[Overpaid Slacker]

Thanks guys!
Cramer -- I'm assuming the "guts" part is a stab at the girth. Nice.

Adam -- Thanks, mate, but it may come back to derail my Senate campaign. At least it's only on the Internet, so nobody'll see it.

CJ -- LMAO. Hunter S. Thompson owns an SC? What?

Noah -- the SAW was absolutely incredible, and much lighter and more "pointable" than I thought it would be, though I did not fire it off hand -- only on the bipod.

Of the submachineguns the Grease gun was my favorite -- it just felt right and fired very well. Evidently, even though their production numbers well exceeded Thompsons (they were much cheaper than Thompsons on the order of $105 to about $5 a copy) they're much rarer here in the states b/c most of them saw duty abroad and never came home.

The MP5 was a very slick weapon and felt the best-made of the lot (the Uzi was garbage, but it was built as a disposable weapon). The MP5 didn't want to climb as much as the others (then again some of the others were .45 caliber) and had a unique sound. I'd really have liked to fire an MP5K (or SD!) but they didn't have those. After the Grease gun (which looks like I made it from stuff I found lying around in the garage) the MP5 was my favorite.

Where the Greaser has all kinds of character and was the most idiosyncratic, the MP5 was just ... well, German; precise, efficient and wonderfully crafted w/o the "wooofff*ck that thing is bada$$" reaction you'd have for other weapons designed specifically to look nasty and immediately convey to someone on the business end the impression that things are not going particularly well for them.

The M16's cyclic rate is unreal -- it feels like a steady push under full auto rather than a rapid "thud-thud-thud". 1100 rounds per minute or something insane like that. They had an M4, but that'll have to be next time for me. That and the Schmeisser.

One note about Vegas: when you go, make a point of going up to ghostbar on top of the Palms. It's about 45 stories up (tho' they claim it's on the 55th floor...?) and a part of the outside portion of the bar is cantilevered off the edge of the building. A good part of the cantilevered portion of the floor is plexiglass. Yeah, it's trippy. Only the 2nd time I've ever had any sensation of vertigo. It took me a couple of bourbons to venture out onto the void, to be honest. A couple more and I was jumping up and down on it. Thaaaat's right. Jenius. With a J.

This was especially fun when some petite waif gingerly, slowly and against every instinct in her body inched her terrified, stiletto-heeled hot self out onto the transparent floor, hands trembling in front of her as though she was blind "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" -- and a 6'5" 235# me would then precipitate out of the night sky, "Aaaaiieeeeee!!!!!" doing my best "Hulk-style" landing a foot or so away from her on the glass. BOOM! heh heh heh. Out to pick up chicks I was not, that evening.

Now, if I'd done that to myself on my first time out there, 500 feet over Splatsville, I'd have kicked my own ass. But as it was me doing it to someone else, I entertained the living ***** out of myself. I can't explain it... that's just how it is sometimes.

JP