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What do programmers do?

Word problems! Programmers solve word problems.

My challenge is that I have sales people with base locations. Their territory allows them to sell a handful of products but each product can be sold a certain distance from their base location. Product A is eligible to be sold within 10 miles of base location product b 30 miles and so forth with product f being nationwide.

I have to create an interface which allows the end user to say "I’m here and want product ___" and then I show them all the qualified sales people who can get that product to them.

The program should also read the user’s mind so that the dropdown of regions will only show regions that sales people can actually get products to. The mind reading has to happen since product f is nationwide all regions should always be listed…well…unless the user wants product a….

That’s programming!

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Knoxville Asperger Support Group / KAEC

Meeting Announcement

The upcoming meeting dates for the Knoxville Asperger Support Group are:

  • Novemeber 19, 2007
  • December 17, 2007

The support group has a Yahoo Group which can be found on http://groups.yahoo.com/ by searching for Knoxville_Aspie_Support. It meets the third Monday of every month unless there is a conflict or holiday at the West Branch of the Knoxville Public Library (map) at 100 Golfclub Rd from 6pm to 7:30pm.

The Knoxville Asperger Support Group is a no charge, open discussion on the subject of Asperger Syndrome. Typically attendees are caregivers of children teens, and adults although folks with Asperger’s often attend to provide input, ask questions, or seek out others with Asperger’s. All are welcome!

Potential Special Topic

Dr. Dan Murphy of the School Board has proposed turning KAEC into a middle school to serve the Sequoyah Hills areas. He is making the rounds to several PTOs (will be at Rocky Hill Elementary on Dec 10 at 6:30pm) to garnish support for his proposal. When asked directly as to what would become of the KAEC students, Dr. Murphy gave an ambiguous answer. In my mind that means they either have no plan or will bus the children to Karns. As a parent of a child with Asperger’s, you stand a chance that your child will spend some time at KAEC. This is a topic that needs to be discussed immediately.

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I’ll fight for you

I’ll go to the mat for you but your story better be straight! I tell the truth and I will passionately stand behind that truth. If I fight for you and the truth becomes tainted, or the facts you gave me turn out to be not so factual, we both end up looking bad. Worse. The next person I try to help will be hampered by the doubt created from your inaccurate facts. My integrity is my most valuable asset.

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Poor people cannot spend money smarter

Update Oct 29, 2008: The Federal poverty levels have been increased slightly.

Narration: [audio:http://realityme.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/poorpeoplecannotspendmoneysmarter.mp3]

Last night I found myself staring at the pain medicine shelf in two stores. I wasn’t happy with the prices at CVS and I needed some food items so I switched to Food $*itty. With a 7 person household, I often shop bulk but the food companies play tricks and sometimes the larger container costs more than buying two smaller containers so I tend to scrutinize prices.

20 Tylenol PM geltabs cost $3.99 on sale from the normal $4.99 price. 40 Tylenol PM geltabs cost $7.49. Food City didn’t sell larger quantities than that but CVS has 150 geltabs somewhere around $15. With this product, it makes sense to buy bulk.

If you live a penny wise lifestyle, the choice is easy; buy the largest container with the greatest savings. Not only will be it longer before you have to replenish (and that time going to the store is time you could be spending making money) but you will have saved money! To get the equivalent 40 geltabs in the smaller container means spending $7.98 (49 cents more) which is a 6.5% difference. That’s more money than you can earn at your bank!

Why don’t the poor buy the larger container? Simple! Because they are limited by their resources (or lack of resources). If you are trying to stretch a dollar to the next payday, you aren’t going to spend "more" for the larger container when that extra $3.50 is going to buy the bag of frozen fish sticks which feeds the family until that next payday.

I want to see poverty abolished. That does not mean everyone lives in mansions. Poverty is not having money to pay for electricity, food, shelter, clothing, etc. A person living in a mansion can find themselves in poverty although one could argue that they could sell their worldly goods to escape the poverty prison. I feel our society is designed to keep the poor down (amz). If the utility company (power, cable, phone..they all do it) cuts you off, they typically charge you the past due balance, plus a late fee, plus a reconnection fee, plus the following months anticipated bill. What about interest? If a family couldn’t afford to pay the portion of the past due to keep the utility, how are they supposed to pay the full past due, plus a future bill, plus a service fee?! They do it by failing to pay someone else who then punishes them the same way with fees, interest, penalties, connection fees, and deposits. So, why don’t they just spend smarter and stay out of this situation? Because the situation does not give them the economic power to spend smart to avoid the situation. Poverty is a classic Catch-22 (amz).


[Source]

What’s that you ask, Yossarian? Oh, I bought the smaller $3.99 bottle of 20 pills. All of Food $*itty’s larger bottles had a warning that they were not intended for households with small children.

See also: A taste of poverty

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A Powerful Desire to Post

Blogging is addictive. It feels good to let my thoughts flow through the keyboard to the web. I think some people find it shocking that so many people willingly give up their "privacy" but that is a lack of understanding or rather a different paradigm of privacy. Despite the candor with which I seem to spill every moment of my life, the truth of the matter is the readers of Reality Me see but a glimpse, a keyhole peek, into the complex adventure of my family. I often wish I could spill more. Sometimes I am amazed at the luck, the good fortune that befalls us to let us carry on the way we live our lives. We walk a tightrope and I know one day we will slip but I think we will recover. The details of our high wire act I cannot share at this time. It just wouldn’t be appropriate. I know you shouldn’t air your dirty laundry but you do welcome your neighbors into your house even if the kitchen sink is a mess. Come into my house, sit in my parlor, and hear my tales. And eventually, perhaps I’ll tell the whole convoluted story.

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And today started off so well…Now I’m seeing stars

I have been working a project that no person in their right mind would have accepted, particularly at the pittance of the budget alloted. It is a train wreck but today, after several hours of feeling like I was trying to fill the ocean with sand from the beach, I felt the train was back on the track! The client is in a timezone 7 hours ahead of me so I have to work furiously to have this done for their opening business day. Then I had a meeting to help the boy scouts plan for a high adventure trip next summer. During the meeting, at 4:30pm on a Sunday, I get a message that another parent has called my wife to consult on the 3-D solar system project that he knows all parents have probably been working so furiously on for the whole weekend (or longer). Solar system project?! To be built to scale! And with excellent report attached.

So, a pot of coffee brews as I tear the house up looking for objects that are to scale (a trip to AC Moore for Styrofoam would have been nice!) and watch the business day in my client’s timezone come ever so much nearer. Let’s go upstairs and figure out just what the world revolves around.