Who ever knew he was considered to be the soul of Rock and Roll in Windsor? He was known by many to be a local actor and accomplished musician in Windsor. But to me, he was plainly the best English teacher I ever had.

I don't quite remember the first time I met him but that doesn't matter does it? I was never a fan of Grammar, and thus, not a fan of English. Mr. Bonk though, was one teacher that made English interesting. He threw grammar and spelling out the window and turned normal novel studies into life lessons.

With Mr. Bonk at the helm, he made them life stories. The Catcher in the Rye was one book that stood out among others due to the massive amounts of explicit words in use. When it came my turn to read aloud, I would always substitute those words for something a little more pleasant (but no more understandable). For example, 'Christ's sake' became 'Chrissaakee' He was so amused with my reading that he even brought in our principle to have a listen.

Most teachers have a course outline and thus, teach it appropriately. Mr. Bonk however tended to do something a little different. Some days he'd walk in after scaring off a little grade 9 kid in the hallway for being too loud, other days he'd sit back in his springy chair with his feet up on the cluttered desk asking us what we'd like to do for class.

His desk was was especially amusing because he'd always ask us students to bring in bumper stickers from various places saying various things. Every time a student brought one in, he'd stick it onto the desk. There was one item pasted on the front that was especially amusing. It was a post-it heart coloured black with permanent marker. Written on it with a white-out pen was, "Mr. Bonk's Heart."

In addition to the bumper stickers on his desk, he'd have posters and flags stuck on the wall. One time, the administration said that he needed to get rid of all the posters because they posed a fire hazard. Upon implementation, it was very odd to see the walls clean and books actually stacked neatly on the shelves. He'd then point to the Chinese flag and complain to a chinese student about how it was all the Communists fault. Oh, the good times...

It's tough to pinpoint exactly what made Mr. Bonk such a great guy because he had so many different sides. To some students he would be the meanest man alive, picking on them as long as they sat in their class. To others, he would be nicest guy ever, commenting on your attire in the 'Bonk' way. He was always one to say things direct from his mind without any sort of censorship. If he thought the new school policy was balls, he'd say so. He'd make jokes in class relating indirectly (but not very discreetly) to people he either despised, loved, or just wanted to pick on for no reason at all.

On a day where my friend wore black nail polish Mr. Bonk approached her,

Bonk- "Hmm....Black Nail polish, going for the dark look?"

a startled, but unassuming stare,
*shrugs*

Bonk- "So what are you going to do next? Paint your face like those guys wearing their pants to their
knees? Or have you painted your toe nails?"

*shrugs*

Bonk "Hm...you know what I find about all those goth people that dress wearing black? They dress like that to look different but in the end, they all look the same"

Class field trips to rival teachers' classrooms was a normal 'Bonk' occurrence. Even having class outside was usual. I don't exactly remember the circumstance, but I clearly remember the day when Mr. Bonk kicked a desk over with so much force, the sound reverberated throughout the room. I would know, I was sitting in the opposite desk.

In class, he would always have a female student helping him out for marking and organizing his stuff. It was funny because it was always a senior student whom he dubbed as 'Money Penny' Being Mr. Bonk's secretary also garnered a lot of Bonk jokes...the type where you don't always get the punch line.

For the movies based on the novels we read, he'd never be afraid to show normally 'inappropriate' scenes, one that involved some quite scantily dressed women on screen. His excuse? It's English! Rather than fast forward through one uncensored scene, he'd yell, "Look, a Boeing 747!" while pointing to the window. I remember that moment because I actually looked...

His tests were always multiple choice or as he would say, "mool-tee-ply shoi-eese" Even if you failed his tests, he'd always let you make it up with open ended writing assignments. I have to admit, it was through these writing assignments that I was able to really understand what it means to write in English. It wasn't all about the grammar or the spelling, it was about the flow, the content and everything else that comes along with a great read.

He was always a laugh when it came to his grade 9's. He would always tell us how much he loved torturing them. One time he hired a senior student for a bit of a show. In the middle of reading an extremely tense and scary section the senior would go up to the room's side window and push his face right up against it,

In his deepest and scariest voice, Mr. Bonk would read, "and as she looked over, her dead husband's silhouette appeared in the distance..."

