Life is ticking over at the moment – it’s one of those nice yet frustrating times that’s not quite busy enough to keep me completely occupied, yet busy enough to prevent me from panicking hideously. As an attempt to give myself a focus and calm myself, I’m part way through the XBOX 360 game Mass Effect, and when I’m not getting completely vexxed at the combat interface (which I’ve finally gotten the grips of – it’s not completely intuitive, and there’s no serious training level) I’m having a ball. Of course, Grand Theft Auto 4 is out next week, and that’s going to be an embarrassing drain on my time that I’ll have to keep an eye on. I spent three months playing through Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and never even managed to get further than 60% complete – the Grand Theft Auto games are works of computer gaming genius, and the level of immersion and freedom that they acheive is something truly amazing. I’m looking forward to getting my teeth into number 4…

Post-wise, I received a package with a proof of Richard Morgan’s The Steel Remains. Few epic/heroic fantasies will get me to read them without money being involved at the moment, but I feel it’s likely I’m going to break the rule here.

I’m also having major trouble with my next Vector TV column. I’ve got some things to say about Torchwood (true, almost all of them negative) but trying to say them and keep in the ball park of 1,500 words is proving tricky. My last go was 3,500, and then I managed to wipe that version. I’m currently rebuilding it from scratch, while I’m also starting chipping away at the follow up to The Hypernova Gambit. The climax is in my head already – it just might be difficult reverse-engineering a way of getting there.

London tomorrow, and a screening (for a review, thankfully) of Neil Marshall’s new film, a homage to mid-Eighties post apocalyptic sci-fi called Doomsday. Malcom McDowell is in it. I am not hopeful…

(Although I have also bagged a screening of Speed Racer on Sunday, and am absurdly excited as a result. The film itself may be dreadful, but the trailers have reduced me to giddy schoolgirl-like squeals of delight, and at the least it’ll look good…)