Rogerborg

Mostly verboten, heretic. Spirits are better, and you can make trash wine from low-sugar cranberry / raspberry juice and vodka. Just be aware that alcohol trumps both fat and carbs as an energy source, and at 56 calories a unit it can add up fast. Madhouse is right, it's all about calories in versus calories burned, and keto low carb works well because it cuts out a lot of empty calories while not leaving you hungry. I'd emphasise that latter part, it's remarkable just how little hunger I feel now, with zero snacking or cheating other than some weekend alcohol. Mrs Borg bought some doughnuts and put them in the fridge, and - hand-on-heart - I found that I could reach past them without feeling any temptation to sin. Oh, I should have mentioned, I'm also cycling a fair bit, both real world, and an indoor exercise bike. I'm putting in a quick 5k as I type this, with keyboard and mouse on a board cable tied across the bars. Indoor means fewer chances to make excuses, and easier to get into a routine - I get on it before logging in each morning.

Why avoid promoting something that works? If you want to lose fat, the only way to do it is to go into ketosis. It's not scary witchcraft, it just describes the state of burning fat instead of carbs for energy. You can do this by either exercising enough to burn all the carbs that you've eaten (congratulations, you are now in scary-ketosis), or by eating less of them in the first place. If it helps, stick a different label on it: low-carb diet, paleo diet, or whatever you fancy. It doesn't mean zero carbs, you'll always get some, it's just about keeping them low. There's nothing healthy or necessary about sugar (including fruit / "natural" sugar), bread, pasta, crisps, chocolate. You can make an argument for some carby fruits and veg, but if you eat them, you'll need to burn those carbs off, and there's very little in in there that you can't get through vitamin and mineral supplement, or just sticking to non-carby greens. Keto doesn't mean nothing but cheese and bacon (unless you're trying to maintain or gain weight and are highly active or in training, and I wouldn't recommend it for that). Weight loss keto can mean mostly above-ground veg, nuts, fish and chicken. Just keep all the healthy things from your regular diet, and drop the starch and sugar. Last night's dinner was cabbage, kale and broccoli with finger chillies, mushrooms and cashew nuts fried in a little butter with lashings of garlic, ginger and then pan-steamed in rice wine vinegar. I've been doing it for about three months to lose the lockdown lard. The first week is tough, sugar and carbs really are addictive, and you'll curse anyone in your household who toasts bread or bagels. But once you've kicked the habit, wow, the benefits. I don't eat breakfast now and don't miss it, so it's also a restricted-hours diet. I've shed significant visceral fat, my blood pressure has come down, I'm clearer headed, have more energy and more consistent energy, and feel far less hungry - hunger pangs seem to be a symptom of burning the last of your carbs, and your body saying "No! More cheap energy! Don't starve me, bro!" - but the only way to burn fat is to starve, it's not a dirty word. I'm aware that this is the zealotry of a convert, but I really would suggest giving it go if you want to lose fat. It's sustainable if you can get over that first week or two, and change your shopping habits. If you crack and give in, well, then you'll have learned something interesting about carb addiction.

Wolf Armories only list UKARA, Defcon only list UKARA, British Airsoft Club and site membership, Land Warrior only list UKARA (and implicitly site membership), Crawley Surplus only list UKARA, BZ tactical only list UKARA, A2 only list UKARA and site membership. Although they may very well accept it if you ask. FireSupport, AirsoftWorld and Weekend Warrior do indeed list Sportsman Association, and/or British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC). They must surely be aware that these are not VCRA defences, neither by the letter nor the spirit of the law - if your interest is in target shooting, it doesn't matter if you have a RIF or an IF, right? Still, it could be worse. There's one site that just allows you to tick a box saying "Yeah, mate, airsoft and that" (although somewhat bizarrely does want to see proof of age).

This is why I only use genuine Poundland spray paint, not those shoddy knock-offs in Poundstretcher.

Can you list the retailers that do accept it, versus those who don't? I ask because you said "most", which implies a demonstrable plurality.

In Dungeons and Dragons, before all this Advanced frippery, "elf" and "dwarf" were character classes - only humans could choose their class. They assumed that all non-human X or Y acted exactly identically, just as we might say "All HPA users are over-shooting, chrono-cheating spam-buckets".

You're not fooling me, I've seen every episode of Midsomer Murders. Every time an owl hoots, someone gets stabbed with a pitchfork.

Oh, you played Advanced D&D? The one where elf and dwarf were races rather than classes? Fancy pants.

Depending on whether you think that novel laws should be prioritised over boring old ones that are difficult to enforce. I doubt that they'd cleared up every burglary in the area.

It's a tricky one. You can consent to accepting risk and being reasonably harmed (combat sports, piercings, surgical procedures, being shot with bits of plastic), but you can't agree to waive liability for negligence that results in death or personal injury (Consumer Rights Act 2015 S65) in any trader/consumer relationship. It's fuzzier on a personal level, I'm not sure of the case law on that. I should clarify that I think it's best for all involved if there is someone who has a clear duty of care, and is explicitly insured for that risk. I'd hate to see any individual be left holding the liability bag should the worst happen. Ah, my bad, I didn't realise it was private land. With permission? I wonder who squealed on them.

