Category: Sports

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Paintball Fields

The local paintball field is only about 10 minutes from my house, but with a little searching I found over 30 paintball fields just in Tennessee. That’s exciting, because playing on a new field is what makes it challenging. Besides the field looking different and having different geological aspects – rocks, ditches, shrubs and bushes, trees, there are different philosophies on how they are run by the owners and the refs.

The worst thing about the fields close to me is all the newbies – or noobs. The game does attract a lot of teenagers who act the fool. Best thing you can do is go really early – the fields usually open around 10:00 and close well before dark. Teens like to sleep late on Saturdays, so getting there early puts you in with the other more serious players.

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Paintball Challenge

Some of the guys at work are getting restless with this bad weather and talking about doing something fun to get out of the house and work off some steam. This weekend won’t work – everyone has big plans for Super Bowl parties and the sales manager is even going to the game in Tampa, the lucky dog.

When I want to get outside, hunting, fishing and golf are always options but they are so slow paced I don’t really feel like I’ve gotten any exercise. We want to do something active, so I’m pitching the idea of a paintball tournament. We can make up two teams from the operations side of the company against the sales side of the company and meet up on the paintball field to have some fun.

If you like paintball you probably have bought some of your own gear, although the paintball fields have gear for you on site to use for the day. But when I got started a few years ago, I wanted my own gun and found everything I needed on the internet, especially on the ultimatepaintball.com site.

There are complete kits and all kinds of accessories, like masks, gun stocks, scopes, gear bags, etc.  These are for the serious paintballer and for the beginner, too. They have all the top selling brands of paintball guns, including:

  • Tippmann
  • Smart Parts ION
  • Spyder (my favorite – the MR2)
  • Empire
  • BT Paintball
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Choosing the Right Skateboard Parts

Once I started reading up on skateboards I got really into it. I’ve still got my last skateboard from when I was kid. Well, it’s stashed at my mom’s but I still have it until she decides to clean out the garage.

Anyway, my old board pales in comparison to the new designs and components for putting together today’s boards. If I was going to make my own board now here is what I need to choose and pull together:

  • Skateboard Deck – getting the right size is critical
  • Set of Two Skateboard Trucks for mounting the wheel
  • Set of Four Skateboard Wheels
  • Set of Eight Skateboard Bearings (2 per wheel)
  • Mounting Hardware
  • Grip Tape to Slip-proof the Deck
  • Skate Key/Tool

Optional:

  • Skateboard Riser Pads
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Custom Skateboards

My sister called this morning and invited me to her son’s birthday party next week. She can’t do it this weekend because of the Super Bowl, so they picked next Thursday for the celebration. Part of the reason they picked Thursday is because they booked a suite at the Sommet Center for the hockey game that night against the Anaheim Ducks. There is a family joke about the Mighty Ducks, but that’s another story.

I’m not sure what to get this kid for a cool birthday present. He’s turning 8 and is just a typical eight year old – into all kinds of sports and video games. Uncle Adam’s present has to be awesome! I’m thinking it might be a good time to introduce him to skateboarding. I think that’s about the age when I first got interested in the sport. Of course, things have changed since I was riding skateboards. The boards themselves are much more tekkie and its all about a custom designed board.

The best web site I can find about skateboards is called www.warehouseskateboards.com. I’ve been reading up on their page “Skateboard Buying Guide” about skateboard basics and how to choose the right boards and components based on age and size. They also have some really wild designs for a huge selection of boards.

If I order it today I can get it shipped here in time for the birthday party, so looking at their choices for a longboard complete package, I’m going with the rad “Blind Reaper” design. This will blow his mind!

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Boating After Dark

My grandmother has a little condo down in Florida on the Gulf Coast and she just bought another little fishing boat to take out in the canals and Everglades. She has always loved to go fishing but she also likes to just cruise along watching for wildlife, like American Bald Eagles, manatees and dolphins.

She’s promised to take me out on the new boat when I come down for a visit during spring break. I asked her if she has the boat fully outfitted yet and she told me that she still needs a spotlight and backup motor. I might be able to help her out with the spotlight. I’d like to get her something nice as a thank you gift for having me stay with her in March.

My dad told me about a good web site called www.magnalight.com to get boat and truck lights, so I’m clicking over there for a bit. Just have to decide if I want the light shipped here so I can take it down there with me, or should I just have it sent right to her. The site has a special offer of free shipping on orders over $200 and they take all the major credit cards, including Paypal.

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One and Done

With a heavy heart I am writing this to acknowledge the loss yesterday of the Tennessee Titans to the Baltimore Ravens. It was not a good game. The Titans made so many mistakes with penalties and bad decisions on the field that I was banging my head on the wall in frustration.

The worst moment in the game was when the kicker missed a 51 yard field goal attempt. We really needed that field goal to keep the game alive and it might have even won the game for us. But he missed with a wide swing to the left of the goal posts and we were crushed. Done.

Congrats to the Ravens for the win. I have to say that to be a good sport, but I also have to say that I will not be cheering for the Ravens in the next round of the playoffs. Whoever is playing against the Ravens will get my support. If I even watch that game at all.

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Go Titans!

This weekend is the sudden death playoffs for the NFL top teams. The Tennessee Titans are considered one of the best teams this year, with their 13 wins and only 3 losses in the entire regular season.

The game will be against the Baltimore Ravens. Now, the Titans don’t historically do well against the Ravens. Personally, I despise the Ravens team for being a bunch of low class thugs. But they do win football games.

Haven’t decided where I want to watch the game tomorrow. Have some invitations from friends and even a couple people from work. We’ll have to see which ones sound the best for serious football fans and not so much gossip and chatting during the game. Lots of cold beer is a must-have, too.

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Revenge on the Sabres

The Preds were in the armpit of America to play the Sabres tonight. I caught the game on Fox Sports TN. We played a good game, and won, thanks to Arnot’s and Dumont’s two goals.

Tonight’s game was nothing like the spankings we got the last two times we faced the Sabres. Just goes to show that every game is a clean slate with a chance to win. Interesting that Ellis was punished for his loss to Mason and they used Renne to defend our goal tonight instead of the starter that took Mason’s place.

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Predators at Home

Scored the most excellent free tickets to the game tonight against St. Louis. Two seats near the defending faceoff circle, right on the glass.

There were a lot of good hits – absolute bounce their faces off the glass, hard hits, right in front of us. Very electrifying and yet no one was hurt the entire game. In fact, there weren’t any fights, either. Not that you need fights for a good game. There was no score the entire game and a fight could have ended up with players in the penalty box, giving the other team a power play advantage that neither team could afford.

Ended up a tire and then a shoot out. Unfortunately, the other team had the better goalie and the Preds lost by 2. The better goalie note was a particular rub in the face of the coaching and management who let that goalie get away from us last year. Bad mistake and it bit them in the ass tonight.

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Predators on their Long Road Trip

Every year the Predators have a long road trip worked into their schedule. They go up to Canada and then work their way down the west coast, and are gone for about 2 weeks. Most of the players and coaches like it because they are from Canada (born and raised or played minor league hockey there), so they get to visit family and friends when they are not on the ice.

Traveling is very hard on people. You have time zone changes, different eating and sleeping schedules, and the food is different. There is a lot to be said about the drop in productivity when someone is suffering jet lag.

So the Preds have been doing battle with Canadians and Californians and fared OK. There are home again for a rematch with San Jose tonight. Glad to have them home.