JURASSIC PARK 4 !?!

HOLY CERATOPSIANS people of the web wide world! some big news has just went down in my life!!!

they ARE making a new jurassic park movie... and as if that wasn't big enough...

i'm going to be in it!!!

yeah i know, that is way too awesome! not only that, but lillian has landed a role too!!!

how you might ask? well it goes like this.

two minutes ago i was talking to my special talent agent peter bond, and we were talking about some stuff to do with these dinosaur winter OH-lympics he has just organized.

anyways peter looks at his watch and gets all panicked suddenly. "oh no!" were his exact words i believe.

"what's the matter?" i asked totally confused by his sudden lose of calm.

"it's almost noon," he said as though that was supposed to mean something beyond the fact his watch showed it to be 11:57 am.

"so?" i asked hoping for more of an explanation. rather then immediately answer peter got this really big grin on his face, and paused for a moment.

"well, traum my main man," peter then proceeded to explain, still with the biggest grin on his face. i figured he was really happy (now i know why!). "i can finally tell you about a huge deal i've just made on your behalf. what with it being april the first, and nearly noon."

at first that didn't make any sense to me, but then he elaborated. for the last couple of months peter has been speaking to none other than the stephen spielberg about possible movie roles for me and lillian...

it turns out that the big S really wants to get rolling on a new jurassic park trilogy (that won't end as bad as the last one i hope!). as it is a new trilogy, he wants a new direction for the franchise. meaning spielberg is wanting to start from scratch with everything. peter assures me everything...

including the cast. which means that for the role of the main tyrannosaurus rex my (JERK! of a) cousin larry is gone! a huge upset, as larry became an international movie star in that role. the kicker is though, spielberg wants me to replace him!!!

i was doubtful for a moment that this would be the case. i'm way way too short to play a movie t-rex. peter assures me that through improvements in special effects they can make me bigger. heck it worked at making people into hobbits, why not me into a huge t-rex?

peter said they also intend on expanding the dinosaurian cast to include many animals never before seen on the big screen. included in these are albertosaurs, and so lillian is in (which i'm happy about as it is just what lillian has always wanted... but a tiny part of me is disappointed, as did we really need another theropod in jurassic park?)...

so there you have it people of the innerweb... everything looks like it is going to work out just fine for me and lillian!

UPDATE: i'm really perplexed (and mad) by what happened right after i put up that post above.

as soon as peter told me the good news at 11:59 i rushed off to my com-puter and typed up my excitement (which you just read). suddenly peter started laughing.

when i'd posted my reaction peter than said it'd been a joke. there isn't a jurassic part 4, and peter has never once spoken to stephen speilberg...

peter's only justification for getting my hopes up (and crushing them) was just two words. neither of them being sorry!?! i'm not too happy with him at moment.

what is an april's fool, and why did he keep calling me one?

fossil of the weekend! #62

okay so i've been a naughty little theropod, and not kept up on my nearly perfect attendance fossil of the weekend feature...
`

i can't even claim it was a slight lapse. no i've only done one so far this year! that's nearly 4 months of no weekend fossils... and i was doing so well before!
`

no more slack from me, and though i missed the weekend by a bit, here is a late installment.

one of the most complete tyrannosaurid skeletons in the world, on display at the royal tyrrell museum (and not a cast of it either mind you). it is either a gorgosaurus or albertosaurus, depending on which side of the gorgo/alberto debate you sit upon. for formalities sake i'll say a gorgosaurus.

pain in the neck!

after all the stuff peter has had me up to with these OH-lympics of his, i haven't had much time to myself.

so today i decided to sneak off and check out vancouver a little bit on my own.

holy smokes! i have to say there has been a lot of change since the last time i'd been here in town!

a weird forest made of paper had grown in the middle of downtown... which i thought was really weird. isn't paper made from trees? not that other way around.

not that i had to worry about this problem for very long!

you see despite sneaking off by myself, i hadn't planned to stay alone. hanging out with peter the whole time so far, i hadn't had a chance to properly catch up with who i'd really wanted too...

that was of course the theropod of my eye... lillian the albertosaur!!!

i'd paid for her and peter to go on a tour of the world, in an attempt to get lillian famous again (she'd been fired from the tyrrell like me). the last i'd heard from the two of them (before we all suddenly showed up here in vancouver anyway) both of them had been in new york city... which led me to the natural question. why weren't they still there anymore?

