the best thing here is a wall!?! (information part 4)

okay i should really goto bed... but after checking around the university more i've discovered a weird niche in the dinosaur overpopulation theory. it seems that though much of canada, and especially alberta is over populated with dinos, the university of calgary is not...

the reason why... this would appear to be a dead zone to all things cool in palaeontology


it began with my wandering into the earth science department. what i found here kinda makes sense as this is the hub of palaeontology studies in calgary...

yet if this were drumheller or edmonton things would have been mighty different...

at first just the usual harmless extinction suspects as you'd expect. a wall full of ammonites. though from my same time era these little squidy guys pose little threat to dinosaurs. whether in the form of trying to eat us, or in the more modern sense put us out of work. these guys have the popularity of well an octopus... if octopuses wore shells that is.

however i was soon going to discover that this was the most impressive fossil display they had in many ways...

later down the hallway was a plesiosaur. these guys though not dinosaurs are often mistaken for them... not sure why... he's got flippers... and since when did swimming ever enter the dinosaur skill list...


anyways this gal was here as the senior mesozoic representative at the university. she was surprised to see me as apparently they hadn't seen a new prehistoric individual down in the heart of the university since the tyrrell opened...

seems that once the tyrrell opened up north in drumheller all the dinosaurs and other extinct critters started to migrate up there as there was a better chance for jobs and even fame up there. the university cut its funding to palaeontology and fossils, and as of such only a few senior prehistoric critters were kept on.

besides this one marine reptile the only other mesozoic representative was a bit of a shocking disappointment...

a dinosaur... but one even i won't have to fear being out performed by... it was a poor inarticulate struthiomimus. this old fellow had been at the university for over 30 years, and he was in a bad zone...

he remembered when he was first given the position of key dinosaur display that he was promised that the collection would only grow from here, and that he'd soon have other dinosaur co-workers. however all too soon the tyrrell would end that dream. one by one all the other dinosaurs left the university... then the pay cuts came in. this poor guy barely makes enough to survive day by day that alone do anything fun...

the situation was so bad for the once proud ostrich mimic he was sneaking into devil dinosaurs classes to try and find a solution to his problems...

okay so i know i've said this many times on my blog people of the web wide world, but this just PROVES i need to get out of here!!! when the only display a university is willing to put up is an ammonite wall you know we dinosaurs have it off bad!!!

well i'm going to sleep, and tomorrow mike should show up, and i can leave this nightmare behind... wait is it a good idea to goto sleep then if i'm in a nightmare???

celebrity encounter! (information part 3)

well i finally made it too the university! a new problem has popped up though. i got here a little bit late. okay a lot bit late. the guy i'm looking for has been off work for hours...

so i'm going to have to wait till tomorrow to see him. that means i'll be camping out at the university of calgary for the night. it's not a very fun looking place, but then skool was never really my thing...

with lots of time to kill though i figured i'd check the place out for a bit, as i wasn't very tired...

you're never going to guess who i ran into!

coming out of one of the lecture halls was none other then devil dinosaur himself!!!

now he probably would have just kept on going if i hadn't gotten really excited and asked for his autograph... devil dinosaur was one of my heroes growing up... though i have to say he looks a lot smaller in person then in his comic book appearances...

turns out that these days he teaches a class here in calgary that is supposed to help struggling dinosaurs in this post extinction world... i was shocked to learn that even devil dinosaur himself has been hit hard by the dinosaur draught...

ever since jurassic park (and my cousin larry's performance... JERK!) the entertainment industry has demanded nothing but the largest and most impressive of dinosaur specimens. meaning that even the most mean and kick butt devil was out of steady employment. No one wanted to see a fantastic portrayal of a t-rex, they wanted ubber real...

but devil didn't take that sitting down... oh no... he used his former fame, and his small size and bright red hide to speak out to the less empowered of dinosaurs to help them make something of themselves.

devil said based simply on my size that i must have been experiencing trouble in life... how'd he know? he offered to let me enroll in his class, but i declined. i already had my plan... that and i'm kinda broke after all the travelling around i've been doing lately...

he said it was nice to have met me, but as it was late he needed to be on his way.

well that was a cool distraction. now i just have to kill a bit more time, get some sleep, and then mike will get back here to the library where he can help me find out the key information that i need...

resistence is futile?!? (information part 2)

well after my forgetfulness induced misadventure of yesterday i've had another slight problem occur in my attempts to get to the university library...

calgary has been a growing little city. i should really see if i can find out what its eating to achieve such a large pace of growth. my problems would instantly go away if i grew like calgary is... wow i'd be like bigger then godzilla!!!

