I don’t think it’s a secret that, when it comes to computer related things, I’m a bit of a doof. “Defrag my computer … you mean, with a hand grenade?” But I’m not so computer unsavy that I don’t know it’s important to protect my needed files — music, word documents, photos — with IDrive-E, an industry leading consumer online backup service. IDrive-E is free up to two gigabytes, secure with a 256-bit AES, and fast (like, “Superman v Speeding Train” fast).

Their mission is to save the world … one computer at a time. I wonder if they know how much difficulty they’re going to have with me. I fear for their tech support guys. “Well, he knows it isn’t a cup holder, but that’s about all he’s got going for him…”

THIS IS A PAID POST.

The unrated version of Reno 911! Miami The Movie was released on DVD this week (did I mention it’s an unrated DVD release?). The cops from Reno, Nevada, travel to Miami, Florida to attend a police convention. Evil terrorists disrupt the convention and the only ones standing between their evil goals and being thwarted are … Superman and Batman. Erm. No, the Reno 911! cops. Seriously, they’ve already won (or we should just let them win because it’d probably do less damage that way).

I went to the Reno 911! Miami The Movie DVD release page and played “Midnight Shootout” (one of four online games). You’re given a weapon and have a few seconds to see a scene — there are some good guys, some innocents, some cops, and some bad guys. Then you’re blindfolded and you have to open fire … while blindfolded. The good news is, I hit more bad guys then non-bad guys (I do feel bad about that clown, less so about the mime). For the last round, I was quite certain I was prepared for my target (I can hit a broad side of a building blindfolded with a rocket launcher, I’ve always told myself), and yet when it came to it, no, it would appear I am, in fact, single handedly responsible for the destruction of downtown Miami. That’s apparently good enough for the Reno 911! police force, because they offered me a spot on the team.

So I’ve got some money I owe after the last year in school, and I would love to be able to consolidate all of my outstanding debts into one, easy to pay loan, but the process of finding a loan (with so many offered by various lenders) is just so frustrating and tedious and … mathematic … that I hate doing such research. Thankfully, if you’re British, UK Personal Loans will search over 90% of the secured lender market so that you can find the best match for your loan needs — be it debt consolidation, or for a car or house, they’ve totally got you covered, and you can avoid an adverse credit loan!

Premiering June 28th on USA Network is a new one-hour drama about a CIA agent who gets … fired. USA Network’s Burn Notice‘s premise is simple: premiering June 28th, it stars Jeffrey Donovan as Michael Westen, a CIA agent who gets “fired.” This paid post appeals to my creative writing side: “Write a fictional short story telling us why and how he was fired. Since we’re talking about the CIA…. let’s be creative!” It’s almost like they know what my degree is in!

Here goes:

“Wait, what?” Westen said.

“Look, it’s pretty cut and dry,” his boss said on the other end of the telephone, munching on an edible cigar. “You’re supposed to be a secret agent.”

“I am a secret agent!”

“Secret agents aren’t supposed to have blogs, Michael,” his boss rolled his good eye.

“But, boss, c’mon, aren’t you being unreasonable?” Michael fidgeted against the stone wall and transfered the silenced pistol to his other hand and took a swig from the beer he’d placed on a turned-over trashcan. “I mean, it was a secret blog.”

“Just because you set yourself to be viewed by ‘friends only’ on your MySpace blog — and, seriously, a MySpace blog? How lame can you get? I should fire you just for that — doesn’t mean it’s a secret blog.”

“C’mon, please? I promise not to write any more entries about Agent Cooper and his rotating caliphrating manfibulator problems.”

“Yeah, those were actually funny posts. Course, he didn’t care for them too much. Anyway, listen, you’re, as they say on the ‘blogosphere’, ‘dooced.’ Good job there, Mike, and, oh, you can’t have your last paycheck until we get our silenced pistol back.”

The cell phone went dead. Michael snarled, then smiled as he contemplated what a wonderful blog entry this would make.

That’s my version of why he gets fired. Go here to find out the real reason.

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If you could make one generalization about the crime problem in Baltimore from watching TV shows like “The Wire”, it’s that a whole lot of people are doing a lot of craaaazy chemicals. Of course, you can’t force someone to clean themselves up, but Stone Hawk is a drug rehabilitation and alcohol detox clinic staffed by ex-addicts who are trying to give back because once, someone cared enough about them to help break their addiction. Yeah, it might not be the closest place, but when you’re trying to break someone from an addiction, you’re probably more concerned with quality of service, not location.

I often blog about weird, strange, and offbeat news stories here on my blog. One thing I’ve always disliked about the local network news sites is the lack of an ability to “embed” a video in the way permitted by certain video services. The News Room.com hosts videos and allows easy “mashing” (think “embedding”) of video onto blogs from a variety of news networks like The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Press. No longer will bloggers have to send their readers off-site to watch news videos of interest. No longer will bloggers have to send their readers off-site to watch news videos of interest, but can instead keep their readers on their blog.

The News Room.com offers a variety of news stories — hundreds of thousands! — from a variety of news sources, organized under a broad source of categories: US, and Local to World, Business, Politics, Health, Entertainment and so on. There’s even a special section dedicated to the upcoming 2008 elections here in the United States. This is clearly a plus for those bloggers who wish to enhance the presentation of their opinion with high-quality video content.

In addition, bloggers who “mesh” from The News Room can earn income thanks to an innovative, viral payment model that is well above the industry standard. I encourage you to check out The News Room.com. The News Room