[munificent]

> It was incredibly motivating to me. A weird side effect is that I now have a scanner in my Amazon shopping cart. Once it arrives, I will start a chain where I doodle something every day, scan it and post it online.

This is awesome!

I used to draw (hence the hand-drawn illustrations in the book), but it's one of the many hobbies that didn't make the cut after I had kids. As someone who spends way too much time staring at a screen, there's something really therapeutic about actually working with my hands in an analog medium.

[backwardm]

I started out as a graphic designer as well, then gradually moved into programming. I have four kids (evenly spaced between 2 and 11), so I know how you feel about extra time for fun hobbies like drawing. (we are a few weeks away from our first dog too.)

Your post reminded me that I shouldn't be spending all of my time in code working on client projects. Yes, it pays the bills, but I should (need to) do a little drawing each day to keep that part of me alive. It's not as big as writing a book, but it will be fun to see how long I can keep the chain going.

I also agree with your comment about screens vs. paper—I have one of those fancy Wacom drawing tablets, but it doesn't come close to the feel of a nice sharp 4H pencil or Pilot v5 pen on copy paper.

Thanks again for the inspiration.