anyways due to it's fast growth the roads aren't big enough for all the traffic that wants to get around. so rather then get stuck in a jam i figured i'd use a c-train... which as far as i can tell is the same as a normal train... though i always thought that my buddy caleb from the tyrrell was the c-train. oh well

problem is when i asked someone if the c-train went to the university they said it yes. what they didn't say was that wasn't the ONLY place it went... long story short somehow i've ended up at a chinook... which for those of you who don't know is a warm weather system that hits alberta in the winter that makes it nice and not snowy... though i didn't know what they looked like before... i can now tell you with certainty they look like a mall!

now again the number of dinosaurs in alberta has been kinda freaky lately. the dinosaur i met in the chinook mall though is the most scary thing i've ever seen...

it was a borgasaurus!!! i totally freaked out, and maybe even screamed a little... though i certainly didn't cry like a little girl or anything...

holy smokes i was really worried running away from the chinook. was it close contact with such a weather phenomenon that had transformed that poor dinosaur into a cybernetic creature... or was this some out landish scheme on its part to get attention and fame to possibly secure a job. I mean the Saurian job market might be awful, but to resort to replacing yourself with a machine... only someone as sick as dark vadar would resort to that!!!

i've been watching myself for symptoms of cyborgification, but fortunately none have shown up... yet!

hopefully i can get to the university to find my friend, and figure out a place with out dinosaurs. cause man my encounters with them are getting scarier and scarier...

towering calgary (information part 1)

i left drumheller on the 25th. everyone suddenly disappeared on that day for some reason... i was a little creeped out by it, but as i'd already caught up with all of them anyways, and i had a new lead for a possible future i HAD to get moving on... i hit the road

my destination calgary... the fastest growing city in alberta. also the closest big city to drumheller too.

i'd been here a few times in my childhood. craig was born here, and he'd came back into town often to see his family. back when he was still taking care of me he'd bring me along.

i can say this... calgary is a very different kind of city then those i visited in BC...

why did i come here to calgary you might ask... good question!

for a minute this morning i forgot myself... one of the draw back of my peanut sized brain and all...

as a result i was attracted to the coolest thing i could see... and what is cooler in calgary then the calgary tower? to be honest not much...

though this wasn't my actual goal it was definitely cool checking it out!

i just should have stuck to exploring outside. cause when i ventured inside things got a little more interesting then i cared for!

walking in the lobby of the calgary tower i came face to face with an albertosaurus... not just any albertosaurus either. a tyrrell museum employed one!

he was here to prompt the museum to tourists in calgary, since drumheller is only an hour and a half away from the city...

the problems began when he spotted me... i was a dinosaur intruding on his turf. worse i was a "big" meat eater like himself (i say big in the classification sense... as we t-rexs being related to albertosaurus are big too... bigger then him in fact... just if your a t-rex other then me!!!). making the whole situation boil over though was the fact i was in a tyrrell uniform... mental note to self need to get a new uniform!

instantly the albertosaur entered into an all too familiar territoriality stance... just like EVERY other dinosaur i'd encountered these past 4 months!

it was the usual type stuff he started roaring at me...

why are you here? i was told i'd get to keep this gig for sure! back off get your own job! i'm five times your size tiny, the museum won't replace me with you. you're not even a raptor!

now i've given up on trying to make dinosaurs like me at this point in my travels. it's not their fault i'm realizing.

1. i'm a t-rex. theoretically the king of all dinosaurs. nobody likes the "man". especially since we have some real jerks in our ranks... like my cousin larry! he really doesn't help make us rexs look all that great. well okay except in king kong. that was a really sympathizable performance he gave, but that's it! well and at the end of jurassic park. oh and in all the BBC stuff he's done. okay okay in the movies larry is pretty good... just take my word for it. in real life he's a JERK!

B. i'm SO small that being the aforementioned t-rex is made worse. everyone hates us to begin with. when you don't have the terror or menace that's part of your sterotype people take advantage of the situation. especially other theropods (meat eating dino for you none science people out there)... i just wish they'd see me for the nice little guy i am...

