thatothergirl.com

"Hello? I can't help you."I

"Hello? I can't help you."

I am trying to find a company that I saw advertise in a local paper. I cannot recall the name of the company or the phone number, but I can describe in detail what the ad said and looked like. I decided to call the paper, who shall remain nameless to protect the stupid, to talk to the ad department thinking, since they don't have a tremendous volume of advertisers, they may possibly be able to help me out if they had a description of the recently ran ad.
The girl that I was lucky enough to have answer the phone seemed stumped by my query. After I explained what I was looking for, she asked, "Do you know the name of the company?". I said no, and she asked if I knew the telephone number, to which I replied, no. At this point she said, "If we don't have the phone number or company name, we cannot look it up." After rolling my eyes back from inside my head, I just simply said, "Well, if I had either one of those things, I could contact them directly and wouldn't need to be calling you to find out who they were now would I?"
I then thanked her for her lack of assistance and hung up.

Something that makes me smileThis

Something that makes me smile

This article amuses me to no end.

Stepford kidsYa know, it is

Stepford kids

Ya know, it is about time that this finally happened. I don't entirely blame the manufacturer's totally for the overprescription of Ritalin, but I do think that they have entirely too much influence over doctors.
No, I truely blame the doctor's for overprescribing the medication. They prescribe it for problems that are not listed in the labeling for the medication and there is no supporting information for these treatments on any of the inserts, and they tend to be prescribing it for younger and younger kids. This article in the Journal of the American Medical Association also addresses the need for further testing of the medication for the other things that it is being prescribed for, and to try to address the appropriate ages for medicating. (Not about ritalin, but also in this article, it talks about giving kids as young as 6 anti-depressants for bed-wetting. Gimme a break.)
I know I read somewhere that up to 40% of school kids have been on Ritalin, but I can't find any kind of link to point to that backs this up, but is sure wouldn't surprise me. It seems like more and more parents would rather raise a quiet little drone, than the normal energetic, sometimes overwhelming kids that they really are.
I am not saying that Ritalin hasn't helped any kids, but my personal opinion is that I don't think it is possible for that many kids to need to be medicated. It just seems like an easy out for teachers (who don't have any type of disruptions in the classroom to deal with), parents (who don't have any kind of unruly kids to deal with), and the doctor (who gets preferential treatment for a very grateful manufacturer). The comment in the ABC article that really made me mad was the mother of the 14 yo girl that had been on Ritalin for 2 years and in counseling for several years also, "Ritalin wasn't the cure, but it helped to take the edge off." Well, ya know, 3 shots of Scotch takes the edge off too, but it sure as hell isn't good for kids either.

Digital picsThis story about the

Digital pics

This story about the thief taking his own picture is too funny. It reminds me of my own thief and a camera story.
One morning, a couple of weeks ago, I came into my office and saw that there was a box placed over my hardly-ever turned-on webcam. Turns out that the cleaning guy had placed it there so he could get in my desk and into my money bag to steal $20. He would have probably gotten away with it to, if he hadn't been stupid enough to leave the box. What an umemployed idiot.