How do I make it so any time I press a certain KEY, a command is run.

[zagiboy]

Reguardless of weather i'm at the console, or in X, or whatever for that matter. I'm ready to write a bit of code if that is whats required.

[hard candy]

shortcut keystrokes (http://ozzzy.dyndns.org/mandrake/extrakeys.html)
scripting tutorial (http://steve-parker.org/sh/sh.shtml)