Four days before I leave for Iowa (today -14 degrees!) I think I have the vaguest sniffle of a cold. No, don't worry, I'm well aware of the classic irony.

However plans are going to... plan. The main bag is almost all packed and though I'll go through it again on Saturday just to be anal-retentive completely sure, all the very essentials are accounted for and ready to roll. Just toiletries and some camera tech to go in there, nice and safely. I pack like a girl (which is good) but without the shoe factor.

The interview with Tim Minear went well. We discussed the upcoming Eliza Dushku (pictured) vehicle Dollhouse, Drive, The Inside and Firefly amongst others... as well as the emerging new market for drama (straight-to-DVD specials, the Net etc). I'm thinking some of those latter quotes may be saved for a separate new tech feature in the new year. After all, if a writers' strike and a possible actors' strike are concerned with new media, then so should we all be. Still to come this week are a chat with veteran movie poster designer Bill Garland and, if schedules permit, Leverage's Gina Bellman - both for Impact. In the middle of that I have to do the very last bits of Christmas shopping and attend the Impact Christmas party otherwise known as Daniel Day Lewis': There Will Be Food. I never turn down the annual opportunity for my publisher to spend money.

Just a little more writing to do before bed and the sleep of the just. In the meantime I'm listening to the news saying a rapist has got two life sentences and will serve at least... twelve years. Unless the guilty man is over seventy, I think I've just spotted where our legal system is going wrong.