Snookersearch 2010 - Part 1: "Slimed" or "Two the hard way and one the easy way"

First hard way:
My leg was wedged in between the platform and the train as the subway doors closed on my torso. At this point I realized my job was getting to me. I yanked my leg out and clawed my way through the doors, which finally opened up. The conductor came out and tore me a well-deserved new one.
Just another day going to work, trying to hit a deadline on a project which seemed to be have been planned by consultation with Tarot cards. I was having insomnia and anxiety attacks. I had let everything else in my life go and was getting burnt-out fast.
When I finished I got ready for Snookersearch 2010: the plan was to ride my scooter (MP3 400 3-wheeler) to Savannah GA and back and visit pool halls with snooker tables along the way. I had just purchased an iPad with 3G service and GPS, this would help me navigate and let me do blog entries along the way.
I'm of mixed feelings about Bill Job's iPad. I love the size, cool UX features and battery life; I hate the lack of a file system, the absence of Flash (just let us turn it off if we don't want it), the lack of USB, the walled garden of the app store. the tiny keyboard, and the requirement of buying an Apple doohickey to do almost anything, like upload photos. And anyone who thinks restricting porn is going to be a factor which will lead to growth hasn't studied the history of technology. I think the second thing that came off the Gutenburg press was a Tijuana bible.
The second hard way:. So I bought the camera kit and was set to blog using the iPad. It turns out I needed to upgrade my Wordpress blog in order for it to work with the iPad. No problem, I follow the instructions to back-up my database, then wipe my files and do a clean install. I then restore the database only to find I don't have any content. It turns out that "backing up a database" doesn't mean backing up the data, just saving the file that contains all the rules and pointers to the data. Of course I didn't have any other backup so I had to pay GoDaddy to restore my files from their daily tape backup. A $150 dollar lesson.
The easy way:. Getting my scooter ready wasn't that bad. I ordered custom footpeg brackets from RjeffB on the Modern Vespa forum. I bought some 1/8 inch clevises that fit with foot pegs I bought last year and the whole thing mounted up pretty easy. I removed my evaporation canister. I "slimed" the tires, which means I shot them full up with a liquid concoction that is supposed to make them self-heal with hit with a minor puncture.
It turns out that tire valves can be removed from the tire
stems simply by unscrewing them. It's amazing to me that something can stay put by simply screwing it in when it's rotating at a bazillion rpm when the tires are rolling. It was fun to squirt green goo into my tires.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad