Money makes the world go round. It's an old adage that goes down well with yuppies and parents (especially when you're young and don't want to get a job). But I think it's one of the greatest fallacies of all time. Money doesn't make the world go round, it makes everything come screaming to a halt and stops good ideas from getting anywhere. Money grounds us in all the wrong ways, especially when it comes to contracts and rights for creative ideas.

Well it's taken me a little longer than I thought to get round to my New Year's post. Twenty-two days to be precise. But I do have a good excuse, kind of... I've actually finally properly really started my diet, the same diet I've been saying I'm going to start every other day for the past two years. I haven't touched any chocolates or sweets since the beginning of the year and I've only had two take-aways (treat days as I've come to call them) instead of, well, twenty-two!

I've been going down the gym too, which is actually quite daunting because nobody in there seems to need to lose any weight, they're all either very athletic or positively bulging with muscles! And then there's me absolutely drenched in sweat, my belly rippling like a statue made from jelly and grunting like a sick reindeer as I make my merry way on the cycle machine thing. I'm definitely getting fitter though, and it does feel good to lose weight. I've gone from a whopping 16st1lb on January 1st to 15st5lb today. Okay there's still a way to go, but I'm actually getting there this time!

Keeping with my New Year New Everything plan I've also got a brand spanking new computer, which is nice. My old laptop was steadily losing its grip on reality, constantly telling me it was actually 1968 and wheezing through its battery life in all of twenty minutes. I thought I'd give it a break and put it out of its misery. It's actually quite sad. I grow quite attached to my computers, especially this one which I wrote The Inventors in the City of Stolen Souls on, and Furnace and another book (huh? you ask, what books are these? I'll tell all soon). I might take it apart and use the case as a pencil pot or something so it's still here in spirit... I did that a while back with my ancient eMac, using the faceplate as a mirror for my bathroom! So New Me, New Computer too! That's a piccy of it up there, which you probably guessed.