4. it's a tough world for us dinosaurs. added to the fact it's an eat or be eaten existence for us at the best of times this whole being extinct thing has added to our competitive nature. jobs are scarce. museums and theme parks are only looking for the best of the best. due to our bad public image and reputation from various portrayals in the movies and in the media (again see my cousin larry... what a JERK!) humans are reluctant to give us jobs or places in societies removed from a locked away environment such as again museum or theme park. which means that any other dinosaur that shows up is trouble. cause their inevitably going to be after your job...

so that's why when i returned to drum this month i'd realized i needed to make a clean break, and find a place without dinosaurs. which it would turn out is NOT the calgary tower.

i had a very very upset albertosaur. i didn't want to upset him anymore. also i didn't want him to call the museum as he was threatening to do. last thing i needed was to get in more trouble there.

so i just left the tower. which is kinda sad. i did kinda want to go up and look out over the town.

i did remember just then why i was in town though, and where i should really heading. not the calgary tower, but the university library... there i was going to find the ONE man who could help me find the answers i seek!

xmas tickles

well i may not have gotten my old job back, i still don't have a clue what the future holds for me, and being in drumheller is bringing up all sorts of memories...

at least i'll get some free turkey before i leave!!!

the museum was nice enough to at least invite me to their xmas party.

i've never really gotten what xmas is or what it's about. all i know is that the trees get really bright and pretty, and there's a lot more food about then normal.

the party was at the new place in town the quarry... the COOLEST name ever! though to be fair it is the farthest thing from a fossil dig i can think of. staffed by adam and his excellent crew, we tyrrellers were in for a night we won't forget soon... well unless their like me and have a brain the size of a peanut anyway...


i got to sit with my good buddy cam for dinner. i was really glad we'd sorted out that whole him being the one who fired me thing. it would have made things kinda awkward.

at one point cam went to put his arm over my shoulder for a picture. by accident he found my ticklish spot. everyone thought that my laugh was really funny...

it kinda set the tone for the night...

during my hanging with kirsta she interrupted the conversation we were having to make me laugh again...

before that we were having a chat about where other people from the museum were or what they were doing...

dan decided not to come to the party. mostly cause i was coming, and he was still mad at me for trying to eat richardo. have to make sure that i patch things up with him. me and dan go back a long way... i don't want him to stay mad at me forever.

craig had left the museum to head back to calgary to prepare to head overseas to new zealand. kirsta was really surprised i hadn't heard anything about this... i had been in BC for the last few months, and in exile before that... how was i supposed to know. though i wonder why he hadn't told me. he is kinda like my legal guardian and stuff...

krista thought my tickled laughter was very funny though, and that's as far too catching up on other museum people as i was going too.

lastly i caught up with brad... well brad 2. he's just not brad 1 is why i make the distinction. brad 1 was nice enough to give me my job 4 years ago, but then he left the museum (some said he just couldn't live with himself for some reason... i never did find out what it was cause people would always suddenly glare at me in the middle of the story... not sure why they'd do that... i didn't know the end of it!!!)

anyways brad was having a good time. like me he doesn't work at the museum, and was just there for the fun. he had heard about my "not being with the company" anymore... though that was a weird thing to say as it's a museum. not a company!

i told brad all about the events of my return. how i had no idea what i was going to do. it was becoming clearer and clearer that i needed to find a place without any dinosaurs so that i could be the only deal in town. everywhere in canada i'd been there were dinosaurs, and they were all trying to immigrate to drumheller which seemed to say that things were even WORSE elsewhere around here.

i told him about how while looking at the badlands the flatness of the prairies reminded me of the ocean for some reason. he said that was pretty obvious why... i just looked at him... then he remembered my brain size.

"well traum it's pretty simple. i think you were smarter just then, then you think you are. there's got to be a place over the ocean that doesn't have any dinosaurs."

wait a minute! brad was right!!!

there has to be somewhere over the BIG ocean that dinosaurs haven't been found or put in museums... but where???

just as i realized who i was going to need to see to help me figure out a new possible home for me suddenly brad reached over and hit my laughing spot.

"sorry man." brad apologized. "your laugh is just too funny."

The Return

well i know that i said i'd post a vlog every 25 posts... well this is techincally in that limit. just a little sooner then i figured. alot of stuff has happened this week, and the only way to communicate it easily i found is through a vlog.



in spite of everything that has happened i'm going to hang out here for a few more days. the museum is having it's xmas party, and cam and krista have invited me to join them at it. so i figure i might as well go. i have no where better to be at moment...

updates coming real soon!

hey people of the world wide web

things have been SO crazy in my life it hasn't been funny... well okay a couple parts actually

anyways i'm currently borrowing a co-puter, and need to find out how to get my labtop back on the webwide world. that will hopefully be in the next couple days so i can finally tell you the outcome of my trip back to Drum, and what's happened to me since!

