So I thought I’d put a blog down. Why not right? It’s only been like ten days. But I still can’t muster up anything so I thought I’d share one or two old myspace blogs

you guys should check out some of my old myspace blogs. God, I read some of them and I can hear the naivete in them. When I still felt super optimistic. When my latest project was the only thing there was.

I miss that person a lot sometimes. I miss that love.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Something Lost and Now Is Found
Current mood:contemplating sadness and TV

You know my favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer– yeah that’s right I said it– my favorite Buffy is the musical one. It’s really cool. but maybe its because i really enjoy musicals. yep thats me get used to it. plus i have such a vivd memory about talking about it with a friend with whom i miss so very much. i should call that person if the number is the same and if that person welcomes my voice or if i’m ready. although i’m not sure what i’m preparing for. i hate and love old tv shows especially the ones i can associate memories with because it fills me with some type of sadness and happiness. its a nostalgic feeling because i can remember when the episode was new and it makes me feel like i’m getting old. haha some people determine time by hours, days, months, years. I determine it by tv shows past. you know i didn’t intend this blog to be so long because all i wanted to say was that the musical buffy is my favorite buffy but i didn’t know how much memory i tied up with that one particular episode. i often wonder if i’m the only person that feels like this about old tv shows and how a plesant memory can be tied to it. I find myself wondering if that particular person is thinking about me; at least sometimes.

Thursday, February 17, 2005

ah dunno
Current mood: depressed

I feel sick. Like i have eaten too much and now i need to pee. I can’t pee though. I feel as if i’m going to jump out of my skin. I’m not on drugs. I feel seasick. i shake involuntarily; I stay as still as I can and i notice it. I need to take a shit but i don’t. I don’t want tomorrow to happen yet. not until I get some answers. Late Nite is on but I don’t care. Jay Leno isn’t that funny but I won’t stay up for Conan. At least not tonight. I feel like giving up on some goal I haven’t even visioned. I need a hand but don’t expect one, though i know i have two. I need to talk and not to this computer but to some type of human. i want to spill my guts– metaphorically of course. I want to squeeze out this anxiety and fear of pain from my heart and feel light again because i feel so heavy. give me an ekg to show the palpitations of just desire. Desire such a cause for suffering and all the time i wish to just not care to put my fist into a face and not hurt to be such an asshole all the time. the minutes waste and i know there is much i can do with them but when i rise i cannot breath and i take deep breaths and exhale long sighs. i wish i didn’t know what a sigh was. i wish i could cry but they don’t come out even when i poke my eye. there is a difference to being alone and feeling alone.

and I add this last because I think it shows how best I was at being a fresh naive kid, that paintball made me so happy it was all I needed. I miss that David

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Augest? anyway, new trigger frame fo’ my spyder shutter…
LOVE this piece of kick ass machinery!!! awesome! I just put an electronic trigger on my paintball gun and it will kick ass on the 21st of august!

Sorry if you can careless and that by reading this blog i have wasted 30 seconds (or 1 minute, or two, or three, depending on how fast you can read…) of your time… but awesome if i can find a pic i’ll show it here:

can’t find a pic yet

Copyright 2008 DAP All right reserved. all other copyrights and/or trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Well, I’m back from Phoenix. For those of you that don’t know, the PSP which is a national paintball tournament series, held its first of the 2009 season in Glendale, AZ. There aren’t any pictures just up yet so in the later days I’ll update this post with pictures.

The event went well with great weather, the new format not too far different but in the elements that were drastically changed, the changes were jarring for both the referees and the players. The format which is now called Race2-2/4/5/7 depending on division unifies the format a little more than previous seasons but in my opinion doesn’t do enough. I say drop Race2-4 and stick with Race2-2/5/7, let skill of player be the division, not the game. Also, I think the format needs a catchy name and that collegiate needs to get in line with the new formats. I joke with the collegiate teams, but its all love.

The vendors area was lacking but that was expected for the first event in a troubled economy. I do think that the PSP should relax its vendor pricing for the year and hit the advertising side a lot harder to make it up. Tier the vendor pricing; lowest cost to local shops, next lowest to small vendors that are not local, and lastly the heavy hitter manufacturers. Also, an overall discount if the vendor agrees to pay for all events.

Refereeing went well. I’m sure that some teams aren’t very happy, some even believing the refs were out to get them but from what I saw, I thought the refereeing was great considering the late rulebook to learn, new penalty system and other things.

Now I’m back home in sunny SoCal readying up for the next paintball tournament. Congrats to whoever took 1st in each division as I seriously don’t even know.

shout out to all the photogs that I see and have gotten to know over the years and events: Patty and David of Southsideimages.com, Gary from paintballphotography.com, Jim and the make it to sunday dudes from makeittosunday.com and of course Kat from katspix.com. you’re all awesome!

