Heh, no paintball for me. Would love to see what I'm capable of under combat conditions (not much for now, I'm sure)...not so fond of the pain. Yes, I know it goes with the territory. Closest I've ever gotten to anything having to do with paintball is when a friend of mine gave me a tube of them that were way past their expiration date (he was gonna toss them). They were rock-hard by then and, we figured, probably lethal.

One of the guys at church is giving a firearms safety demo in April. Because it's controversial, he's making it very clear that it's not a church event. I've made up my mind to attend, realizing that my hesitation stemmed not from any reluctance on my own part, only worry over what other people might think of me. Strangely enough, all the approx. 8 people who've expressed interest so far are women. A couple of years ago, when one of the other guys at church offered a demo (he's a customs officer), it was mostly women who went, too. (P.S. I know what's posted here is confidential, but I'm just saying: don't spread the news of my attendance around, please. I know that I will use my knowledge responsibly, nor do I plan on taking up hunting or range-shooting as a hobby, but like I said, it's controversial.)
posted by Roberta at 3:56 PM

That's the kind I'd like to play, Eric. My friends used to go play lazertag many years ago, and I always hated it because you couldn't jump, kneel, roll, or do anything remotely combat-like. Needless to say, when we did the paintball in the yard, I took every opportunity to crawl along the ground. But I don't even know where to look around Wisconsin for that kind of 8-hour thing. Maybe I'll meet someone who knows someone...
posted by Larry at 12:09 PM

ok you win, but hey, iz just my first time. all our games were capture the flag style, and we only played for about 5 hours or so. satellite dish... dang that sounds cool. i actually thought of the mirror idea, from watching saving private ryan, but of course that wasnt until AFTER we finished. oh well, another outing coming up next month. i think for me wearing a camo tshirt is already a little over the top. perhaps non-"swishy" pants would be nice, but im not sure id be willing to spend the money on those unless id have a chance to wear them in a non-paintball environment. oh, and hold the face paint please.

so whats going on here. how come everyone's posting all of a sudden. well, no complaints from me. keep it up! bedtime for me.
posted by yodaslap at 2:33 AM

You kids haven't paintballed until you've gone outdoors for 8 hours, autumn time, with a nice misty drizzle throughout the day. That's really fun. No honest. You get so freaking hot in the summer, plus the incessant insects, it's horrible. But by fall, it's nice and cool.

Anyway, no rain ponchos, b/c the paintballs bounce off. So now you're soaked to the bone, gun jams a lot from the wet (so you have to keep the barrels down when running, and make sure to NOT drop any balls, b/c they're ruined once it gets wet), crawling through mud and foliage like Arnold Schwarzenagger (I could never spell his name) in Preditor. You're playing 20 on 20 games, half of the team has those motorola talkabouts, and it's just like awesome.

The best is this satellite game we played. Basically, there's this satellite dish that we must destroy. There's a handkerchief tied to the center, which we must untie. This signifies a sabotage to the dish, cutting the wires as it were. One team attacks while the other defends. I remembering crawling on my hands/bellies for 10 minutes, inching my way up the hill trying to just touch the damn kerchief, scouting around the dish for 5 minutes, trying to ensure there's no ambush, having my mate to prop up my head to do a final check, and POP! I get shot in the head.

The hardcore paintballers wear tanktops and minimal face protection. Too much. I know guys who'll dress up in army fatigues, with helmets, mosquito repellent strapped on top, and get this.... a pack of marlboro cigs. Totally Platoon.

I also have friends who play overnight games. THey camp out, uses lazer scopes, and carry misting water bottles, so they can tell where the beam is pointing from. Plus they'll use mirrors to see around the corner at dawn. These guys are nuts.

There's a guy at work who's so hardcore, he bought himself like 3 acres of land just so he can say "I have my own field." Insane.

It is really fun, and I think given the chance, I'd play more. But the pain, ouch the pain.
posted by asiliat at 8:27 PM

I can't play hockey at all. We just do beginner hockey with a soft puck, no checking, no positions, etc. Pretty much a mad scramble to see who can miss the puck. Though we have some really good people in there who just go to have another chance at being on the ice (they're addicted) and maybe to show us real beginners how it's done.

Anyways, I can't stop, turn, go backwards (which is important in hockey for defensemen, or so I gather). It's going to take a lot of practice to get anywhere.

I've only paintballed once, in my friend's huge backyard and with cheap-ish guns. They still hurt though.
posted by Larry at 12:42 AM

ramblings about paintball

we played in a private arena so it was all people i knew, so i guess in that sense i didnt feel an adrenaline rush cuz i wasnt too scared. some of them are fairly experienced paintballers but none are ex-millitary or anything. in the 10 rounds i played i died 5 times and killed 8 ( call me a nerd for keeping track, but its my first time so gimme a break, hee hee). first 3 times i got shot in the face mask so i didnt feel a thing (although the "paint" tasted terrible), 4th time got shot in the hand, 5th time shot in the big toe, so i have yet to experience a conventional paintball death i guess. oh wait, i also got shot in the back of the head once by accident when i was already dead. i guess that hurt a bit. moment of glory: accidentally shooting a paintball down someone's barrel shortly before killing him off. woohoo!
posted by yodaslap at 5:53 PM

I've paintballed several times. (4-5), it's awesome fun. Hurts like stink tho, eh?

