Thanks Dave.

Well, this is it. I've gotten this far in my studies and I'm down to my last two exams in the second half of my fourth year: ARTS 301 (Humanities) and PHIL 200B (Western Philosophy 2). To show you exactly what I'm dealing with, let me explain how these are going to work.

The Humanities course (which I am still angry I have to take; it's meant as an introduction to things like history, philosophy and anthropology, and is intended to make sure students are well-rounded and know a bit about themselves. But half of my degree is in the humanities. Why not just make me take a math course? It'd be more exciting) consisted of ten multiple choice quizzes online, each with 45 questions. The exam is 100 of those questions. This means that I essentially have to study the entire bank of 450 questions. Seriously, are you kidding me? Fortunately, there's no possible way I can fail this course. I've calculated that I can pass by writing my name down and answering only one question correctly. With a bit of review there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to answer at least 70 of them correctly.

Then there's the philosophy course which I didn't know I had to take. A lot of it is continental philosophy (which involves more metaphysics as opposed to analytic or Anglo-American philosophy which is founded on logic and empiricism). I hate continental philosophy with the fury of a thousand suns. It just doesn't make any sense to me; like they're holding on to an old, obsolete way of thinking. But that's just my opinion; if you dig this kind of philosophy, I respect that. But I'm looking forward to getting this over and done with.

Then I'm going to set all the old homework I don't need anymore on fire. I know... I've worked so hard for it all, why get rid of it? I'd ask a different question: for what might I use it? Stroking my ego when I'm an old man and can no longer tell my butt from my face? Even though I'm finishing school, philosophy will always be a hobby I enjoy, and I'm going to continue reading and enjoying it throughout my life. Philosophy is ideas, and ideas are dynamic. They constantly change and we throw old ones out when we think up some new, better ones.

So, those are my plans for the next week. After that, who knows. We'll see!

Now for something a little more fun. Friday, I took a couple cars for a spin... both Ford Fusions. The first one was a V6/automatic, which is really a shame because you can't get the V6 with a manual. Why Ford didn't offer it I will never understand, because they already had a capable transmission in the Mazda6 (upon which the Fusion is based). It was nice, comfortable, and reasonably quick. But not very exciting.

Then I took out an SE Sport with the 2.3L 4-cylinder engine and a 5-speed manual from another dealer. This time, the salesman let me have a more thorough test drive and didn't mind me thrashing it a little. With the manual gearbox and the sport suspension, it felt like a completely different car. It was very nimble, the steering was direct and there was little to no body roll in hard cornering. I could do with just a little more lateral support in the seats (considering the car's capabilities), but other than that, it seemed just right.

Unfortunately, the acceleration does not match the V6, and unlike the Duratec V6's signature intake growl that I love so much in my Sable, the Mazda-derived four pot sounds more like a power sander. But what an impressive little sander it was. It revs very easily and doesn't mind being taken to 6500 RPM, where it's happy to build a little house, get married and have children, who will move out after the next gear change, go to 6500 themselves and repeat the process.

That car will definitely be short-listed. For now, I plan to check out the Mazda6 s, which is available with a V6 and manual gearbox, to see if that will give me what I'm looking for. I also want to try out the Altima with the VQ35 engine and see how that is. More updates will be posted as I try out more cars.

Found this on youtube. Bloody hilarious.

You might remember me saying that I was going to run every day. Well yeah... about that... it didn't happen. Yesterday morning I woke up with sore legs, knees, and feet. And yes, I did pull something in my back. I think a better idea is to run three times a week rather than every day. This will give me a chance to rest, and will be more realistic for me to keep up on a regular basis. Besides, I'm not trying to become a marathon runner, I just want to be in better shape.

Today, unfortunately, it was five below with a healthy bitter breeze coming from the north. Oh well. I've got some running to do! My goal was to match, if not beat, my achievement from Monday. Since I had an idea what I could do, it was less eventful, so I don't need to give you a lap-by-lap account.

During the eighth lap, the oh-so-familiar cramps and tweak in my back returned, but I was determined to do at least 9. So I set off again and, amazingly, after the ninth lap and the ninth sixty second recuperation I felt good again. So I kept going. By the time I felt like I did on Monday (like my heart was going to jump out of my chest and slap me in the face) I had managed an impressive 14 laps. Where the extra 5 came from I do not know, but I'm happy now.

Summary

Total laps: 14
Time per lap: 2 minutes (1 on, 1 off)
Total time: 28 minutes