Monopod Use #392

So, I'm back from ICRA and I'm still trying to get my act together and organized. Posting at this location will be slow, but I need to decide between Lightroom and Bibble ASAP so I can get all my baseball shots processed before the end of the season. I'll try to keep a trickle of short posts going even though I'm massively busy; today, I'll tell you about a non-obvious use for a monopod.

At the last conference I went to in Korea, the cheap hotel (still $150 a night) had a break in. Apparently, the robber (likely an insider at the hotel) had key cards and crept into about ten rooms while the occupants were sleeping to steal wallets and other valuables. Luckily, I was in the expensive hotel which had sliding chains on the doors so we had no such problems.

I'm not paranoid by nature, but when I got to Pasadena and didn't find a mechanical lock inside the door, I got a little nervous. Then, I remembered the old chair under the doorknob trick used in monster movies to keep the monster from opening the door (the fact that said monster usually just crashes through a window or cuts the door with a chainsaw I won't mention).

Of course, the chair the hotel provided was on wheels.

But I did have a handy adjustable post with me:

Sadly, this was the only use my monopod got all trip.

Although, my monopod also doubles as a nice club, so I'll never leave home without it!