My cell phone rings this morning.

Confused Lady: "Hello, Stanford?"

Me: "Uh, no, sorry, I think you have the wr--"

Confused Lady: "Yes, I'm calling about my son's transcript."

Me: "Sorry, you --"

Confused Lady: "You see he's applying to go to another university so he ordered a transcript but apparently he was told by the registrar he visited that it was going to take two to three weeks to process. How is that possible?"

Me: "Actually, this isn't Stanford. I think you have the wrong number."

Confused Lady: "I know this isn't the transcript office, but I was hoping you could help me talk to them."
Me: "Who are you trying to reach?"

Confused Lady: "Well eventually anyone at the transcript office, I don't really care who as long as it's someone more reasonable than the woman my son dealt with. I don't have her name, unfortunately, or I'd register an official complaint with you."

Me: "No, I mean ... who are you trying to call right now?"

Confused Lady: "What do you mean?"

Me: "What number did you dial?"

Confused Lady: "[my cell number]"

Me: "Okay, that's the right number. But this is a cell phone number."

Confused Lady: "Oh, do you guys have a main office number?"

Me: "No, I'm not ... I'm not affiliated with Stanford."

Confused Lady: "I don't understand."

Me: "I'm just a person. This isn't a Stanford office. This is a residential cell phone number."

Confused Lady: "What is your office number then?"

Me: "I don't work for Stanford."

Confused Lady: "Then why are you at this number?"

Me: "I ......... This is my cell phone number!"

Confused Lady: "Oh, sorry. Alright, well, I'll try calling back in a few hours. Talk to you then." *click*

A few hours later, my cell phone rang from the same number. I ignored it. She hasn't called back since.

Excuse the shitty cell phone camera picture, but ...

The programmer gene is the one that makes you fear the Day Star. It's the one that makes you prefer a basement to the outdoors. It's the one that ensures that if you start with pasty white skin, that you'll look like you were dunked in white-out for the rest of your life.

The californian gene is the one that makes you hang outside until your skin is glistening and perpetually lightly tanned. And, of course, if you're spending a lot of time outdoors in the sun, you're likely to do a lot more exercise too. So you look healthy and less, y'know, deathly.

The programmer gene and the californian gene don't get along well, but there are some compromises, like the coders who obsess over ultimate frisby. I hate frisby.

This is the second weekend in a row of insanely warm weather and it's, what, like, the start of March? Crazy! Crazy!

I've decided that this year I'm gonna try to suppress the programmer gene by forcing myself to spend at least a few hours every weekend out in the insanely warm californian sun. My new conclusion: napping in the hot sun listening to an iPod is absolutely awesome.

Of course, now I'm a rosy shade of pink, despite SPF 47328473829 sunscreen. I'm hoping that my skin'll learn to cope.

If not, it's gonna be a very pink summer.

For the second time in my life I'm using sparklines in a project. This time it has the extra bonus of displaying confidence intervals (hence the interval of colour around each value).

But it was brought to my attention that my sparklines might not be colour-blind friendly, due to the reds and greens being significant.

So I talked to the Accessibility Grouplet at Google and Color Oracle was recommended to me. Very cool. You can see the world as it looks to those with a variety of colour vision impairments, which is awesome when designing interfaces.

Now I'm spending a bunch of time going around to some of my favourite websites, pictures, and such, and applying various filters to see the world from others' eyes.

An interesting experience, to say the least.

Dance Dance Revolution. With flamethrowers pointed at you. Don't miss a step.

This has to be the best videogame ever created.

Does Dancing Matt make you feel warm and fuzzy every time you see it?

Does the Tiniest Mew break your heart?

Google is now hosting the 2006 YouTube Video Awards. Cast your vote for the video that touched you most in any of the following categories:

• Most Creative: "Innovative and cutting edge."
• Most Inspirational: "Things that make you think or feel."
• Best Series: "The best in serial entertainment, aka the 'I-can't-wait-for-the-next-video' award."
• Best Comedy: "They had us in stitches..."
• Musician of the Year: "Celebrating YouTube's home-grown musical talent."
• Best Commentary: "The bloggers who caught our attention."
• Most Adorable Video Ever: "So cute it hurts."

The Google chefs introduced new colour-coding to their menus today!

Go! Pile it on and be Guilt Free.
"Green Foods" are healthy, nutrient dense foods to be frequently enjoyed for all-day productive energy, healthy weight, clear brain function and a strong immune system.

Proceed with Caution! A Portion Control Zone
"Yellow Foods" are less nutrient dense to be enjoyed in smaller portions, less frequently.

Stop! Guilty Pleasures. Only Once in a while.
"Red Foods" are low nutrient dense foods with higher amounts of unhealthy fat, salt and/or sugar. These foods should be eaten infrequently in small portions

The reason why this is so cool is that it provides you with the information necessary to make a decision yourself whether or not you care about such things. And I was actually surprised to learn some of the colour-codings at lunch today. When you're not sure whether to pick Option A or Option B, the colour on the menu can make the choice a bit easier.

For example, today's soups at the cafe I visited:
**Robert's Vegetable Soup (It was excellent.)
Squash, Bell Peppers, Garlic, Carrots, Celery, Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*Sunchoke Soup
Onions, Butter, Agave, Milk

Boston Clam Chowder
Vegetable stock, carrot, celery, leek, fennel, potato, clams, cream, butter, flour

Yet another innovation to make the unlimited awesomely tasty free food just a little easier to manage. ;)

Obtained from BBSpot. Heehee.