I got an X half

My partner has a fabulous habit of randomly purchasing things that I've expressed a passing but sincere interest in, and one recent (non-Sanrio) package to land on our doorstep came from Fujifilm. I've been after a simple, old-school kind of camera as an entry point into more purposeful photography habits, and the X half fits the bill. I've enjoyed messing around with it so far.

I really broke it in at the Engadget team dinner, which was held at a lovely little beer garden on the Lower East Side on a drizzly night in June. The camera floated from table to table as a dozen tech reporters decompressed with flamingo-draped drinks after two days of in-person strategizing and sitewide navel-gazing. I got sick at the end of the first day -- after we finished the group trip to the claw machine arcade, thankfully -- and spent the second day teleconferencing in from my hotel room, trying not to spew.

I wish my nausea had been from partying too hard, but it was just endometriosis bullshit catching up with me at yet another inopportune time. June was a busy month, with Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, followed by a quick weekend in San Diego to visit an old friend, and then a trip to New York for Engadget's first all-hands meet-up in years. My body finally rebelled, but of course I still made it to the beer hall.