not that i was in a hurry to find out. i just enjoyed the stroll through the paper forest (though seriously what is up with it?!?) with lillian!

our destination was the beach front in west vancouver. the last time i'd been here, had marked a major shift in my life. i was kind of hoping for that again. only this time with lillian involved. oh and nose snuggling (a theropod's version of kissing... on account of our lack of proper mammalian style lips), lots of nose snuggling!

this time around i couldn't help but notice the giant inukshuk that stood by the beach. according to the arctic house, these big stone statues of people are the symbol of the OH-lympics. so i guess, despite not knowing what these OH-lympics are about yet, there is a connection between us dinosaurs and the OH-lympics for peter to try and make. inukshuks are made of stone, and we dinosaurs are found in stone...

which didn't really matter today!

i was for all intents and purposes on another date with lillian!!!

unlike all my other dates with lillian, this time i'd overcome her dislike of me. heck last time i saw her, lillian had given me a small nose snuggle! the equivalent of a human peck on the cheek, maybe not a full on smooch, but considering she tried to eat me the first time i asked her out... i was possibly really close to making lillian my mate!!!

of course one can't just rush into these things. especially since we had a lot of catching up to do. i'd had all my adventures in drumheller and calgary to tell her about! lillian thought they were quite amazing, and didn't entirely believe me in parts (especially dr. paradigm's kung fu!). not that i blame her, but they were the only stories i had to tell. believable or otherwise...

as for her adventures, i was surprised by what i heard. as far as lillian could tell peter had pulled them out of new york for no reason at all. she'd been a big hit in the american museum of natural history's galleries. peter had maintained that lillian was a welcome addition to the museum. yet lillian leveled with me, peter had always seemed to be constantly arguing with the museum's staff about something. though she couldn't figure out what about, as the staff was really nice towards her (and usually peter... just not when he talked to them about one thing things got a little tense).

oh well. i trust peter with making lilllian famous again. what else are special talent agents for?

with the catch up complete it was now time to try and win over lillian's heart. the problem is i don't have a whole lot of experience with wooing the ladies... so i had to kind of make stuff up.

humans are all about touching and stuff, something we theropods aren't naturally all that into. physical contact usually means we're having problems with each other, and will lead more often to a fight then a date. still sadly i'm more human in some ways than t-rex. so i tried something i'd seen humans do on the TV a few times.

i started rubbing lillian's shoulders. at first she didn't notice, on account of how light i am in comparison. if you think a human shoulder can be tense, wait till you try a full grown tyrannosaurid one! as i worked my full weight into the task of massaging lillian she began to notice.

at first i worried i'd anger her, but much to my surprise lillian was really enjoying the neck rub.

"oh my," she said rather blissful. "what are you doing?"

"its called a massage," i informed her, almost panting. it was a ton of effort to smooth out muscle bundles that were as big as me!!!

"i've never had anything this amazing before," she said arching her whole front half into me, so that i could work deeper into the muscle.

okay so now we were getting somewhere! now i just had to think of what to do after this... though for the time being the neck massage was going so well i could just continue while i tried to think of my next move.

i'm sure i would have thought of something, but the most unexpected thing ruined the moment. a number of scents had been gently rolling in from behind us. i'd been trying to ignore them and focus on the great moments i was having with lillian. especially as i figured like most weird smells in the big city they'd fade away.

however these smells didn't go away. if anything more of them started to build up. finally one particularly good waft of wind caused both me and lillian instinctively raised our heads. "are those..." lillian started to ask, but before she could finish we both looked up to the obvious answer.

all around us were a bunch of other dinosaurs!!!

a few of whom i knew, but most i didn't... not that it mattered.

all that mattered was that they'd all just interrupted my best date with lillian yet! the worst part, i didn't even know why. though i had my suspicions that peter knew a thing or two about it...

next: let the games begin!

try try again

well the last of the Oh-lympic houses i went to sucked!

so, i was determined to see if i could find even just ONE house that didn't suck. frankly after trying a few more, it wasn't looking good for them.

not only did all of them have line ups to get into them, but once you got in them there was nothing to do. sure none of them had fish that would bite you, but still after a couple hours wait you'd think there'd be more than a(n expensive) restaurant to see...

