Today pretty much brings to a close the last month or so of scrambling around looking at various technological solutions to my non-technological problem. Namely, that drawing strips is kinda hard and takes a while. I keep wanting to believe I can solve this problem by applying enough money and microchips, but for now at least I've realized it's not really so.

I started off thinking a Tablet PC would make my life easier, but the screens are too small. Then I looked at a Wacom Cintiq, which is basically a Tablet PC without the PC - a digitizer combined with an LCD monitor. Very neat and - at 18" for the big one - more than big enough to draw on. But frigging expensive. Then I looked at a newer graphics tablet than my current one. I could probably keep this up but the truth, sadly, is that I'm just not a drawing-on-the-computer kind of guy. I draw with a pencil, I ink with a brush. When I do it right, it takes a while.

Sometimes I hate the truth.

I have this fear that many are finding the current sequence rather a long winded exercise that has nothing to do with libraries. Well it is the longest sequence we've done since the last year's Buddy the Book Beaver summer epic. At that time I swore I'd never do such a long sequence again, and indeed this one won't end up even half that long.

And yes, we are starting to venture outside the library (or inside the library but not on library topics) more and more. That was always our intention - to use the library as a setting rather than a theme. This is us stretching a little to see how it works. Let us know what you think.