| PAINTBALL |
| Ah yes, the glory of combat... these pictures were taken on Saturday August 4th, during a triumphant day of paintballing, by the Arnold Army of Darkness... I was fortunate enough to get the "hang" on the first game... I was so overwhelmed with thoughts and emotion after that game, that I sat out the second game to ponder my actions of the previous game, and my actions prior to that... I felt that my "game" was dead on that time, with the only mistake being my choice to eat breakfast. Shortly thereafter I corrected my decision by puking heavily in the parking lot*. Game Three was played on "The Badlands" it was pretty close to being a speedball course, but wasn't completley there... For the remainder of the games, we were joined by a group of people there for open play. I survived half of the game before being taken out on a shot that somehow caught the side of my foot... Fortunately our best players were able to take out their best players in the opening 30 seconds, it's probably the reason why we were able to pull off a win. Game four, I lasted a bit longer, going 3/4th's the distance, before getting shot in a similar circumstance, this time, my leg was hanging out of the bunker a bit too far, and I got pegged in the knee. We had to settle for a tie this time around. Game five was absolutely spectacular. By far a personal triumph in paintballing if I do say so... We were playing the "canyon" a gigantic course filled with plenty of hills and ridges and valleys, perfect for sniping and catching people, unfortunately the others have just as good of an opportunity to do the same to you. After spending 10 minutes running around to check out our deployment...I advanced to the forward position where my teammate Troy "Rambo" Caban was taking fire on a ridgeline... We concocted a plan for me to flank them on the right. I snuck down to a pair of barrels, and after coming under fire I ran to a small earthen berm that afforded me some protection from the opposing team members on top of the ridge. One of the soldiers started firing at me... I fired back... credit one kill to C. "Trautman" Nordby. At this point in time the other shooter had taken out Troy, and headed back to try and get me... At this point in time, the ref had warned that there was less than 2 minutes remaining in the game... The other shooter appeared low on the ridgeline... he fired at me, I fired at him... he ducked behind a tree, we exchanged a few more shots... and finally my aim was true... Second kill for Nordby... in a moment of jubilation, I forgot to protect my 6, and POW I got shot in the leg... The bruise you see, is the wound from that shot. The bruise is at least four inches in diameter, yes it stung, but it's only pain, and it goes away. Game Six was played on field 5 - "THE VILLAGE". Field five is a true speedball course, short field, lots of bunkers, tons of angles, and not much time to capture the flag. As soon as we were signalled for the break, the action was fast and furious. I holed up behind a medium sized wooden structure and was immediately taking fire from at least three different people. A teammate who was just slightly ahead of myself decided to make a run for another bunker 15 yards away to try and get a better angle, right as I ducked out to provide cover fire, I was blasted in the mouth, which provided the perfect opportunity to capture the picture entitled "Blueface" and just a reminder here, it's better to have a blue face, than to have blue balls! Unfortunately we lost this game, as we were overpowered quickly by a couple of ringers who had joined the team... Game Seven was also held on "THE VILLAGE" course, this time directions were reversed. I decided that we needed a bit better defence at our base location so I played this one close to home. After taking fire for several minutes, I made a quick advance to bunker about twenty five yards away from me, which was occupied by another one of my teammates. He had also been taking heavy fire at his position and I had considered bunkering the guy who was just ahead of us. Not wanting to get shot in the groin I picked up a piece of tree bark to act as a shield and I quickly made my advance. Fortunately all of the opposing team had been shot out by this time, and we were able to notch a victory on our final game of the day. All in all The Arnold Army of Darkness walked off the field with a bit more cockiness that afternoon. We were able to test our mettle against some real compition and we were victorious.. Final tally for the day: four wins, two ties, one loss... Personal stats for myself: 1 hang, 2 kills... Not bad for a morning's worth of work... *(Please note that C. Nordby does not condone anorexica nervousa, or bulemia.... his particular "episode" was a result of the hightend state of emotion following his heroic actions during game 1) |
