Everyone and their mother is getting on Twitter. In droves. People are writing code which creates thousands of fake users which follow them, and serve only to artificially inflate their follower count. In this gigantic, ever-growing ocean of Twitter who are examples of folks who are NOT DOING IT WRONG? I have a couple shoutouts to give – because these organizations are doing GOOD and not just sponging up popularity. These are places to do business with – because they behave honorably.

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See more earthquake details at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

I’m usually not awake at 7:35 AM on a Saturday, but today was an exception. While propped up reading a collection of humorous horror stories (”Blood Lite”) with Husband 1.0 snoozing beside me, I suddenly felt like our house had been lightly tapped by a semi. It lasted no more than two seconds.

“Did you feel that?” I said.

“Was that an earthquake?” my now-awake husband said.

My iPhone was in hand in a flash, I pulled up Tweetie, and there was the crowdsourced evidence: tweet after tweet that said “earthquake.”

Turns out our tiny temblor was a 4.0 centered out in the ocean just off the Channel Islands, about 23 miles west of San Diego, and 19 miles west-southwest of La Jolla. Details from the USGS are here.

From my informal Twitter survey, it was felt in downtown, Golden Hill, La Jolla, El Cajon and parts of Carmel Valley. Folks who reported they didn’t feel it were in Cardiff, Carlsbad and easterly parts of Del Mar.

I’m off to get some breakfast now, but here’s a topic for discussion: how come the news events we rely on Twitter to verify are always big, bad and widely felt?

When I opened an account on Twitter a little over a year ago, my husband seemed puzzled. He wondered why I’d want to read about other people’s mundane little details of life and who would want to read mine. He created his own account, probably convinced he’d never use it.

Lately, however, I can hardly keep him off the Twitter webpage. And I think I’ve discovered why: San Diego sports stars are starting to tweet.

Here’s a breakdown of who you can follow:

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So in the last couple days we’ve all been seeing the news, and tweets about the pig flu. Rumor has it that Mexico (where the virus originated) is going to be shutting down schools, public transporation and the border to keep the virus from spreading.
All in all it seems that the advice for this thing is pretty much the same advice during standard flu season. If its in your neighborhood, dont play pattycake with your neighbors. Be cleanly, and if you get sick make sure to clean up after yourself and stay away from others to prevent the spread of the thing.

Here are some helpful (but still common-sense-y type) tips to help you stay healthy (lovingly jacked from the CDC site):

There are everyday actions people can take to stay healthy.

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

• Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
• If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

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Sonic Cheeseburger

So if you’re anything like me, you’ve lived in San Diego a while and you watch TV. … okay well I guess “up till 2am watching cartoons on adult swim and cartoon network, piddling on the internet, and generally causing trouble”. If that’s anything near you then you’ve probably been seeing the commercials for sonic burger on tv for YEARS NOW.

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Oh, we are lucky

It’s March 28, and it’s 78 degrees and sunny here in San Diego. Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect beach weather.

Just in case you’ve forgotten what the residents of other regions go through in late March, here’s a rundown:

• Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and South Carolina
• Record floods in Fargo, North Dakota
• Massive sheets of ice have left residents of an island in Northern Michigan stranded
• Blizzards have afflicted South Dakota to Colorado all week
• The Plains states  are dealing with a severe wind advisory

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Mission Bay, image courtesy of Jim Wallace licensed under the Creative Commons. Click to check out his Flickr Stream.

This week’s FotCT rounds out my San Diego Triple Crown of best spots around the city to work out.  It also happens to be the largest man-made aquatic park in the entire country at more than 4,000 acres of sand and sea.  Of course I’m speaking of Mission Bay Park, one of San Diego’s largest free attractions, drawing an estimated 15 million visitors every year.  This week, hopefully it will draw out some sweat.  Details after the jump.

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Museum of Man in Balboa Park

In a move that may encourage San Diegans to discover the cheap thrills available in hard times, 3 local museums are offering half-price admission every day before noon.

From this Sunday until May 25, admission to the Mingei International Museum (normally $7 for adults), the Museum of Man (normally $10 for adults), and the Museum of Photographic Arts (normally $6 for adults) will be half-price between 10 AM and 12 PM. All three museums are located in Balboa Park.

For more information and a list of current exhibits, please see this press release. You can also follow MOPA on Twitter at @MoPAsd.

If you’re an early bird, take this opportunity to save a few bucks and get a little culture!

I’m really not sure why this hasn’t been done before – but I created a google calendar to showcase events in town that are ‘in our scene’. That being – the barcampers, the web dev scene, the drinky drink scene, etc.

It would be nice to have a calendar with *EVERYTHING IN TOWN* on it, yes? I thought so too :)

Drop me a note and I can add your google account to have write access to this calendar!

Read access to this calendar: XML ICAL HTML

Whether you call it real-time conversations or microblogging, Twitter is a tool that San Diego’s media are picking up and putting to use. You can follow individual reporters or on-air personalities in San Diego as well as subscribe to Twitter news feeds:

Media Tweeps
@dodgemedlin – San Diego Union-Tribune assistant news editor
@RickyWhy – San Diego Union-Tribune local government editor Ricky Young
@ninagarin – San Diego Union-Tribune ‘Street’ reporter Nina Garin
@jimtrageser – North County Times reporter
@drolland – San Diego CityBeat editor David Rolland
@ericwolff – San Diego CityBeat reporter Eric Wolff
@catherine739 – NBC 7/39 anchor Catherine Garcia
@carondg – San Diego Foodstuff blogger, freelance food, travel and tech writer Caron Golden
@lcaloh – KPBS convergence editor Leng Caloh
@culturelust – KPBS arts and culture producer Angela Carone
@tmack01 – KNSD 7/39 photographer
@helenchang – San Diego News Network business editor (launching in March)
@michellemowad – San Diego Business Journal real estate reporter Michelle Mowad
@Hula933 – 93.3 FM AJ’s Playhouse personality Hula Ramos

San Diego News Feeds on Twitter
@sdut – San Diego Union-Tribune
@utstreet – Union-Trib’s Street section
@sdbackyard – Union-Tribune’s SD Backyard community social media news site
@nctimes – North County Times
@sdcitybeat – San Diego City Beat
@kpbsnews – KPBS FM news
@nbcsandiego – NBC 7/39 News
@10news – KGTV 10 News
@sandiego6 – San Diego Channel 6
@SDSU_NewsTeam – San Diego State University news / media relations
@UCSDNews – UCSD news / media relations
@bizsandiego – BizSanDiego
@sdbloggers – SDBloggers.com

If you’ve got other local media or newsfeeds on Twitter to suggest, send them to @juliewright. And thanks in advance for any contributions.