diff --git a/escher/src/tab_view.cpp b/escher/src/tab_view.cpp
index ce03117c8..5779c210b 100644
--- a/escher/src/tab_view.cpp
+++ b/escher/src/tab_view.cpp
@@ -47,7 +47,9 @@ void TabView::setSelectedIndex(int index) {
     m_cells[m_selectedTabIndex].setSelected(false);
   }
   m_selectedTabIndex = index;
-  m_cells[m_selectedTabIndex].setSelected(true);
+  if (m_selectedTabIndex >= 0) {
+    m_cells[m_selectedTabIndex].setSelected(true);
+  }
 }
 
 int TabView::numberOfSubviews() const {
diff --git a/kandinsky/src/color.cpp b/kandinsky/src/color.cpp
index 3d076b5f6..4b76f7314 100644
--- a/kandinsky/src/color.cpp
+++ b/kandinsky/src/color.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,16 @@
 #include <kandinsky/color.h>
 
 KDColor KDColor::blend(KDColor first, KDColor second, uint8_t alpha) {
+  /* This function is a hot path since it's being called for every single pixel
+   * whenever we want to display a string. In this context, we're quite often
+   * calling it with a value of either 0 or 0xFF, which can be very trivially
+   * dealt with. So let's make a special case for them. */
+  if (alpha == 0) {
+    return second;
+  } else if (alpha == 0xFF) {
+    return first;
+  }
+
   // We want to do first*alpha + second*(1-alpha)
   // First is RRRRR GGGGGG BBBBB
   // Second is same