I t's been a busy week or so. I'd intended to enthrall you loyal readers (almost into double figures now, surely) with updates before, but last week was packed to the proverbial brim with things 'what needed doing'. As well as getting Impact to bed (sweet-talker that I am), I got the chance to see Avatar ahead of its world premiere... The full review will appear in the next Impact, but now the embargo is done I can at least say that's it's an astonishing piece of cinema - one of those films where you can watch it and thoroughly enjoy certain aspects, acknowledging a thoroughly amazing acheievement...

O h, there are some days that make you want to spit, scream and say inappropriate words at a very loud volume. Days when bureacracy, red tape and non-sensical stuff seems designed to slow you down and raise your temperature. Witness my dealings this week with Ebay and Opodo. At a time when you'd presume that Ebay would be doing all it can to hold onto its members (if you'll pardon that expression), they seem to be instigating a series of rules and regulations designed to piss off a lot of its customers. A while back they put in place a rule that said while buyers could criticise sellers if they...

I t's been a busy week or so since the last post. Last weekend was the Thought Bubble event which formed the last weekend of the Leeds International Film Festival and I was asked to moderate a panel on Comics-to-Movies. Much fun was had at the Leeds City Hotel (with the impressive view from the bar there to the right) and the Savile Hall's actual con venue. On the panel wre Doctor Who and Marvel writer Paul Cornell, Iron Man designer Adi Granov, The Losers and Daredevil writer Andy Diggle and...

I t's been a busy week or so. Lots to do and just the hard slog of getting through it I did get to go to the 'Horsforth' with Glenn, Simon, Sheryl, Sally and Co last Friday and it was good to take a few hours off for once. But generally, Impact is taking up a lot of time, the TGTD Store is looking better but it takes time to do all the tweaking behind the scenes and I haven't been able to get to sleep until way after 2:00am most nights, which makes mornings come annoyingly quickly. The laptop is in for repair, so currently using the parentals' spare laptop. I hope to have mine back in about...

S o, the parentals are off in Vegas, playing at being bankers (spending my inheritance). That means I'm house-sitting by default once again. I worked out recently that between now and the middle of March, we'll probably be like ships in the night with me or them out of the country at any given point.  However, on this occasion, I think they've certainly got the best of the weather. 70-80 in Nevada and distinctly colder and wetter here. It's been dreary all week and more typical November weather...

W ell, year ago today I was lying in a hospital bed and seriously wondering if I was going to make it through the night. It was a day after Hallowe'en and - even then - the irony wasn't lost on me. Perhaps on purpose I was back at the FAB Cafe's Hallowe'en party again yesterday. I was meeting Mark, Sabrina, Adi and Tamsin for a few drinks and several hours before heading there I still hadn't decided what (if anything) I was going to get dressed up as/in. Last year I smothered my face in cheap and...

Just a quick view of the latest three designs to go up at the TGTD store (www.cafepress.co.uk/theregoestheday)... Enjoy. ...

Ye gods (or goddesseses), we're almost at November. Where do the days go and has it really been almost a year since my head exploded? Another weekend bites the dust in unremarkable fashion. I've managed to get some writing done, some more t-shirt designs up - with more to follow. Bills paid. Expenses sent. Of course, there's a list longer than a long arm of things I need to do. I didn't get around to putting ebay stuff up, but that's to come this week. I will, no doubt, be trumpeting the links to the various bits of movie merchandise etc that are going up. I'll probably do that on the website...

S ooooooooooo.... if you were in the UK last night and you're a glutton for punishment, you were probably watching the BBC's Question Time. The regular panel disussion programme had a line-up that largely came down to, at least according to the papers: Nick Griffin, lead of the the far-right BNP and some other people. The results were pretty much as expected... I don't know anyone in the UK who likes Nick Griffin. Even his wife, one of the 'high-brow' *cough* tabloids tells us, doesn't like him very much either. But he is the leader of an extremist party that remarkably shamefully managed...

E ntertainment journalists and columnists don't have the best reputation. Ye gods, on an average day we rank somewhere between Roman Polanski and Paris Hilton on the table of respect. Today, however, our stock must have plummeted even further. This is largely due to a column by one Jan Moir of the UK's Daily Mail... a person who manages in a few column inches to demonstrate all that is wrong in the profession and yet still maintain that SHE's the victim... it would be an impressive passive-aggressive art...

I t has - once again - been a bit since my last entry. Since getting back from Iowa it's all been a bit fast-lane, except with no nice convertible cars involved. Last weekend (1st-4th Oct) I was attending Cinema Days and the line-up was pretty good. Sometimes the range of movies on offer can be a bit disappointing but this time there was a diverse bunch. Let's rattle through 'em... Cirque Du Freak - probably best described as Twilight for the less pretty. It's got an anarchic edge, but...

