How To Get Shot and Live to Tell the Tale
I don't about any of you but I got shot at least 9 times this weekend. Twice in the top of the head, three times in the throat (maybe four), twice in the chest, once in the arm, once in the butt.
Total damage?
Well, my throat looks like someone gave me the mother of all hickeys. Everything else is already pretty well healed up.
And that's just the start of the story.

This weekend was all about bachelor party fun and we did end up going down to play war games on an old military base. Yeah, Jailhouse Paintball, the sport for little boys who have grown up but still want to play cowboys and indians or Rambo or need to feed the adrenaline monkey within. And feed that monkey we did.

First, I'm sure there are people wondering if it hurts as much as some people like to say it does. The answer is that it depends on who shoots you. If its some jackass with his gun pumped up to 360 fps, that's a .68 caliber paintball travelling at 360 feet per second, then yes it will hurt like a mother when you get tagged by it. There were several jerkos out there with high powered guns (or markers as they prefer to be known, isn't that quaint?) and yes, they did hurt to get hit by. Normal speed for the paintballs is around 240 fps and they did have a cool little range area to check and make sure you weren't waaaaay over or way under (like my first gun was). Some people did not, apparently, take advantage of the range to play nice.

Second, it is far more strenuous then you might think to engage in shoot 'em up games with paintballs. I've talked to a couple of the guys who played and we're all sore, sore legs, sore arms, sore whatever parts got marked. But it is also far, far more fun than I think any of us anticipated. Another outing is already in the works and this time we'll be much better prepared.

Third, no, it isn't a cheap way to spend a day. But you definitely get what you pay for, the games are intense, the rushing adrenaline, the sting of a paintball, the joy of it not bursting on you (thus magically extending your game life), the thrill of opening up on a crouched over runner as he manuvers around to try and flank your position. There's alot of sweating involved, there's a lot of diving, crouching, ducking and covering and tense standoffs with volleys of paintballs.

So, about the games we played themselves. Its not just a typical capture the flag style game. There were several different games we played, from a double elimination reds against yellows to The Alamo of Texans vs. Santa Ana's finest (this is always a losing battle for the Texans but that didn't make it any less fun).

Some pics of the place and the injuries sustained there.
Paintball Arena, Left Side of Arena, Neck Shot, Close up of Neck Shot, Close up of Body Shot and Body Shot.

Overall, it was a superb time, I wish my gun had been functioning better earlier in the day (they had to give me another one because I wasn't getting much more than 120 fps out of it and that meant I could watch the balls hit the ground fifty or seventy feet away). Once I had the new gun, I was alot more dangerous and that made the games far more fun.

I think everyone who went had as much fun as I did. And then we proceeded to Monterey where I got far too intoxicated for words (didn't help that we sort of forgot to have dinner) and was put down a little after midnight but not before horking up pretty much everything that had been in my stomach up to that point (sorry Tim, I know that sucked to find on the room's floor). And I got to spend almost all day yesterday hungover and camped out in the big bean bag chair watching football and groaning.

And we are definitely going to go back down and get some more paint spilling action on soon.

Bonus Pics: New York and Maine pics from last weekend. I was going to try and storyboard them out but just don't have the time right now. Maybe I'll get to it later but most likely not.