"It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times."

Welcome to Typing Monkeys, an eclectic menagerie of interesting obsessions: Cats, Short Films, Wolverine, the Web and Warren Zevon...

In other words, the quirky internet home of Joel "DiG" DiGiacomo. Writer, Web consultant, humanitarian.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

So let's start with a tour, beginning with my yet-to-be-published book, Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn't Purr, a whimsical, funny and ultimately touching series of vignettes that creates a narrative of my journey from college to fatherhood with Vito, my rather mischievous and larger-than-life black alley cat..

I've launched vitothecat.com to see if I can create enough online enthusiasm and positive feedback to convince an agent and publisher to print the story as a real, live book.

I figure if I can gather enough Twitter followers, Diggs and donations, someone somewhere is going to take note.

So join me in my quest to get published by visiting Vito: The Cat Who Wouldn't Purr.

And don't forget to follow, digg and read all about geting 'Vito' published!

Next up is 'The P.O.B. Conspiracy', an award-winning short film that I wrote and produced (with director Steve Gibson and starring comedian Rob Maher). This dark office comedy premiered at the D.C. Independent Film Festival and won a 2007 Silver Telly Award! The trailer is below (Special edition DVD and Blu-Ray releases to come)...

I also wrote (with comedian Rob Maher) another short, Death and Reproduction, that won the Grand Jury Award for Best Short at the 2006 72 Film Fest. You can read all about our escapades as members of Team Open Bar in this Frederick News-Post article (PDF download) and watch the short in its entirety below...

My most recent film endeavor is another short that I wrote, this time from the 2007 72 Film Fest, and features my very first real acting performance alongside real honest-to-goodness SAG actor Dan Deluca (perhaps best known from 'The Wire' on HBO)...

Our next stop is the Wolverine Files, a website and blog that I built as a platform for my excruciatingly detailed chronology of Marvel Comics' anti-hero, Wolverine. It's an obsessively compulsive project I started as a teen and now boasts news and reviews of all things Wolverine (including the upcoming 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' movie) as well as a weekly column on classic Wolverine covers. Based on the amount of traffic it's been generating, the Project Fanboy Award it's won and the mention in the Toronto Star newspaper, the website/blog seems to have created quite a following.

Oh, and did I mention I'm writing a Wolverine graphic novel? Not that Marvel is aware of it, but if anyone from Marvel is reading this, I'd be happy to share (my email is dig@typingmonkeys.com.and I can be reached at 240-- oh, I'm sorry. Am I being too pushy?).

I guess now is as good a time as any to mention my Web Consulting background. I managed online content at AOL for over ten years, including spells as the content lead for AOL Games, AOL Computing and AOL Small Business (improving all three sites to #1 Web properties during my tenures). I also created the first online reality series, The Startup Online Reality Series. You can read about the launch of the second season at USA Today, Detroit Free Press and AllBusiness.com. More recently, I launched the award-winning WNEW.com website/blog for CBS Radio, and have done additional consulting work for CBS Radio, Rocket Fuel Studios, Babycenter.com, Sitters.com, Interactive One, Black Planet, Dark Angel Creations and Lost World Media to name drop just a few. Need some assistance on a Web project? Again, don't hesitate to drop me a line at dig@typingmonkeys.com.

We have now arrived at the Warren Zevon in Concert part of the tour, my tribute to the much neglected singer-songwriter. You may recall his first big hit, 'Werewolves of London,' but his musical genius continued until his untimely death and his Grammy-winning and touching final album, 'The Wind" in 2003. I've cobbled together over 60 live concerts for free, legal downloads thanks to his son, Jordan Zevon, and Archive.org. I hope to expand into a website of its own, but that will need to wait until I have more time on my hand.

Our final stop is Football for Breakfast, my late website creation that featured daily pro football news from all the NFL hometown newspapers and national media. It also was the forum for my unique opinions on the world of pro football. Alas Football for Breakfast is on hiatus as I focus on a few newer projects (including a book) but it's a little early to yammer on about those things.

So if you care to chat about cats, short films, scriptwriting, writing, Wolverine, Zevon, football or anything else, please don't hesitate to send me an e-mail me at dig@typingmonkeys.com.