Speaking of cats and vets, I had to bring one of our girls in today (and she's there until the end of the day) - pretty bad bladder infection. She's usually a very vocal one, but showed no change in behavior until last night.

Something that I never mastered.

I missed your original post, what kind of lens are you getting, and for what body?

Contax (C/Y mount) 35-70 f/3.4 and it'll be adapted for a Canon 5D.

Pickup trucks tend to lumber down the road here. They pause forever before entering any kind of ramp or driveway. And there are more than a few of them. If everybody drove like my daughter, no BS, just go like blazes when the light is green and stop when it is red, we would all get around a lot easier.

Another driving habit in Houston is hanging back when making a left turn with a yield on green situation and not entering the intersection to be ready to take advantage of the smallest opening. I see cars in front of me passing up 5 or 6 opportunities that I would have jumped all over. Same with entering a road from a parking lot or other driveway. Drivers here tend to hang back and not signal to the oncoming traffic they are serious about getting into the main road. So if you are behind one of those guys in the parking lot, you could be there all day. In our family, we tend to get right out there and scare the traffic into letting us in.

Are there automation losses with the adapter?

My experience two years ago was the drivers were like clueless versions of New Yorkers. Fast, yes, but also late-deciding and unpredictable. New Yorkers have the advantage of being laser-focused on their path and are easy to read and adjust for as a result. Austin drivers are indecisive, unpredictable, and slow. Houston drivers are indecisive, unpredictable, and fast.

"What would traffic look like if everyone drove like me?" has long been a question that I ask myself to judge my driving habits. Man, we'd be so much better off ;)

The left turn thing is one of my greatest driving peeves and it is, unfortunately, just one of the many things that MN drivers do to demonstrate, on a constant basis, that they find sitting in traffic to be an agreeable pastime.

Seems to me that a lot of what we hear in this thread is folks wondering why they have to wait so long to be doing well financially. Why do you have to be 50 to finally have it made? I can't answer that question, but I can say that as you get closer and closer, it starts to make more sense. And when you finally do realize you are pretty well set, it all seems appropriately timed. Just my experience.

Nice! Make sure you share some sample pics with us.

E61 is referring to what now?

It's manual all the way around. I guess that, on an old MM compatible C/Y body, a lever would have fired the aperture stop-down, but you'd still be manually selecting the aperture anyway with the aperture ring. So the work flow for each shot is - compose, focus at a wide-ish aperture, stop down via aperture ring for light metering, adjust exposure and release the shutter.

Here's another dillema only the folks on this forum would understand:

My team (we're mostly perma-4s and a couple 3s, so nothing too serious) is planning on doing a team photo shoot with a photographer at some point in the next month.

The question is... do I finally cave to the gods of cycling aesthetic and shave my legs to look cool with the other guys, or do I keep it natural and just make scary race faces for the camera to offset the hair?

Cycling aesthetics seem to be a hot button here today (see the Rapha thread), so it's best to be sure BF agrees with my choice in advance.

I typically drive with the emergency flashers on at all times. That allows me to tun in either direction or stop in the middle of the road at any time. It provides a lot of options.

It's a brew grouphead standard. Been around for decades, adopted by a myriad of manufacturers. Very good performer, robust, rebuildable and no shortage of replacement parts.

http://www.aus-appliances.com.au/med...al%20IV_G8.jpg

I blame the pickup truck thing on so many people trying to use them as cars, but they aren't. The don't ride as well, they don't handle as well, they are not as nimble or as quick. So with like half the traffic being trucks here (jus' guessin') you are often waiting for one of them to gingerly drive up or down a driveway or slowly cross a road hump without bottoming out its springs and shocks. The worst is following a couple on a date in a mega-dually out of a tight parking garage, maybe from the 6th or 7th level. It took me a half hour one night after a concert. The fit of his truck was so tight around the hairpin turns at each end of the garage, he couldn't take them at more than a couple mph. It was like we were crawling out. Did he really not have a sedan he could have used on his date? Or was the sedan roof just not high enough for his cowboy hat to fit? I dunno.

Same night, just by coincidence, I was able to see divine justice at work when a similar truck was charged $24 dollars to park by a restaurant valet instead of the $5 we paid. Oversize parking space for the truck carried a premium price. That was so sweet.

Dammit, Dan. There are RULES.

Cop out and wear tights.

Favorite few machines in your 'i like these' lineup that you'd want? ranging $600 - $1200?, not much higher? Oh crap, those all start at like $1250 don't they?

When will I learn my lesson about posting in the 41? No good can come of it.

I like how Kia shows off their Italian heritage in their vehicle names. If you say them with a heavy Italian accent, they all start descriptive sentences in English:

Sonata: Sonata very nice car.

Spectra: Spect repair bill.

Sedona: Sedona side a da road. Wait for a tow truck.

Lol. That took a turn south. I departed after my Venn diagram and that looks like a good choice.

Wear white cycling shorts. No one will notice your leg hair.

Sonata is a Hyundai. #justsayin

Old school. I really miss it. Never had to manually stop down for light metering, though. Like you said, the aperture would close down upon shutter release, but still, I just felt so in control of the process. The settings I was making were not overriding what the camera wanted to do, they were just the exposure I wanted. The meter needle at +1 or +2 stops was just as valid a setting as having it centered. I guess I could still shoot that way on the fully auto camera. Maybe I should.