You may notice something new on the right: the last ten things I’ve bought (or watched, in the case of a movie). The formatting bugs are still being worked out, so please forgive any ugly scrolling or margin issues.

It’s still freakin’ hot. Last night at dinner (Fieramosca again) I felt like I was sweating right through my shirt.

I’m back up to 224 pounds again. Not surprising; I just spent a week on course, mostly eating and sitting still, and before that I was studying so much that I hadn’t seriously exercised in weeks. The weather right now isn’t exactly ideal for outside activity, so I’m hoping to get back into the treadmill routine in the next two weeks, before we leave for London.

Mother-in-law left today. I now feel like I can unpack & clean.

To escape the heat we saw a movie last night before dinner: Mr. & Mrs. Smith (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which wasn’t nearly as bad as it could’ve been. It was enjoyable for a summer blockbuster “comedy”, and in any case I’d pay a few bucks to watch a giant Angelina Jolie for two hours.

Worth watching.

Not to sound insensitive, but why are people surprised when they suburbanize wilderness areas with, oh I don’t know, say…golf courses, and the wildlife wanders onto the property? The bear probably isn’t aware that he’d not supposed to walk on the greens, or use the running trails, and being grizzlies, they’re likely to hurt (or kill, in this case) somebody.

[Globe and Mail: survivors felt Grizzly ‘was stalking us’]

Let’s be clear: if I’m standing in my kitchen fixing a snack, and you decide to stroll in the front door, remove the fridge and start eating my cheerios, I’m going to do something about it.

People still buy music at HMV?

Finished the course this morning, got back after lunch.

I’m listening to the new White Stripes now. New Coldplay‘s next.

I just finished watching Dead Again (imdb | rotten tomatoes). I have no idea how it got on my Zip list. It was pretty bad, certainly not worthy of Kenneth Branagh or Emma Thompson. Or Wayne Knight, for that matter.

The exam this morning was ok. Harder than the sample exam I did, but not nearly as bad as it could have been. I’d guess that I scored somewhere around between 60 and 70, which would make me perfectly happy. I just do not want to take that course again.

A handful of us stuck around for lunch (I actually skipped lunch and scarfed my first dessert of the week), but after saying some goodbyes I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I climbed into the cab, queued the Arcade Fire album and closed my eyes.

Being outside for the first time in days I’ve noticed that it’s hotter than the hubs of hell out there. I subway’d up to All The Best for some goodies and ended up impulse buying some Greg’s roasted marshmallow ice cream. The cashier asked me if I wanted a spoon just in case it melted before I got home; I told her that if it came to that I’d drink the tub dry.

Anyway, I now have the place to myself as the wife & mother-in-law have left for a girls night. A nice man brought me pizza. I’m relaxing, catching up on news & playing with the cats. I look forward to reading the paper tomorrow morning and going for a meaningless stroll (unless it’s the seventh layer of hell out there again) just for the hell of it.

Sadly, this weekend is about all the spare time I can muster. Since my Europe trip is in two weeks I have to get the first assignment done early, which means starting Monday.

Can’t blog. Sleeping.

Arrived early to get a seat in the back. It’s go time!!

Finally, I’m done studying. I wasn’t going to learn anything else new, so I finished reviewing and hopefully it’ll stick ’til tomorrow. Twelve hours from now I’ll be done or just finishing up (hopefully) and getting ready to head home.

I’m sorry for blabbing on and on about nothing but this for a week, but it’s hard to convey how isolated we are. The sheer volume of work occupies practically every minute from the time we arrive, and what precious few spare moments we find are spent eating, having a drink or snatching a bit of exercise. Except for shortcuts through the courtyard I haven’t been outside since Sunday morning. None of us have time to read a paper, so we have no idea what’s happening outside except what the staff or our prof tells us, or what we can catch in fifteen minutes on Newsworld.

An environment like this breeds friendships, and I’m sure will breed animosity before we’re through. Beyond the knowledge and the eventual after-the-name letters, it’s a pretty interesting social experiment. Or would be, if I weren’t guinea pig #6…