Closest to real war I ever hope to be, but that adrenaline... what a rush.
posted by asiliat at 1:38 PM

no update, still have to mail out the stupid receipts, etc. I'll do it right now, fanx for reminding me.
posted by asiliat at 1:37 PM

dont worry Lawrence. i still cant do hockey stops on ice for the life of me. when i played intramural ice hockey i could keep up with most of the players but id end up crashing into the wall.

went paintballing for the first time this past weekend. absolutely loved it. Justin and Lawrence, you should give it a try if you ever get the chance. Eric, i believe youve gone before, no? btw whats the update on the camera situation?
posted by yodaslap at 11:22 AM

I thought you played hockey and stuff, Lawrence... is that all going forward?
posted by jylo at 8:00 AM

Instead of talking about the depressing war, I'm going to say: I finally got some skates. They set me back $100, but I haven't been spending money on anything all year, so it totally seems worth it. I spent my hour at the ice rink today trying to learn how to go backwards, without success. Still fun though. I can't wait for my ankles to get strong.
posted by Larry at 10:26 PM

so the war has begun. How depressing.

Don't think the US should have attacked. I don't know enough to even pretend to being a political creature. But war sucks. People die, and that's all I know.

Junior Bush (my friend calls him "Monkey") is the catalyst of the anti-Christ, and I'm sticking w/ that.
posted by asiliat at 9:32 AM

argh

umm i guess keep me posted about the camera thing. i just wanted to mail a camera, how complicated do they need to make it??

still sick, and slaving at work for that matter. having tuesday off was nice i guess but it sucks to have the day free and not be well enough to enjoy it. note to self: next time i take a sick day, lie about it.
posted by yodaslap at 1:43 AM

I meant: actual

That is to say, Customs think that you mailed a camera, so they want me to pay taxes on that item. I'm trying to get my $ back from them. THere's some claim form I can fill out to revenue Canada. Who knows if I'll get it back. Shrug.

It just seems like this camera fixing bit is stupider and stupider.

Hope you get better soon. Sux to be sick, hate to state the obvious.

Better than slaving at work maybe??
posted by asiliat at 2:27 PM

what on earth? whats "acutla"?? i took a sick day today and maybe my mind isnt all here but im not so sure what your post means??
posted by yodaslap at 1:11 PM

Oh dan, the saga continues! &%$#@!!!!!!

B/c you mailed me back the camera stating the price of the acutla item, I have to pay $123.17 in GST/PST. I think I've learnt a very valuable lesson here. WhenI figure out what it is, I'll post it.

sigh.
posted by asiliat at 10:18 AM

Well, I downloaded Bulletproof Monk and it's awful. Don't bother wasting money on it when it comes out in theaters, catch it at the $1 theater or something. I have no idea why Chow-Yun Fat stopped making Chinese movies to come to America and be extremely un-cool speaking English. Also he looks fat and old, like he aged 20 years since Crouching Tiger. Anyways, the acting, plot, writing, even the action is just terrible. Even Stifler isn't funny. In fact, it's so bad I've only watched 1/2 of it in starts and stops because I can't stand it. Okay, that's my rant for the day since I knew Dan wanted to see it.
posted by Larry at 8:31 PM

well i still have most/all of the pics on my computer so its just a matter of going thru the trouble of uploading them, which im not about to do anytime soon, if at all. i glanced thru the terms stuff and it looks like i got shut down cuz i uploaded copyrighted material, aka an mp3. been doing so for a while, just never been "caught" i guess. maybe i can get some webspace from DU :)

i guess i thought id have more pics than i already do by now, but i might go ahead and put up a gallery of the first batch of pics taken with the powershot G2 soon. wont be much, but havent had too many chances to take pics lately. stand by for updates.

iomega no longer has that color scheme/style. maybe ill scan the installation CD from my old iomega burner sometime if i feel compelled to do so. heh.

duh. boooooooooooooo


posted by yodaslap at 4:10 PM

dan: yodaslap.losir.com still works ;)

justin: nice blog. A little too deep for me. :D, and it's so Benneton - since I've never owned a zipdisk, I dunno what that looks like.

Larry: duh, 4 yrs is an eternity, time to get a new card. I can get you an employee purchased card, but then after I mail it down there, it'll be the same price. (We don't get much off).

dan: is there no way to retrieve pix? I can't believe you got yourself in trouble w/ tripod. I hated them from the start. Oh well.

back to work.
posted by asiliat at 2:14 PM

Hey I just realized my video card comes from the company Eric works for. Neat. It's served me well these past four years, but it won't run any of the new 3D games. Time for an upgrade.

Well Dan, I told you not to put so many gibbon pictures up, it's against the Tripod rules duh. And Justin breaks the blog silence with his own.
posted by Larry at 4:57 PM

my blog is gone.

well ok, it just got moved... involuntarily. i apparently violated tripod's terms and services so now my blog has been banished to ohuhhi.blogspot.com, heaven forbid. now its got blogspot ads, but no pop-ups. somewhat of a reasonable trade-off i guess. annoying thing is all images are gone. ah.. the price i pay for living the life of a criminal.
posted by yodaslap at 11:44 AM