He would walk over to the window, open the curtain in the dark classroom, and sure enough, with the sight of a real silhouette in the window, a couple of grade 9's screamed. He would also tell us the times when he'd make the little ones so scared with his stories of Massey being built on an old Native Indian Cemetery.

Apart from amusing or scaring students in class, he'd always show up at the monthly Coffee house either to hang out or to play his guitar on stage. It always seemed to fit him...Mr. Bonk, strumming his guitar, sitting on stage with the spotlight glinting off his glasses. In this scene, you would never imagine him to be a teacher, but more like an old-skool rocker. It still feels unreal that I'll never be able to see him in his limelight, strumming his guitar singing along with his tune. He had changed the way I looked at English teachers and certainly the way I look at English. Mr. Bonk was the best English teacher Massey has ever had, so it goes...

 

When you first think about 'Matrix' the first thing that comes to my mind is Neo whipping his trench-coat open to reveal the obscene amount of guns stashed away, preceding of course the wall-destroying, police-swiss-cheesing, gunfight. A fitting way then, to introduce our 2005 Toyota Matrix 4WD.

At first thought, it's not the car you'd think of to get things done. For winter driving, I would buy an SUV. For carrying people and the stuff the bring along, I'd buy a Van. For carving up the road, I'd buy a sports car. And for everyday use, I'd just buy a Mercedes.

That's when the Matrix starts showing its guns. I just can't get over how good this car is in the snow. It will never get stuck. Even with 30cm deep snow, it just plows right through like nothing's there...there is no snow...

I had the opportunity to test out the winter abilities of the Matrix to the max on none other than News Years Day. We had celebrated new years in the Pacific Mall in Toronto, looking for something a little different.

This New Years celebration was hosted by the local Chinese Radio station with gobs of humour and live singing performances. It was really great because every so often, they'd pull out a 'tornado booth' filled with coupons that flew around inside. They would invite an audience member to step inside and grab as many coupons as possible. Don't ask me how, but three teenage girls (in the booth at once) couldn't quite grab as many coupons as one older guy with big pockets...

Rather than stay the night, we decided to drive home. The weather actually was quite nice to start. The roads were clear and traffic was moving at a nice clip. An hour or two in, things turned ugly.

The little flurries quickly became fat snow flakes. The traffic started to slow down and visibility steadily decreased to a point where I could only see a few meters in front of the car. The only references I could use to stay on the road were the tracks from an SUV, the reflector markers in the median (which were continuously getting covered) and the rumble strips where the snow had melted a bit faster.

It was seriously tough stuff to drive in. Along the way home, I had seen a few cars off the road and I tell you, never had I been more relieved to see the snow plow's blue flashing light. They were the ones that made the roads drivable. Despite being 4:00 in the morning, I had never felt more awake.

Thanks to the outside temperature gauge in the car I could always judge whether it was cool enough to have ice on the road. Unfortunately, it was consistently hovering around 0 degrees C, perfect weather for black ice.

Creeping along at a sedate 50-60 kph, I managed to avoid any trouble. Nearing Windsor though, things got quite entertaining. The game was to compare the condition of the precipitation with the outside temperature reading. Every time the weather warmed up by one degree, I would increase my speed a little. It was great! It was really nice to be greeted by the sign, "Welcome to Windsor". To top off a successful drive home, I had a three-snowplow train escorting me all the way from the highway exit to my home. I still don't understand how I managed to stay wide awake without even nodding off after 5 hours of driving, at night, without a drop of coffee...

Keeping us on the road was our trusty Toyota Matrix. Although I can't vouch for its winter driving ability in close-call situations, it felt very stable in the high crosswinds and tracked well through deep snow. The 4WD really helped out when merging onto the highway from a snowy on-ramp. This car was so amazing it made me wonder how I ever made it through all our previous winters in our old rear-wheel drive van. I've already raved about 4WD in my previous post, but what use is 4WD if you can't carry anything? Luckily, the Matrix can lug around just about anything, and the kitchen sink.

Starting in the front, there's a cubby for your sunglasses in the console and a separate one for coins and parking passes. The glovebox is decently sized and each door has nice large pockets. In the rear seats, there's a back pocket in the drivers seat but on the passenger side, there's an oddly placed hard plastic table. It would be great if you're out camping and need a table to put something on, but for every other day, give me some cloth. When I'm sitting in the rear seat, my lower shins usually rub up against the plastic which becomes worse over bumps.

