It turns out that the police force in the little town of Gauley Bridge issues more speeding tickets each year than any other municipality in the state of West Virginia. To understand just how absurd that is, you need to look at population figures. Gauley Bridge has less than 800 residents, the city of Charleston has 50,000 – and yet Gauley Bridge issues more speeding tickets than Charleston? Yup. More than Charleston, more than Huntington, more than Beckley. In fact, the little town of Gauley Bridge, with maybe four miles of paved road in the whole place, issues more speeding tickets than any single county in the state.

This whole topic will probably make me sound like I’m just obsessed with money, but money isn’t really the point. A biologist will tell you that the moment an organism stops growing, it starts dying. There is no ‘standing pat’ in life. Things are improving, or things are getting worse. I think a little ambition is important. People who are just sort of floating along, resigned to the fact that they’re getting what they’re getting and that’s all there is to it – are generally pretty miserable people, and I don’t like misery. It’s infectious.

So you’re standing there, and the nurse has a bundle wrapped in a light blue towel. You hold out your hands and you snuggle that little bundle up close to your chest, the nurse reaches over and parts the blanket, you look your child in the face, and in that instant, everything changes. Well, that’s not true. Nothing really changes. This is exactly how things have happened since the dawn of time. What happens is that you change, and so the way you see everything changes as well.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got a few folks on your friend list who spend a lot of time farting with these Facebook apps. In fact, if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got a few hundred. And for some odd reason they think everybody on Facebook needs to know all about their new chicken coop. There are often so many of these MCCA’s (Momentous Chicken Coop Announcements) that it makes it nearly impossible to wade through all them to see what you’re really interested in, which is how your friends are doing and what they have to say.

As I sat here this evening reading accounts of the rescue efforts now underway at the Upper Big Branch Mine near Whitesville (7 confirmed dead and 19 still missing as I write this) I couldn’t help but think about Hickam’s speech. In some ways I think it expresses, better than anything I’ve ever read, the pride that a group of people can take in doing a hard job, a dirty and dangerous job, a job that others would fear to do – and doing it well.

I know it sounds stupid coming from someone as fat as I was, but I really didn’t comprehend just how big I had gotten. Fat accumulates gradually, you know? If you were wearing a 32 waist yesterday, and today you need 48′s, then that would set off some kind of alarm, but it doesn’t work that way. Each year you’re buying your pants one size bigger, just so they’ll be a little less snug, and over a period of years you end up being huge. It’s kind of like boiling a frog. If you drop a frog in hot water it will jump right out. Put the frog in cold water and turn up the heat gradually, and he’ll just sit there and cook.

I won a Garmin nüvi 1370t navigation gadget from NewEgg back in January. I also have turn-by-turn navigation from Google Maps on my G1 Android-based phone. When I’m driving, the two are basically right next to each other on Baby Huey‘s dashboard, and that’s given me a unique opportunity to compare the two.

And don’t give me any of that crap about how hard it is. Figure skating, for example. Yes, I’m sure it’s hard. Yes, I know they work hours and hours for years and years. That’s great, but it has nothing to do with the conversation. Pouring concrete is hard too, and nobody calls that a sport.

Lately however, I’ve noticed a lot of people are ending up here because they’re searching for “Ken Thomas Photography”, and that bothers me because I don’t think they’re looking for me – I think they’re looking for the other Ken Thomas. That Ken Thomas is a wedding photographer down in Charlotte who seems like a nice guy, is a lot better looking than me, and (unlike me) actually knows what he’s doing when it comes to taking pictures and stuff. If that’s who you were looking for, then you shouldn’t be here, you should be at his website, which is KenThomasPhotography.com.

But recently, I’ve changed my mind. Why? The main reason would be that viruses have gotten a hell of a lot nastier than they used to be. A virus on your computer used to be a minor nuisance that could probably be cleaned up fairly easily by someone who knew what they were doing. That is no longer the case. Trust me. I’m that guy in the neighborhood that people bring their computers to when they quit working, so I’ve seen a lot of viruses, and some of the stuff that’s rampaging around the net right now will flat-out destroy your computer, and everything on it – and you can get hit with them even if you’re not doing anything stupid.