is it just me?

...doesn't mean you have to follow it. Take that to heart. Integrate it in to your life.

So I was thinking about this the other day when watching college basketball. It has become popular recently to name your student section and give them all free matching t-shirts with the name on them. For those not familiar, a few examples: Michigan State has the Izzone (Tom Izzo is their coach), Iowa has the Hawk's Nest. Here at Wisconsin all the students got tie-dyed tshirts that say Grateful Red because the team is known as Big Red. Anyway, you get it. Maybe it's only in the Big Ten that they do this, I'm not sure. So I was watching the Michigan game the other day and they all have yellowish shirts that say "Maize Rage". What? I mean, I guess technically maize is their color, but is there a less scary color on earth? Corn rage! Look out for us we're CORN CRAZY! So to Michigan I say, if you can't come up with something better than maize rage maybe you should ditch the t-shirt trend. You could always buy the students thundersticks or something.

Although it was the gameday tshirts that got me thinking about this again, it is actually a peeve of mine when people insist on wearing a trend even though it looks really really bad on them. Here in Wisconsin we have a lot of girls that are, um, on the bigger side. And a lot of the trends are set by, say, lollipop head Nicole Richie. And they don't really look good on girls who could stand to lose 25 lbs. But still, there they are, spare tire hanging out over the top of their low rise jeans, thong apparently cutting off circulation to their legs. And those giant sunglasses? Don't get me started. Those are really, really hard to pull off. It helps to be famous. And gorgeous. And super styley in general. You can't just throw on your sweats and parka and then add bug eyes. Give it up. So if you see a trend and think 'that's cool' before purchasing it in eight colors you need to look in the mirror, and be very honest with yourself.

So, if any of the rest of you are catty (like me) and celebrity obsessed (like me) I would like to highly recommend one of the most hilarious blogs on the internet, gofugyourself.com. It's basically the above paragraph but making fun of horrible outfits that celebrities wear. (That was a terrible description that made it seem very boring, but trust me on this. I do not forward unless I mean it. It is funny shit.)

mute

Every month I have to participate in conference calls with other folks who are in my line of work. Many of them are crazy conspiracy theorists. So my boss and I sit there with the call on mute making fun of them, yelling at the phone, and saying things like "have they completely lost their minds?" Anyway, it is one of my great fears that one day I will think the mute button is on and I will be making some really disparaging remark and they will actually be able to hear me. Like those silly Southwest commercials. So, I think they should make a phone for people like me that when the mute button is on it isn't just an inconspicuous little red light, it's a giant flashing rainbow. It would save me anxious checking every ten seconds. I can't be the only person who is paranoid about this. Right? So, if any of you work for a phone manufacturer, get on that , would you?