Monopoly

Last year around this time, I was doing pretty much the same thing I am doing now – studying. I spent some of those study hours at the local mall, either at Borders or at the food court. And at the food court, I got addicted… to McDonald’s. I learned that to maximize my game piece-to-dollar ratio, I had to buy hash browns. That wasn’t a problem, since I like hash browns, and it was very cheap at the time, 2 for $1. I ended up buying 4 or 6 hash browns at a time, eating half then, and half later. I was determined to collect my game pieces and win something. Well, only thing I won were more fattening fast foods, like fries and ice cream. I ended up collecting all the game pieces, except the rare ones. The game is so deceiving because it gives the illusion that each game piece is just as likely to find as the next within the same color group. I would like to play a game like Monopoly where there is no rare piece – each piece is just as abundant as the next. The key to make it hard to win would be that each color group must be expanded to maybe 10 or 20 properties each. It would be kind of like buying packs of baseball cards, hoping to collect your favorite team. Actually, that is not a bad idea – game pieces can be baseball players and you win when you complete a full team.

I see that Monopoly games are once again back at McDonald’s. Well, I will not fall for this trickery again. My hard earned money will not be spent on fruitless chases for Boardwalks or Park Places (whichever is the rare one). Instead, it will be used to buy combo meals at Wendy’s.

Livin’ It Up at Wendy’s

I trapped myself into updating my Google contacts last night when I got home. Because I didn’t really know how Google worked on my phone, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted as my new e-mail address, I ended up with my phone contacts being divided into two Google accounts. I moved them all over to one account, and filled in other missing information. I remember when I got my hands on an address book in high school or college, I did not like just writing down the phone number. I wanted to get rid of all the empty spaces by filling out birthdays, home address, and such, even though there was absolutely no need to know some people’s addresses. Things haven’t changed much since when I look at my Google contacts, I don’t like seeing empty places.

I ended up working on that for four hours, leading me to oversleep today. I came to the mall again to study, and also to eat, because I had nothing to eat at home. After much deliberation, I decided on a classic – Combo #1 at Wendy’s. Ever since my college days, I almost always ordered from the Value Menu, making my own $3 or $4 meals out of baked potato, chili, hamburger, etc. That’s why when I actually order from a regular menu, I feel like I’m splurging. You know what? I deserve it. No more 99-cent burgers for this guy, it’s the high life from here on out. At least for today.