i'd been hoping the houses would be more about the places they were named after. you know like a mini-museum or something...

that's when i discovered the northern canada house. it was exactly what the doctor ordered!

they had a cool big stone man in the doorway. i quickly learned that these sculptures were built by the people of canada's north, and were called inukshuks. which was also the symbol of the Oh-lympics.

the house had all sorts of cool museum like things in it. stuffed individuals of the various animals from up there, like this muskox.

the decorations were even hard core arctic... the lamp posts were whale ribs! i know, as they passed my bite test!!!

the only substandard spot in the whole place i'd say was this one table in the corner. all it had on it was a pile of rocks just lying there. randomly, not even in a pattern.

it looked kind of messy and unprofessional.

as i was really digging northern house (especially in comparison to ALL the others houses i'd tried!), i decided to help them out. so i took that bunch of rocks and built some mini inukshuks!

they may not have been as cool as the giant one at the front door, but at least they gave the table a nice decor...

there were tons of cool inuit stone cravings and other artworks around the place.

i thought i looked kind of like this eagle statue. what do you think?

there was a norwhal horn i just had to take this silly picture with.

i'm a horned dinosaur hehehehehe... get it?

the coolest thing on display had to be this mammoth tusk, which was found in the yukon. if you know where to look you can find TONS of ice age mammal remains perfectly preserved (frozen to be precise) up in the arctic. so canada has a pretty good supply of such things!

i was sort of sad to leave arctic house. it was the only one of the 10 houses i tried worth mentioning, as it was awesome. i just wish the other houses had checked them out earlier, and copied this awesome mini-museum!

oh well.

i wonder what peter has in mind for me and the OH-lympics.

i expect my food to at least be dead!

[Production Note: This post is heavily inspired by a true story! The ONLY difference is that in real life no food was ever brough...]

now that i'm at the Oh-lympics, my special talent agent peter bond is insisting we explore around vancouver. i think he is hoping to find somewhere i can jump in and instantly become famous.

well there is nowhere hiding fame so far. however there are a lot of houses... or what they're calling houses. (i thought a house was somewhere humans lived... these certainly are not those!)
`
so far all people do at these "houses" is sit around and watch sports... which i've been noticing a lot of during these Oh-lympics. sports... isn't that a bit of a distraction? you'd think people would be Oh-lympicing right now. whatever that is?
`
we ended up at the "atlantic house" for the evening... it turns out it is not a home for an ocean, like i thought. it is just atlantic canada's "house"... which is not the house for everyone in atlantic canada... again this calling them houses thing is confusing me!

anyways so when we got there we had to wait in line... for a really long time. 4 hours!

this kind of meant the whole afternoon was boring as! i mean what can you do, other then stand in line?

at least i had peter to talk to. i wanted him to tell me tales of he and lillian's adventures in new york, instead peter spent the whole time telling me all about all sorts of winter games for some reason? in fact i noticed that was all anyone in the line was talking about... what's up with that?

anyways finally they let us in, and we settled in. after SO long in the line we were getting pretty hungry. the atlantic house told us in a couple hours they'd be opening the kitchen. oh man i couldn't wait!

in the meantime me and peter watched a bunch of those already mentioned winter sports. which was ALL that seemed to be on the TV, for some reason... i'd never seen so many on in a row. so i learned about all the games peter had told me about earlier. which was kind of cool, i guess, as some of them were neat. it wasn't exactly how i would have spent the time if it'd been up to me though.

however time flew by, and still nothing in my stomach...

to try and "entertain" us all, the atlantic house put some guy named ashley macisaac up on the stage. peter informed me he is famous for playing the needle, or was it a fiddle? i didn't care. i was so hungry i hardly noticed him play music. i just wanted something to eat!

(turns out looking him up, this ashley macisaac is quite famous... so i guess i can say i saw him play some music! not that i really noticed...)

i was SO hungry, and so was everyone else around us. in fact it was getting so bad that we were all getting grumpy. it hit a particular boiling point when my tummy grumbled. all the surrounding tables paniced... which i guess makes sense if your only context of a tyrannosaur is from jurassic park... i sort of took offense as i'm a civilized t-rex. i know people are friends not food... oh well it was this event that tiggered it all.

when the table beside us called over the waiter every table in the area eagerly pulled out the menus to remember their orders. instead of taking our orders though, the waiter dropped a bombshell and informed us that we would not be able to order food as the kitchen was closed!

this immediately caused an outrage, as we'd all hadn't eaten in 6-8 hours! when we all demanded why the kitchen was closed, the waiter told us a bunch of different things! the first table he told the kitchen had only been taking orders for a few minutes (for which no waiters could be found anywhere near our tables!), yet the table beside us got told the kitchen ran out of food, and finally me and peter were told they ran out of electricity...

even i knew (with my small brain) that couldn't have been true... as we saw the waiter lie right to our faces, due to the ELECTRIC light bulb hanging about the table!!!

they weren't going to give us any food. they wouldn't let us back in if we left to get any food. they wouldn't even let us order in a pizza or something!

this would not due! yet the resturant held firm the whole night... yet food continually came out of the kitchen in front of us, but delievered to other tables who apparently had spare electricity or something! the worst was when a couple pizzas got carried through to the VIP area. we can't order pizzas but the special people can? that is so unfair!

nothing changed, that is till my tummy growled again. everyone once again paniced, and word got round that the dinosaur in the corner was going to go berserk. the manager himself showed up, and told me if i tried to eat any of the other "customers" (which peter found funny, as no one was allowed to buy anything!) we'd get kicked out.

peter told the manager a lie of his own... which normally wouldn't be good, but i guess in this case since they lied to us made it okay. right?... anyways peter claimed i was a big famous mascot for the Oh-lympics, and that if they kicked me out he'd see to it they'd be shut down. which wasn't true (i think anyways?).

peter then further demanded if we weren't given something for me to eat we'd be sure to mention it to the media. "you eat meat?" the manager asked already knowing the answer. when i nodded the manager ran off to get my food.

he came back with a salmon. by that i mean a raw uncooked salmon. it hadn't even been gutted. based on the smell i'd say it was pretty fresh.

peter tried not to be sick.

me, well sure i like my food prepared in the human style, but 65 million years of gut instinct is pretty strong. i'll eat my meat cooked or raw. heck i'll even eat meat that is slightly rotten (my stomach is a lot more hardy when it comes to meat then you omnivourus humans).

happily i tried to dig right in... though you'll note i said TRIED!

next thing i knew the salmon was trying to eat me!!!

the atlantic house had brought me out a live salmon... what is up with that?!?

and the stupid thing bite my nose... OWWWWW!

it hurt so much (just on the inside of my mouth, mind you. fortunanetly my snout is very heavily built!)!!!

before i knew it peter grabbed the fish by the tail and threw it away...

leaving me with not only a sore mouth, but also a sore empty tummy! i would have bite it and killed it to eat it... in the cretaceous my ancestors took damage all the time. not that i liked too, but if i had to in order to eat then i would take it... yet i had no chance to act on this instinct.

not that i could care about my hunger now. the fish was gone (i wonder if it made it back the ocean just out the front door?) and now my mouth's roof hurt a ton!

good thing i had peter there to help me out...

so far though i can safely say i HATE the Oh-lympic houses!!!

to be continued with more houses...

there is such a thing as too much flag!

i'd been getting to know a lot of people here at the Oh-lympics! all of us were bonding over our stylish red Oh-lympic mittens!

speaking of bonding, my special talent agent peter bond finally came back from whatever it is he is currently organizing... he thinks these Oh-lympics are just the thing to make me and lillian really famous. i'm not sure, but for lillian i'll try anything...

man, i really should rethink that policy though...

because peter had yet another scheme up his sleeve tonight...

noticing how my mittens were making me the hit of the party, he wanted to try and increase my crowd appeal.

why we couldn't just see how the mittens would do on their own a bit longer was beyond me. it wasn't like they were a flop.

next thing i know peter comes at me with a whole bunch of canada flags...

and tells me to hold still while he puts them all over me!

i did mention there was a whole bunch of them right! so many i HAD to hold some of them, while peter set them up...

one or two i could have handled, but with the number he was putting in i was having real trouble moving. the flag poles were forcing me to stand up real straight.

that and i couldn't really walk fast, or for long without one or more (more often more then one!) of the flags trying to fall out. so i spent most of my time tending to them, putting them back on me in the first place... which wouldn't have been an issue if it let them go...