100th post!!!

holy smokes people of the web wide world... i've already made 100 entries in my blog!!!

it seems like just yesterday i started this thing, and now here i am a true veteran of the super information highway.

now i figured i'd do something special for this entry... well okay. my talent agent peter figured i should...

since i've been on the innerweb all i've talked about is what's going on in my life thus far... i thought this would be a good entry to take a look back at where i came from. this also seemed very fitting since i'm currently on route to drumheller to see if i can reconnect with this past.





hope now you have a better idea of why i'm in search of my dinosaur roots. i also hope that after all i've seen and done in my journeys these last 4 months they'll take me back in drum. now i'm a super qualified dinosaur...

i'm also planning on doing this "vlog"s more often then every 100 posts... hopefully like every 25 from here on in.

catch you in drumheller people of the innerweb!

the end of THIS thing

okay need to check out the field visitor center so i know what i'm talking about when i ask them for a job.

i'm thinking though what better way to attract people to a fossil display then with a dinosaur... even if they don't technically find us around here normally.

well for some reason there's a cowboy statue in front of the center. trilobite wrangler?

heading inside there was a bunch of fossil displays, and i figured best thing to do was check them out, and demonstrate my superior knowledge of the burgess shale

yeah no big surprises. they had a whole cabinet full of trilobites from mount stephen

a cool selection on other critters from fossil ridge. like the iconic marrella...

one of my favs though is the tentacled football leanchoilia...

they had a pretty small, but good selection of burgess shale fossils. all ones i knew about. so it would be easy to sell myself as both a palaeo attraction, but also expert.

there was only one problem when i went around the corner and bumped into their alberta and BC tourism displays...

there was a dinosaur in the center. not just that she was there from the tyrrell to promote the museum! now considering the circumstances we were both pretty civil. however this struthiomimus was very set on this job staying HERS!

well so much for that idea...

i guess i'm meant to goto drumheller. what awaits me there i'm not sure. hopefully a second chance.

all these attempts at first chances haven't been suiting me so well...

beginning of ALL things...

okay people of the innerweb i'm back into familiar territory. hopefully no more of that crazy BC type stuff can happen to me here. even though technically i'm still in the province, field is pretty much on the border with alberta, and even more important i know ALL about this area.

the reason. this is one of the most important palaeontologic places in the world!

the tyrrell has a huge display on this place called the burgess shale. they are among the OLDEST complex creatures known. these fossils are so good that we don't just get hard parts, we also get the soft ones!

once i get back to drum i'll have to check out the display again. though i'm getting an idea related to my future after i've found my past at drumheller. maybe i could come back here and get a job. i'm qualified. i know a LOT about the burgess shale cause i spent a lot of time in the display when i lived in the tyrrell. that and one of the six big books i've ever read was one called wonderful life by stephen gould... don't let the fact that he is a scary monster stop you from reading the book. it's very good and ALL about the burgess shale.

actually being here in field and seeing all the famous places is really cool!

over on one side of field is mount stephen famous for it's trilobites. i've heard from people at the museum who've been up there that there are so many fossils up on the top of that hill that every second rock has a trilobite in it!!!

on the other side opposite the highway is the burgess pass and it's famous fossil ridge. an exposure of really really early cambrian fossils of the cathedral escarpment. my buddy dan used to do a play at the museum about looking for fossils up there.

you'll also see in that photo the visitor center here in field. i was going to check in there about a possible job after i looked at all the signs they had outside.

man the signs were cool. it was like having a museum outside!

this was a really awesome sign all about the famous palaeontologists who explored this place for the first time. included in there was charles dolittle walcott, though don't let his middle name fool you. he in fact did alot!

the sign showing how the burgess shale looked when all the critters was alive was really cool. just like the vancouver aquarium only instead of fish it would be funky arthropods!

hey that gives me another idea! with my new work experience at the aquarium i could totally work IN the tyrrell's burgess shale display! combo that with my knowledge of the place, and i'd be a show in for educating the public about this place, and be able to take care of the critters in the display!

well okay it seemed like a good idea till i read this sign... now i like adventure, and all... but getting buried alive. when was that ever fun?

well scratch that working in the museum's burgess shale idea. time now instead to see if i can work at the real thing!

blockade

if it isn't one thing it's another in my attempt to get out of BC...

i'm nearly on the border of alberta, and with it a return to friendly soil!!!

of course it's not that simple... AGAIN!... because up ahead of me on the road is yet ANOTHER obstacle!



a herd of elk blocks my progress...

now i know how elk typically work. honk your horn and they'll get their horns out of the way.

not these ones...

turns out these ones aren't just casually wandering onto the road. no. their here to stop just ME...

