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As Steven remarked, it’s a good thing the Fish didn’t make it last year, because we weren’t ready for the scale and scope of issues we’d be facing once we got here. Among the problems identified and solved:

- The suspension needed modification (by Dennis, of course) to hold even the seven people we ideally like to put into it.

- The carb had to be modified to not spill gas into the throttle body when tilted further than its once pedestrian existence permitted.

- There’s not enough juice. The alternator attached to this engine was never designed for the 12v load we put on it.

As a result of that last little tidbit, the car died all the way across the playa last night. Matt hiked back to get a charged 12v to get the car home, and then this morning the playa engineering division went to work. Our generator has been wired right into the car, delivering serious auxilliary juice to the lights and sound. The Fish is brighter, louder, and more reliable now, thanks to the work of men like Dennis, Steven, and Brian.

… until it breaks again, as these things always do.

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False Profit managed to pull together a Tuesday night Esplanade party, pretty much at the last minute.  Despite some early problems with the sound system, they kept it going all night and the crowd loved it.  False Profit labs was also in full effect with their fire art – you might have seen it before, if you went to the Fire Arts Festival at The Crucible.

My friend Jay (Obi-J / False Profit) was supposed to go on the decks (okay, not really; laptop DJ) at 2 but it was more like 3 or 4 before he started.  It had been a long day, and I liked the other music but I was about to fall asleep on my feet by then.  I was mostly hanging by the fire barrel in back to stay warm.  But I didn’t want to miss his new stuff!  Jay had just gotten his DJ laptop stolen, but luckily he backed it up the night before so he had all his music!  I am always reminding him..   Anyhow the set was GREAT – it woke me right back up and I danced ’til almost dawn.

I wanted to stick around for Dr. Toast who was playing a while after sunrise, but I just wasn’t up to it.  Besides, I’m on my way to see him this afternoon at the Relaxomatic Plushatorium.  Okay… it’s hot out, but I’m done with teh internets for the day.

P.S.  Matt set up a backup webcam.  If it’s working, you can see the street outside our camp.

http://n-gon.net/galleries/webcam/cam_1.jpg

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- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -

N-Gon, Inc., the leading Playa Services provider, has announced a new line of transportation services.  The flagship Playa Fish vehicle took its inaugural public ride on Tuesday, 8/26/08.

Playa Transportation is one of the fastest growing sectors in Black Rock City, and according to many analysts, the single most profitable.  With the successful launch of the Playa Fish, N-Gon and its clients are positioned for maximum convenience, and on-playa operational costs of the N-Gon are also substantially reduced.

After overcoming early technical challenges, Dennis, the Avatar of Awesome, finalized a set of innovative modifications to the suspension. providing an incredible 40% increase in capacity.  The improvement in reliability and safety is unquestioned.  “Normally, I would say let’s just wait and see if it works, but this time I’m just going to say: It’s done,” Dennis stated.

“The introduction of the Playa FIsh to the N-Gon family of products is a monumental step forward, which would have been impossible without the help of our talented executive team.” says Formica, President and CEO of N-Gon.  “Realistically,” he says, ” we need to always keep an eye on new markets.  Further expansion and improvement of the vehicle services division in 2009 is a crucial strategic step for the company.”

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We got the car licensed! Unfortunately it stopped running. Dennis is out there with an emery board and a mirror trying to clean and re-gap the spark plugs… but before the engine gave us trouble, we got a day and a night license!

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As mentioned we were without connectivity yesterday, so we couldn’t share our adventures with you. But Stingray and Formica went to work this morning to bring some delicious, lovely packets to the playa and show you what’s been going down.

Our First Voyage to the Golden Cafe

GC is on the Esplanade this year, and we were welcomed with open arms, warm greetings, and new badges. Lucifer took my old Ivory badge and swapped it for the new, serialized Gold badge! These things are amazing pieces of work, and they have a whole thing with geocaching to get marked badges from one continent to another. They moved the stage out to an outboard canopy, meaning we can actually have a conversation while music is playing! And the music… wow. Just wow. The rock did not stop the whole time we were there.

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Dusty continues to be the order of the day. Yesterday was worse than anything we saw last year. It was intense… but today we have a lovely five mile per hour wind, no dust…

Internet connectivity has been spotty. The 5ghz bridge is not available, as IBM apparently wasn’t able to get it going. Something about climbing 40 foot towers in 60mph winds. So Ivan brought out his sweet new omnidirectional antenna and things are working a lot better, as you can see!

Later today, we’ll post some pictures from yesterday’s dusty adventures. Stay tuned!

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Last year we had a dust-free beginning to the week… not this time. White outs and one brown out have been the order of the day, with high winds threatening to catch the solar panels as we placed them, rocking the Structure, and making everyone the same uniform shade of grey.

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The Structure was built this morning, with all hands participating in the lofting of our centerpiece.

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N-GON Camp on Sunday Morning

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