S o, I haven't posted in over a week. Needless to say I made it back from Iowa - with luggage and myself intact. Despite that mad dash across Minneapolis airport, the flights went well and pretty much to time. As always, it's kind of a weird feeling to be back in Leeds, especially as I've been out of the normal stomping ground for a whole month... it's a neither here-nor-thereiness. As always, Iowa was pretty relaxing. With Jilly working her unsociable hours and tending to fall asleep in mid sentenzzzzzzzzzzz...,...

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so 'they' say. In that case I'll keep this short and let the pictures speak for themselves... Had a headache yesterday that just wouldn't shift. I've been annoying careful with my head since the end of last year, but I've managed to lightly bump it a few times, despite ( or sometimes *because*) I'm being so bloody careful. However nothing has started to rattle yet. Hopefully good news re: hot water and betetr Net connection over the weeke...

I haven’t posted for about a week. In some ways that’s because Iowa is pleasantly peaceful and a slower-pace, so there’s been nothing hugely significant to post about. However, looking back, here’s the highlights: - a week ago or so Senator Teddy Kennedy was buried. The last of the Kennedy brothers, it’s the closest thing the Americans have had to ‘royalty’. I was interested to see how it was covered as I remember the deeply flawed and troubled Diana being turned into a purest Saint in a matter of days. Ironically, it was reasonably fair, his many faults and scandals weren’t glossed over and...

I was up reasonably early today. Jilly had to be at work as dawn broke (7:00am) and I ended up being up and at 'em by just before 7:30. I looked outside to see the mist rising and the sun just trying to poke through. Grabbing my camera I headed down across the tracks to see if I could grab any decent shots before brekafast. The mist was already rising, but I managed to get a few nice shots done and succeeded in worrying a rabbit (all this before lunch!). Ironically, if I'd been up earlier I think...

P erhaps underestimating the jet-lag I decided to take a nap at around 4:00pm on Sunday and ended up staying in bed until around 6:30am the following morning. Normally you can't get me out of bed before 9:00am as I stay up until late, but things have largely been reversed since I got here... Jilly had to work on Sunday, but has had Monday and Tuesday off. Monday was largely a do-errands day, so nothing spectacular to report. At least... until the night-time. We were woken at about 2:00am Tues by...

I thought I might have jinxed myself, when sitting on the plane to Sioux Falls, the pilot announced there'd be a slight delay while one of the technicians examined a small possible fault. It had been going SO well.... Glancing out the window I saw all our bags being off-loaded - which I presumed would mean the worst. However about ten minutes later the pilot announced all was good and I saw the bags being reloaded. It's worthwhile mentioning that I saw my bags not so much being un/loaded as gamefully hurled/lobbed from conveyor belt to truck/plane as if it was an Olympic sport in danger of going...

So, I'm currently in Minneapolis airport and everything seems to be going swimmingly - if that's not the wrong description for air-travel. I got some sleep last night - heading to bed early and managing to get about 4 on-off hours - which helped with subsequent travelling. The parentals, planning to head off early for a day at the coast, agreed to drop me off at about 4:45am at LBA (thanks to them both!). Baggage checked with no problems there and the Amsterdam flight went off on time. Lovely sunrise just before we took off - ALMOST worth getting up for! BIG queue when I got to Amsterdam and...

So... after counting down the weeks then days the hours, I'm about 55 mins away from the first leg of my trip. Flying from LBA to Amsterdam and then onto Minn and Siox Falls. If the flights line-up as they're supposed to (IF) I should be there by 4:20 local time. As always I'll try to keep the blog updated while I'm away and anyone needing to keep tabs or contact should be able to do so via Blackberry, text (probably better given time difference and charges) or on Facebook. More soon.....

F or the last few weeks I've been developing a personal side-project which I'm finally launching into the public domain this weekend. What started as simply a fun way to keep my design skills sharpened - inbetween writing many, many, mannnnnny articles - needed to take on a life of its own if it was to warrant the time I was actually starting to spend on it. Therefore, with the barest imitation of a drum-roll, I now introduce you to THERE GOES THE DAY: THE STORE... Yes. I know. Contain yourselves....

I try to balance fluffy, silly and purely 'what I did today' posts with observations that I feel strongly about. Buckle up, this is one of the latter variety and it's a doozy. “The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.” - Sarah Palin. I can’t tell you how much that statement makes my blood boil. Really… on so many f*cking...