seems these guys are buddies with mountain sheep, and their really mad at how i humiliated the king of the rams last month. hearing that i was coming back through this area (they read it on my blog... have to remember to keep things a little more secretive in the future) their here to stop me...

well it looked kinda bleak. i couldn't get past them, and they weren't going to let me through. they were letting other cars through. just not me.

after spending the afternoon on the BC side of their imposed line i was really worried i'd have to back track into BC to try and find an alternate route. however as the sun began setting and it got darker i noticed something.

i couldn't recognize individual elk anymore. they all looked the same. why with those conditions maybe they won't recognize my car anymore...

to make sure they lost track of me i pretended to goto bed in my car. though what i really did was hop in and roll the window down. this way i could crawl out my window without opening the door and turning on the cabin light. once outside my car i threw some towels over my headlights so they won't be visible once my car was on. i then waited for a different car to come by to start my engine so that it's noise didn't seem out of place.

when that car finally showed up i drove down the highway away from them as fast as i could. getting around a bend i then pulled a u-turn. i then turning on my high beams. with these on i then casually drove back toward the blockade... but was it casual enough?

reaching the line my heart nearly stopped as the elk didn't move forcing me to slow down... getting within mere feet of them time seemed to cease as they looked at my car. it wasn't till i realized they were squinting in my high beams, and unable to see me that i relaxed.

then they parted, and let me through! can you believe that people of the innerweb i outsmarted someone!!!

now sadly this whole episode cost me a day, and it's late. i'm going to push on a few more kilometers to field BC and sleep there over night. however there is a slight treat for me there. you field is home to one of the coolest palaeontologic sites in the world!!!

catch you there people of the innerweb!

why have i been stopping?

well people of the innerweb i'm still on my way out of BC. i guess it makes sense that after it taking 2 months to get into it that it's taking me a few days to get out.

i do really want out though. it hasn't been anywhere near as much fun (or safe...) here in BC now that i'm leaving. today i got to a place called goldy-on.

man i'm getting sick of mother nature mimicing my mood with the weather. it's all cloudy and depressing STILL! more to the point it has been snowing now and then as i drive. i may be warm blooded, but i don't have feathers like other coelurosaurs... sure hope it's warm in alberta when i get back...

oh course i needed to pull over again like a few days ago in the enchanted forest... i really didn't want to after that whole ordeal... but i'd get stranded if i didn't get gas... so i gave in to my stupid car... should have known better!


after filling up my car, and picking up a snack for the road i placed my twinkies down on a bench for just a sec. when i turned around it was like a nightmare... not one, not three, not zero, but TWO bears were suddenly there fighting for my twinkies!!!

to be honest i was terrorified! these guys are almost as scary as vampires or ghosts...


now if i were a big t-rex this probably won't scare me so much. my mom for example weighs as much as both these guys, and could easily take them (but don't let the fact she's a girl throw you off... with we dinos the females are the really scary ones!). i on the other hand, well weigh as much as one of their whiskers... uh if bears have whiskers?

anyways i did the only thing that seemed right for the situation... i ran as fast as i could jumped in my car, and hide underneath my sleeping blankets! call me a coward if you must, but you're not the one tending to dragon fire burns!

after an hour of hiding i popped my head up to see no signs of bears that alone my twinkies... with the coast clear i took off.

it's alberta of bust now!!! no more stopping in BC if i can help it...

i hate magic!!!

so far my retreat from the BCs has been uneventful. that is more due to my not feeling like stopping anywhere. i'm just kinda depressed to be frank... or uh what? why to people say that anyway. i'm traumador... not frank

the fact most of the places so far were those i'd already passed through to get to vancouver didn't help either. i even sped to get past hope and dinotown! however i'm now on a new northern highway that is a quicker route to drumheller so in theory there is new stuff around here...

it's like the universe likes to taunt me. it started raining the day i left. even mother natural wants to enhance my sadness...

after 2 days of straight driving i was kinda needing a break. well and gas. oh and sleep. hmmmm food. need food sometime too!




needing all these things i came to an area of inner BC called the enchanted forest. i figured anywhere that needed a sign on the highway must have a gas station or something... of course it was raining even worse here. i decided the key thing was to sleep first, and then solve all my other problems when i got up.

i mean whats the worst thing that could happen to me while sleeping in a forest?

when i woke up it was pouring hard as ever. fine i figured this way i'll just get my fuel and food and keep driving. still a long way to drumheller

heading deeper into this enchanting forest i was shocked to discover there was no gas station anywhere to be found... in fact there was almost nothing... except a really creepy looking castle...

pulling up to it i hoped that they'd at least have a horse or something i could ride to get gas... cause my car was running really low, and i didn't want to get stranded!

getting out of my car i headed towards the castle with the intent of seeing if i could bum some gas of the medieval occupants. if only things were as simple as they should be... getting closer to the fortress two really weird looking mammal sauropods popped out of the forest.

