take one tablet and call me in the morning

young beatrix works in a magical land where, on occasion, unneeded office equipment and materials are left in a common area – let’s call it the surplus-liberation zone – for the taking. sometimes, the surplus-liberation zone includes things like furniture, beakers the size of small children, and electronics. YB once snagged me a sony VCR from that zone, in fact.

a while back, she emailed me to say she’d just found a tablet in the surplus-liberation zone. it’s the kind of fancy drawing tablet graphic designers and artists use with paint and photo software, and trix wanted to know if i might want it.

“yes! please! cool!” i emailed back.

and now i have myself a tablet. it’s pretty and compact and in very good condition. it came with a “pen” but no software, so i downloaded the necessary drivers from the manufacturer and it seems to work fine.

but, holy crap, is it ever hard to use. despite reconfiguring it to lower its sensitivity – when i first installed it, i could hold the pen a good 6” away from the trackpad and it would move my cursor – it’s still challenging to maneuver around the screen without inadvertently activating a hundred programs at the same time. or accidentally deleting what i just finished. or opening and closing boxes at random. i want to draw with it, and be all fancy and creative and do all the neat things that are limited when just using a mouse but, so far, i haven’t quite got the hang of it.

so, i’m going slowly. because having the universe drop great tools in your lap is one thing, but learning how to use them properly is another.