If at first we don't succeed, give us more of your money

This post is going to be an extremely off topic rant. You have been warned. There is one commercial on television that I hate more than any other commercial that I have ever seen (with the possible exception of the idiotic freecreditreport.com ones that make me run as fast as I can away from my television set, and maybe the commercials for high fructose corn syrup), and that commerical is for Abilify. The commercial goes something like: "2 out of 3 people with depression are not helped by depression medications. For them, there's Abilify. Taken along with an antidepressant, it can help ease the symptoms of blah blah blah blah..... buy this medication. Oh and p.s. you can get chronic dry mouth, uncontrollable muscle movements, and possibly fall into a diabetic coma. When your antidepressant alone isn't enough, there's Abilify! Talk to your doctor now!" Thanks, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Are you serious? First they go ahead and tell you that antidepressants don't work for a lot of people (in fact, the majority). Then, instead of saying "stop taking the antidepressant if it's not helping you" they say "in addition to taking the antidepressant that isn't helping you, ALSO BUY this other medication, that ALSO may not help you." What's next? "Are you currently taking Zoloft and Abilify, and your depression symptoms persist? Try Buymorasol. When your other two useless medications aren't enough!" Have you seen The Wire? During the first season, a drug dealer is discussing how, if they want to make more money, they water down the drugs so that they get junkies less high, so that they have to buy more. "Funny thing is, the worse we do, the more we make" was the line, in a nutshell. Sound familiar?.... the worse antidepressants work, the more medication you have to buy? Also, in the technical documentation buried in their website they refer to Abilify as an antipsychotic. I feel like most people who end up taking this might be surprised to find out they are on an antipsychotic. Don't get me wrong, I totally support antidepressants, and they are remarkably helpful for many people. But seriously, if an antidepressant isn't working for you, try a different one, or try a different kind of therapy. Don't keep taking the medication that doesn't help. It's a waste of money. So having a commercial advertising a waste of money that will benefit large corporations makes me want to throw my remote at the screen. End of rant.

Knitting nostalgia

I'm working on adapting a ballet sweater I have into a knitting pattern. Although you see ballet sweater patterns all over the place, they're always the wraparound kind, and strangely I never had one like that in all the years I was taking ballet. The kind that I had, I've never seen a pattern for one like it, so I'm keeping everyone in the dark for now until I work it out! It'll be cute though. Ballet warmups are so great for knitting inspiration though -- there are so many specialized accessories that you never see anywhere else but are completely and uniquely functional. I have a knitted pair of boy shorts: why? well, they keep your hips warm. But they've also come in really handy under a skirt in New England fall weather. I also adore all the legwarmers that were bought from dance supply stores way more than any I've tried to knit thus far. I think for a while I'm just going to de-engineer all these pieces to make up patterns. If they ever get lost or (more likely) eaten by moths in my apartment I will be so sad not to have a replacement. The only crummy part is that they're all knit with what looks like lace to fingering weight yarn on what looks like size 2 to 4 needles so it may take my lifetime just to make one piece. *sigh!* I need more hours in my day.