Then there's that large space in the back. There's nets which are perfect for placing bags of groceries or DVD's from black friday, preventing them from sliding around. Under the floor where the spare tire is located are three large bins that I can stuff an electric air pump, jumper cables, and a tow rope into. On top, we can fit three large traveling bags with room to spare and we even managed to fit two twin size mattresses in there lying flat (with the seat down and the tailgate slightly open). The only gripe I have about it is the large plastic covering which doesn't prevent things from sliding very well. A rubber coating perhaps? On the flip side, sliding the mattress in and out was a breeze.

I would prefer the driving position to be lower to make it feel more sporty rather than SUV'ish. I usually move the height adjustable seat to its lowest position. A telescoping wheel would be nicely appreciated to bring the wheel closer. I sometimes feel like I'm stretching when turning the wheel. Over the potholes and expansion joints, its not quite as cushy as our old Volvo, but its not hard enough to spill your cup of morning coffee; It gives you a very confident feel.

Seating is comfortable, although my back didn't hurt after my five hour driving stint, my neck did...weird. The back seat is large enough, but seating three adults back there could be a bit of a squeeze..but that means they won't move around during some hard cornering,another one of this car's surprises.

Having a high roof is usually connected with less than stellar handling. Its fortunate then that this car's suspension more than make up for it. Through hard corners, this car will show a hint of understeer. On my way to university, there's one very nice onramp that I have to take. Its a sweeping right hander with a decreasing radius. At full tilt with the pedal mashed, the car pushes, but not so much that a little lift of the throttle won't cure it. There's some body roll which is a far cry from my old van which would lean so much I could almost reach my hand out the window to touch the ground. Its a very well behaved car that will do anything that most people will ask of it.

The power is definitely one thing this car is lacking. Don't get me wrong tough, 90% of the time, its more than enough. Its only on the interstate when you feel like you're missing something. To pass, you have to mash the throttle, let the automatic tranny drop down two gears and then you're moving. Slowly stepping on the go pedal in fourth will get you nowhere. There is one quirk about the powertrain that I fail to understand. Sometimes when I mash the throttle to merge, then lift to avoid rear ending the car in front, the computer will get confused for a moment and jump from fourth, to second, to third, then back to fourth. It's not smooth either as its usually accompanied by a shudder. Nothing seems to be broken and most other times, its perfectly fine, although it could use a check up

The Matrix is really the Neo of cars. After four months of ownership, it has worked beautifully and in the most unexpected of times, its pulled us out and did the most amazing of things. As the little kid said, "There is no spoon."

University has started and it actually has been a pleasant start. Labs only start next week so the real work isn't even in sight. What is plainly visible though is the load that will be coming. I have class pretty often, being an Engineer. On Mondays, class starts at 8:30 and ends at 7:30 luckily with a few breaks in between. My other days are alright but my Tuesdays and Thursdays are always packed and I have 4 and a half hours of straight class! Not to say I don't fall asleep in some of them...

Anyways, there's one prof who I find very amusing. He's my business prof and he speaks with a rather unique Korean accent. Its totally understandable but it makes you laugh a lot of times. Not only does his accent make you laugh, but the way he goes about things. He's not the crazy enthusiastic type that gets on your nerves, but he's more of the funny enthusiastic type that makes class go by quicker. Take my first class for example.

He's always bobbing up and down on his feet moves his hands around a lot to get the message across. Sometimes he'll fire a few questions at you by reading off a name on the attendance sheet and if you're there, he'd expect an answer. Its pretty cool though and he seems to give out a lot of bonus marks for showing up to class. We went though the introductions alright, finding out the different slopes for a smart student that studies hard and a not so smart student that doesn't study so hard.

Then, into his lecture. The thing about his lecture is that for the longest time, I actually did not have any idea that he was teaching class-related material! He was talking about the relationship between the two most important things to students; grades and leisure time (the way he said leisure sounded like 'ledger'). As grades go up, leisure time goes down, and vice versa. It was really entertaining because he'd go into all these little side jokes and then sidetrack a bit, but not so far that you would get lost. I think I'm actually going to like this course! It was actually the first course that I didn't fall asleep in.

My Calculus class is a different story. My prof is an extremely enthusiastic teacher that would probably be given the "Maniac Math Wizard" award. She speaks extremely fast and laughs at math problems...if you can imagine that.