`

but they were peter's, and i hate it when people lose my stuff!

before i knew it, peter had me completely covered in maple leafs (and one BC flag too for some reason!). i couldn't see where i was going!

people weren't coming up to me to visit. they were coming to watch the "mobile flag stand"... seriously peter spent more time trying to convince them there was a dinosaur under them all, rather than me being some sort of robot...

`

which wasn't a half bad description. i felt like dark vadar, more flag then tyrannosaur, straightened and dizzy!

`

why couldn't we just stick with one big flag? even that one the size of a building i saw the other day wouldn't have been as bad (though i'd need an awful lot of fans to keep that sucker flapping in the wind!)

`

more Oh-lympics to come!

`

Also be sure to watch The Tyrannosaur Chronicles later this week for the start of...

Spread the word, and send in your requests for countries/teams to be present, and their Dinosaur competitors!

For more Prehistoric Olympic related fun, check out Walcott's Quarry!

the magic mittens!

i'm really starting to love these Oh-lympics! they are so much FUN!

regardless of whether they get me famous, like my special talent agent peter wants them too, i'm having a great time!
`
tonight i headed out into vancouver, and had my first taste of everything going on around here...

well okay it didn't exactly start off with that in mind. peter hauled me out to goto some big party to try and mingle. however just as we got there, and he was going to tell me what mingling was, suddenly peter's phone went crazy with calls.

i'm not sure what he's trying to organize, but he's talking to a ton of people and from a bunch of different places! i caught mentions of everywhere from calgary to africa?!? that and i know he plans on me and lillian being a part of it, as our names come up a lot in these calls... wonder what it is?

anyways long story short, peter had to run off and book some sort of plane tickets for someone (i'm wondering if i'm paying for those?). meaning he'd ditched me on the street!

now before you get all upset at me for not wearing my nice new canada hoodie, it wasn't my fault! i haven't gone back on wanting to wear it. however again peter hauled me out without much warning, and so i had no idea i was going outside... that alone it would be so chilly when i got out there.

before he bailed on me completely, and i complained of the cold, peter left me his mittens. at first i was a little annoyed by this solution. they were way too big for my tiny arms (that alone hands!), and as of such i thought they made me look ridiculous... at least they were really warm!

putting them on, i did like the way they matched my staff shirt, and they were kinda cool. they had these five rings that all linked up in a neat pattern... come to think of it, peter made me put it up on my blog banner... and they both said vancouver 2010 on them. finally the palms had some maple leafs, that brought my canada clothing content back up to par.

anyways answering whether the mittens were cool or not, within a couple minutes of putting them on, this really nice girl named laura noticed me wearing them and came over and happily greeted me. "happy olympics!"

`
"happy Oh-lympics!" i said back.

"aren't you just the cutest thing with the mittens on!" she admired my handware.
`
next thing i knew she kissed me...

not what i was expecting, and it was not to be the last.

you know what? these mittens are lady magnets! a bunch of laura's friends came over to hang out with me...

i was a real hit with the ladies! only they were all humans... if only lillian had been around right then!

okay, change that. it was human magnet. oh well...

i had been planning to keep the mittens till i saw lillian again. turns out the mittens were this big thing to do the Oh-lympics.

vancouver was so excited to host them that they came up with these mittens as a thing for people to wear to show they were excited too (though i'm still not sure what the Oh-lympics actually are yet, to be honest). apparently they took off, way more than anyone thought they would, and so now everyone is wearing them!

it confuses me as to why people weren't sure if the mittens would be popular or not. they're a stylish red (like a certain staff shirt... need i convince you more), and two they make a ton of sense in the winter as they keep your hands warm.

all i know is that if i wear these babies around vancouver for the time being, and i've got several thousand potential friends!

so i'll see what else there is to see and experience around here...

to be continued with more mitten related adventure

(and some flags thrown in for good measure... make that lots of flags)

a few doubts

well, here i am at the winter Oh-lympics. peter, my talent agent, thinks this will be a great way to get us famous.

though so far i'm not convinced. especially with his first request. putting on a new hoodie.

peter thinks i'm weird for not wanting to put it on, but i don't care.

