Check it out, everyone! I’ve been nominated to become a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers!

Click here to see my nomination letter.

First, I talk with a lot of engineers, but I’m pretty horrible at math. Second, I’m wondering how they got my middle name, because I don’t think I’ve used it on any work materials.

Check out this recently uploaded local version of Punk’d, where people play elaborate pranks on each other and record their reactions on secret cameras:

In this case, the victim is Andrew Dumont, the vice president of marketing at Tatango.com, a local business. He loves his Audi, so they repossess it.

Local company Horton’s Towing was in on this gag. I found out about it reading Horton’s on Twitter. Click here to follow Horton’s on Twitter.

Click here to follow Johnson’s Towing.

Both companies are Tweeting about wrecks that they’re responding to.

Here’s another miracle-nobody-was-seriously-hurt story for you this morning.

A drunken driver crashed into a home, mistakenly believing it was the home of his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend; instead, it was a random college couple, who ended up pinned in their bed under this car but weren’t seriously hurt.

The awoke to the car on top of them, pinning the woman down and the man’s lower body. The man said the incident gave them a new lease on life.

Click here to read the story.

I just saw this poll tweeted by the state Department of Transportation on Twitter. It asks you whether you merge as soon as you can, wait until the last second to get over, or do something in between.

Click here to take it.

I merge as soon as I see a sign to get over, along with 30 percent of the 115 votes on the poll. What about you?

About 30 percent of the world’s population drives on the left side of the road, according to a really interesting article in The Wall Street Journal about how Samoa, a small nation in the South Pacific, is switching sides of the road.

The country’s leadership wants the country, which currently drives on the right side of the road, to switch to the left, like its neighbors Australia and New Zealand. Some Samoans are protesting, and they’ve even started a political party aimed at stopping the switchover, which is coming up.

Click here to read the article. The article has a list of countries that drive on the left side of the road.

The last country to switch sides: Ghana in 1974.

One things for sure: People aren’t lukewarm on the topic of roundabouts.

The state Department of Transportation has a poll on the blog for its Guide Meridian project in which people can say how they feel about the new roundabout at Guide Meridian and Pole Road. Most people either love it or hate it.

The poll, of course, isn’t scientific, but it’s still fun and interesting. As of 11:45 a.m. this morning, 73 people had voted, and 90 percent said they either enjoy it or are avoiding it. Only a handful said they guess it’s working or they don’t get it.

Here’s what it looks like:

There is still 18 days left to take the poll. Click here to go to the blog to take it.

I missed no gates while texting, but I did miss the gray lady.

I just got done playing an online game at The New York Times’ Web site that illustrates how texting while driving reduces your reaction times. Click here to play it.

While texting, my reaction time was .41 seconds slower than when I’m not texting. The average person’s was .24 seconds slower. At the same time, I didn’t miss any gates, and most people miss 8 percent more gates while texting.

And, I have to admit, I was too busy texting to see the gray lady pass by.

How did you do?

Courtesy of Jokes.com (by Comedy Central):

You’re so stupid, you put a quarter in a parking meter and started shouting, “Hey! Where’s my gumball!?”

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

Would you give up your job and become a flagger or spotter if you got paid $45,000 an hour to do it?

That’s a stupid question. Of course you would.

Unfortunately, that’s not a real option. Ebenal General, in its bid for the Fraser Street bike lanes and pedestrian boardwalk project, typoed and declared that its flaggers and spotters would get paid $45,000 an hour, for a total flagging cost of $72 million for the project.

The company didn’t win a bid for the project. But even if the error hadn’t been made, he still wouldn’t have won with his $720,000 bid, according to my quick math.

Click here to see the bid documents.

“Who needs oil? I ride the bus,” the sign reads. Click here to see it.