All my other classes seem to be quite alright albeit, boring. Nonetheless, I plan to work hard and do well. The thing I don't understand though is how the business students can complain that they have a lot of work! I've seen one of my friends schedules and they have four classes spread over two days...that means they don't have class for 5 out of 7 days of the week! No Labs, No tutorials, No nothing! I overheard one of my friends who were studying science, "I want to start gaming, Lets switch to Business!" So true...

I have been sucked in...I now have ads on my site!!!!

All compliments of Google Adsense (I promise, this post itself is not an Ad!).

Of course, the main reason why people put ads on their site is to gain income with every click per ad. My reason is to increase the number of links to my site, increase my contacts, and therefore increase the number of people coming here! Having a side income as a student is nice but at the moment, its not even worth mentioning how much I'm getting.

The thing about monetizing your blog though is that some of the ads can really be quite ugly and distracting from websites. Take for example the ads that pop up in front of your content and the screaming smiley ads that I have yet to figure out how to silence. Then, you have the flashing neon pink ads as well as weird avatars of smiling strangers saying, "I like you." They're just not for me.

My Firefox ad is on the site just to look cool ( I love Firefox!) My Google Adsense text ads are just plain and not distracting at all (in my eyes at least). For the moment I can't see myself putting anything else here unless they look cool.

Lastly, I've changed a few things on my blog by adding my profile on the sidebar and a link to my past blogs. If you're interested in travel, you may want to check out a few blog posts about my living in China for four months from May-August 2007. Want to know what happens when you lose a wallet overseas? you can read it under August 2007 'A very expensive bus ride'

Anyways, there is certainly one thing that I want to make sure about putting ads; If they scream at you in any way, I don't want them!

So today was supposed to be a fun evening of hanging out with friends to watch our weekly episode of American Gladiator (which by the way is a sweet show!!). It was about 10:10PM when I left their house, along with my brother and my friend to whom we were giving a ride home.

We got into our car, nothing out of the ordinary. As I started to pull away though, the steering wheel felt horribly wrong. It would pull far over to the right and the ride felt very hard. I only travelled a few meters before I stopped to figure out what the problem was. Guess what? A flat tire.

Being how it was night time in the dead of winter, I decided the best course of action was to pull out our compact tire pump and attempt to pump up the tire. While it was pumping, all of us whipped out our camera phones and used the light from the camera flash and screens to try and find out where, if any leak, was coming from.

We stayed on the safer side and filled the tire to 40 psi. Evil would have prevailed and sure enough, as we turned off the pump, we heard a distinct hiss of a leak. No choice, we had to change the tire.

Luckily though, the three of us made short work of the task at hand and we did not have to stay outside in the cold for long. Upon placing the flat tire in the back of our car, we noticed the full extent of our damage. There was a 5 cm gash in the sidewall, only possible with a knife. I honestly didn't think that vandalism was involved!! I mean, we could have easily run over a nail on the way to parking and collected a slow leak.

But no, it had to be done by some jocks who've got something against Toyota's. This wasn't the first time something happened to our car. Another time, we had Chili poured all over the windshield of our car which also froze over, all while being parked in the exact same place. I just wish I could smack those guys flat with my flat tire! 'nuff said. I'm tired, sleepy, and now I'm going to figure out what to do if I ever ran into those culprits...

I just lived out a dream.

All my life, I've loved cars and more recently, I began to love writing. This past Tuesday, I was given the opportunity by Toyota Canada to participate in the unveiling of the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

I heard about the event through the usual chain of Command. The Formula SAE team had a meeting talking about their car and news of the Toyota event cropped up. I then asked the supervising professor about the details. Toyota would be unveiling the 2009 Toyota Corolla in our very own CARE building on campus, bringing along five Corolla's to test drive. In addition, they would be making a donation of one prototype Corolla to the University. Knowing that this was a very rare event on campus, I had to attend.

They actually suggested that us Engineering students should stay clear of the CARE building to avoid any complications. Fair enough, but I had to be there. The only way was to show up as part of the press...

Having already written an article for the University Lance newspaper, I had a step up. I approached their office, flogged the news tip and offered my services. They're quite a great group of editors and were quite keen on covering the event. A short talk with the Editor in chief and the deal was done. Show time!