my old trusty tyrrell uniform has literally been a second skin. i never take it off. it such a big part of what makes me different than my brutish relatives. i will not abandon my human upbringing and risk becoming a prehistoric savage like my still living relatives today...

even if i'm replacing my staff shirt with something else human. this new shirt didn't play any part in my childhood of coming up civilized... how could it possible help anchor me away from my primal instincts?

yet as i walked around vancouver this morning, rebelliously not wearing peter's new sweater, i came across an unexpected feeling.

canada was everywhere in vancouver. which i know sounds weird. as vancouver is in canada, so it really is canada everywhere in it. however this is just a part of canada.

during these Oh-lympic games vancouver was somehow becoming the very essence of canada. something i'd never encountered before...

normally canadians aren't so big on pushing their country on each other or others. something i've picked up growing up here. yet this not always the case with vivus-dinosaurs. for example many of the american dinosaurs i've encountered have an intense love of their country... which i thought was weird, and something i'd never feel in my life.

though as i walked around town seeing all the flags and people in the "team" canada outfits, i started to kind of get into this whole representing canada thing. especially with all the other countries of the world coming here.

i wanted them to know i was from this great place, and that i think it is great enough to display on me...

which is why today i decided to complete get over my paranoia of losing my human like ways. if anything joining in on team canada makes me more like the people around here. you don't exactly see any dinosaurs wandering around the streets in their countries... though come to think of it i don't see any other dinosaurs around here...

more to come... as i explore vancouver during the Oh-lympics!

Also be sure to watch The Tyrannosaur Chronicles later this week for the start of...

Spread the word, and send in your requests for countries/teams to be present, and their Dinosaur competitors!

For more Prehistoric Olympic related fun, check out Walcott's Quarry!

a quick announcement

Hi there readers of Traumador!

May I start off by saying what a wonderful taste in blogs you all have! Thank you for your ongoing support of everyone's favourite Official Dinosaur of the Winter Games! We hope to enjoy more of this ongoing support, and perhaps some money, in the future!

I am of course not the main Rex himself, just his special talent agent, Bond, Peter Bond. I'm just popping on the Tyrannosaur Chronicles here today for a quick service annoucement of sorts. Though, I'd appreciate you not telling the little green guy I was on here. I'm not sure he knows I've hacked into his account (oh and certainly don't mention that either please!).

I couldn't help but notice the rather popular palaeo-blog Dinosaur Tracking has today posted a poll about which sport you'd like to see an Albertosaur play at the Olympic games. It is a terrific question, and one I'd love know the answer too.

However I can't help but notice the question was asked in a hypothetical manner. Meaning the guys over at the Smithsonian's Blog are unaware of Team Canada Prehistoric's current presence in Vancouver for the games. How I know this is that we have an actual Albertosaur with us here, and frankly how can you ignore a star of Lillian's calibur?

Normally I wouldn't bring this up, but it sort of crosses hairs with what I've been up to this week, and why The Tyrannosaur Chronicles haven't been quite as live and up to the minute with the Olympics as Traum wanted.

You see I've been on the phone with several museums and other people who manage these "Vivus", or currently living, Dinosaurs, throughout the world and have been trying organize a special event.

The 2010 Dinosaur Winter Games here in Vancouver. We'll be assembling Dinosaur teams from all over the world to participate in several popular winter games.

Naturally this is pretty much what Dinosaur Tracking has outlined, and well call me paranoid, but I just wanted it on the record that I was thinking of the same thing! Great minds think alike, and so despite my having to let the cat, or should I say Raptor :P, out of the bag early, the good news now you all know.

So definately tune in here to The Tyrannosaur Chronicles next week for the beginning of the games. Also be sure to pop by Dinosaur Tracking, and thank them for independently thinking of the idea, and showing me there is indeed interest in such events!

Heck with the Smithsonian behind such sports how can everyone else I'm contacting say no?

So we'll see you here for the games. Maybe send in your suggestions for countries and their potential team partipates!

