You Know You’re Old When……

The fashions that were trendy when you were a teenager and that you remember begging your mum to buy because “all of my friends have one” are back to being trendy. The first few crept up on me: the head bands, leggings with the big tops; then came the miniskirts followed by all the colors of the rainbow jeans (yellow jeans anyone?)

And then today I got an email from DSW telling me that Jellies (remember those? They were the ugly, colored rubber shoes) were coming back and I freaked out. I mean, I remember wearing my mom’s old clogs during the clogs phase while I was in High school, but that was my mom, it was okay…she was old! It was just fine that her former trends were being recycled.

Don’t think my mom found it very amusing but it is soooo gratifying to watch the antics of the lunatic yet, harrowing to have him as a son.

I think I just adopted the lunatic!!!

Buzz...Schmuzz

This week, I watched my friends who had innocently signed up for the Google email service known as gmail struggle with "Buzz"...Google's new alternative to Twitter. With no prior notification, I noticed when I logged into my email account that I had been automatically signed up for this service. Okay, no problem at least I didn't have to come up with another user name and password or login to a different site which by the way is my main issue with joining twitter but I digress. I thought nothing of it when I found out I already had 4 followers and was following 10 people; they were people I knew (my email contacts), no big deal.

However, as I read friends' buzzes (i'm guessing that's what it will be called) I came to realize that Google had crossed the line. It seemed like almost everything you did was buzzed to all your followers -posted pictures, blog posts etc. Google had somehow decided that all your followers were entitled to know what you were up to -forget the fact that you were automatically designated followers (and rejecting them seemed oh! so rude). A friend posted some pictures in her supposedly private online album and Google buzzed the link to the album to all her followers; another friend thought she was just chatting with one person but was actually buzzing to the entire world, apparently there is a setting to chat with just one contact but of course this was not the default. As another friend put it, "I was going to send an email to someone but I got so scared, I decided to pick up the phone".

Oh internet!, you have brought so much good to us -instant connections, long lost friends, marriages ;-) but when did privacy become so elusive that we have to fight for it, why should the default setting be "yes, please broadcast every single thing I do to the entire world". I find this amusing because I figured out the issue pretty quickly and rectified it immediately, but it will only go downhill from here, as much as I love social networking, I still love my privacy and think (hope) it is my right to decide who I want to know my business and not be defaulted into it. So dear people of earth, next time you log into your email, or any site, be careful....you may be broadcasting (or buzzing) to the entire world.

Here's hoping I am.

Shopping chronicles

So, the other day I was in my favorite store looking for the perfect pair of leggings (I know, so 1992 but they are a perfect alternative to jeans all the time) when I came across another type of pants that I had never seen before. On closer inspection of the label, I discovered they were called Harem pants, I was intrigued! I wasn't in the mood to try clothes on in a fitting room so I bought a pair that looked like they would fit and waited till I got home to try them.

Now, if you know what I am talking about, you probably know where this story is going but if you're as clueless as I was, please keep reading. I stood in my bedroom staring at my image in the mirror wondering why I looked like I had a diaper on and had taken a very large dump in said diapers. I knew I had the pants on the right way, so I tried tugging and pulling in an effort to make them look like something I could actually walk out into the world in but to no avail. Surely, I must have the wrong size I whispered to mirror image.

Like I said I was intrigued, so I went back to favorite store and tried on a size up and a size down but still I got poopy diaper. Next stop, the internet of course. I refused to believe that women (the sane ones at least) were walking around wearing poopy-diaper looking pants so I needed to know what they were supposed to look like. So here's the deal (I have been so out of the loop); These pants have been rearing their heads since the spring of 2009 but thankfully I am not the only one that thinks they look ridiculous, in fact there is a whole debate going on about outlawing them (yeah right, if Ugg boots can live to see a new decade everything else can and will thrive, I apologize if you own Uggs).

A picture search however, produced some very insightful results; for one, I saw some even uglier versions of these "Hammer" pants...cropped, jersey, neon-colored, just name it. More importantly though, I found a picture of what they are supposed to look like (see above) and now I am on a hunt for them (well, not technically but I'll be looking).

So what do you think, Harem pants...do or don't?