Tuesday came by quicker than usual but there was a few snags. The day before, my Matrix's tire had been slashed and so it would stay home on Tuesday. Thanks to my friend, I was able to hitch a ride early in the morning, but it seemed it wasn't early enough. Snow had fallen heavily over night, covering all the roads and pulling traffic to a crawl.

The commute took about 45 minutes compared to the usual 15. It was quite an entertaining ride though because I was in an old 1991 Honda Civic. It actually didn't come with wing mirrors and they had to buy the driver's side mirror from the junk yard. That wasn't it though. In the winter they had to transform the car into a sauna to prevent the windows from fogging up. It was so hot inside that when you rolled down the window to get some fresh air, the cold outside air would warm itself into a summer breeze. I was quite used to old cars, having a 1991 Toyota Previa for 10 years, before being replaced by our Matrix. I was definitely looking forward to checking out some brand new Corolla's.

I arrived at the CARE building slightly worried, but excited as well. I was kindly directed to the meeting room where the press conference had already started. No worries though, I introduced myself as a writer for the University Newspaper and the extremely friendly Toyota PR ladies did all they could to accommodate me.

I was whisked into the room and took a seat by the side. It was really neat because in attendance was the Chief Executive Engineer and the Chief Engineer of Toyota. We were introduced to all the new features of the Corolla and taken through their whole Marketing plan as well.

Toyota sold 37 Million Corollas worldwide since they started production. The 1,000,000th Canadian Corolla will be made in February 2008. Many Corolla buyers who owned a Corolla previously had them handed down from their parents. Also, the Corolla is usually their first experience of owning a Toyota. As their buying power increases, so do their choices of cars, moving up to the Camry, then on to the upper Lexus Division.

Questions just kept flowing into my head. What would you ask the Chief Engineer of Toyota if given the chance? I tried to stay as professional as possible and I think I pulled it off. Inside though..can you believe that I was talking to the Chief Engineer of Toyota!?  I was itching to ask questions about prototypes and new models...

In between the end of press conference and the start of the donation ceremony, I was able to ask the Chief Engineer about some personal questions I had about the prototype JDM Toyota Trueno AE86. Sadly though, he didn't know much about the car other than it was only a prototype at the Tokyo Auto Salon. Then again, there's lots of cars that they still keep wrapped up in black vinyl.

While we were waiting for the ceremony to begin, I took the opportunity to introduce myself to a bunch of fellow journalists. I was actually quite surprised that most of them were freelancers working for multiple agencies. It was neat to be able to talk to them because never before have I been able to talk to automotive journalists. I met people from Driving Television, the Windsor Star, Performance Auto Sound, and a few others. They were all very friendly and willing to share their own views on how they came to auto journalism.

It's not an easy job from what I hear. There's lots of traveling and now that the internet is so big, deadlines are tighter than ever, forcing everyone to work harder while earning less. Nonetheless, it didn't deterred me at all from my dream of writing about cars for a living. I just don't think there are many things that can beat driving around in the newest cars and writing about the whole experience.

After introducing myself to a bunch of people it was neat to have the CBC approach me to get a question or two. Guess who appeared on the news at six?

During the donation ceremony, a very interesting item cropped up. Instead of donating a 2009 Corolla to the university, Toyota announced that it would also be donating a Matrix as well. The Chief engineer thought it was odd we only got a Corolla and thus with the approval of the Toyota President, paired it with a 2009 Matrix. I couldn't believe it when he said it. I mean, having a new car donated to your University is like getting free tuition.

Being in the midst of everything was a very cool feeling, but there was one thing missing. I wanted to drive the car. I arrived there knowing I had a slim chance of getting in a car because most of these events are planned weeks in advance and I only showed up on the day of. Once again, Toyota PR bent over backwards and found me an empty seat beside an editor for the Windsor Star.

"We have an empty seat available for you. Would you like to try out the car?"

You don't even have to ask me. Sign me up!

The driving route snaked across Windsor from the CARE building on campus to Fort Malden and ending at the Caboto Club for lunch. Along the way, we encountered stop and go traffic and highway driving. Being a current owner of a 2005 Toyota Matrix, I was very interested to know how it stacked up.

Sitting in the back seat was a friendly man from Toyota willing to answer any questions that we might have. Upon placing my bags in the car, I asked my partner what his driving style would be like so I would know how securely I needed to buckle in my laptop. He said he was going to take it easy. Understandable since I'm sure he wouldn't want to be the first journalist to turn a new corolla into scrap metal.

