In a world of Flywheels, HvZ, Homemade NIC mods, aggressive paint, Cpvc barrels, Hopper and RSCB feeders there come a guy who says "Fuck all that noise."
At first he seems foolish, loud, cocky, old and isn't it strange that a 39 year old plays Nerf? "What is he trying to do? Pen feed his blasters, that's so dated!" I was doing that back in 1993 and who wasn't, single shot ABS barreled blasters, why take us back Chris? His video's are full of such frightening manic alcoholic dysfunction that the first time I saw a Chris Cartaya video I could not sleep the whole night. I was awake partially out of fear and partially wondering "What happened to this cool guy I met back when he was a Mormon?" But there was a reason, let me explain.
I first met him back in 1998, back when I was working offsite for an aerospace company waiting at an airport. I ran into this kid, round 20ish, coming back home to Christmas from Utah wearing a Big, loud green "I'm obviously a Fucking Mormon" BYU tee shirt. "Hahh a Moonie" I thought! "Lets fuck with him, he's really asking for it." So he gets something to drink at a bar, a coke of all things, obviously following the LDS church word of wisdom that pushes memebers not to drink alcohol or Coffee. And I sit down the bar 2 seats away. "You should get something that will put hair on your chest boy, let me get you a beer!"
After that it was his big speech about his grandmother who was an alcoholic, how "He never wants to go that route." He was a square, unconfortable short brown hair man, just under 6 feet tall and somewhat annoying at times. Really out of place in Las Vegas, but I could tell that he knew and that he was trying to just get by.
"So how about red stripe airlines" he said continuing with a quick blurt "know anything?" I laugh, knowing I was waiting for one of those planes to go work on a project that had gone over-budget, delayed, changed 3 times by 5 generals and all and all will never work.
"Ha, don't get me started" I said he quickly interrupts saying, and this line I remember word for word to this very day.
"Oh no-no, I don't believe 51 is about aliens or some conspiracy, it's just a working environment to build things unwise to build in the public or for the public but is needed to avoid the scrutiny of others for it's best use and success.
Wow, he gets it, so I told him to leave the red stripe planes be, none of his business and we talked for a few hours, fascinating kid, wanted to be a Engineer, lots of experience in molded parts and complex projects growing up with Dad. He actually met my old boss and the only guy we knew in common that he could describe in detail, the late Lockheed Cheif engineer back when I started working at Skunkworks. I was floored! He knew so much from meeting him one day when he was a kid.
So after a few hours and me tossing a few Corona's, it was off to Burbank Airport Chris went, we shook hands and I wished him well, I felt he had a bright future ahead of him, "Nice kid, Cool guy, Needs go get drunk, bad!"
I felt wrong, the guys life appears to be a disaster, I have yet to ask why, but the contrast of who Chris was then and is now in mind-boggling. Can life indeed get that shitty?
So I see nothing of Chris until the infamous "PVC Nut-bags" statement made while he was fighting about a modded Retaliator. "It's can't be him I thought"
Yep, it's him, what the hell is he doing? I have been following him ever since, a reminder perhaps that certain rules in Nerf, truely can slide and that it is all about fun and personal preference. He get's one thinking?
Were Captain slug and Kane wrong in the direction of Nerf and if so why? Why not push a Firestrike or a Retaliator? Is a home-made that much better and if so why? Why hasn't Nerf moved up as fast as airsoft?
Next post, hopefully more of the story and a true evaluation of Chris's blasters from my standpoint
Nerfer X.
No comments:
Post a Comment