Oh, Here’s Your Problem!

I may offend some people with this posting, but I’m getting to the point where I almost don’t care anymore.
This quote and picture (ripped without permission from NPR) are from a somewhat older article I just recently stumbled across, so forgive the age/minor lack of relevance. (Give me a break, it’s been a while since I posted anything anyway!)
The story is about, among other things, a less-fortunate woman who has brought her sons to a protest at her Governor’s office. When I got to this point in the article, it struck me quite quickly what the issue is:

“She is unemployed and says Walker's cuts to Medicaid caused two of her sons, ages 10 and 8, to be dropped from the program.”

Now, that quote, in and of itself may seem pretty innocuous, and you may feel bad for the woman’s plight. That is, until you look at the picture along side it…


Are those… SMARTPHONES the kids are playing with? And… that’s not obvious? I have no cable/satellite television, I have no smartphone – iPhone, Android, or otherwise – my PC cost me ~$100, both my ‘big’ TVs are hand-me-downs and were free (one has no working sound, the other has problems with the screen, but they work!) as was my most-recently acquired iPod (I’ve only ever owned 2 iPods, this one included). In living like this, I’ve made sacrifices so that I can afford to provide food and healthcare to my family. This woman, and many others like her, have sacrificed the security and comfort of being able to afford these necessities in order to have the latest and greatest toys. That was their choice. Why should my taxpayer money go to people like this when I have responsibly decided for myself that I cannot afford these luxuries?

On Growing Up

I am an adult, and a reasonably happy one at that; I feel I have a lot going for me. Though certain aspects of the world around have a tendency to piss me off, I'm not depressed, and I generally have a positive opinion about my own life.

That being said, I do not want my kids to grow up.

Some parents wish for this because they don't want to lose the cuteness and innocence of a baby or a very young child, and I completely understand that perspective. I mostly didn't care about any babies before I became a father and now I'm smitten with my own and can appreciate the offspring of others.

However, this is not why I want my kids to stay young. I want that for them because I've never seen any adult get so happy and/or excited about the simplest things. You might ask then, why not just wish for them to keep that perspective as they age, but if as an adult they still had the same amazing sense of wonder, someone would probably think there is something wrong with them.

How much is that "FREE" turkey?‏

For this Thanksgiving, the Safeway chain of grocery stores has been advertising free turkeys with a purchase of $100 or $150 or more. As you can see from this in-store signage, if you spend between $100 and $150 in one trip, you may pick up a free turkey up to 16 pounds. There's one obscure stipulation however, as I unfortunately discovered after leaving the checkout.

The Ageless Philosophical Debate

Namely, what is a ‘baby item’? Well, maybe not so ageless, and I doubt you've really considered this. I mean, it is such a simple question to answer, isn't it? 


But ask BABIES ‘R’ US what they think, and you might find yourself very confused.

Lamest Excuse to Pay Someone For Nothing I’ve Ever Heard

From a PBS NewsHour story regarding the recent scandals regarding college sports athletes receiving disallowed benefits (monetary and otherwise).

This is just one bit of the transcript of the story. I’ve bolded the part that angers me. I don’t know why it angers me to the extent that it does, but it does.

TAYLOR BRANCH, Author, "The Shame of College Sports": “The essential problem is that we pretend that these adults are not entitled to a portion of the value that they earn. And we pretend that the problem with all of these scandals is that dirty athletes are getting money under the table.

The problem is that we're not honest about it. Nowhere else in America do we forbid adults from seeking a portion of the highly valued services that they provide. And nowhere else would we think of saying, don't pay these people until I'm satisfied that it won't mess something up.”

“Nowhere else,” Mr. Branch says? How about any internship program? How about medical residencies? How about grad students working on major research projects?

If the college players (especially those on athletic scholarships) do not like to play for free, then stop playing. Nobody is forcing them. In fact, there are probably a great number of high school graduates who would gladly take their place. Really, many young kids actually pay (or their parents do, anyway) to be able to play in a league.

