even discuss their position on these issues."
Check out the article.

Don't get Burned, Buy Renter's Insurance

I know some of you don't even have health insurance, but you really should consider buying renter's insurance. My roommates and I have ours through State Farm Insurance. It takes about 15 minutes of our time over the phone and costs only about $120 for a full year. This, of course, is with the lowest deductible and "economy" possessions. (Yes, the rate your crap like they do plane seats). But while us New Yorkers don't have to worry as much about earthquakes and hurricanes, you never know when you'll come home to realize your neighbor's pipe broke and flooded your entire bed room, or a robber has just jacked all your clothing and jewelry. Go here on the website, take 5 minutes to fill out this from and an agent will contact you with an estimate. The insurance covers just you, not your roommates, so there are no awkward "money" discussions necessary. Use that 100 bucks for something useful - you can live without that knock-off Marc Jacobs purse.

More on this topic at ohmyapt.com's: Challenging Myths: Renters Insurance Edition

A Quiet Place to Get Away - for only $40 a Year

If sharing the grass in Central or Prospect Park isn't enough solitude for you, think about joining the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. A single membership is only $40 a year (admission is $8), and it's the perfect place to sit alone or go for a run, especially for you Brooklynites. The card also has great benefits such as access to Wednesday's summer hours, when the gardens are open an extra two hours for members to watch the sun set, or have dinner in the Garden's Terrace Cafe. There are receptions for members only, two free guest passes, discounts on classes like bird-watching, and summer watercolors, not to mention discounts at many plant stores in Brooklyn, restaurants such as Lobo and Tom's Diner, as well as Brooklyn beauty salons and pilates classes. So, really, take a look at that picture and ask yourself, is there any reason not to throw down the 40 bucks? (And of course it's tax deductible!)

Save Money on Drugs

Well, legal drugs. (Tips on saving money on illegal drugs is still TK...we are in the middle of doing some major investigative journalism at the time.) America's favorite whipping boy, Wal-Mart, really, truly, honestly offers $4 prescriptions - just as the ads say! Now, may New Yorkers have not experienced the true savings of Wal-Mart since, well, we don't have one. But you can order online from the pharmacy here and get drugs with really long names such as Fluoxetine, for, yes, $4. I know many of you liberal hipsters out there who don't have health insurance may refuse to pay the man, but just wait until you come down with a nasty infection and realize just how much you'll really save to get all fixed up.

Politicians Can Make Jokes

Check out this Letterman sketch with Barack Obama. If politicians be continue being this funny (well, intentionally) who needs writers? Barack on Letterman

I Registered to Vote!

It was so easy and satisfying I want to do it again and again and again. All I did was google: vote, NYC and there it was - a downloadable registration form. I mailed it in. No postage required.

It seems a bit too easy...How do they stop people from registering as people who are too lazy to register and then make a fake ID or something? A little ring like that couldn't be too hard to put together... -Sidejobs! The possibilities are endless!

I felt so excited after mailing it in I wanted to make a sign or something that said, "Vote!" Then I calmed down and read Techcrunch instead.