"beware stranger." they said in unison... man i hate it when that happens. it always means trouble! "this is not a friendly realm for visitors. even ancient ones such as yourself..."

okay so if that wasn't a scary prophecy or warning i don't know what was going to be. still if it is a uncool place for me to be i needed that gas then. so i kept on walking towards the castle!

well you're never going to guess what happened next people of the innerweb. or well maybe you have cause you looked at the picture... approaching the front gate of the castle suddenly a dragon appeared on top of the parapits...

okay this was just getting weird!

i wasn't about to let some stinking monster lizard stop me though! i might be scared of a lot of things, but giant reptiles with sharp teeth aren't one of them... this guy was nothing compared to my cousin Larry...

well okay he's not much compared to Larry unless you take into account his atomic fire breath!!!

needless to say i cheesed it out of there!!!

man i hated this place. all i was trying to do was get out of it, and it won't let me! just before i got really mad (and i mean REALLY mad!) i heard a voice from behind me.

"why so glum chum?" said a big... i'm not making this up... egg sitting on a rock wall... "have you had a candy can for your tum?"

no i replied. what was with this whole place i wondered. a talking egg... i didn't say a word of this out loud you have to understand, but yet suddenly as though the egg heard me.

"oh this place is a little bit like that you see." it started "like one two three. lots of magic about to fill you with you glee. now what is your greatest wish to be?"

after my misadventures in vancouver i just wasn't in the mood for this. "i just want gas!"

"such a request why consider it done." replied the egg. "now off you go for lots more fun"

i was so mad. now it was toying with me too. all i wanted to do was get out of here, and it was mocking me with its stupid rhyme!

now i looked down while angrily thinking this. when i looked up the crazy talking egg was gone... as was the castle, the sauropodmammals, and even the atomic dragon... it was like none of it happened.

yet when i got to my car and started it up (fearing i'd get stranded here in this crazy forest) my gas tank was full!!!

oh man! so that stupid egg offered me my one wish, and i wished for a tank of gas!

i could got that wii i really wanted!!!

the future?

67.2 million BC

i spent the majority of the day wandering through the rest of vancouver... can't say whether it was nice or not. my heart just wasn't into it.

so Larry was right. this isn't the land of prehistory. not the REAL BCs... rather just a human place with a convergent name (i'm so sad i'm not getting big words wrong... oh man). i've wasted 2 whole months pursuing a imaginary goal...

the moral being so far i haven't managed to fit in with other dinosaurs yet. we t-rexs are not popular based on our virtues it would seem. just our scariness, and you're not scary if your not big...

the first spot i hit that snapped me out of my gloom was a beach. the sun was setting over the ocean, and all the ships off in the distance... what a majestic sight to see!

watching the reflections of the sun in the water i pondered my life. compared to this i was nothing. i'm an insignificant speck in the universe. even just this ocean goes on for as far as i can see, and there is a lot more out there then just it...

you'd think in a world that big there'd be a place for me out there...

i mean there has to be a place somewhere that needs a t-rex. or even just a dinosaur... if only i knew where that was...

as i stand here gazing across the colossal sea i can't help, but feel that over the horizon lies an answer to my existence...

what i do know is this. i can't stay here in the BCs... the trip (espeically that fake dinotown i built) has left me broke. even with the salary i'm still getting from the eco centre won't be not enough to pay for my living here...

i also still haven't found my roots. i don't care if i can't find out what it is too be a true dinosaur anymore... so far they've all been jerks or worse. that and we dinosaurs are extinct everywhere on the planet with minor exceptions in museums and shows apparently...

i DO still want to find out who i am and where i came from...

there is only one place i can goto find that out...

looks like i'll have to go back to where it all started... drumheller... while i'm there though it can't hurt to see if the dinosaur boom has busted, and who knows? maybe there'll be an opening for me when i get there, and i can resume my old life!

well people of the innerweb i'd say this concludes my quest into BC... now i return home!

lonely road

66.4 million BC

well naturally today was not such a fun day. i'm in fact very bummed out. no bummed isn't the right word...

everything just seems kinda of pointless...