 

</end rant>

Time in MS Access

“How do I display a time over 24 hours in MS Access?”

I’ve run into this problem a lot over the years, and I always end up having to Google up the answer. In doing so, I’ve seen numerous messages boards with the same question, yet frequently no answer, which leads to more digging and time wasted.

Well, here’s a solution that works…

Random Bit of VBA - Better InStr() Function

Put this together with the help of Clint. I don't know why, but I feel like posting it, so here it is.

Private Sub test() 

' This is just an example sub to demonstrate how the new function is used. 

Dim vResult As Variant 

Dim iLoop As Integer 

   

    ' VResult is a Variant treated as an array. 

    vResult = AllInStr("123456789TESTING123456789", "78") 

    

    If UBound(Result) = -1 Then

        ' The string was not found. Same as classic InStr() returning 0. 

        MsgBox "Nothing found." 

    Else 

        ' Because we have multiple values returned, loop through them. 

        For iLoop = LBound(Result) To UBound(Result) 

            ' You don't have to MsgBox this. Again, this is just an example. 

            MsgBox Result(iLoop) 

        Next iLoop 

    End If 

    vResult = AllInStr("33.333.3333.333.33", "33")

    If UBound(Result) = -1 Then          

        MsgBox "Nothing found." 

    Else 

        For iLoop = LBound(Result) To UBound(Result) 

            MsgBox Result(iLoop) 

        Next iLoop 

    End If 

    vResult = AllInStr("ABC", "123")

    If UBound(Result) = -1 Then      

        MsgBox "Nothing found." 

    Else 

        For iLoop = LBound(Result) To UBound(Result) 

            MsgBox Result(iLoop) 

        Next iLoop 

    End If

End Sub  

-----  

Function AllInStr(SourceString As String, SearchString As String) As Variant 

' This is the actual function, returning an array-like Variant. 
' SourceString is the string to search through. 
' SearchString is the string being sought. 
Dim iPosition As Integer ' Search position within the source string. 
Dim iSourceLength As Integer ' The length of the source string. 
Dim iSearchLength As Integer ' The length of the string being sought. 
Dim sResult As String ' A string representation of the results, to be split before being passed back. 

    iSourceLength = Len(SourceString) 

    iSearchLength = Len(SearchString) 

    ' Simple loop through the length of SearchString to read each iterative substring within. 

    For iPosition = 0 To iSourceLength - iSearchLength 

        ' If we found the search in our substring... 

        If Left$(Right$(SourceString, Len(SourceString) - iPosition), iSearchLength) = SearchString Then 

            ' ... save the position in the string.
            ' Each item separated by a semicolon (;) 

            sResult = sResult & iPosition & ";" 

        End If 

    Next iPosition 

    ' If we found at least one result, then remove the trailing semicolon (;). 

    If Len(sResult) > 1 Then 

        sResult = Left(sResult, Len(sResult) - 1) 

    End If

    ' Split the string into its individual parts and return the result. 

    AllInStr = Split(sResult, ";") 

End Function

Lack of Support

This is basically my life at work when needing assistance for our assistance departments. This scenario applies day in and day out for myself and multiple others in my department. The names have been changed to protect the (not-so) innocent.

You Got What It Takes?

50 years ago today, we (the human race, anyway) sent the first man into space. That man, Yuri Gagarin, was a Russian/Soviet cosmonaut who was chosen out of a select few to become this poster-boy of human accomplishment. But before him, there were other, non-human, not necessarily willing participants in the space race.

You must get the position before you can go to school, to get the position. Huh?

I work for a large health insurance company. In our particular building there are many different departments that do different things. The company offers tuition reimbursement. I don't know the full details of how it works, but basically they will pay for a percentage of your tuition if you pass the class, course, program, etc. You must stay with the company for a given amount of time if they pay for it, etc. Nothing out of the norm. A great thing, Yes?