While doing some brush-up research on the Monomyth/Hero’s Journey, I came across this graphic which I found somewhat amusing:

Years ago, while I was growing up, we had a cat named Lewis. Lewis watched television. Specifically, Lewis would watch “Looney Tunes” with me, because he had a fascination with the Road Runner. Whenever he heard “MEEP MEEP!” from the living room, he would barrel in at top speed and sit right in front of the screen. Some times he would try to “catch” the Road Runner, some times he would just sit watching with rapt attention.

One of our current crop of cats, Ricky, the one who I described here as “dangerously smart,” also likes television. Specifically, he likes “Star Trek.”

We’ve been TiVoing the sadly-not-all-that remastered “Star Trek” lately, and apparently Ricky has come to recognize it. He’s watched it with me a couple of times. Tonight, when I started “I, Mudd,” Ricky was in the other room. When he heard the opening notes of the theme, however, he darted into the living room.

Ricky sat himself down in front of the screen, and watched in anticipation. When the Enterprise swooped by, he followed it intently across the screen. As it went in for the slow pass in front of the planet, he batted at it. Then, he alternated watching and trying to catch the Enterprise.

I must say I like this animal’s taste.

Wachovia Bank manages my Grandfather’s estate and trusts. For the past year, their monthly statements have been projecting a payout of $400,000.00 due yesterday. With that knowledge in hand, and no contrary statements from them otherwise, my partner and I committed to buying a house (having sold our old one to developers and, knowing the money was coming, paid off debts with the proceeds) somewhere in the neighborhood of $280,000.00.

Yesterday, they sprung the fascinating news on us. It turns out that the statements they’ve been mailing to me have been lying. With no indication anywhere on them of this fact, they’ve been mailing combined statements for both my mother’s trusts and mine. So, yesterday, they made a trust payout of $209,000.00.

With settlement on the new house coming in late December, purchase agreements signed in August based on their assurances, and construction already underway, it’s too late to back out of that deal. I now have about two months to make up a $71,000.00 deficit and no way to do it. Not to mention other things (like much needed dental work) that are going to fall by the wayside thanks to this.

If you pray, please pray for me now. And if you do business with Wachovia, do yourself a favor and FIND A NEW BANK RIGHT NOW. The next person they screw over could be you, and they’ll get to you eventually.

As I wrote about recently, MGM is mining their film library for material to convert to Broadway musicals.

Considering the recent performance of MGM films, may I suggest one?

Mark Foley used instant messenging and E-Mail to solicit sex from 15 year old boys.

Instant messenging and E-Mail use the internet.

Al Gore invented the internet.

IT’S ALL AL GORE’S FAULT!