Paint Ball!
This whole week I've been writting Operating Instructions for the laboratory, and I'm happy to say that it's actually benefited me. Writting complete BS for my work has somehow gotten my creative writting mind flowing again. I haven't written in so long, not only because I was busy but also because everything I attempted to write sounded like utter crap. And my writting skills couldn't have come at a better time, last weekend I tried paint balling for the first time!
When Richard first asked me if I wanted to try paint ball with him and his friends, I wasn't too eager to say yes to it. I didn't know too much about paint ball, only that being shot hurt like a $%^&#. But being the optimistic person I am I agreed to do it, well, that and Richard telling me that there were going to be other people there that were new too. I figured that there would have to be at least one person that played worse than I did (can somebody say: DECOY?)
So Sunday we all got up at 8. I had trouble finding something to wear, people told me wearing baggy THICK clothes was my best option. The trouble was that I didn't have very many clothes that were baggy. I had a bunch of hoodies that I could have worn, but the weather looked really nice and I figured running away from people shooting at me would build up a lot of heat. But I managed to find an outfit that worked. So we left at 0900 and got to the Paint Ball field around 0930ish ~ ~ ~
It was an open grassy field, with a whole bunch of neat things to use as cover: concrete walls, big wooden wheel thingies, and long plastic crates. The whole scenery made me feel like we were going to be playing: COPS VS. COLUMBIAN DRUG DEALERS. We got our rented equipment: a face shield, a paint ball gun, and a box full of "ammo". The paint ball gun looked really silly to me. It looked like the manufacturer tried to make the gun look menacing, but there was a plastic container attatched to the gun that was shaped like a gigantic kidney. Anyways before we could start playing a person had to test fire our "guns". He attached a speed gun to each "gun" to see how fast it was ejecting the paint balls. As I stood there watching the guy test fire each gun at a concrete wall I had a moment of weakness. As each gun shot out one paint ball, it made a loud WOOOSH sound followed by a nasty SPLAT.
After the guy was done testing everything, he laid down some general rules:
1) When you get shot put your gun in the air.
2) If a paint ball doesn't break when it hits you, you're still in the game.
3) Keep your helmet/face mask on while you're on the field.
4) When you're not using your gun put the yellow safety plug in the barrel (I can't tell you how many times me and some other people LOST that yellow thing. It just wouldn't stay in my pocket!)
And then some "guide lines":
1) you SHOULDN'T shoot a person when you're closer than 15 ft, just say "SURRENDER" or something, because being shot at from that close would really REALLY REALLY hurt.
2) when a person has their gun in the air you SHOULD NOT keep shooting at them, because that's just not nice.
After all the rules were spoken, the game began. There were 2 teams, and we started out playing on opposite sides of the fields. I remember running to hide behind something and thinking "wait a minute, I don't know how to fire this thing!" So I test fired a few times, and found out I had really bad aim.
We played 4 rounds before we decided to call it a day. In the end I was only hit FOUR times: once on my arm, and 3 times on my legs. One of the shots I got on my inner thigh was from a person who shot me FROM CLOSER THAN 15 feet and it hurt. A LOT. Actually being shot in general HURT A LOT. But I still had a good time. It's pretty intense when you're shooting and being shot at. It's a good game that gets your adrenaline running. Out of the hundreds of paint balls I shot that day, I managed to hit one person TWICE. I didn't shoot him twice on PURPOSE, I just wasn't sure if got him the first time.
I'm not going to be playing it again for a little while, afterall it's been one week since the game and I STILL have bruises. But as soon as they're gone, I'll be out there again. Next time I'll definately layer more clothes!
But here's some pictures from that epic day!
The field!
The guy who asked me to paint ball
OOooo don't mess with these guys
A game in session
Poor Beezly, got shot in the face. He found out that day that wearing a face shield may make you feel like a power ranger reject, but it pays off in the long run.
This is everyone after the game. LOOK AT MY FACE! It's a face that's experienced pain.
When Richard first asked me if I wanted to try paint ball with him and his friends, I wasn't too eager to say yes to it. I didn't know too much about paint ball, only that being shot hurt like a $%^&#. But being the optimistic person I am I agreed to do it, well, that and Richard telling me that there were going to be other people there that were new too. I figured that there would have to be at least one person that played worse than I did (can somebody say: DECOY?)
So Sunday we all got up at 8. I had trouble finding something to wear, people told me wearing baggy THICK clothes was my best option. The trouble was that I didn't have very many clothes that were baggy. I had a bunch of hoodies that I could have worn, but the weather looked really nice and I figured running away from people shooting at me would build up a lot of heat. But I managed to find an outfit that worked. So we left at 0900 and got to the Paint Ball field around 0930ish ~ ~ ~
It was an open grassy field, with a whole bunch of neat things to use as cover: concrete walls, big wooden wheel thingies, and long plastic crates. The whole scenery made me feel like we were going to be playing: COPS VS. COLUMBIAN DRUG DEALERS. We got our rented equipment: a face shield, a paint ball gun, and a box full of "ammo". The paint ball gun looked really silly to me. It looked like the manufacturer tried to make the gun look menacing, but there was a plastic container attatched to the gun that was shaped like a gigantic kidney. Anyways before we could start playing a person had to test fire our "guns". He attached a speed gun to each "gun" to see how fast it was ejecting the paint balls. As I stood there watching the guy test fire each gun at a concrete wall I had a moment of weakness. As each gun shot out one paint ball, it made a loud WOOOSH sound followed by a nasty SPLAT.
After the guy was done testing everything, he laid down some general rules:
1) When you get shot put your gun in the air.
2) If a paint ball doesn't break when it hits you, you're still in the game.
3) Keep your helmet/face mask on while you're on the field.
4) When you're not using your gun put the yellow safety plug in the barrel (I can't tell you how many times me and some other people LOST that yellow thing. It just wouldn't stay in my pocket!)
And then some "guide lines":
1) you SHOULDN'T shoot a person when you're closer than 15 ft, just say "SURRENDER" or something, because being shot at from that close would really REALLY REALLY hurt.
2) when a person has their gun in the air you SHOULD NOT keep shooting at them, because that's just not nice.
After all the rules were spoken, the game began. There were 2 teams, and we started out playing on opposite sides of the fields. I remember running to hide behind something and thinking "wait a minute, I don't know how to fire this thing!" So I test fired a few times, and found out I had really bad aim.
We played 4 rounds before we decided to call it a day. In the end I was only hit FOUR times: once on my arm, and 3 times on my legs. One of the shots I got on my inner thigh was from a person who shot me FROM CLOSER THAN 15 feet and it hurt. A LOT. Actually being shot in general HURT A LOT. But I still had a good time. It's pretty intense when you're shooting and being shot at. It's a good game that gets your adrenaline running. Out of the hundreds of paint balls I shot that day, I managed to hit one person TWICE. I didn't shoot him twice on PURPOSE, I just wasn't sure if got him the first time.
I'm not going to be playing it again for a little while, afterall it's been one week since the game and I STILL have bruises. But as soon as they're gone, I'll be out there again. Next time I'll definately layer more clothes!
But here's some pictures from that epic day!
The field!
The guy who asked me to paint ball
OOooo don't mess with these guys
A game in session
Poor Beezly, got shot in the face. He found out that day that wearing a face shield may make you feel like a power ranger reject, but it pays off in the long run.
This is everyone after the game. LOOK AT MY FACE! It's a face that's experienced pain.