At this point I hope my adventures in trying to find the perfect laptop have become a font of humor for all. I'm a little embarassed myself. So yeah, last year I bought an adorable little Fujitsu P5020D, loved it to death, but returned it because I felt I ought to have a Tablet PC to draw on. Then I bought a (decidedly nonportable) Cintiq 18sx display table on which I've been drawing the strip since February. Then in August I bought a Toshiba Portege M205 because I'm on the road more and more. Today I listed it on eBay. Because the Cintiq is so much better to draw on that I'll just make the extra effort (which I'm already making) to stay ahead on strips so I never need to draw them on the road. And I've just ordered a Fujitsu P7010D, which is the (nicely) updated version of the one I got last year. So I'll be back where I started, with an adorable ultraportable that lets me write, program, and watch movies on the road. And that's the perfect computer for me. I think.

Well it's almost 11pm EST and USAir hasn't cancelled tomorrow's flight yet, so as far as I know I'm good to go to Jacksonville, location of the NEFLIN conference at which I'm giving the keynote Friday. I've been pumping up my talk, packing my bags, and trying hard to get done all the little stuff I've been putting off. Well, and buying and selling laptops, I've been doing that too. Wish me luck!

Over at The Norm, Nicole Jantze has a mission. Like me, she wants to see her husband Michael keep making The Norm, one of the most insightful and best illustrated strips there is. He recently announced he was giving up on the rat race of syndicated cartooning, and that means the end of The Norm as we know it. Unless he can make a living from this crazy webcomic thing I've heard so much about. So Nicole is asking his fans to become members (which is very cheap) and if enough people sign up, by gosh by golly he'll keep up his good work. Check it out and pay up. He's worth it.

P.S. It's not completely out of the question that you'll hear a similar plea from us one of these days, but we're hoping to avoid that by becoming titans of merchandising and publishing. Speaking of which, buy something from us. They're on sale.