Thank you (you know who you are)!

In most cases, before you decide to trust someone, you have some time to decide whether or not that person can be trusted. Before you hand the butcher's apprentice a meat cleaver you let him hack around with a paring knife. Before you hand out that engagement ring you allow a little time to pass in order to weed out the psychopaths. And before you turn over the keys to the nuclear power plant you do back ground checks on the new plant manager (Well, okay, maybe Homer Simpson is the exception!).

Extreme examples, but I think you get my point.

Not so at the paintball field. On nearly a daily basis I give high powered, air rifles and a hundred rounds of ammo to all ages and all manner of unknowns and then turn them loose in the woods to hunt each other down. Sounds almost crazy when I dwell on it for to long.

Of course, we do take some precautions. We vigilantly check equipment for safety and send trained observers (referees) into the woods to enforce rules.

Yet there is always some yucklehead (I just added that word to my spell check dictionary) who takes offense when I ask him to speed check his personal gun or quiz her on the safety video she just slept through! They think maybe I don't trust them.

Trust might be a given out here at the local paintball field but none of us just fell off the turnip truck. We know someone is going to try a suicide run into a bunker full of eleven year olds. Someone is going to pull off his gun plug and thrust the barrel into our face to show us the goo dripping from his barrel. And then, there is always the, "I don't need no safety briefing - I just want to shoot somebody" person!

My refs are instructed to be patient with everyone. But the yuckleheads are frustrating on so many levels. IT'S UNFORTUNATE that we have to bring EVERYONE down to the yucklehead's level since we just don't always have the time to pick and choose who we can trust.

If you are one of our more experienced players, the one who stands in the back of the crowd grinning while we brief the yuckleheads, I SALUTE your patience (This also includes players who may not be experienced but are patient and allow us time to address the yuckleheads). Believe me; it's greatly appreciated. I know of many players who have gone off to play at other fields because they took being lumped among the yuckleheads personal.

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Will work for paint...

Am I missing something, here?? I've been to a few paintball fields over the last few months where I have seen signs that read "Referees Work For Tips"! Silly me. I shelled out over $40,000 last year in referee salaries and bonuses!

Mean and grumpy???

Actually, I'll do it again this year, and do it with pride and pleasure and great personal satisfaction.

Referees work their tails off. At the ripe, old, median age of fifteen they are safety experts, customer service reps, babysitters, diplomatic aids, construction workers, marathon runners, politicians (ugghhh), technical consultants, janitors, public speakers, rule enforcers, teachers, and in many cases, human shields for 180 mph projectiles!

No one can claim they will get rich working at T-Square. For the majority of the teenagers that work here it's their first taste of employment. At $5.50 an hour it probably just covers gas (yeah, right!), new sneakers and a night out on the town (burgers and a movie) with a friend! But when they get lured away from T-Square by the big dollar employers like Burger Queen or Wallyworld they leave better people.

Damn right I pay my refs**. And teach them and feed them and entertain them and tip them with bonuses myself. Besides, I'm getting to old to be dragging my tired butt out into the woods!

Oh, and did I mention that along with the 40,000 plus dollars paid in salaries I paid nearly $10,000 dollars in various state and federal employment and unemployment taxes?

Now THAT makes me mean and grumpy!

**And, YES, T-Square refs can and will GLADLY accept any and all tips.

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Don't ask the question if you don't want to hear the answer!

I put survey polls on www.tsquarepaintball.com. Writing survey questions is an art. So much so that there are professional survey writers that make high six figure incomes just creating surveys. Surveys can be carefully written or placed in order to insure the results will be in your favor. And the opposite is true. A poorly written or placed survey can sink a battleship!

Take my last survey question for instance: "Do you think the 20 foot rule is a good rule?"

Forty percent said "yes" and forty percent said "no"!

Now you might think I would be concerned that a full forty percent of my players appear to be unhappy with this particular T2 rule. But consider the placement of this poll. A large majority of the people who regularly check out the T2 web page are regulars who tend to be advanced or tournament players (who are a small minority of the T2 player population). Imagine how different the results would be if I placed the survey in a way that insured a majority of birthday and church group players responded!

I could have written the survey question in a different way. Instead of "Do you think the 20 foot rule is a good rule?" I could have written "Do you think the 20 foot rule is a good rule for rec (recreational) ball players?" The results would have been much different and I wouldn't have had to deal with comments like:

"NONONO - Forget the 20 foot rule. Its for wimps! If you ever play a real tournament you will hate the 20 foot rule. It should be banded forever!!!!"

or

"20 foot my a$ - there is no need to have a rec ball style field and have tourney players on it. it only lowers your (the tourney player's) standards and your effectiveness in a real tourney style or X-ball game so all you wimps, pansy's, fruits, or old school refs with that 20 foot bull leave it to the parents and mick who need it"

Comments, by the way, that remind me why I detest tournament player mentality.

Peace. Out!

Mick (wimp) Gray

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Chevys and Fords...

"Hey, Mick! How come you don't sell Timmys??"

I have a bad habit of answering a question with a question sometimes. Some might pause and take a long couple of breaths before tackling "one of those" questions. Me? I don't have the patience. But I don't want to be rude, either.

Hence, my reply, "Why doesn't the Chevy dealer sell Fords?"

Anybody else ready for some cooler weather??

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