Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Is this really happening?

… Ana is short for anorexia, and — to the alarm of experts — many who suffer from the potentially fatal eating disorder are part of an underground movement that promotes self-starvation and, in some cases, has an almost cult-like appeal.

Followers include young women and teens who wear red Ana bracelets and offer one another encouraging words of “thinspiration” on Web pages and blogs.

(As a sidenote, the bracelet thing is annoying. I don’t think you’re a great person for spending 2 dollars on a popular colored bracelet.)

I was never previously aware of these “Ana” bracelets. If I ever encounter one, am I supposed to be impressed? I think I would be more impressed by a pink “Richard Simmons – Sweatin’ to the Oldies” bracelet than the alternative. But why would anyone want go around wearing a sign that basically says “I’m a fucking retard and I don’t mind sharing it.” Honestly, if I ever see any girl wearing that I’m not going to buy her a drink. Hell no. She’s getting a double cheeseburger with extra cheese and mayo plus a double side of fries — and a plate of barbeque if it’s available.

What’s worse is that somewhere there must be guys who are into this. As a group we can be a pretty dense bunch, granted, but this just goes past the line. Oh well, the dumb fockers who are into that insanity can go ahead and take those crazies.

Perhaps I should be thankful. Perhaps it isn’t a bad idea for the out-of-touch to wear signs for the benefit of everyone else.

Yesterday we witnessed a historic running of the legendary Indianapolis 500. For the first time in the race’s history, a woman led the race. Whatsmore, she was in the lead very near the end of the race and came quite close to victory.

Of course I’m talking about Danica Patrick. She qualified fourth and finished fourth. That’s a damned good race for anyone, especially a rookie.

Her appearance is undoubtedly welcome by the bigwigs in the IRL. Not that I’m representative of the typical American race fan, but this is one of the first years when I didn’t pay attention at all to qualifying. Moreover, the only open-wheeled form of racing I like to watch these days is Formula One. Had it not been for the buzz over Danica, I might have totally missed the occurrance of the whole race.

The race wasn’t too bad, but I must say that I thought the announcers were horrendous. Actually, the whole broadcast didn’t seem tight. For instance, F1 races in the country are a broadcast of the world feed with announcers going solely by that feed. At Indy, we had a whole team at the race who were butchering it.

And in accordance with the buzz, it seemed like every other word out of their mouth was “Danica”. I nearly went into hysterical laughter at one point. She had just cracked back into to the top 10 after earlier stalling her car during a pit stop. The commentators took note adding something about how she was “right back in this race.” That is high comedy to anyone used to watching that race. It turned out they were right, but it was not at all as if she had charged her way to the front by passing 9 cars on the track.

At this point, I guess the IRL really doesn’t have to worry about alienating its fan base, if there is such a thing. They desperately need big names with public recognition. I don’t see this bringing that series to the forefront, however.

If ABC continues to singularly cover one driver throughout the whole race, I might just have to get off my couch and do something productive.

• I finally used the last of Christmas stamps I purchased back in December. I wonder if anyone gets a chuckle from seeing such out-of-season adhesive postage emblems.
• A few days ago I posted that I got an unexpected 2nd copy of the latest issue of the National Review. Well this week I got a copy of the latest Clemson World magazine… my second copy. Was I cloned without realizing it? Is there a second me living in the apartment of which I’m unaware? If so I wish he (I?) would do more cleaning, cooking, and working.
• Congrats to the folks over at OrangeCoat for being recognized first by both Google and Yahoo for “web design greenville sc” search terms
• My brother’s plans to move to Las Vegas are moving along at full speed. It’ll be really cool whenever I’m able to visit, but I feel sorry for the parents since both the kids will now be living so far from home — and nowhere near each other.
• Whatever supernatural powers that be continue to punish me for choosing UVa for grad school. The Hoos managed to knock Clemson out of the ACC tournament today. I feel dirty.
• For those hard rock/heavy metal fans and readers of this blog, be sure to check out [Tony] Iommi’s self titled release from 2000 (if you have not done so already). The Black Sabbath guitarist teams up with frontmen such as Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, Billy Corgan, and the obligatory Ozzy Osbourne.

I trekked to Wal-Mart last night to pick up a few things. Among those were a few more Tiger Barbs for my fish tank. Hours later, after getting them settled into their new tank, I realized that one of them is missing his right eye. I’m not even kidding. He just has a little dent on the right side of his fishy face where his eye ought to be.

He’s now my favorite fish and I’m trying to think up a good name. Suggestions?

Although, just for fun, I’m considering taking him back to Wal-Mart and complaining.

If you haven’t seen it, it‘s new to you.

Heads up — this is about a 5 meg file about some video game. Just make sure you can hear it (no it’s not a trick) and stick with it.

It sure doesn’t seem bright enough to be 8:30 already. No, it should be much brighter than this. I guess the VCR is just wrong for some reason. Stupid electricity. Oh well, 8:30 is 8:30 and I’ve gotta get to work. There’s plenty to do today. Shit, the oven and microwave are wrong too. How the hell did I sleep in so late and why is it so dark outside? Oh, it’s 8:33. PM.

I’m just waking up from a nap. It must have been a damn good one too. I woke up during song 54 on the winamp playlist. The only one I remember before that is song 13.

Now what do I do?