Clicks and Tweets

I haven't been posting enough lately, so this one is going to catch up a few topics that I've been thinking about:

Clicky Keyboards
The younger crowd is going to groan at this post. Back in the day, and by that I mean the period from 1980 to 1994, IBM (and later Lenovo) manufactured superb keyboards that had keys that provide what we in the industry call tactile feedback, otherwise known as clicks, when you type on them. Then quiet keyboards seemed to take over, probably because they are cheaper to make and IBM became less of a player in what was at that time called the "PC Compatibles" market.

Clicky keyboards utilize a mechanism called "buckling spring." Each key is supported by a spring that gives off a click when it is pressed past the point where it collapses. Quiet keyboards use a collapsing rubber dome under each key. I have actually worn through the rubber dome on the original iMac keyboard.

Anyway, here's the place to get your own clicky keyboard. These keyboards are heavy, built to last for 10,000 years, and they don't have any of those silly Windows keys that nobody uses anyway. If you want the extra keys, yes they sell that version too.

Twittering with Obama
A year ago I got interested in Twitter, but I discontinued using it because my cell phone's plan only allowed 50 texts a month and Twitter was blowing through that with ease. Recently I decided to take a second look at Twitter because I have a better cell phone plan.

If you don't know about Twitter, it's a service where you can subscribe to others' "Tweets" and receive, or follow, the messages they send. Likewise, anyone can follow you. You can choose to read Twitter on your cell phone, on their web site, in an RSS feed, or in an IM program.

I decided to see how many people I could find in Twitter. First I searched for a few people who I thought might be there and added them. Next was Barack Obama, thinking how his whole campaign has been very net-oriented from the start. Yep, there is an Obama feed. Then I looked for news organizations and found CNN which sent me a Tweet about a tornado on the ground in Oklahoma shortly afterward.

Back to Obama for a moment. As I said, his campaign has been very net-centric from the start, something that has given me a feeling that he shares interests and concerns with me. Whether this is a correct perception or not will just have to wait until he gets sworn in next January. When I told Twitter I wanted to "follow" Obama, shortly afterwards I got an email back from Twitter saying Obama was following me.

Now this is kind of weird, I thought. Not that I actually believe he's reading the Tweets sent from the tens of thousands of people he's following on Twitter. But what if he did? Here's a man who's just a candidate for office today, but next year he's likely going to be President. Will he still have a Twitter presence then? Would his Tweets become discoverable under FOIA? Right now, having him on Twitter is kind of fun, like saying "see how cool one of my Twitter followers is!" Once he's President, he he can't possibly still be just another cool friend on Twitter. What will happen to our perception of him? Will he be able to remain One of Us and not become One of Them? Do we even want him to?

This month's Atlantic features an excellent article on Obama's amazing communications machine. It doesn't focus enough on his netroots efforts, but there is some interesting information there. Check it out.

Burning Food

I was at the HEB Plus in Sharyland yesterday and stopped by the HEB gas station to fill up. There with the gasoline and diesel pumps was an Ethanol E85 pump. This is the first Ethanol pump I've seen. It was covered on all 4 sides by images of corn fields and big juicy yellow ears of corn. The price? Thirty cents a gallon less than Unleaded.

Not all that long ago, gas crossed $3.00 a gallon and we were horrified when that happened. Now we're willing to burn our food supply to get fuel that costs considerably more than that.

How expensive will gas get before people drive less? $5.00? $10.00?

La Maquina 5K

Today the La Maquina 5K Run/Walk was held in (where else?) Edcouch-Elsa. The race started off at E-E High School, followed Hwy. 107 towards Elsa, then turned around and headed back to the Stadium. There were about 150 participants. I came in 121st with a time of 45:25, a little slower than last week's 5K in Pharr.

But that's not my big news. My news is that for the first time ever, I ran over a mile without stopping. How much exactly is a little uncertain. This much I know: I ran from the start to just past the aid station, which was near the one-mile mark. This is amazing for me. I've been practicing running on an indoor track which is 1/10 mi. One lap running, one lap walking. I have been feeling pretty good running on the indoor track, but I had not yet run two of those 1/10 mi. laps in a row. On the road this morning, I kept asking myself, "Can this be happening?"

Now I know what my next goal has to be: run an entire 5K. I never thought this would be in reach for me.

Now for the not-so-great part of the race. There were not enough people along the route signaling runners where to turn. I missed the turn right after the aid station and kept on going down 107 for an extra two blocks. People behind me followed me and eventually it looked like maybe a dozen participants went down the wrong path. As it happened, my path was not a short-cut because the race path was along the route I took--just running in the opposite direction. So I ran two blocks north and then turned around in the proper direction, eventually getting back on the right path. But it was embarrassing and annoying nevertheless. I marked my route on the map below.

That's the last race for me for about a month. I better spend the time between now and then getting my running distance up.

Woot! Ran a mile!

View Larger Map

Pharr St. Patrick's Day 5K

This morning the City of Pharr held its second annual St. Patrick's Day 5K Run-Walk. Why St. Patrick's Day should be an occasion for a race is not obvious to me. However, it was a nicely-organized event with about 300 participants. I came in 204th place with a time of 44:14. I managed to run about 25% of the time.

View Larger Map
There were all sorts of people there, from serious competitive types to fun-seekers dressed up in St. Paddy's day garb. The announcer said it was a much bigger turnout than last year's race.

Beautiful cool sunny weather, plenty of route guides to keep me from missing a turn like I did last week in the UTPA 5K, and a a bunch of friendly people all having a nice time. Thanks, Pharr!

,

UTPA 5K Walk/Run

Today's race was the first of its kind sponsored by the new Wellness and Recreation Center. The morning was cool and bright, absolutely gorgeous weather. The turnout was smallish but enthusiastic. My goal once again was not to come in last place, and I'm happy to report that I was able to accomplish my target. The finish line clock showed 42:20.

After the Fiesta Edinburg 5K, I decided that I should start trying to run at least part of these events, so I've been adding running to my workout routine for the past three weeks. I can walk for hours with no trouble, so it was surprising just how difficult it was to jog instead of walking. The indoor track at the UTPA Gym is 1/10 mile. I walk one lap and then run one lap, for a total of 10 laps. Eventually I will get to the point where I can run two laps in a row, then three and so on.

View Larger Map

Bottom line is I knocked 5 minutes off my time by running a little bit. I missed the Oblate Trail Ride last week in Brownsville, but I hope to be in the Pharr 5K next Saturday. See you there.

Congratulations Aaron Pena

The local election results are in, and the bitterly contested race between Aaron Pena and Eddie Saenz ended exactly as expected, with a decisive victory for Aaron. In reality, Sanez never had a never had a serious chance against Aaron. However, that didn't keep the race from getting really ugly. Although Aaron ran a generally positive campaign, in the final week of the campaign he responded to the steady stream of attacks with attack ads of his own.

For months, Pena endured attacks, invective, and dirty tricks from his opponent. Valley political blogs also chose sides and waged war on each other. No fact was left untwisted, nobody's personal life was left unexposed. It was a close-up view of what Bill Clinton once called "the politics of personal destruction."

I don't think that attack campaigns help our democracy. They produce a lot of fear and loathing and ultimately make good people less likely to come forward to represent us in the future.

Well, it's all over now except for the crying. Hopefully the results will send the message that attack campaigns don't work. The voters rejected the politics of personal destruction.

Obama is a Christian

A lot of false information has been circulating around the Internet lately claiming that Barack Obama is Muslim. Obama is a Christian. He has never been a Muslim. CNN sums up all the campaign dirty tricks about Obama's religion in a Feb. 28 article.