We were given the upper range LE model. It had wood trim and all the materials felt extremely well built. Also apparent were features that you would only think of after downing a few cans of red bull. The handles to the glovebox were placed closer to the driver and an auxiliary audio input jack for your iPod graced the center console even including a cubby to store your digital tunes.

With light colours and clean lines flowing from the dash into the doors, the car reflects the pleasant nature of its interior. There's nothing in here that I can fault. Toyota says that they lifted a few details from their Lexus division and put it into the Corolla. They should really call this the 'Lexus Corolla'.

The smart key is so simple to use that even a monkey could use it, while eating a banana. While walking to the car with the remote in your pocket, the doors will unlock. As you sit down in your seat, you don't even need to pull the key out. Just press the start button and the engine comes to life. I can already see all the monkeys in this world rejoicing.

I hadn't even driven the car and I was already thoroughly impressed. On the road, it was even better. Road noise was well damped and the ride felt luxurious. Was I sitting in a Lexus?

The car drove smoothly and accelerated quickly courtesy of an all new 5-speed transmission and an improved 138 hp, 1.8L engine. Fuel economy actually improves compared to the last model's 1.8L engine. They must have figured out how to make the engine run on air.

One aspect of the engine I wanted to know was how it Idled. My Matrix's idle is slightly rough and I've heard its not just my car. I am happy to report that the new Corolla has no such problems, tested at an unannounced railway crossing.

A driver change and Dynamics test was arranged at a parking lot in Mic Mac park. It was my turn to drive the car. Sitting in the drivers seat for the first time was extremely satisfying. The driving position is perfect and the steering wheel will also tilt and telescope to your preference. I was guided to the start by a professional race driver bundled up in a thick winter jacket. It must've been cold but I wouldn't know thanks to the automatic climate control that kept the temperature at a serene 24 degrees. The course was laid out using cones, taking us through the slalom, followed by a sweeping left hander and ending in a braking zone.

The fact was, I had never navigated a cone course except on the Playstation. It felt oddly familiar yet, not. Just the same way you're walking down the street and see something that you're pretty sure you encountered in your dream. Déjà vu? Sadly, the parking lot was covered in snow and the car wouldn't turn even if Jarno Trulli at the wheel. I tried my best to go through as fast as possible, noting that it probably wasn't possible if I didn't have snow tires equipped. I chucked it into turns but got nothing but a near miss with Mr. Orange Cone.

My route was a straight forward task from Mic Mac park to Fort malden. The first impression while driving the car was how the wheel in my hands felt. This would be the second time I tried a car with electric power steering. It may sound scary like you're not directly connected to the road, but its essentially no more dangerous than drive by wire. By pulling power from a separate motor, there's no need to sap power from the engine and thus increases fuel economy. Something did feel slightly odd though. When you're moving the wheel slightly off of centre, there's a feeling like you're turning a magnet. I prefer the steering to have a more mechanical feel if you ask me. Its certainly nothing that detracts from the car and when you're taking it through corners, it weights up nicely so I have no problems with it. As I was commenting on the wieight of the steering wheel mid-corner: "this wheel feels pretty heavy in corners".
Toyota PR while clutching the door handle: "If you went at a slower speed, the steering would lighten up."

He also promptly stated that Toyota Canada was not responsible for any Tickets or infractions that we might pick up on the drive. I think it was a discrete way to tell me to slow down, but I'm not so sure.

The engine reacted well to quick movements of my right Timberland. Passing a truck on the highway was no problem at all. The gearbox just dropped down a gear and went along with its business. It was sure footed and felt confident on the road. Body roll was well controlled and it felt so good in the corners I really wanted to see what it could do. It was quite comparable to my Matrix which handles like a gocart through quick corners. Give me some summer tires and a dry road thank you very much.

A Royal Soldier greeted us into Fort Malden for some coffee and a tour of the place. During this time, I was able to strike up a casual conversation with the Chief Engineer. This was the guy that oversees most of the things that go on in Toyota and I was right there talking about what he thought of Windsor weather. Unreal!

