The day after Christmas, I spent a total of two minutes in the Kinko’s making copies of two illustrations for finishing, and twenty minutes waiting to get out of the parking lot. Somewhere around minute fifteen I swore this was the last time I’d make the trip.

I bought a Canon D320 copier this afternoon with the money from one of my freelance checks. I spent a good deal of time in the two competing office stores comparing feature sets, pricing, and merchandise. Basically, the choices in my price point came down to a Sharp model and this Canon. I was leaning towards the Sharp because of two things: it had a 25-400% zoom range, vs. 50-200% on the Canon. It also looked like the scanning head inside was built a little stronger vs. the Canon—three pulleys instead of one. It also came with a document feeder on the hood, but that’s like buying a house with a tennis court—it’s nice, but how many times are you really gonna use it?

One thing caught my eye on the side of the Canon, though, that changed things: A USB port. Out of the box, it prints to a PC, which is a huge bonus. Plus, it’s $50 cheaper with a rebate and it has an EnergyStar feature which powers it down to sleep after it’s idle for two minutes. I wanted the Canon after my experience with my camera, and I figure the fact that the Canon print engine inside our twelve-year-old printer upstairs is still kicking has to mean something.

So, the next part of the puzzle is in place; I’m on the letter G, with I already done and H in the works. More updates later.