In line with the extremo military related sports, how about some sky diving?  Parachuting usually is used to refer to jumping out of airplanes with the chute opening immediately.  Most military parachute drops operate this way. HALO jumps - high altitude low opening - are a little closer to skydiving though some HALO jumps require breathing gear and clothing because of the extreme altitude.

Skydiving means you jump out of the plane, fall free for thousands of feet and then open your chute.  We're talking quadruple thrills here.  First is going over the edge into the void. Then you fly free down the sky. Third is the moment before your chute yanks you - because you can never be certain it will. Fourth is hitting the ground unbroken and knowing you survived. All told - huge adrenaline rush, blown out excitement, fear and glory all in a rush to earth.

Is it dangerous? Sure thing.  Stuff happens and you can end up splatted.  But the risk is really pretty low with quality instruction and equipment, and a well-packed chute (and a secondary, of course).  People make hundreds of jumps over years safely.  Now it is true you can pick up some bruises and broken bones from a bad landing or if you get blown off target, but you could do that tripping on the stairs at home and you sure wouldn't get the incredible rush to remember while you heal up.

Are these people who actually jump out of airplanes for fun crazy or what?  No, but they may have gotten  addicted to the experience. Not only is it a huge thrill, but it can be extremely relaxing.  You sure aren't going to be worrying about the little problems when you hurl yourself out of the airplane and make the fall to earth. Skydiving takes you way out of your everyday life.

There's a dirty little secret in every extreme sport - every one of them has moments outside the ordinary - points of mind filling clarity and a thrill that only the participants can really understand and share. Like other extreme sports, skydiving is a radical experience that can change you and your life.

Paintball isn't the sport for everyone. It's mostly a guy thing and you've got to have a certain acceptance of pain.  Yeah, it's going to hurt.  Plus something's got to appeal to you about sneaking around and pretend offing other people.  It's a whole lot better though than having to do the real thing. War is not nice.

Paintball guns are often called markers for historical reasons. They were originally used. mostly by farmers and foresters, to mark trees and cattle.  They weren't real accurate and didn't have much range. Today's paintball guns are much more accurate and have longer ranges.  They use CO2 cartridges to shoot a gelatin capsule about the size of a marble that's filled with a colored polyethylene glycol paint.

Evidently the first name applied to this oddball sport was "The National Survival Game."  The early version was usually an 'every man for himself' melee.  As the game developed it got more sophisticated and a number of variations have developed.  A couple are based on 'Capture the Flag' type games with intrusions from military war game training exercises.

The two flag version requires capturing the enemy flag and protecting your own - or eliminating all your enemies depending on what rules govern eliminations/resurrections.  Once captured the flag usually needs to be hung in a specified location usually your base but not always.  The Center Flag version uses a single flag which needs to be captured and brought to the enemies base.

Elimination - kill off all the enemy who are dead when hit. Victory goes to the surviving team.

Resurrection: Yeah - live again by returning to the base camp. Could this maybe get tedious and drag things out a lot?

Now here is the baddest of all: "just Plain Crazy" (also known as the Hardcore Last Man Standing or OK Corral variation).  Everybody gets all together - and this can be done as teams or as individuals - and blasts away at each other. Nobody gets eliminated. Players take themselves out if they run out of gas or paintballs - or,  more often,  if they get tired of the pain.  Getting whacked over and over by those paintballs at close range can get real unpleasant for even the most determined macho masochist.

Did you guess that that last paintball variation is the least often played?  It's a little on the violent side. Real war is even less fun since you can get dead for real or maybe just hideously mangled.

Eventually there'll be some more on paintball - maybe paintball equipment and clothes, a look at paintball styles. Whatever.

I noticed that for some reason I have (or had) an incoming link to the site from 10ZenMonkeys.com about the Hunter S. Thompson one mann show in SF.

Now that might not mean squat to you, but Hunter is (yeah, I know he's like seriously dead but he's serious stuff and will be for a long time to come) one of the people who inspires me. He was totally batshit crazy, but he nailed it like it really was.

Hunter changed the face of journalism forever - real journalism. participant insanity. Frontal assault on reality. If you haven't read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, you need a new life. Start over from GO, and try to do a better job this time.

What you should be seeing here is that every real blogger is his heir. Gonzo, first person, what it is and what neurons it blew out.

You, as a blogger, can change reality. You can bring your very own freaking unique one-time only appearing now in this universe perspective to the cyber-world.

Do it. Screw it. Never lie. You — every one of us — is a burning arc of possibility from birth to death — we all go the same way but each path is absolutely unique — share your outrageousness - share your moments.

And if you don't know Hunter - and especially if you do — check out Raisng Hunter S. Thompson