Once everyone had arrived, they gave us a demonstration of how to fire a musket. Because Muskets were so inaccurate, the chance of hitting someone was slim, hence the long straight firing lines to hope that your shot would actually count. In addition, they would wear their brightly coloured coats to prevent friendly fire in the midst of all the smoke pouring out from the gun. As the guide put it, "If you dress with all the camouflage, with some weeds sticking out of your hair, in the midst of battle they'll wonder why that bush just fired at you."

As I walked back to the car, I took some time to check out the sheetmetal. From my eyes, it looks pretty darn good. The front has details from Camry but nicely scaled to fit the Corolla. This isn't one of those cars that looks ugly at first sight, taking a while to get used to. Its pleasing to anyone and the more I looked at it, the more I liked it. It exudes sportiness and excitement without even moving.

The final ride back to the Caboto club was one to remember. We had been given a base Corolla CE manual. Sitting in the back seat answering our questions was none other than the Executive Chief Engineer of Toyota! While waiting for my turn to pilot the car I asked him as many questions as I could. How he liked Windsor and what countries he's travelled to. One surprising tidbit of info was that his personal car is a Toyota Corolla station wagon. But I guess you don't need anything better if your company provides you with any car you'd ever want. I got so engrossed in the conversation I forgot I was supposed to navigate. No problem though, a quick U-turn later and we were back on track.

Now it was my turn to drive the car. This would probably be my fifth time driving a manual car and I certainly didn't want to stall it coming out of the parking lot with the Chief engineer of Toyota in the back seat. I started the car up, put it into reverse and...stall. *quiet in the car*
'Did I stall?' I asked.
Yup. It turns out I forgot to release the handbrake, a beginners mistake. It was okay though, my partner had stalled the car also so I just had to stall it less times than he did. Not wanting to stall again, I reversed the car slowly, then gunned it coming out of the parking lot. It must have gotten their attention because I spun the tires all the way into second gear.

For the Toyota people reading this...sorry!

I must commend the transmission. Having so little experience in a manual car, I was pleasantly surprised to find the clutch take up to be easy to find. It was also light and the shifter slid into gear very easily. Its a great car to start driving a manual. Being a Toyota, it will also take the inevitable abuse that comes with the learning curve.

It was great fun, snicking through the gears, giving it a bit more revs than I needed in a few places, but that just got the heart running. By the end, I had gotten much smoother, no longer jerking my passengers. I hope that my driving came off as bit rusty rather than inexperienced.

The day came to an eventful end with lunch in the Caboto club. It was nice to be able to sit down and chat with everyone about the car and their careers.

My dream day was almost over, only to be given one last surprise. As I was walking out, the parking lot was filled with Toyota and Lexus, trucks and SUV's all idling waiting for the journalists to get a hold of. I walked out with a huge smile on my face. This was unbelievably amazing. It was the Autoshow right on my doorstep!

As a student, this was a once in a lifetime oppurtunity. I must again thank Toyota Canada for giving me the opportunity to test drive their new 2009 Toyota Corolla. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to start researching on how to fit the 2.4L engine into my 4WD Matrix...

The Glamour. The Glitz. It's all at the Annual North American International Auto Show.

I've been gong rather frequently for the past few years and this year was no Exception, except for one thing. In past years, I had always wanted to take photos of every single car I could come across. Over the years, I noticed that I could always get better pictures of the cars online. My face had to be in every picture to make it worth it.

I woke up nice and early to find a close place for parking. Since I lived in Windsor, it was a quick 15 minute jaunt across the border and we slipped right in to a perfect parking spot.

We bee-lined to VW because in past years, they always gave out the most stuff like t-shirts and blow moulded cars. But arriving at vee-dub garnered no more than brochures. To be honest, it was slightly odd...

No matter though, coming to the auto show wasn't all about getting free stuff, though it does make it better! I was very interested in checking out Toyota as I had just driven the new 2009 Corolla a few days ago. They didn't disappoint by bringing in a photo booth for free pictures. If you've ever been to an Asian Mall, you'll know that we snap poses in these things by the dozen. Naturally, we had to fit all four of us in a little space just about 1 cubic meter in size.

Toyota even brought out a new event called 'Toyota Live' where anyone could show up for a little stage show, play a few trivia games, and get yourself broadcast on one of three huge TV screens. By mentioning the Toyota Camry Hybrid as one of Toyota's Hybrid cars, I earned myself a scrumptious container of Jelly Bellies.

