Thursday, September 15, 2016

Meal Deals

McDonalds is my go-to restaurant for small celebrations. Tricky experiment in lab worked out? Spent all day working? Did well on an exam? The answer is just a bit more food than I can eat at one time for the price of a large drink at Starbucks.

My staple order used to be a Big Mac meal, but I've found that real savings are found on multiple dollar menu orders. The top example is the 2 cheeseburgers meal. At my local McDonalds, 2 cheeseburgers ($1 each), a medium coke ($1), and fries ($1.39) will set you back $5.19 when you buy them as a meal. Philosophically, this is huge, as provides solid evidence that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

My current go-to order, then, is 2 cheeseburgers (bought individually), 1 McChicken ($1.29), and a medium coke. I used to order a small coke, but it turns out that every size of soft drink costs $1, so the only reason to buy small is self-control. Eating at McDonalds makes me feel American and proud of a century of agricultural advances. I balance my health out afterwards by walking the mile and a half back to my apartment and eating a whole head of broccoli.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Fun With Calculus

I recently had my first calculus quiz of the semester and it reminded me that even as the years go by, some things stay the same. The last time I took calculus was in high school, so I was a bit worried about this semester's class. After the first few lectures, however, methods of integration and derivation were emerging from the various corners of my brain they had been hiding in. I also remembered to forget to add "+ c" to all my integrations on the quiz.