Madness.

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for a number of reasons – not just in a personal sense, but more from a perspective of the business.

On Sunday I rocked up to the field at Grenada North to find this lovely sight to greet me.

Someone between 5.30pm on Saturday and 12pm on Sunday had brought this vehicle up to the field, parked it right in front of the gate we need to get through and set it on fire.

The photo doesn’t do it justice – the tyres are melted down to the rims – and there was nothing left inside it at all.

Great when you need to get 15kg (more of less) or stuff to the top of the hill to run games.

And then there was Monday.  I was at Grenada (car since removed by WCC – thanks guys) running a game when I get a call from a Police constable from Lower Hutt.

Someone had torched the shed at the Pomare field.

Awesome, thanks guys. Just what I needed to start my week off.  And coincidence? Well you be the judge.

It’s a trend I see more and more – people using a robust, easily modified CMS to power their online experience. I use WordPress for just about everything I do online – my blog, my companie websites, etc.

The only exception to this is the forums I run at http://www.paintball.net.nz – where we are using vBulletin – but again that is another robust CMS system.

And Stick will be Captain. It will be awesome.

We started in 2005 (not long ago I realise) to play the first season of the AXL in Australia. It was a lot of fun – we pulled the best players from around New Zealand together and kicked ass for 12 months across 4 events.  We learnt a hell of a lot both as players, organisers and life in general in those trips across the Tasman – but mainly that X-Ball rocked and we were good at it.  That and the fact that some were determined to stop a Kiwi team from winning events in Australia at all costs.

So with ending the team, and erasing the presence from the online world I feel at a lost. I shouldn’t really – I haven’t had a chance to play competitve paintball since I took over running/owning TAG Paintball here in Wellington (so almost 18 months now) – but I do. The fact that some of my old team mates are still playing/just started again (you bastards know who you are) does smack of salt in a wound.  Add to the fact that I actually managed to play in the Open Day we ran a month ago – and the itch is back.

Frustration city.

So here’s the plan. I give myself six months to get the field well and truely sorted out – and then I ease myself back into some local events with a view to play 2011 properly. Sound good/fair?  I think so – heck I can probably use those 6 months to convince the wife that I should be allowed to. So if any of you clowns want in taking into consideration the timeframe specified – you know where I am.

Hell I’ve even got a new team name sorted

It’s not something I’ve had a great deal of chance to do in the last 14 months or so – since Tania and I took over TAG Paintball here in Wellington.  Sure I’ve run hundreds upon hundreds of games – seen a few thousand people through the field having fun and getting the rush you feel when you try and shoot someone with a paintball gun … but I personally had not been out on the field as a player.

I  had not realised how much I missed it.

It was a blast.  There weren’t many of us out there, but for a couple of hours we played the game the way it is suppose to be.  We stalked each other in the bush, on the speedball field, laughed, joked, gave each other shit and had good old-fashioned fun.  And I sit here with the same feeling of wondering when I’ll next get out onto the field.

I think it is something, as a field operator, that I need to do more often.  To remember why it is that I do this – to bring it back to the basics – the inner kid of running through the bush with your mates, with the adrenaline pumping – waiting for the thrill of the 10 second call to hit me again.

I can’t wait.

I am a paintball player – and this moment, right here, is my life

– Matt Marshall, Sunday Drivers

One of the things that I’ve always hoped they would do is introduce a personal book keeping system (a la MS Money) that has the same amazing functionality that the business product does.

Well Rod Drury (CEO) has recently announced this on the Xero blog.  (Followed closely by Orange Girl on their twitter feed).

To say I can’t wait for it to go live in early 2010 is an understatement – the functionality of what it will delivery in terms of us being able to truely see what is happening to our money (in a simple, graphical way) without needing to have create spreadsheets or the like.

If you’d like to see a (quick) video on the product here you go:

But I noticed something now as an adult that I never noticed as a kid.  Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a spy flick – and more importantly it’s a James Bond spy flick.  Here is the proof:

• Written by Ian Fleming
• Produced by Albert Brocoli
• Has an evil German badguy – Baron Bomburst
• Has Desmond Llewelyn in the movie – the original ‘Q’ from the 007 flicks for those who don’t recognise the name.
• Typical ‘Bond Girl’ named heroine – Truly Scrumptious
• Gadgets galore – hell the car flies, floats and does all sorts of things in between.

Now maybe I’m just a bit behind the times – but noticing all those things made me laugh.  It was, however, a bit hard to explain why I was laughing at the credits to the kids.

Finally.

Ive been a huge fan of his work – not that there has been huge amounts of it to date – since I can remember. Patrick has single handedly introduced countless people into the stories behind paintball – and not just a focus on the game of paintball.

Hes featuring a whole bunch of new players this time – Angel Ryan from Dynasty, Tyler Humphrey (Aloha Tyler), Konstantine Federov, Brian Fow – and a host of other top class players. I cant freaking wait for it to ship (Ive got 10 or so copies coming, so drop me a message if you want a copy or something).

Trailer below for your viewing pleasure.