Copyright 2008 DAP All right reserved. all other copyrights and/or trademarks are property of their respective owners.

With the death of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) a staple in the gaming space, it has left me wondering: is print dying?

I used to do a paintball magazine called Loaded. It was a great magazine but it failed for many reasons but one of the big reasons was that our readership and the paintball

photo credit: mugley

community are more inclined to read up on everything paintball related on the internet. In fact somewhat recently two paintball magazines went kaput, Paintball Sports Magazine because of a bankruptcy and Splat Magazine which really just moved to a online distribution called Splat XD

Is it becoming that most people find that the ease of the internet has them purchasing subscriptions to print publications or just purchasing a particular issue less? And with broadband internet finding its way into more and more homes can print publications compete with the rich media that the internet can provide?

I for one like to feel something in my hands. Something that now is out can’t be messed with unless its taken from me personally and destroyed, whereas on the internet someone can tell me about some great– albeit– inflammatory editorial but I have no guarantee that it’ll still be there. Once I have those words on paper, they’re there for-ev-er, for-ev-er.

what do you think? take my poll: With the death of Electronic Gaming Monthly, do you feel print publications are dying?

Copyright 2008 DAP All right reserved. all other copyrights and/or trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Good will and fortune decended on those who particpated in the 3rd Annual Toys for Tots paintball tournament on December 7th, 2008. As teams battled it out for glory and prizes, there were only winners as every participant was a part of something special; making sure a child less fortunate would have a toy for Christmas.

Thirty teams contributing more than 300 toys played paintball at Hollywood Sports Park in Bellflower, CA spreading holiday spirit from the field and in the parking lot. Battles between teams were fierce but hearts were open as many players and spectators were seen with smiling faces. Many were in awe at the amount of support they were able to help build for a charity tournament. Even in these hard times, paintball players were able to make things happy and every person there at the tournament were true ambassadors for paintball.

Those teams that survived the gauntlet in both open division and rookie division played til the end wininng Trophies and great prizes from some of the best paintball businesses and companies out there. Without sponsor the Toys for Tots paintball tournament wouldn’t be much. Sponsors like:

PBGateway.com

Eclipse

JT

Spyder

Hundredth Monkey

APXGear.com

Katspix.com

Sadistix Paintball

Make It To Sunday

Magnitude Paintball

As the day dwindled down into night, three teams from each division left with prizes and trophies. they teams were:

  Open Division:

1st. Team unknown- LA Distraction

2nd. Rockstar Factory

3rd. LA Crusaders

4th. Brotherhood

 Rookie Division

1st. Double Tap

2nd. Hot Boyz

3rd.

4th Redemption

Thanks to all the Volunteers and Referees for making it an outstanding event. Happy Holiday and see ya next year!

thanks to Chrono300.com and Titanium Sportz for the pictures

So I got back in Sunday night so dead tired, voice incomprehensible and eyes like lead curtains. But I was hungry so I ate me some Albert’s!

Anyway, I was in San Diego this weekend (and if you followed me on twitter you probably would know that. www.twitter.com/daveydz3 ) for the last NPPL event of the season called Commander’s Cup. So named after Commander Mo of Motown fame. Pretty good event but long days where us refs weren’t scheduled to be done until well late in the evening. The weather was nice with a sun beatdown and most of the players behaved themselves.

My field was angel field and I thought I had a pretty good crew. Yeah some debates and yeah I’m sure some bad calls but that is paintball. Probably the hardest game to referee. But anyway, enough about paintball and enough about refereeing,

I am home and I get a much needed rest. Toys for Tots Tournament at Hollywood Sports December 7th! Comin soon!

Better Blogs coming soon…

Well its been four years. A little more than that because this blog is a few days late.

I wasn’t sure if I should blog about it. I’m still not sure, its kinda personal.

You see about 4 years ago my friend Jason Casteneda died. A car accident you see.

He is the reason paintball is for the better part of the new millenium’s first decade, my life. He was a loving father, a good friend, a rowdy person who loved life and who I envied in that he just seemingly got what he wanted. We were friends, pretty good ones at that but I was the friend he went to when he was tired of his usual friends. I was a getaway, and he was for me as well. Our common interest, paintball kept our friendship alive and we had grand desires of starting a paintball team and of starting and owning a paintball field.

