Oh man you said "tacticool" I don't know if I can help you :p

But yeah seriously though, get what you can, you won't always find a piece that want in the color/pattern you want. I run a CB/CT gear setup because it seems to blend in well with whatever pattern I have to wear, whether it be ACU, digital woodland, or multicam. Honestly though don't freak out if you can't get everything to match up, if you are trying to emulate real deal operators, you can search for pics of them and see that even they aren't 100% pattern/color matched all the time.

Start out drinking mucho water, with a light food in your stomach. Sweat and take a break. THEN hit some Gatorade.
Snacks like bananna, yogurt and salty pretzels at half-way will keep ya going.
Remember: salt/sugars are your electrolytes, and potassium is important too.

This, I know I never get sufficient hydration regularly, so I force myself to start drinking enough water a few days before. If I know its gonna be a long game with little breaks I try to bring bananas, and if I need a boost, I bring Amp.

Well you could always just buy the real one :p

I'll be referring to this page when I post, you might want to look through it first: G18 Slide Disassembly

If you look at the 8th picture down from the top (left column) you will see a little ball, did you return that ball to the same spot when you put it back together?

Just stop by honest spazz's box of stuff, to be found at your nearest airsoft field :p

I know money is tight and the economy is bad and all that jazz, but I think you should at least try to support a good American company like Magpul. Every time you buy a knock off, how the company perceives your actions as you are giving them a big middle finger. I know it will cost more, but I try not to buy knock off gear because I want to support legit companies that come up with this good stuff in the first place. Not trying to play Big Brother here, but if you can't afford legit Magpul stuff, maybe you should put airsoft on the backburner for now and concentrate on saving up.

I actually like the idea. Its NOT blind firing, because you DO have a line of sight. You would know if somebody is at point blank range or far away. Its the same concept that surrounds the corner shot.

I don't think people would take offense when you explain it like that, they would probably call it cheap because the user would not have to expose himself in an exchange. In a regular face to face exchange, at least both sides have a fair chance to hit the other, with this I think people are calling it cheap because it gives the user the ability to fire and not worry about retaliation.

I think perspective can easily resolve this issue, but getting both sides to see the other side's point of view is what seems to be the problem here. A little bit of understanding could probably be given by the older users, but I think I share their sentiments with the phrase, "Give an inch and take a mile". A lot of the older users don't wake up in the morning and think to themselves, "Who's coffee should I shit in today?", but their tolerance for what seems to be the standard for what younger posters deem acceptable is understandably low. It wasn't something that happened overnight, we didn't all just gather at 4 Peaks one night in hooded robes decide to just turn the crotchety old man switch on and just piss all over your corn flakes. This current crop of new, young players certainly isn't the first and won't be the last group that this board has to deal with. The problem as I see it, is that a lot of the newer players don't seem to be learning the norms as it is practiced by the older AA community at large. Don't get me wrong, this isn't to say that there is an expectation that all new players will learn and integrate into the community (regardless of age), but it looks to me that we are getting lower and lower numbers of new players who seem to ingratiate themselves with the currently established AA community. The concern here is that the new generation is "doing it wrong" and that they will pass this on to other new players if no one speaks up about it. Granted, how an older generation AAer speaks up about it could be a little more diplomatic, but again experience has shown that diplomacy will be met with either apathy or outright hostility. It is an uphill battle for you new guys, because you also have to deal with all the bad experiences from the earlier groups of new people that have burned into the memories of the older guys. Initiative should be taken on both sides to engage in more civil discourse, but as it stands, you new guys definitely do have to step up, it is not fair that you are being lumped in with past groups of new guys, but that is just the way it is. Don't act like you're rocking an extra chromosome all the time and things will get better.

On a side note about the "Grammar Nazi" remarks, it is true that it can be seen as a sign of OCD when someone nitpicks a post for even minor grammatical infraction, but the perception here is that if you don't take the time to review your post before you hit the post button, then you probably didn't put much thought into your post to begin with. Why should we read something that only took you the time it takes to type it up on your smartphone and post it? I wasn't timing how long it took me to make this post, but I've read it over several times before hitting post. This all goes back to xaviermace's comment about not treating this message board as a real time chat room, you are not under the gun whenever you post here, so stop treating it like that.

I think the root of the problem is people not reading the rules. They arnt forced to or anything (hint hint). I can honestly say ive never opened any of those sticky'd rule threads, and the only reason i know the rules is because i tend to lurk before i post.

I know Mace works in IT and I can relate to his frustration, a lot of the problems would be solved if people made the effort to read the sticky threads. For example, at work I can post up guides, send multitudes of instructional emails, and even have print guides on the equipment stating how to use them, but I will still get inundated with calls for help. Now is there a better way to inform my co-workers on how to work with technology? Yeah, I can step up the training and take a very aggressive stance on user training, almost putting them through a boot camp on how to use their equipment. The point is, I shouldn't have to do that, as employees, they should take it upon themselves to do the best job that they can, and if working with technology is part of the job, then they need to put forth the individual effort to learn about it.

Mace shouldn't have to make long posts detailing why the rules are the way they are. Hell, until we all start paying for the hosting/bandwidth costs, he technically (and probably legally) doesn't have to explain anything to any of us. It seems that some people have the mentality that Airsoft Arizona is like a full service gas station, your car triggers the ringer, and 5 guys run out to service your vehicle, it isn't, you aren't paying the site owners anything. Until you do, your presence on this board is voluntary, if you don't like the way this privately owned message board (that you don't pay for) is run, feel free to go somewhere else, no one here is forcing you to login and post here.