Here is my paintball itinerary for Spring 2008. I'm desperate to get out and play. I'm saving up for an elliptical trainer to work off some of my winter weight...from the past several winters. I had to retake a physical fitness exam for the Air National Guard earlier this month and it just about killed me. You get the point...I need the exercise. More importantly I'm dying to try my SP-8, SP-1, and improved tactical ION configuration (APE board, C-Series barrel with Apex tip, fusion barrel shroud, SITH body w\stock, L7 bolt, upgraded eye, Archon gravity feed hopper, & more). I hope I can find time to play with all the tinkering I need to do.

Spring 2008 Game Dates:

Sudden Impact - Mclean, IL

First Game of the Year! - March 29th

Spring Big Game - April 26th

As I have mentioned before, Sudden Impact is my home field. I'll be playing with a group of coworkers for a day of standard walk-on play at the end of March followed by our first local scenario in April. They usually hold a pump game in March-April but I don't have the exact dates yet. This is about all my wife can handle so I might trade the scenario for the pump game.

Smak Zone Paintball - Patterson, MO

Operation: Eminent Storm VII---May 14-18, 2008

My father and a few brothers have been talking about this for months. With all of the challenges of coordinating a get together from family in several states and a variety of health, travel, financial, and work related issues; I'll not certain we can pull this off. I'm very hopeful though and I've already laid the ground work with the wife...now I just need to confirm if a few of my crew will be able to join me.

Time for a long overdue update to my paintball blog! I have actually written several updates over the past few months but I tend to email my updates to myself and then forget to add them to the blog…not that you're missing anything important. I turned 32 and passed my 12 year mark in the National Guard.

So what's new? Well obviously I added an online store to sell of the crazy amount of extra gear that I have lying around. My basement is much easier to work in now that I've trimmed down! I still have way more stuff than I need. I'm working on a free classified page. I initially tried to combine the online store with some sort of free consignment service but a separate classifieds section will work better for everyone. I also made some changed to the gallery pages to improve the load process but I still have some minor tweaks to make and I'm noticing some layout issues on older browsers.

Even though I'm trying hard to slim down, my collection seems to have a mind of its own. I picked up an SP-8, a few ION tac bodies, an L96 airsoft sniper rifle, and a broken Sidekick pump pistol. I also created a players kit with seven Tippmann XT markers that I got for super cheap. Now instead of maintaining a variety of markers for family outlaw games I can just bust out the player kit. This also opened the door for me cutting my dependency on Tippmann markers. I still have an appreciation for Tippmanns but I seem to have defected to Smart parts over the past few months.

I know I keep hinting at the future release of my own custom products. The process is taking much longer than I planned; or I should say I have less time to devote to the process than planned. I'm probably 5-6 weeks away from completing my first prototype aftermarket ION upgrade. It will then be several weeks or even months before I find\select a fabricator to manufacture the base parts. I'll actually do the finishing, assembly, and packaging myself for now. Even after all of that I'd like to release 2-3 items at the same time though development times will probably overlap. I have a suspicion that others may be working on similar designs but I hope to have something up for sale before the rest of the pack. I do think if I ever get this off the ground people will say, "Duh!, why didn't they start making these years ago". Then I'll enjoy my short run until others find a way to do it better or market to a wider audience and my work will soon be forgotten…which is totally fine by me. That's the dream anyway…

Speaking of dreams, I take my first Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) exam in two weeks! This marks the beginning of a two year education program to help me become an insurance agent. I think the insurance industry as a whole has overlooked the thousands of paintball fields and organized events. I know there are several insurance companies that market specifically to field owners but I'd like to see an industry leader offer an alternative. I'd also love to be the first virtual insurance agent…the Max Headrum of insurance…

Here are a few recent pics of the monkey on my back:

My new Gen 3 Night Vision goggles that I'm trying to sell:

L96 compared to the SP-8:

New and improved Wall of Shame: