dose anyone know of a way to just do the full install on the pny flash drive with out any of the live stuff? (I dont think any one who boots from usb wants to do the live stuff...)
You will need some sort of media to install whatever Linux to your PNY Flash drive whether via CDROM, USB Flash,CF Flash,SD Flash (as far as I have done it). There is a method called From Iso but I have never tried it.

Not PNY. Not Ubuntu. Not USB. But this is how I did it.
And I run Macpup on USB. And AntiX on SD. Both capable of saving changes. Both though on a Asus EEEPC 900.

when live install was selected, got past B&W logo to freeze at a blank screen
By your sig I see you run Linux for awhile. You don't think it might be a video issue maybe freezing instead of USB Flash drive maybe? Anyhows sorry it aint Ubuntu or PNY
http://yatsite.blogspot.com/2009/07/...s-eee-900.html