I wish we didn't live in a litigious society, it's only lawyers who really profit. But sadly it's the reality that when someone loses their life, mobility or income, it very quickly becomes an issue of "There's must be a claim, even without blame." The significant case law is Volwes v Evans and the Welsh Rugby Union, where an unpaid volunteer referee was held liable for an injury to an amateur player. The Rugby Union's insurers ended up footing the bill, but mostly because courts like to award against the deepest pockets just on the practicality (if not fairness) of it. I'd get something on record that there is no organiser, marshalling or refereeing, and that everyone is participating as peers and solely responsible for their own actions.

I love his version of "CYMA owners".

Mmm, I'm not risk averse, and it's fine to do what you want with consent on private land. Public land, no matter how remote, is a huge no-no, as these muppets found out. However, liability is always worth bearing in mind. It'll all be handshakes and gentleman's agreements until someone breaks a leg, impales themselves on a rusty spike, or takes some balls to the eye, and then it'll be a question of "Who pays my mortgage?". You cannot contractually waiver away liability for death or personal injury. Generally you'd go after the deepest pockets. What I'd imagine would happen is that Crippled Cathy would sue the scrapyard for some failure in a duty of care (unsuitable use of the site, site was hazardous, site was responsible for checking gnus for hotness if they were going to let airsoft run there) , their PLI insurer (hopefully they have one) will initially say "Go away, not covered", and it'll end in a legal wrangle. If it gets to court the bench will say "You're not strictly liable, but you've got money, so pay up, then recover it from your client", the insurer would go after the site, and the site might then go after whoever was organising the games. Either way, it could get messy, drag on for years, and end up coming out of individuals' pockets. It'll be fine until it's not, of course.

To the point where he's messaging about for-sales from years ago. But you'll have to post it, and he's only got £300 to give himself a birthday present. I feel such a connection to him now, I'm really rooting for him on his quest.

It seems to be a complete lottery whether you fall foul of the law, much like playing informal games at a local scrapyard.

Until it's in my hands, it's the seller's goods, and their problem, not mine. I have no interest in how the seller sent it or what's happened to their item. I certainly have no control over whether they put a UKARA number on it, or declared it honestly, which Border Farce seem to be picking up on now. That said, I've been lucky up to now, and the one hiccup I've had was a stock that never even made it out of Chyna - easy enough for AliExpress to make the call in my favour when the seller didn't bother resending, refunding, or even letting me know. I'd certainly agree with the statement about not ordering anything from anywhere outside the UK at the moment unless you can afford to lose it. It seem like Border Farce have got a real throbber on for seizing anything even remotely assault-toy related being sent to individuals, legality or defences be damned.

Good news. I shudder to think what uses were intended for those seized RIFs - it's not like it's hard to get a defence.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner of champions.

Great work all round. I'm starting to get performance anxiety about my gobs of hot melt glue and Poundland rattle can black now.

No, see, what I like isn't an addiction, it's wholesome virtue. This is easy to understand, your brain is just clogged with bread and pasta. Same with airsoft. My highly realistic imitation firearms are laser accurate and an investment. Your silly toy gnus are over-priced trinkets that will break then burn your house down then call your insurance company and claim that you started the fire yourself for the money.

<Thread derail> At this point, I wouldn't touch anything with sugar in it, and no, not even "fruit sugars". With the possible exception of arena speedsoft, airsoft just isn't that intense, and healthy humans (or even me) do not need to burn significant amounts of carbs for energy. I went all day Sunday on ham salad and peanuts (for the salt) plus copious amounts of water, job done. No peaks or crashes, no feeling of hunger or bloating, no brain fuzz, and now I can reach past doughnuts to get to the cabbage without feeling any urge to gorge on empty calories. If you find that hard to believe, that's your addiction speaking.

And "Oh yeah m8, plus PayPal fees, m8". Do we reckon Harry1 is dreaming about having an M4 posted to him?

Oh, that often happens, but I'm kvetching about taking a skin-breaking burst in the side of the face after shouting, waving, then walking away with my gun held over my head and still waving, with no other players anywhere near me. Sometimes it really is just a case of a complete nobwaffle deciding to send another burst downrange for giggles. But they had some classic bantz, finished that really crucial phone call, and got to smoke the best cigarette ever. Hah, I'm rocking the keto bro lifestyle now. Carbs are Satan's spooge, get them behind thee. Memeing aside, I really would recommend low carbs, it's amazing how addictive and unnecessary they are, and how much better you can feel and perform without sugar rushes and crashes.

Mmm, I used to do steel historical reenactment, and lost teeth and fingernails to that without complaint. But the goal was always to minimise pain and injury, and due to the hand-to-hand nature of the activity, anyone who couldn't or wouldn't restrain themselves was very quickly identified and invited to sod off. Airsoft however lends itself to rogues, with some degree of anonymity and plausible deniability, and the ability to inflict pain without serious injuries meaning it's usually shrugged off. I'd really like to see much more pro-active marshalling on MEDs, overkill, or shooting dead players: and no, it's not "just part of the game", it's the difference between everyone having a good day, and only the sociopaths going home with a grin on their faces.

Mmm, I never used to be bothered about MEDs until I started running a BASR and DMR (not at the same time, pedants). Now all I see is players disregarding MED and ROF, and it never being picked up on by marshals, even when you point it out. It's a very slippery slope - once you see someone else taking the piss with them, there's always a temptation to get a few metres closer, or twitch your finger a bit quicker.