[NeoDuck]

 if you're not getting the 'Press ESC for boot menu' prompt, it means SeaBIOS isn't detecting the USB stick, nothing to do with the way it is formatted. Try another USB stick or SD card, and don't bother/mess with the formatting -- writing the ISO in DD mode renders that irrelevant 

 Yay, I finally got it to work!  I just went out and bought 5 USB sticks and one of them worked!

For reference, this is the one that worked:

Sandisk Cruzer Glide 16GB USB 2.0 SDCZ60-016G