K's World: 07/01/2005

Paintball!

Sunday was an excellent - if painful and strenuous - day. We arrived at 8:30, and left around 4:30. The venue was Ultimate Paintball, near Milton. The facility is 90 acres in size, and boasts 7 or 8 different arenas. The guns fire at a speed of 7 rounds per second, with a projectile velocity of 230 feet per second. It hurts when you get hit, but it hurts a lot more when the balls don't break at impact.

I have so many stories to relate about the good times had in the arenas...but I'll spare my readers and cut out all but the best.

The arena was called "The Slums", basically a mock village surrounded by forest. My team won both rounds ;).

There were three of us in a small area, pinned down by fire from someone hiding in a nest on top of one of the buildings. Two of their players tried to flank us in the bushes, but we took them out, losing one man in the process. I had Din lay out supression fire on the nest while I ran all the way around the area, attemping to come out behind the shooter. It worked, and I stood about 20 feet away as he called out orders to his last remaining teammate... "He went to the left, I don't know (right about now, I popped a shot right in his asscrack) whEAAARRGGGHH!!!!!". He turned around and looked at me, rubbing his sore behind, said "Nice shot man, ow!".

A classic moment.

Most people left with many bruises to mark the occasion. To be honest though, I don't have too many marks. Most of the hits I took were headshots, so the rest of my body was spared for the most part. Tom though had a monster bruise on his arm, and Paul was covered in impressive red marks.

Looking forward to next time! ;)

An elderly lady said something to me. She's of a condition where she's unable to remember my name for more than a few minutes, and often forgot I was nearby. Very kind individual, with a good heart. She said this:

"How can we do this; me not knowing who I am and you not knowing who you are. It's all over now."

It seemed so ridiculously profound that I had to write it down. Her speech seemed to transcend mere personal references to speak for the whole of humanity.

What are we, if not the passions that drive our thought?

We are slaves, you and I, and all humanity. Slaves to the world. Slaves to our passions.

Is it possible then, that by learning to control passion, an individual may then dominate circumstance? Yet the variables are infinite, taken as a whole. Spare it down to manageable chunks though, as in an individual basis. I know your passion, thus I have the means to dominate you.

Happiness. In an ideal world it exists, as an ideal in and of itself. Here though, it appears to exist merely as an idea of which we are all imperfect representations of. I bet Plato would agree. What sort of ingredients are required to satisfy such an ever elusive ideal? Many. Of course, the circumstances surrounding the various individuals in the world make globalizing most of the ingredients a silly proposition.

Nevertheless, allow me to make a proposal.

I contend that many of people search for a feeling of safety. Be that safety in the arms of another, in the arms of faith, or in a financial position, or in the very opposition to safety - engaging in unsafe activities. It's obvious, to be honest, and not really a revelation for anyone who engages in any hard thought upon the subject. Why is everyone so eager to fall in love? Because everyone wants to be loved in return. It transmits a feeling of self-worth, thereby validating our existence. By extension, making us feel safe in the knowledge that I exist for more than what I was before.

In my current position, I fear I lack the ingredients required to make any sort of representation of an 'ideal' happiness. Amusing, to be honest, considering my insistence that the only way anyone has the capacity to make another happy is to make oneself happy. Yet perhaps it's as much based in a realization that we cannot be happy, that we obtain the capacity to satisfy some sort of sad representation.

It bears consideration, anyway.

This fragment is merely a portion of a whole. Something uncomposed as of yet, and probably never will find the light of day - such are the activities of a fickle mind.

First off, I have to say that White Ninja is possibly the strangest yet among the funniest comics I've ever read. Go through the archives NOW! I swear you won't regret it.

Today our little Mexican student arrived! He's 11yrs old, named Daniel, and from the southern Yucatan area of Mexico. He's here for 4 weeks to study english. Interestingly enough, his english is already quite good! He also brought us a pile of gifts from back home :). Mom gave him a backpack for school and he was elated! Gave her a big hug and everything lol. Really nice kid, very into video games too (he just finished playing Crazy Taxi for an hour on the Dreamcast). We were showing him pictures of the places he'll be seeing, and he seems really excited about the CN Tower and Niagara Falls.

Anyhow, the next month should be interesting.

I'd like to start off by saying that I have a lot of respect for the accomplishments of the Greeks throughout the ages. But what I want to know, at the moment, is how incredibly stupid are they?

Video games have been banned in Greece from all public and private places. Meaning that fancy new cell phone with the cool game on it can net you a fine or a jail term, or how about the dvd with the promotional game on it? That already caused a 10,000 Euro fine for some poor sucker. What about the business man carrying his laptop to work? Unless he has deleted every game on that machine - including Solitaire, Freecell, Hearts, etc - he can be nailed too. The range of penalties: "offenders...will face fines of 5,000 to 75,000 euros and imprisonment of one to 12 months."

The idea is to combat illegal gambling. But I think the Greek policymakers have strayed just a wee bit with this absurd law.

Happy 138th Birthday to the greatest country in the world!

I finished off my picture week with a barrage of photos - over 40's pictures just today in fact. I tried to make a fair representation of the variety of landscape found in our large and beautiful country - but there's so much to see, I know I barely scratched the surface. The only way for anyone to truly experience Canada is to get out there and see it! I hope my gallery of photos has whetted the appetites of anyone interested in traveling across the country.

I took this picture at Vimy Ridge. This was in France, but the land is actually a Government of Canada Park. Honestly, this is one of my favorite pictures. The lady in the picture is a representative of Canada, young, weeping as she looks down toward the grave of the unknown soldier. The Vimy Ridge monument stands as tribute to those brave Canadians who fought in the First World War, and the 60,000+ who died.

I continually speak of the importance of recognizing the beauty of this country, but I hope everyone understands that it's even more important to take an interest in the history of this nation. That's why I insist of you all - get out there and learn!