L ast night was a time for a bit of navel / star gazing. I joined Simon Hopkinson and Paul Beck for several drinks at the Black Bull, probably our first 'local' when we barely old enough to drink (and, even then, not quite legally). It used to be a real dive, but was a wonderful mix of all types - bikers, elderly gentlemen, businessmen and students all in dark, smokey rooms with more alcohol on the carpet than in the glasses. Yes, I know, I over-sell it.  It shut down at one point and opened...

J ust as the British summer seems to be swinging between gloriously sunny weather and torrential downpours on an almost equal basis, I'm finding that I'm caught in the 'Hurry up and wait...' event horizon where it's all feast or famine. Some days I'm rattling through several articles with a real sense of accomplishment and on other days - where there isn't such an imminent deadline - I'm lolling around bemoaning I haven't things to do. Neither is quite accurate, of course. In some ways the enhanced workload is self-inflicted and to ensure I have less to do while I'm in Iowa (two months'...

I 'm not really a huge football fan but I recognise the fact that the death of Bobby Robson, legendary and cantankerous English football/soccer manager IS a news story. He was a huge and controversial personality and many passionate sport fans wil be sad he's died - albeit not unexpectedly after a long fight with cancer. BUT... may I offer a little perspective that his death is still being consistently covered fifteen minutes into every station's headlines and this on a day when Gary Mckinnon, the British hacker has lost his fight to be extradited to the US - which is getting about five minutes...

I had a few drinks with Glenn Hewitt and Jonny Parker last night (Tuesday) at The Black Bull, once my local pub, but an establishment I've barely been in recently. I haven't seen Glenn for a few years as our plans to meet up always seemed to end up with one of us having to cancel at the last minute, though we've always kept in touch. It's been over a decade since I saw Jonny P, but he hasn't changed much. Simon Hopkinson was supposed to make it down to Horsforth as well but his dad wouldn't let him have the car! (Parents!!!!) Glenn's managed to nearly lose a finger in a train/ticket-machine/door...

S itting with the group of journalists I mentioned last time, the observation was made that no-one knows you as well as yourself. I'm sure the profound comments were fuelled by tiredness and a few beers, but it raises some interesting points... *user pauses for deep thinking mode* I've been transcribing several recent interviews for upcoming articles and if I didn't already know that was me on the tape, I wouldn't recognise my own voice. The way I hear myself talking aloud 'live' is very much different than the way the playback sounds and, presumably, how others hear me. The words are mine -...

W ell, the week flew by. The second trip to London was interesting. First, I watched the first UK press screening of GI Joe. I'd love to tell you what I thought of it, but contractually I'm not even allowed to review it on my blog until the start of April, never mind elsewhere - suffice to say it wasn't as bad as Transformers - but that's a given. Sarah, from the film distributors, took a group of us for a meal in Soho where we discussed the merits of movies, basic tips to make events like Cinema...

I t's been a busy few days. I spent Friday to Sunday covering the London Film & Comic Con. Given recent trips and outgoings it was a bit expsnsive for me, but I intended to get some good interviews which will ultimately be in Impact and perhaps other magazines in the near future and months to come. The weather for the train trips in both directions was... interesting. We went through some fairly intense storms, only to keep emerging into much brightier, sunnier weather. Quite fun, when you...

I've had a busy few days. I went out for a drink with Simon Hopkinson (website) on Sunday night. Having finished some last minute  Impacty things, he suggested I should have a drink in one of our old locals. It's been a number of years since our last catch-up and now he's permenantly back in the UK there was plenty of time to talk about America (where he lived for several years), England, beer, the Internet, mad women, politics and healthcare. Yes, indeed, never let it be said that ex-SNYG members don't know how to party!  I should be getting together with Simon and Glenn Hewitt in the...

S o, TFI Friday. As in the aftermath of any transatlantic trip, there's a real lack of (correct) awareness of passing time. It doesn't actually feel like a Friday and it's weird that on Monday I was still in Iowa - or for that matter that in about six weeks time I'll be back.  It's like I'm in Bizarro World - a place where Torchwood is actually proving to be rather good! Though the terminal jet-lag never kicked in, my body-clock is still off a bit, so I'm not so tired on an evening, but still have to drag my sorry ass out of bed with maximum effort on a morning. Generally feeling a bit...

O nce again I spent the Fourth of July in the US with Jilly and after a stressful week it was nice to put that behind us with some genuine fireworks. We headed over to her brother's place where Jilly blew up sparklers, rockets and cars (so, no change there) and I took a lot of photos, some of which came out rather well. Friday and Saturday were overcast and cooler, but the rain held off enough for the most part - though that meant more bug-bites - and for Sunday, my last full day in Iowa...