Popcorn and paintball...

When people ask, "Why can't I bring my own paintballs to your field," our typical response is a question - "Do you bring your own popcorn to the movies?"

"Uhhhh, yeah. I do"

Some get it. Some don't.

Let's try some new ones:

Do you take your own oil to an oil change?
Do you bring your own bucket of balls to the driving range?
Do you bring your own drinks to a restaurant?

I've heard of people who keep their fast food drink cup and bring it with them for refills each time they visit.

Maybe I'm the one that doesn't get it!

Read more...

And now, a word from Miss Manners...

Everyone knows not to eat with their mouth open or check their cell phone in a theater. Heck, even redneck etiquette is pretty clear - Don't take a beer to a job interview and always identify people in your yard before shooting at them.

But what about paintball etiquette?

1. Never shoot more paint than you would want returned.
2. Dads - don't hog the flag pulls.
3. Don't leave you marker exposed on the back seat of your vehicle.
4. Don't hold up the group to work on your marker.
5. Plug (or cover) you barrel and raise your gun when hit.
6. Check for your opponent's gun plug before shooting at him.
7. Keep your staging area picked up and organized.
8. Never fire, even dry fire, in the staging area.
9. Always introduce yourself when joining a group.

Maybe you have some more to offer. E-mail me or comment.

Read more...

Snif. Phew. Snif...

I don't suggest you show up at the field with something like this but I thought it too funny to not mention.

Read more...

Cha-ching...

Just found out the price of the new DYE Rotor loader. $149.95!

Yikes.

Read more...

Looking good...

All the cool new paintball stuff use to be premiered at the International Amateur Open Tournament. Since it went belly up the World Cup is now the place to show off. This year people tell me excitement was hard to come by in the vender's area. Probably due to the slow economy and slow down in paintball. The most talked about new product was DYE's new loader dubbed the "Rotor". I mentioned it a few posts ago.








Another that I think is interesting is a new pack from Medusa (?) paintball. It's called the EV 800 (or 1500 - depending on the size). I can't seem to find any decent pictures but if you go to WARPIG you can find it and many other items pictured and talked about.


As usual there was clothing, clothing, clothing everywhere - $90 jerseys, $130 tourney pants and $25 T-shirts around every corner. Seems no matter how poor the economy people insist on looking AGG in the latest trends. With no money to play we can at least all look the part.

Read more...

Volunteers?

The Big Game is only a few weeks away. Details can be found at www.tsquarepaintball.com - I plan to be way strict on keeping the teams even this year. I have had trouble during the last two games with people manipulating the teams.

I always try to down play the winning and losing in order to keep the game as relaxed and as fun as possible - to the point where I always pick the game leaders on the day of the game so there can be no serious pre-planning.

Out of fairness to the same few players that get "forced" to volunteer each year I am putting out the request ahead of time for a team leader and 2 squad leaders per team. I just need team leaders. Don't volunteer with plans to bring your posse with intentions of dominating the game. Groups will be divided. Plan on playing against your friends.

I've hosted two big games every year for the past 12 years. Each one has been better and bigger and more fun then the last except for the last two. I will make T2 Big Games fun again, even if I have to piss off a few gung-ho, win at all cost, playing in the "gray area" players.

Read more...

The same attributes???

I don't know what to think about this one:

The National Professional Paintball League is pleased to announce that the U.S. Air Force has signed on as a Non-Paintball Sponsor for the NPPL San Diego event.

The mission of the Air Force is to fly and fight in Air, Space and Cyberspace. To accomplish this mission, it takes a team of highly motivated and highly dedicated individuals all working toward the same goal. Both paintball and the Air Force require their participants and Airmen to be able to communicate with their teammates, employ strategy and tactics and be able to make decisions that will lead their team to success. The athletes that participate in the National Paintball finals have the same attributes as those the Air Force looks for to serve this great nation. The Air Force is excited about being a part of this action-packed event and wish all the teams the best of luck!

Once I finish choking on my Mountain Dew I'll try to come up with something.

Read more...

Duh!?

Someone stole a one of a kind, prototype Tippmann marker from World Cup today. What in the world can you do with a one of a kind, prototype?

Read more...

Look! Up in the air...

See those teeny, tiny dots just above the trees in the picture. They're Navy F-18 Blue Angel Hornets. Working weekends means not being able to go to the air show held each year (Now every two years) at Little Rock Air Force Base - located just five miles away behind the field.

But that doesn't mean we don't get to see some of it. All week long we are in the flight path of some pretty exotic aircraft. The B2, F117, C17, vintage war birds. Screaming or chugging through the air.


The sounds of freedom. Cool stuff.

Read more...

Something new?

Here's a teaser ad for Dye's new loader - the Rotor. It will debut this weekend at World Cup. I was given a sneak peak direct from DYE. Of course PBNation already had a thread with over a thousand looks. I feel so special.

EDIT: More info here.

Read more...

Reality check...

Could not have expressed it any better myself: What's used paintball guns worth?

Read more...

Help...

Hey, my free AOL Web Builder site has closed down so I moved to another site. Some are telling me the link doesn't work and others are telling me the layout is scrambled when it does come up. If you don't mind, jump over to www.tsquarepaintball.com and tell me what you get (not looking for a critique right now. Just wondering about access and appearance). Let me know in an e-mail or use the poll below. Thanks, much.