GO CANADA! (I had to say it!)

a new look?

okay i'm here for the Oh-lympics. my special talent agent peter bond thinks this is a perfect way for me and lillian albertosaur to become famous.

as of such we're going to need to do anything and everything we can to become the official dinosaur(s?) of vancouver 2010.

tonight peter showed me the first of the drastic things i was going to have to do. peter had bought me an official Oh-lympic hoodie he wanted me to wear everywhere.

i wasn't sure. "come on traum baby," peter tried to pressure me. "no one will take you seriously if you don't show your olympic colours."

i still wouldn't budge, i was going to need more convincing.

"you haven't gone kiwi have you?" peter asked. i looked at him puzzled. "do you like new zealand more then canada now?" he clarified pointing to the big canda printed on the front of his new article of clothing. ah, he thought i wouldn't wear it as i suddenly didn't like canada or something

"no," i responded. "new zealand is fine, but i'm still a canadian dinosaur at heart." especially when i consider the dinosaurs of new zealand. they don't exactly make for good company.

"if it is not the patriotic factor, why won't you wear the canada sweater?" peter pleaded.

at first i wouldn't tell him, as it was a personal reason. finally peter convinced me if i couldn't tell him, my agent, what he needed to know than how could he help me.

"fine," i gave in to his battering. "the thing is, i've never worn anything above my staff shirt before, and i don't feel comfortable covering it up."

"above?" peter repeated baffled. "i was thinking you take that old uniform off altogether."

"what?!?" i cried, looking to my shirt. "i can't take this off!"

"why not?" peter clearly didn't understand me.

"when i first earned the right to wear this 5 years ago it was the first time i was acknowledge as being equal to a human," i furiously defended. "to take this off would be like taking off one of my limbs. i will never go back to the time when i was a second class being!"

peter looked concerned, but yet confused. i don't think he'd ever seen me this worked up before. heck, i haven't seen me this worked up in a little while (at least since getting to vancouver i guess).

peter then thrust at me with the sweater, having come up with an idea in his head. which bugged me, as he hadn't run it by me. "well by that logic," he said as he grabbed my arm. "this will make you twice as equal to a human. afterall this is the 'uniform' of the vancouver games. so if you wear this you'll fit in with everyone around here."

i thought about this grumpily as i was forced into the hoodie regardless of whether i agreed or not.

i watched my old tyrrell uniform, half expecting it to explode or melt as it came into contact with the new canada hoodie. it seemed fine with the coexistence.

fine i decided. i'd give this idea of peter's a shot. what could it hurt at this point?

peter was ecstatic as i started to put the hoodie on by myself.

you know it wasn't half bad! in fact it was nice and comfy. especially given that vancouver was a little chilly. this made up for my lack of feathers, and i wouldn't always be so cold.

best of all, i have to admit it was rather cool to sport my countries colours and name.

i'd been noticing how vancouver had suddenly come alive as something of an international jungle. flags grew like flowers off all the buildings, and the people suddenly were taking up the patterns of their homelands. it felt good to join in.

a rather nice man from behind us leaned over seeing my new hoodie. "i love the hoodie dino-man. GO CANADA!"

for some reason i yelled back. "GO CANADA!!!" too?

peter leaned in. "nicely done. see like i said twice the equality." i was stoked.

though i couldn't help but notice the stranger was suddenly happily holding $5. i could have sworn i had a fiver in my wallet earlier today, but peter assured me he watched it carefully all day. oh well...

next peter was trying to play with all the different ways we could play my new look.

i did not care for the gangster style one bit! gangs are not cool! i simply have to point to the pack of the primoridal feather as an example!!!

peter conceded. though not willingly.

i'd just put my claw down... on his tigh, and he could tell it'd hurt if i put any more pressure down!

"okay," he changed subject. "we've got you the threads. now it is time for the goods."

he pulled out a card. "what's that?" i inquired.

"this my friend is your card. or rather i want you to think of it as you!" he answered. "and as we're trying to get you out there, so must these cards. you'll be giving these to anyone and everyone who will take it!"

an interesting idea. i give out these pieces of paper to people, and they will remember me. how does peter think up these incredibly great ideas?

so watch out for me people of the vancouver wide web. if you spot me on the streets of vancouver as i'm out and about, not only pop by for a photo with me... how did peter say i was supposed to say this. ahem "everyones' most... no... ah yeah... favourite tyrannosaurus rex."

not only will you get a cool photo oppurtunity with me, but get your own free copy of my website card... telling you how to get here... wait a minute!

to be continued...