The Canon PowerShot SD780 I picked up two years ago suffered death by drowning last Friday. Jennifer took it with her to a school canoe competition in Low, Quebec; it was raining, and the camera got soaked, and that was that. I wasn’t as annoyed as I could have been: in two years I got an awful lot of use out of it (which is interesting when you consider that I primarily shoot with a digital SLR) and it was getting awfully beat up. It was a reasonably good run for a piece of consumer tech.

The silver lining to busted gear is that you get to go shopping for its replacement. Yesterday, Jennifer bought the camera she should have had with her on Friday: a waterproof, shockproof and generally Jen-proof compact camera. She decided on the Nikon Coolpix AW100, which Henry’s had just got in stock; the runner-up was the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS3. The cameras are very similar in specs and cost the same; in the end she preferred the user interface on the Nikon. I’ve been hinting that she ought to get a ruggedized waterproof camera for some time; that sort of camera fits in with her sort of thing. And she won’t be afraid to use it — as she’s been when, for example, I’ve handed her my old digital SLR.

I’m interested in seeing how the AW100 turns out; it’s so new it hasn’t really been reviewed yet. And yes, it has GPS: this represents the eighth GPS receiver in our household.

Previously: The Coolpix AW100 and the Competition.

Jennifer spent today replacing the battered vinyl edging in the front garden with paving stones, which should class up the joint a bit — at least once the grass grows back. She dug up a lot of dirt — those stones had to be ballasted, which required more excavation. This left a lot of extra dirt around, which was put to use smoothing out a depression in the yard. So we have some bald patches. (Hopefully not for too long.)

A new version of Jennifer’s website, designed by yours truly, went live this morning. It’s a simple one-page site that points to her various presences online, and replaces her long-defunct blog (she never really took to blogging).

Yes, summer vacation did start for Quebec teachers today. Why do you ask?

Despite her almost consistently sunny and upbeat nature, Jennifer has always liked fiction that was, well, a little dark. She grew up reading Stephen King, after all, and after that it’s been a little hard to freak, spook or squick her out.

Science fiction and fantasy haven’t managed to do it yet. She had no trouble with George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, which got me after the first 200 or so pages. (I may try again at some point.) Paolo Bacigalupi and Peter Watts caused her no trouble at all despite their reputation. I kid you not, she actually chortled while reading Connie Willis’s “All My Darling Daughters.” She’s a tough nut, she is: if she were into classical music, she’d giggle all the way through Górecki’s Third Symphony.

Continue reading this entry