To finish up the Toyota event, they had the 'Fan Dangler' as a picture Prop. For those of you who have no idea what it is, check it out here:

The Fan Dangler was certainly not complete without a few people sitting on it. Special thanks goes to Jojo, the Toyota host that was in charge of the Fan Dangler. By being especially friendly (and giving us her e-mail) I give her top marks for being the coolest person I met at the Autoshow!

I have to say that Toyota outdid themselves this year. Almost every other Autoshow, they were pretty lackluster showcasing their usual cars with a few green-mobiles dashed in. This year, there was something for everyone.

No auto show would be complete with some fooling around in some Minis. They had just released their new Mini Clubman which has Six doors! Two for Midgets, two for normal people, and two for me.

The coolest car on display had to be the Mazda Furai Concept. From every conceivable angle, this car just looks H-O-T!! Give me this car over any Ferrari or Lamborghini any day.

I had great fun walking around with my friends while checking out all the latest cars, but there was something missing. After joining Toyota in the release of the 2009 Corolla, I had felt different. I could no longer get vamped up by sitting in new cars and fiddling with all the little buttons, I wanted to drive them. Call me greedy but cars aren't meant to sit on a plinth looking pretty, they're meant to be driven. See you on the road!

Have you ever looked at your doctors note and wondered, 'is this even english?' Well, I can tell you that doctors are not the only people who suffer from C.S.S, Chicken Scratch Syndrome.

Last year, I had a professor who spoke with a very thick accent that it came out as a low rumbling noise. I tried to pay attention but it reminded me of my flights on airplanes, and you know what passengers do on airplanes: sleep. It was even worse when he wrote on the board because it was like seeing an alien come to earth and scribble something in the dirt that we were supposed to understand. I dubbed it, 'Writing with an accent.'

This year, one of my professors have writing so bad that calling it chicken scratch just doesn't cut it. I had to come up with something new...

Skateboarders paint the sidewalk with their own blood, which is actually kind of gruesome. Horses can't write, but they can at least navigate figure eights. Mice have never been seen to write, but who knows what they do in the laboratory?

Penguins aren't literate and just squawk at each other, but that can be said about politicians as well.

Racecar drivers can write words trailed in a strip of burnt rubber, just ask Jeremy Clarkson. Pilots fly with a trail of smoke making words in the sky which are very legible. If these guys can do it travelling at a few hundred kilometers an hour in the air, why can't professors do it too with a pen and paper?

It left me with little choice as to what to dub his writing. I think I'm going to conclude that its not just chicken scratch, its 'KFC popcorn chicken thats been breaded and deep fried until you can't tell that its even chicken'- scratch.

In the picture, you can see an excerpt of his actual writing...non-photoshopped. Not that it would've helped anyway...

I settled in to my seat and did as I'm used to and pulled out my laptop from my bag. Instinctively, I grabbed my power cord and tried to plug in, but no luck. Plugs were full. I then looked up into the sea of Laptops.
 
As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in my friend's Oceanography class. Presented with such a vast array of LCD's and multicolored plastic, I decided to do a little investigating about what people are actually doing on their laptops. It was actually kind of shocking because this class was packed with students actually attending class. Not only that but there's dozens of laptops.

The sound was eery as well. Instead of the scratching of pen and paper, all I heard was the clicking of keyboards. The prof was speaking and every time a new slide was posted on the screen, the flurry of fingers on plastic keys increased. So here we go.

In a class of 200 students there are close to 45 laptops. !!!

45 Laptops. That's almost 1/4 of the whole class. Do some math, with the average price of a laptop about a $1200, I'm staring at $54,000 of high tech computer equipment.

Now as to what people were actually doing on their laptops. I couldn't quite get a perfect glimpse of everyones screen, but I am happy to say that most of them had some sort of word processor open and actually taking decent notes. I'm sure my friend was taking notes on her cell phone, she's a quick at text messaging.

From my quick glance, HP's and and Dell's ruled the roost with a few Acers, Sony's and Macbooks scattered around.

The rather amazing thing about this class is the lack of dreamers and sleepers. Compared to my Engineering classes, this was a room full of Hawks compared to Sloths.

Its a rather humbling sight considering that just a few years ago, you'd be stared at for just brining in a computer to class. Now, if you don't have a laptop, you'd be akin to ancient runes.