Natural Disaster tag

San Diego Earthquake and Technology

So I just crossed one item off of my bucket list.

The earthquake’s origins were in Baja, Mexico, but the BPM’s of my heart monitor would indicate the quake was isolated inside my apartment.  In hindsight, it was no big deal.  The walls and floor rumble for a half a minute, your dishes shake, and you pee yourself a little.  Kind of fun actually.  But it’s also educational.  You learn a lot about yourself.  Here’s what I learned about The Good Badger during an earthquake .

  • Entirely unprepared. My initial reaction was to lay in bed.  My next reaction was to duck and cover.  Luckily I was with gf who is much smarter than I.  As soon as she could get me to stop crying, we fled outside.
  • Entirely unprepared pt. II.  On my way out, I forgot to grab my shoes, wallet, keys, or any snacks.  Upsetting, but not the end of the world.  What is far more traumatic, however, is forgetting my iPhone.  How was I supposed to Tweet my paranoia, check in on Foursqure (you’ll see in a minute), tell mom not to worry (in a very worried tone), or even find news about the earthquake.  Fortunately 12 of the 12 neighbors around me had their iPhones and were kind enough to show me the drop pin of the earthquake’s epicenter no more than 10 minutes after it occurred (awesome).  iPhone, will you ever forgive me?
  • Technology is Awesome.  Within minutes the TwitOSphere was overrun with fellow San Diegons giving their 140 character takes on the situation.  True, nothing anyone said saved, prevented, or helped anything, only because their was nothing to save.  With that said, there’s a calming presence knowing other people are going through the same thing.  Had the situation been worse, however, Twitter has proven to be a life saving resource.
  • Technology is Awesome pt II. A new social media service has poked its head into the emergency reaction game- Foursquare.  For those who are still unfamiliar, Foursquare is a location based, social-networking service, where users “check in” to different establishments to notify their friends of their whereabouts and collect badges.  One of the more highly sought after badges, The Swarm Badge, is acquired after you check in to the same establishment with at least 49 other Foursquare members simultaneously.  Within a half hour, someone created the check-in location “earthquake”,  and over 70 people checked in.  I’m guessing this is the first time the service has been used to check into a establishment-less event.  I’m also guessing it’s not the last.  Either way, I got me a Swam Badge, suckas!

My takeaway from this: Apple needs to invent an iPhone holder which you can put inside of your body.  Maybe a surgically attached Kangaroo pouch.  The iPouch?

Get on it Jobbs