Does the link work?
	No
	Yes, looks ok.
	Yes, but looks scrambled.
pollcode.com free polls

Read more...

Free...

Tippmann is really reaching out for customers. Buy a Model 98 and they will rebate you with a $20 gas card. It's all part of their "Free Way to Play" promotion. And speaking of free way to play, our "Free" Big Game - Alien Contact is coming up on Sunday, November 23. No field fee, no rental - just buy our paint. Details will be on the web site soon.

Read more...

What's new with you?

Got a "state of the union" type e-mail from K2/JT/Viewloader/WGP a few days ago. The economy is down, the paintball industry is in a slump, less people are playing and less people are buying, woe is me, we are all going to the poor house.

Only this one ended on a positive note. "New and exciting products will be coming soon!" Which got me thinking. What has come down the line lately that might be considered new and exciting?

MILSIM is still scary and already considered boring. High end is ho-hum with only high priced vanity guns to pick through. (You know, the stock guns that are "uppriced" cause they are "upgraded" and anodized in some bizarre, hardly comprehensible or recognizable pro-team design.) Low end electronic markers continue to be advertised as if they were just thought of and designed yesterday. Even the R.I.P. ION keeps coming back buried underneath new layers of plastic.

New and exciting? The Pinokio?

Weak!

Read more...

For sale: Pastorivo's Palace!

This may not seem important to most but it caught me by surprise. Gino Postorivo started National Paintball Supply in a corner of his father's restaurant and in a few short years had this brand new, state of the art building to show for his efforts. It was one of the first, if not the first, building/showroom/warehouse to be built specifically for paintball. Everything was designed from the ground up to provide environment friendly paint storage and speedy delivery of product.

Gino was/is a nice enough guy but he managed to step on a few toes along the way. Some say it was jealousy among his competitors that led to him being fired when Kee came in and merged Pursuit Marketing, Inc. (PMI) with National.

What ever the case, Gino's "Camelot" is for sale - a bit of nostalgia. A product that resulted from more innocent times.

Was paintball better then? Or now?
	Then
	Now
	It's the same
pollcode.com free polls

I love paintball, but paintball hates me...: Gino who?

Read more...

Ring. Ring...

"Okay. Thanks for the information. Who am I talking too?"

"No problem. My name is Mick"

"Say again."

"Mick. My name is Mick"

"Rick?"

"No. Mick"

"Dick?"

"No. Mick. With an 'M'. Like Mantel"

"Oh. Okay. Talk to you later, Nick."

CLICK

Crap

Read more...

You never know what you might find...

I'm a computer/internet/teckie geek in training. I'm not doing so good. Twenty six years ago I thought I was an Einstein, taping out a code in Basic on the chicklet keyboard of a Timex-Sinclair. A couple of years later it was a Commadore 64 (that's 64 as in 64 kilobytes of ram - compared to the computer I'm using now - about a gazillion bytes.

Between then and now everything is a blur. I have no idea how to work an IPod, got a cell phone just a year ago and have used it three times (It has text option. Who knew!?), can't tell the difference between a Blackberry and a rutabaga and don't even get me started on TiVo.

Anyway, what got me started was discovering my blog traffic counter has an option to look at keywords and phrases people have used to find this site or stumble upon it as the case may be.

One that got me laughing was "paintball field business plan." I'm sure they left disappointed. It has been 15 years and I still don't have a clue. Another was "big balls." I wonder if they were really looking for a paintball link? And then there was "square paintballs." Maybe they got a bad box.

The kicker was this one; "video alligator climbing over a chain link fence."

Yup. Takes you right to this post;

http://tsquarepaintball.blogspot.com/2007/11/travelin.html

Read more...

Ultimate sacrifice...

Well...my free "Ultimate" field status has come to an end at my PBNation field and store listing site. The free offer was meant to entice me into paying for instant field status. I guess this means my field and store is no longer the ultimate or even the premier place to play or shop in Arkansas.

But hey, there is always Billy Bob's Podunk Paintball Field and Store just down the road. No nets or gun plugs and he sells off the tailgate of his truck but he managed to save up and send off his $299 a year to be listed as an ultimate field.

Sour grapes, anyone?

Read more...

Have I got a deal for you...

It's hard to figure people sometimes. While it's true what they say, "If a deal seems too good to be true it probably is," I'd like to think I've developed enough credibility that any deal I might offer would be considered a good deal.

For example - the Black Max marker that I gave away during my "Keep the Gun" tournament turned out to be a nice little marker. I have a few left so I added a mask and CO2 tank and marked them up just a bit and have them for sale for $45. Now, that's a pretty good "to good to be true" price if I do say so myself. A decent little buddy gun, CO2 tank, mask, hopper, gun plug - heck the CO2 tank even comes filled.

But 45 dollars? There's got to be something wrong with it.

Like many good deals I have tried to pass along to my customers I may have to raise the price before the Black Max deal will sell. It has happened before. A deal that appears too good to be true often sells better when I raise the price to a more "believable" amount.

If you think you might like one and find that it's marked $55 offer me $45. You never know.

Read more...