*bang* *bangbang*

I just read a story about Wafaa Bilal. He's an Iraqi-American artist who has locked himself in an art gallery for the entire month of May 2007. With his living room and a paintball gun and a pair of goggles.

A paintball gun, you ask? Actually, it's a very smart paintball gun. It is hooked up to the Internet and anyone can log on, aim, and fire the gun. During the first 13 days, according to the article, over 6,500 shots have been taken and Wafaa has lost count of the number of times that he has been hit. Several times in the head.

If you feel like shooting at him, you can go to his website. Every day or so, he posts videos on YouTube. Here is the newest video as of this blog post. Day 12.

Have you ever been hit by a paintball? I have, and I can tell you that it doesn't feel very good. I can't imagine being bombarded by paintballs at any time. I guess he is lucky, in that the gun is mounted such that it can only swivel to the left and right, so they can't aim at him while he's in bed trying to get some sleep. I just looked at the website and it looks like he now has a Plexiglas shield that he can put in front of his computer desk while he's there. I'd say this seems pretty fair to me, as while he is sitting in his computer chair, the line of fire passes right through his head.

I wonder if he knew what he was getting himself into when he decided to do it. My guess is no. I saw a video from Day 5, I think and he seemed pretty well spent, emotionally. But by the Day 12 video he seems to have pulled himself together again.

I'm sure there are people who sit at their computers for hours at a time shooting over and over again, getting some sadistic pleasure out of trying to cause another person, whom they have likely never met, physical pain, without suffering any consequences.

That just doesn't do it for me, but hey, that's me.

There are a lot of evil people in the world. I can just see GW sitting late at night when he shouldn't be able to sleep, taking potshots at his own little Iraqi 'prisoner.'

Anyway, here's to Wafaa. I'll bet he's looking forward to that day in June when he gets to say goodbye to his little yellow prison forever. And I also bet he'll never be able to hear a paintball gun being fired (or anything that makes a similar sound, for that matter) without cringing and unconsciously brushing at his remembered bruises.