There was a time when we walked from his house to an In-n-out that was probably like at least three miles away and on our way we just chewed the fat, shot the breeze, shared dreams. We would look at the empty lots, the barren brown parcels of land scattered with oil pumps and defunct machinery and we would envision the paintball field that would go there. Woodsball, speedball, we’d have it all. We came across this pedestrian bridge in construction at the intersection of Telegraph and Norwalk and we stopped our walk to toss quarters down the bridge to see how far they’d go. when we were done with that we continued out walk to In-n-out yeah, to there but really we were aimless. This is what we did when I wasn’t with my main friends, and he wasn’t with his. Of course we called my mom after we ate to pick us up because, fuck that, we were done walking haha.

At his wake, his family and friends spoke. Anecdotes and what not a few words here and there. I had something in mind but I didn’t say anything, only a few knew that Jason and I were friends. The ones that matter knew and I was fine with that. I was fine with being the friend he needed to re-energize his other friendships.

To this day, I still feel like he is there, a phone call away, until I remind myself of his death, that the only time I can see him are in the few pictures I have, or on the inside of my eyelids; close them and the memory movie starts. It still feels like a shock to my system.

The smallest things can spell your end, a blown out tire in his case, a piece of food, a brain aneurysm. Things that don’t give you the chance to put affairs in order, events where you are there one moment, gone the next. So I see that these are things we can only avoid to a certain extent, we must live our lives to the fullest, carpe diem and all that and I can easily say I’ve failed at this a few times but I understand that it must be a priority.

Anyway, really other than me being back from Orlando, there isn’t much to say about it. I got a bottle of Johnnie Walker red label from a rookie referee. I guess he learned a thing or two from me and thought he’d be gracious. Thanks Jim.

What I really wanted to share was this trippy dream I had when I was in Orlando. It goes kinda like this (my memory plays its tricks and it wasn’t exactly like how I’ll describe.):

I can see a crowd of people off in the distance maybe a mile or two away, and they gather around an object and as I get closer I make out its shape. Its a flying saucer, a spaceship, iconic and classic it spins on the ground and just as the crowd can lay a hand on it, it shoots up into the sky becoming some sort of boxy helicpoter.

I find myself on a grassy hill watching the boxy helicopter like alien spaceship being chased by news helicopters and the military helicopters. suddenly I find myself aboard the alien craft. It looks to me like a diving board towards the clearest pool and its all white. there are no distinguishable attributes. I suddenly find myself falling paralyzed into the liquid. It smells like plastic and rubbing alcohol and I breathe it in as I sink but it doesn’t hurt. I close my eyes.

I then open them and find myself floating in the air, flying if I may, and there I see the others who fell before me, I see some recognizable faces. there’s Philip, a fellow referee, and there’s Garren, my scorekeeper. We fly around with new found powers of flight obviously, and super punches and invulnerability. We fly around punching each other and laughing. then we meet the dude driving the thing and to my surprise he isn’t an alien species but a Mexican (maybe he is an alien?) and he hands me a little red book with gold trimmed pages. I think of it as an alien bible. we all then lose our powers. I feel sad but I come to terms with it.

I find myself walking through a parking lot and I come across Morrissey, yeah that Morrissey, and he tells me that the alien spaceship thing was a hoax. He told me to look in the book and I would see. So I did and i saw a pen sketch of some odd things but I noticed my last name, Philip’s last name and Garren because I can’t ever remember his last name. So I dunno where Garren is but Philip and i investigate this lead, which turns out to be something with our ancestors so we go to the grave yard and find the headstone of Philips great aunt, Anne Arnold. We look at her tombstone and see that its littered with trash, beer cash, boxes, what not and I move some trash over with a stick to see her name and maybe some more details when all of a sudden a purple or maybe a blue Cadillac comes zooming through the graveyard. Philip jumps out of the way and I kinda do but hit the windshield. i see the driver and its that damn Mexican and well I think he MexiCAN’T kill me. Just then he runs into a tree. Philip and I go over to see the damage and we sorta climb through the windows to see the man, but then suddenly he grabs both of us.

The Mexican pulls out a can of mace and sprays us both in the eyes and we scream but then I’m able to rub out the mace and I grab his head and I slam it into the steering wheel until he can’t carry on anymore, then Philip and I open his eyes and spray concentrated amounts of mace into his eyes, and he screams unbearably into the sky. He has been put down. finally a lady cop in tan comes and takes him away. seems this whole alien thing was just a ruse to get back at us for something our ancestors did. Oh wells

So then i find myself in a building, ready to play paintball it seems and I can’t remember if she, Kaarin I mean, is on my team or against but I remember her get up and green and black beanie. The production value is amazing for this game with fog and lights and the announcer calls the team name as well as those playing and I run out and see the announcer and its Morrissey and I run up to him and tell him I fuckin’ love him and he just nods and i tell him that I was the one he warned about the hoax and thanks and then I told him seeya later, I’m gonna see how I do on this game.