I’m reading about Barry Diller as book distraction material today. I’ve really got into the whole American media mogul thing dieses wochenende.

They fascinate me. No fucker likes them. I mean noone. They inspire nothing but hate from journalists who profile them. Wenner; Diller; Jobs; Murdoch. It’s bizarre, especially as their entire business is based on producing things that people are supposed to believe in.

Diller is interesting because he’s the mogul who has – by a huge straw – embraced the web most tenderly. Interactive Corp owns Travelocity, Ask (Jeeves), The Very Short List (set up because he wasn’t able to buy Daily Candy), College Humor.com and even the execrable Match.com (’Find love or your money back’ is surely the most vile promise ever made in the English language, pipping even ‘I’ll be back’ and ‘You will know us by the trail of dead’).

He’s also probably the mogul I’d most like to meet in the flesh, as he actually seems to know what he’s talking about. Murdoch is a close second. Interestingly, they’re also the two who have been most upfront about their intentions to make money, without dressing it up as art. Vile, of course – but at least it’s honest.

Now, back to this book. Thank you, Emma , for your words of concern. But I assure you, if I wasn’t working hard, I’d be on the streets mugging old women. And this pays better.

I’m on 4492 words. If I can nail 8,500 by sunrise then I’m well on track – any more than that and I’m storming this fucker.

Ready, set… go!