Raptor - I used to personally enjoy the mouse loads more than the pen, mainly 'cause it just didn't feel right. But, upon borrowing my friends intuos3 that sorta changed after he showed me how to use the blasted things. Now I couldn't imagine ever using a mouse.
The main overall benefit is the pressure sensitivity... if you barely touch the tablet and draw the brush will come up a lot lighter and/or smaller, the harder you press the darker it shows up (that's just an easy example, using a generic black circular brush with object dynamics turned on). The intuos3 had 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity the intuos4 wacom tablet has 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. In that way it mimics you actually drawing on paper with a pen or pencil or paintbrush.
Saya - I read your advice...
I realized I should probably brush harder and my sis let me use her blow dryer
And I think I got rid of most the curly-ness. Also, here's one with me grinning like an idiotic. Merry Christmas!
I hope me lookin' goofy doesn't ruin our shower plans! 'Cause that would make me a sad walrus ----> :[