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Alright, this is so good that I had to throw down a blog post about it. My colleague Chuck just brought me a brownie from the Treats Truck, and I must say it’s pretty ridiculous.

You know you want to track down the truck and get one for yourself.

JRL drops a great post (via urg, natch) featuring the SEO rapper. Best part about this is that this is so on point with reality it’s not even funny. I think I might have to make this mandatory at work. Where’s Thilk when I need him…

Okay, I’m officially voting this the funniest thing that’s been done this week so far – during a live interview, John Stewart asked Barack Obama, flat out, if he planned to “pull a bait and switch and enslave the white race” on the Daily Show.

As I’m having lots of trouble with the official Daily Show clips of parts 1 and 2 of this interview, I present you with the YouTube version.

Thanks to David Chartier for mentioning this on Twitter earlier today.

Okay, so last night, Carly Smithson was voted off American Idol in a “shocker,” a word that I think only begins to sum it up. I don’t see exactly how she missed the mark in her “Jesus Christ Superstar” performance, especially when you compare it up to the disastrous performance that Jason Castro threw down with “Memory.”

This brings to light – again – the fact that voting on this show definitely throws people for a loop. People seem to vote HARD for people they LOVE and those that they LOVE TO KEEP ON THE SHOW, not the ones that actually do the best job, consistently. I wouldn’t even know where to start in saying who’s to “blame” for something like this, but I’ll say that unless it’s David Cook that ultimately wins this show, it wouldn’t surprise me if any album that Carly Smithson got to do after being thrown off the show outsold anything that the eventual winner did over the haul. Of course, this is my opinion, but if you listen to a lot of music (I do), I just don’t see how she was the weakest performer – at all – especially when she was put in a bottom two with Syesha Mercado, whom I am not the hugest fan of as an “Idol” in the long term, but who did a killer job on Tuesday night.

The voting is just so seemingly random. One week you seem to be based on the work you did that week, even if you were perfect eight weeks in a row prior. The next week you’re voted on how you might actually rank in the overall grand scheme (and Syesha in the bottom rung isn’t too off-base when you look at it that way). But seriously, folks, how could Carly Smithson be a lesser performer than ANYONE except maybe David Cook in the long haul? And what, Brooke White gets the sympathy vote because people like her in general and she had a disastrous performance? I just don’t get it.

/stupid rant

Okay, so for the latest edition of “How Not To Be Annoying On The Internet,” I chose to pick on (sorry, Mario) LinkedIn, because I can’t seem to choose “I don’t know anyone here” when it comes to the social network’s suggestions of fellow students at institutions that I’ve gone to, while I can do so for businesses that I’ve worked at.

I dug around their FAQs and other places for a reason for this, but couldn’t find out, so I thought I’d have some fun with it. Anyone else think this is just a bit peculiar?

Caught this post earlier today on The Bargainist about how a purchase of a flight on jetBlue paid for via PayPal nets you $20 back, just for paying with that service. Lots more skinny here from the airline itself, including the note that the offer is good for the first 4,500 people who take them up on it.

That’s a pretty awesome idea, in my opinion, and love it when I see different types of businesses signing up with PayPal.

Okay, so after yesterday’s interesting video featuring Microsoft and Windows Vista (note the category on Gizmodo is “Horror”), I figured that my brain couldn’t handle any more, but that wasn’t true. After all my vacation catchup, i had apparently missed out on this featured item, also on Gizmodo, for the Sharper Image’s Beamz video.

That’s all great and all, and I can’t stop laughing, but the money moment in this video was clearly this one, at 2:51 in:

I mean, how can you go wrong with that.

I caught up with DirecTV’s latest ad spot that has been all over the airwaves but unfortunately not present on the company’s site just yet. Check out my current favorite, which I’m calling “We Go Viral” because it just so fits what plagues the world of PR and media relations these days.

Chris just IMed me with one of the more badass things that’s come across my desk in a week or so, this link to JoBlo’s item featuring the Rachel Nichols-played Scarlett character in the upcoming GI Joe flick.

Click it. You know you want to.

Okay, so I have a few credit card accounts that I’d been paying down, and usually once I get them to a reasonable amount, I just pay off the balance in full once it’s a few hundred dollars. I have one card that I had reached a $400 and change balance, and I wanted to just pay it off over the phone, rather than mail in a check and incur additional interest, etc. on the balance. That being said, Citibank charges you $14.95 to make a payment – via their automated system – over the telephone. Aside from being absolutely ridiculous, that’s an outlandish cost to make a payment without even having someone on the line.

So, thinking that Citibank would rather have me pay off the balance immediately and have the cash on the barrel, rather than an outstanding account receivable, I requested a customer service representative, thinking they’d accept a payment over the phone – immediately – if I asked them to take the $14.95 fee away. Amusingly, the rep said they wouldn’t waive the $14.95 fee, and that it would be easier if I just sent in a check. How ridiculous is that and what kind of customer service is it? The fact that banks are getting hammered on outstanding debt – credit cards, mortgages, and the like – you’d think they’d rather have one less account outstanding and $400 more in their pockets, but apparently not.

Way to go, Citibank. Just how I would have played this one. Not.

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