peter said i needed to cheer up. he's taken me to "drown my sorrows". i told him i wasn't in the mood for swimming... he said that wasn't the plan. we were going drinking... these must be pretty big cups if we're going to drown... be easier to just go swimming, i'm a lousy swimmer

well it's a really nice place that he took me too. a restaurant on top of a tall skyscraper... you can see the whole city from up here.

i just wasn't in the mood for refreshments... they taste funny, and make me feel even dumber then normal...

peter said as my agent he won't let me go till i let some of my sadness out somehow...

that's when i noticed the piano in the middle of the joint...

i decided that would be the best way to let out some of my angst... i played the one song that seemed the most appropriate... boulevard of broken dreams... got a bit of a crowd watching me too!

peter said it was really good, and that managing talent this great he's job was easy... though if i'm that great how come none of the other dinosaurs want to hang out with me?

then peter dropped a big bomb...

due to the responsibilities of managing his clients, and their major distribution across the world peter was going to have to leave vancouver... more so he was leaving canada altogether!

right when i thought i had some backup in face of all the stuff going wrong in my life...

i'm right back where i started before my BC quest. homeless. alone. and confused

what now?!?!? (65 million BC part 5)

65 million BC

last night was so miserable! one of the worst nights i've ever had. making it worse i was hanging with my own kind...

after my fight with Larry things were pretty awkward. all these other dinosaurs are used to Larry being the undisputed boss, and a beloved public icon. my coming in and confronting him made these guys all uncomfortable around me...

that and i don't speak their language...

so at least here this morning peter showed up, and set out to try and salvage the situation...

well again peter's the bestest agent ever! however it seems there are limits even to his talents...

he tried to negotiate both with the owners of the dinosaur show and Larry to see if there could be a spot for me in the displays...

after an hour or so he pulled me aside and levelled with me

"look traumador baby, here's the thing. they have a position for you, and their even willing to pay you at a tyrannosaurs pay scale..." he started, but then he glanced around to make sure no one was listening in. peter started whispering "but frankly you don't want it... the key word in that sentence is scale. they'd pay you a salary 1/20 of Larry's. honestly traumador you couldn't afford to even survive in this area of vancouver on that much..."

peter said it was looking kinda bleak. i was naturally a little bummed. peter tried to remotivate me by reminding me of the venture pact. "seriously traumador... there are better places out there for you then here."

where?

he had no answer for me... peter said i'd have to figure that out for myself. he'd help me anyway he could, but in the end he said this was something i'd have to find for myself...

so that is the end of it people of the innerweb. my quest to find my kind in the BCs is officially over...

what did i get out of the trip... discovered that the BCs are not my homeland... i still don't have roots... i still don't fit in with other dinosaurs... i still haven't found what i'm looking for...

where do i go from here. i don't know. all i do know is that i must leave this 65th million street of BC. it just reminds me of my failure in my quest...

confrontation! (65 million BC part 4)

65 million BC

people of the inner web i'm not believing my luck these days!... well more months then days really... ever since the end of summer technically...

reaching the cradle of dinosaur kind what were the odds of my big shot Cousin Larry being the guy in charge of the place! seriously what are those odds, and why didn't i bet on them!

i wasn't about to let him steal another of my dreams again! there was no way he was going to prevent me from living here at 65 million BC, but i could see it in his eye that he was going to be a jerk about it (like he always is...).

well when i walked up to talk to him Larry started to laugh. "hi there cousin. how have things been going?" i tried to lie and say good... "really. that's not what your blogs been saying" oh man! that's not good... Larry wasn't supposed to have known about my blog...

since he's read the blog it made it easier to ask if i could stay here...

"are you REALLY that dumb traum? this isn't the cretaceous period. that was 65 million years ago... not 65 million blocks into british columbia!" he said snidely.

oh no! he was right... i remember that now... AHHHHHHH!

wait a minute i thought though... why are he and the dinosaurs here then. this was obviously a trick or something of his...

"traumador didn't you read the sign out front?" Larry said while laughing at me. "this is a travelling dinosaur display from china. it is not a permanent settlement or reserve for dinosaurs. we're extinct most places now."

okay i now i had him... "if it's a chinese dinosaur display why are you here then Larry? you're from alberta like me!"

he just cackled... which is a scary sound from a big t-rex. "traum... traum... traum. this is show biz, and nothing sells more then having a star in the show."

i couldn't think straight... everything wasn't making sense. this wasn't the true land of dinosaurs. Larry had taken everything away again... then Larry added

"your poor poor mother though traum. i don't look forward to telling aunt huxley how dumb you really are..."

