Condense first_or_last a bit more

activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/association_collection.rb

@@ -498,7 +498,7 @@ def ensure_owner_is_persisted!
         #   * target contains new or changed record(s)
         #   * the first arg is an integer (which indicates the number of records to be returned)
         def fetch_first_or_last_using_find?(args)
-          if args.first.kind_of?(Hash) && !args.first.empty?
+          if args.first.is_a?(Hash)
             true
           else
             !(loaded? ||
@@ -536,12 +536,10 @@ def find_by_scan(*args)
 
         # Fetches the first/last using SQL if possible, otherwise from the target array.
         def first_or_last(type, *args)
-          if fetch_first_or_last_using_find?(args)
-            scoped.send(type, *args)
-          else
-            args.shift if args.first.kind_of?(Hash) && args.first.empty?
-            load_target.send(type, *args)
-          end
+          args.shift if args.first.is_a?(Hash) && args.first.empty?
+
+          collection = fetch_first_or_last_using_find?(args) ? scoped : load_target
+          collection.send(type, *args)
         end
     end
   end