I’ve been lusting for a Wacom tablet for god knows how many years. It is basically a pen and a writing pad that translates your motions and pen pressure to the computer. In a wild foray into San Jose involving a several hour tour through the guitar shops while my good friend Marc was searching for a Les Paul guitar, of which his spending budget was a little over two-thousand dollars, the only destination on my mind was my ex-work Best Buy. In my scammings I had accumulated a large number of “RewardZone Points” from my patriotic excess spending this last holiday season. A Nintendo Wii which I resold, and the laptop I bought my parents ($299) for which they forcefully paid me back. Unbeknown to them, with that laptop I happened to get a free HP printer worth $79 which I kept, and a 4GB Microsoft Zune which I resold for $100. Thanks Mom & Dad, it was the best Christmas ever!. I also purchased a large number of other toys which I played with, and returned before the January 31st Christmas returns deadline. Buying things and playing with them all Christmas long is the best and only kind of Christmas. You feel joyful and exhilarated during and shallow and empty afterwards. Ahh, it seems I’ve discovered a way to feel the joy and suffering of materialism without the financial burden! The total expenses were in the ranges of $1k. My “Reward” for all this tomfoolery came in the form of a $45 gift card, several months later. Not much, but made me especially happy knowing I got it without spending a dime.
People have weird fucking hobbies.
I could rant forever on this subject, so to make a long story short… I saw they had an open box Wacom tablet ($169), I bartered with the manager, got an extra $20 off, and walked out of there with my credit card $105 lighter ($199 – $50 – $45 = $105). I’ve been playing with it all night, and have been really satisfied. Ominous as it seemed to me at first, it only took me about thirty minutes to configure it in Linux! The clever little picture above, although not spectacular, is my first sketch. Very cool.
Now not only do you get the joy of my poignant poetry, but my awful art as well.