First Blog ever

So, I'm taking a break from writing a grant proposal, and I was looking back over some paintball forum posts I've made, and I decided I want to make a blog about the sport and my life. This isn't going to be a place I come to rant, it's not a political or debating blog where I get on my high horse and berate others. This is simply a way for me to post things I find useful or interesting, a place for me to post a bit about my life, primarily my interest in paintball. This blog is going to contain reviews of paintball gear, my general impressions of the sport, stuff about my life, almost anything and everything - but I promise no politics, religion, or anything like that. There are too many useless opinions out on the net about that crap already. Nobody cares about my take.

I got engaged about a month ago to my girlfriend of 6 years, Kelsey. We couldn't be happier. Wedding planning is a bit of a tough thing for me, as I'm not a great planner, but I'm actually enjoying it. I go to school at the University of Minnesota as a PhD student in the Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer biology program. It's a LOT harder than I expected, but it's really really fun. I research Staphylococcus aureus in the lab of Pat Schlievert.

For those of you who don't know me very well I absolutely love paintball. I started playing when I was 12, living in Rochester, NY. I had a friend who played with his younger brother in the woods just behind their house and he got me into the sport. I bought a Brass Eagle Tiger Shark pump and played with them every chance I could get. I loved that thing. I moved to Florida about a year later, but kept on playing. I played all through high school moving from the Tiger Shark to a Spyder SE to a 2001 Dark Angel LCD and then to an ICD Promaster (I'm actually going to do a small review of these markers at some point). About 3 years ago, I made the switch back to pump and bought a CCI Phantom.The semi-auto play in the speedball circuit became too expensive, and to be honest, I got tired of the skate-park-rejects that came along with that play style (this isn't everyone who plays speedball, but many of the kids I played with were this way). I now play on a team in Lakeville, MN called Dead Squad. We're primarily a scenario/woodsball team, but some of the other guys like speedball/hyperball/xball as well. I'm not a great player, I never have been, but it's really fun. It's the only activity I've ever done that I enjoy everything about. I may not play speedball anymore, but if it's on TV or a tournament is broadcast online, I'm watching it.

I like to bike, to play my guitar and bass (they are still in Florida, poo ), I love to hang out with my fiancee and friends, I love to do research and I love to play paintball.

Welcome to my little, random world.