well i'm not too proud of my response to that low blow, but Larry brought my mama into this. you leave the mothers out of these things. so i kinda attacked him...

okay i bite him in the neck... kinda a low blow in and of itself, but he's really really big... YOU TRY JUMPING FOR HIS EYE YOURSELF!!! THEN YOU'LL SEE!!!

anyways i sadly didn't do much damage... and well he's kinda a monster (as we t-rex are)... so he easily shoke me off, and he wasn't even mad or angry... he was kept on laughing

"ah that was cute. would you like me to bend over so you can do that like a real t-rex?" he mocked. "i'd bite you back, but i'd eat you in the process, and aunt huxley won't be too happy with me. for her sake i'll let you stay the night, but then you're out of here!"

i'm not going to lie people of the innerweb. i'm crying right now...

right now i'm wishing that Larry's work in king kong was real... then he'd have been killed by that big dumb ape!!!

so turns out i'm back where i started... i don't know what i'm going to do again...

though i have help now. i just called peter, and he said he'd get something in place for tomorrow... i'll have to hang out here at LARRY'S place, and wait till then...

not quite what i expected (65 million BC part 3)

65 million BC...

okay now i'm really weirded out by what i'm finding around here. not only is there no jungle rather badlands, but now there is a dinosaur museum too!!!

now i may have the brain the size of a peanut, but even i know that dinosaurs didn't live in museums! well except those outside of the BCs. oh and those in the BCs... wait a minute...

just look at this! is this what you pictured the mighty thunder lizards coming from?!?

it's just like the tyrrell 2: deja vu


i happened upon a hadrosaur which i thought was from my neck of the woods, edmonton. turns out this was no edmontosaurus though... he informed me he was from overseas, from china, and not to call him by that name. rather he is a shantungosaurus apparently (though as far as i can tell there is little difference between the two!)

i told him about my quest to get here, and he said that was "super"... i thought that was a little strong a word (cause hey i'm no superman!)... he told me i'd have to check with the star of the attraction to see if i could join with the dinosaurs...

what is with us dinosaurs? this is turning out to be just like dinotown! since when have we dinosaurs needed to ask permission and be officially accepted to be a dinosaur?!?

i'd used too much time getting here to fight about it though. i was going to do things as they do them here at 65 million BC... though it's not feeling all that different from the tyrrell...

well the problem was figuring out who the star dinosaur was... i checked with the alxasaurus figuring since he had big wolferine type claws he must be a real hit. cause i mean i've seen that movie X-People, wolferine is the closest superhero ever!

it wasn't him though. however that's about all i understood... my chinese isn't too flunent you see. the only reason i know it wasn't him was he used those claws to threaten me away after asking if he was the star... whoever it is even wolferinesaur is scared of them...

with that in mind my next choice had to be the pinacosaurus then... cause lets face it who won't be scared of a tank! this guy is packing heat in the form of the tail club, and covered with armour so he doesn't have to take gump in return! we theropods know better then to mess with one of these guys... grownup anyways (but man as smaller guys their tastey!)

again he wasn't the star! a little confused. though in his case he asked if this was a trick, and if the star had sent me... not sure what that means?

looking around i was starting to get more confused too. ALL these guys were chinese dinosaurs... now i'm not a racist mind you. i like dinosaurs no matter where their from. i was just finding it odd that all the dinosaurs in the BCs where from over there...

where were some north american types that i might know?

well turns out there was a north american dinosaur here. in fact i know him RATHER well... which makes this all the more unfortunte...

i should have realized that the star had to be the king of the dinosaurs. which of course would make it one of my fellow tyrannosaurs. i was hoping to meet some new tyrannosaurs... i got half my wish as it turned out... just not the half i wanted... you see the star dinosaur turns out to be my COUSIN LARRY!!!

now for those of you who have never heard of my cousin larry (which i think is a pretty hard!) he is the famous member of the tyrannosaur family... he had a luck break into hollywood some years ago, and has been making quite the killing (both literally and metaphorically) doing movies and shows as well a t-rex.

he's most famous role was of course as the tyrannosaur in jurassic park.

which brings us to my connection to larry... you see he wasn't the only one who tried out for that part! i was in the running for it too! they choose him over me in the end though due to "his immense size, and authentic terror" compared to my "tinyness"... it's like they say. hollywood only goes for the most perfect of us...

not my fault i'm only two feet tall while larry if 40 feet long! jerk!

anyways ever since then me and him haven't been on such good terms, and well he was the LAST dinosaur i was ready or wanting to meet here at 65 million BC...

i'm not letting him bully me out of my dreams again!