Even the usual liberal bastions within the state didn't overwhelmingly oppose this, and some of the usual population centers were in favor. The less populous areas overwhelmingly were pro-genital exams.

My enby went to sleep knowing that a bunch of Democrats were winning. I'll have to warn them before they leave for school in the morning. This is just disappointing. Trans rights are human rights; how is this hard?

Sadly the results on the "trans sports bans" weren't as progressive. Places where it lost it was close, and counties where it won it won big.

Who chooses female genital exams over the risk of a "biological male" competing in a sport??

Welcome! You can too easily go completely poor! I know nothing, and anything here is subject to huge IMHO context.

First: Full-frame compatible lenses will be more expensive than APS-C-compatible lenses. You'll be able to use your APS-C E mount lenses on a future full-frame Sony camera -- BUT with either a cropped sensor area limited to the smaller APS-C size or with some really weird optical issues in the wider frame. Second: your APS-C sensor will currently have an impact on the perceived field of view versus a full-frame camera -- effectively 1.5x. So on a 50mm lens, the field of view will be ~75mm. On a 70-200 lens this becomes 105-300mm. On a full frame camera, this effect can be roughly achieved with cropping, so the bigger deal is the loss at the wide-angle -- the cropped sensor takes an 18mm lens to 27mm, and you can't make uncaptured parts of the image appear. I have a crop (hee hee) older APS-C oriented lenses that I can't easily pull over (I am, they're just not what they say on the label -- with an Nikon F to E adapter no less).

Then: I like Viltrox at the less expensive end. The advertised prices are a lie -- Aliexpress runs nearly continuous sales and can take $50-$70 off the price of their more expensive lenses. Chinese manufacturers have not yet shifted to telephoto lenses, but their prices are optically good (tendency to rely on software correction on specific lenses, but that's not Chinese specific). Samyang and Rokinon are the same brand.

Chasing aperture can be an unnecessary psychological burden. I have shot sports inside with an F2.8 and depending on lighting, you'll really want it -- but I've also shot with a (rented) 70-200 f2.8 with 1.4x teleconverter, which makes it an effective 98-280mm/f4 inside with daylight -- and those turned out fine as well.

My current walk-around is a Tamron 25-200/f2.8-5.6. It under performs on indoor at night sports (the ISO jumps too high), but it's reasonably light, covers most of my field of view needs, AND I got it on Woot! at a great price in the US which means I got a warranty.

I've been happy with used hardware I've bought from KEH, but a local photo store might be a better bet depending on where you live (I know of two shops near me where I watch for used lenses). Used tends to come with a far shorter warranty (30-60 days versus 1+years). Grey market imports will be cheaper (ebay plus others) depending on exchange rates, but will not have the in-market warranty. Greentoe claims to offer discounted pricing that is lower the advertised while still being from authorized dealers, but I haven't tried it myself. Yet.

For portraits the "traditional" standard is 85mm at f/1.8 or better (better subject isolation / depth of field); street photography tends to think 50mm. With a 1.5x crop, that would shift to 55mm and 35mm to get the same field of view. Does that mean you have to use those for those purposes? Absolutely not.

Good luck!

No guts anywhere around, so hawk is possible, but I think anything land-bound would have had to leave a trail.

Last week I went out the front door to grab the mail and was treated to the vision of a dismembered bunny corpse lying in our front yard. Crow, maybe?

I turned around, grabbed a plastic bag, picked up the body, threw it away, and never said a word to my family.

It's hard, sometimes, and lonely. But we're here. You're not alone.

Also, it sucks.

A year or so back I decided I was going to catch up. I went back to Iron Man and started rewatching the entire series in release order, at most one a night after everyone else was in bed.

I didn't even make it through Endgame. I watched up to Endgame, started watching it, paused it, and for all I know, it's still paused.

My kid has had no problems, but they might be too inexperienced to notice. That's a good thing to check, thanks!

That's an interesting idea; I'll try without glasses when I get home tonight. Thanks! The optometrist will have to wait, but previously I definitely was looking through my glasses through the eyepiece... But maybe my eyes really have just gotten older.

Mostly a Sony A7C II.

My partner's response on learning this factoid while we were in Japan: "I'm not short, I'm just a samurai!"

I'm glad Brownie was there to help you!

And anything with the air system is confusing enough to me that I'd leave it to others, so good on you!

I already knew Aaronovitch and Zelazny, and now have two new authors! Thanks!