Bank fees are on the rise, and sometimes it may seem like there's not much we can do but complain. But complaining is something.

Now, I know that it's nothing new to blast a bank on a blog, or trash it on Twitter or spread your fury about their practices on Facebook, but with bank fees climbing and climbing (overdraft fees are estimated to cost Americans $38.5 billion this year), I went on my own little Internet tour today, looking around for reactions to banking fees, just to see what I could find and get a sense of how people are feeling toward banks these days. Not too surprisingly, I found a lot of ugly out there.

People are mad. As Hell.

A fellow writer told me about this program, and it does seem like a pretty darn good deal, especially if you like bowling.

KidsBowlFree is a national program, that numerous bowling alleys across the country are participating in. You have to register, and once you do, you can go to the bowling alley and let your kids bowl for free, for two games. Every day, if you want to.

For $23.95, you can register with a participating bowling alley, and you'll have a pass that's good through the summer. Your kids, plus up to four adult family members, can go to the bowling alley and bowl two games for free -- every day during the summer.

The Web site is a little confusing, in my opinion, since after I registered, the family pass information came up, and my first conclusion was that I had to pay for the family pass. But you don't. Still, I just may. Go bowling with your spouse and parents or inlaws, and you have a pretty good deal brewing.

Now, the bowling alley will charge you for your kids' shoes, and nobody's feelings will be hurt if you buy a few snacks and drinks while you're there. But still, it is a pretty good deal, and yes, your children really are allowed to bowl for free. There may be no free lunch, but there is free bowling.

I took my daughters bowling about a year ago, and as I recall, I spent around $30 for two games and the three pairs of shoes. So clearly if you just use the family pass once during the summer, it's not such a deal. You may break even. But if you go several times, you should more than get your money's worth.

And if you go every day during the summer, according to KidsBowlFree, it's a deal worth $1,500.

As if it wasn't bad enough that your hero is dead, can you imagine how it must feel to anyone who because of their devotion to Michael Jackson winds up with more spam than ever in their e-mail?

That's right. Now that the King of Pop is gone, con artists have begun sending out e-mails with offers for Michael Jackson merchandise. Eight hours after he died, in fact. Actually, I'm surprised they waited so long.

Their hope? That you'll reply to an offer, and then these crooks will know that your e-mail is legitimate, and they can sell your e-mail address to companies.

But if that isn't bad enough, Computerworld Security, which is warning about these spammers, predicts that eventually these e-mails will contain something to click on, which will unleash a virus and make your computer so slow and worthless that you'll never be able to listen to another Jackson tune on your PC again. Or at least until you get rid of the virus.

So while I know people are pretty savvy when it comes to spam and being hit with viruses, be careful out there.

The future has finally arrived for me: Watching old TV shows on my computer.

We all have our touchstones of what it means to be in the 21st century. For some, maybe it's locating a bathroom in New York City through iPhone. For others, maybe it's reading a book through the Kindle.

I'm sure others won't feel like it's the 21st century until we're riding jet packs like The Jetsons. For me, I think my epiphany came recently when I discovered that the Museum of Broadcast Communications has some of its collection online.

For those of you not familiar with the Museum of Broadcast Communications, it's a museum all about television and radio in Chicago. (It's currently closed; they're redeveloping their facility.)

I had never heard of them until the other night. I went looking for the Web site for the Museum of Television and Radio, which has two facilities in New York and Los Angeles.

Growing up, I always had the sense that a bank was where you'd go if you wanted to make money, not lose it. After all, I remember watching Mary Poppins on TV, and Mr. Banks' song, "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank," where he told his son in song: "If you invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound, soon that tuppence, safely invested in the bank, will compound."

Granted, you can still make money at your neighborhood bank, of course. But you can lose a lot of money, too. Even in these recessionary times, and actually because of these recessionary times, bank fees are going up and getting more punitive toward consumers.

For three weeks straight, movie ticket sales have fallen, compared to a year ago. Both USA Today and the Los Angeles Times have stories today, indicating that the recession is finally catching up with Hollywood.

That shouldn't be a surprise. We are, after all, still in the midst of a recession. Unemployment is high, credit is tight -- well, you know the drill. What surprises me is that the theater industry is doing so well. The box office has still raked in 6% more than it did last year.

But I don't think it's going to last. Now, I'm not a box office analyst or a theater owner -- just a fairly avid movie-goer, mostly lately of family films, since I have two young daughters (5 and 7). So knowing that, take these thoughts for what they are.

But if movie theater owners would like to make more money instead of less, here's what I think they should do. It's quite easy -- just two little things.

Somehow this doesn't surprise me. But ING Direct, a virtual bank headquartered in Wilmington, Del., just released a study indicating that two out of five would prefer the topic of the dangers of alcohol and drugs, than have a discussion with their kids about the family's financial situation.

And about three out of 10 parents would rather talk to their children about the birds and the bees.

Sure, that's kind of amusing, which is why I thought I'd mention this, although it's kind of sad, too. Does this hint at how we got into this mess, or is that parents don't want to talk about money because of the recession? Either way, this isn't a good thing.

But what's really troubling (at least according to this survey, which collected the insight of 2,123 adults) is that 18% of Americans are raiding their children's savings accounts to pay bills.

We may be digitally connected to our friends, through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the like, but sometimes it's nice and necessary to hang out with people in the flesh.

That's where Office Agents apparently sees an opening for a business.

Office Agents, a company in Tokyo, Japan, will rent out a fake friend, relative or work colleague to anyone who needs one.

The idea goes like this: Maybe you're going to your high school reunion and don't have a significant other to take, or perhaps you have a big investor coming to your company, and you want it to seem -- well, bigger and more staffed than it actually is. Or perhaps a loved one's funeral isn't going to be very populated, and you'd like it to seem like your great aunt Mildred had more friends than she really did.

Frankly, the more I think of examples of why you might want a fake friend, the more pathetic this sounds. Although, I guess there are some instances where it may not be entirely pathetic to hire a fake friend. You attend a wedding in a city that you've never been to. You only know the groom and bride. You don't want to show up alone...

This morning, as I went about my merry business on my computer, I had an e-mail come in from an old college friend through Facebook.

I guess I should have known. I think of myself as pretty savvy, never opening strange attachments, avoiding clicking on links that look suspicious and so on. But since this came from a friend through Facebook, I let down my guard. I read the e-mail, rolled my eyes, but clicked on the link, anyway.

Seconds later, my computer security software told me that my PC had been attacked -- but the virus that tried to leech onto my hard drive had been stopped.

I e-mailed my friend and confirmed that he hadn't sent me the e-mail, and he said that his work computer was apparently infected by some sort of virus.

If you go to Starbucks a lot, and use your debit or credit card, you might want to check your bank statement to see what occurred on May 22 and May 23.

At least 1 million customers were accidentally charged twice for their purchases at Starbucks.

Fortunately, and not surprisingly (given the outrage that would ensue), Starbucks has acknowledged the mistake, and the company says it's in the process of refunding the double-charged patrons.

When I heard this news, I immediately went to my bank account online, and it looks like amazingly, either my wife wasn't at Starbucks over Memorial Day weekend, or more likely, she was there but paid by cash. If we're going to argue about something, it's often about her all-too often willingness to raid the family bank account to feed her Starbucks addiction. As far as I'm concerned, the coffee company is a cult.

But I digress. If you see that there was double dipping in your bank account by Starbucks on May 22 or 23, go look at May 29. That's when your account was likely credited.

If you were charged twice but not refunded your money, then I'd suggest visiting Starbucks' customer service page on its Web site.