I reset my car’s trip computer when I left for Madison on Thursday evening and averaged 27.3 mpg on the drive up.

I reset it again when I left Madison to head back South to Champaign and averaged 27.1 mpg. There seemed to be less construction on the way back, so less time doing 55. At one point on the way up, I joked that the State of Illinois must store unused orange road construction barrels on the center stripes of I-39…

But my car wouldn’t lie to me. Going South doesn’t feel like walking downhill.

If you missed Nick Vatterott on Jimmy Fallon last night:

Love that dude. Way to go, Nick.

On Sunday, I DVR’d and subsequently watched The Simpsons for the first time in at least 5 or 6 years because it was the Moneybart episode featuring a cameo by Bill James. (It was fairly entertaining.)

Now on Friday, I’ll be DVR’ing and subsequently watching Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel for the first time ever, because Nick Vatterott will be performing.

It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Vaclav Havel were suddenly booked on the Wendy Williams show, the way things are looking.

Haven’t posted anything in a while. Better make it good.

Indonesian economy soars on strength of sweat socks export industry

Nick Vatterott on taking the office betting pool too seriously and relying on the microwave clock.

Just saw this clip on CNBC of a foiled jailbreak attempt in the land of Kiwis.

Crime doesn’t pay.

Nick Vatterott:

My old pal Nick’s been on a cruise ship for the past six months, providing comedy to the passengers with a group from Second City.

He recently talked the owner of a comedy club in Istanbul to let him get up on stage for some stand-up. The story is told brilliantly here.

But the skit below may be one of the funniest things ever on SNL:

This little guy knows how to spend a Tuesday afternoon.

I had a .wmv copy of Don Hertzfeld’s “Rejected” animated short years and years ago. I lost the disk it was on and for a long time it was difficult to find, so it’d been a long time since I’d seen it. Now it’s up on youtube and some of my colleagues at work had never seen it.

It’s a brilliant work of art, in addition to being hilarious, so if you haven’t seen it ever or recently, behold:

In other news, I’ve surfed this beach when sharks were swimming about, fins a’glintin’. Blacktips, though, and not showing off like that.