TGZ, I texture with a mouse about 85% of the time. The tablet is more for concepting... which I am doing a lot of in Max aswell. Josh, sweet! PS: My keyboard > all other keyboards
I still use my space mouse! I started using it because I was suffering from intense wrist pain on the job. I am also left handed as well, it works well left or right handed. They have a smaller model that is just a navigation puck and I think it's under $100. Yes, it's really a vast improvement over the traditional input…
I agree, the keyboard is always faster than the mouse. Besides, if you're using a particular item repeatedly, Blender always snaps the mouse to the last function used. So, if you're marking seams, the mouse will snap to that item until you select something else.