I Am Alive...

So it's been a little while since I posted. As per usual I just don't have ANY where near as much time as I'd like (go figure).

So tons of things have happened lately that probably deserve posts (and hopefully will get them).

Melbourne

So I visited and explored Melbourne Australia for a few days which was awesome and fun. If I do NOT get to a post on this Traumador almost certainly will within a few months.

Met back up with the girl whilst there. Put this odd pic up as we both really liked it.

So with a far prettier picture, again met up with Rhonwyn in Melbourne where she introduced me to her native Aussieland. At the end of this little vacation we both flew back to Dunedin to resume the skool thing...

Dinosaur Provincial Park

After over a week of communications break down caused by long weekends, time zone differences, and non returned emails (on their part) I learned that I did not get a job at Dinosaur Provincial Park or any other Parks Alberta facility...

This has dampened my spirits a bit. I really wanted to work at DPP, and this was very well probably my last chance to do so. It also means there may be a major rework in my longterm plans as to where I'm going to end up after April...

The only thing I'm bitter about (and to be honest it has me furious) was that due to a presentation I made to a number of terrified 20+ year olds, I was told I "don't have enough experience working with children". Funny that I have 9 years of NOTHING but working with children. A impending certification as a primary teacher, and they tell me for next time I apply I need to work with kids more. Mother *BEEP*ers is all I have to say!!!

No time to dwell on this however...

Teaching

Within three days of returning to New Zealand I was back in the classroom with kids again. The good news I'll be a true teacher in under 2 months. The bad news its going to be an insanely hectic and busy marathon to the end.

Speaking of which I need to get back to work. So yes interesting things have been happening, but I have no time to write them down (at least for now...)

The Problem with Spielberg Movies...

I've officially hit rock bottom with hollywood recently. I don't watch TV anymore (thanks a lot Ronald D. Moore and Battlestar!!!), and movies are increasingly becoming a hard sell with me. Thankfully superhero movies as of late have been of high enough quality to keep me going to see them (though Superman Returns has dampered me on the genre a bit).

Partially due to Mike's current obsesscion with Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (which I ironically introduced him to), and my recent apathy towards Hollywood I've been watching a lot of MSK3000 and their new RiffTrax.

Now for those of you who have never heard of either of these. The basic idea is take a movie and make fun of it while you watch it. In this case they've pre-scripted and recorded this for you. MSK3000 was done with really old and BAD B movies, and you got the comedians with the movie. After they were cancelled many of the same performers have moved onto do modern blockbusters as mp3 commentary style tracks under the title RiffTrax.

What this means I now have some confirmation that mainstream movies are as dumb as I've been saying.

An unexpected, but really funny observation these guys have pointed out to me is how Spielberg movies achieve their "Spielberg" effectiveness.



I've always wondered how Spielberg movies managed to envoke wonder or suspense in moments that other movies fail to achieve similar moods. Thanks to the funny guys at Rifftrax I now know the secret, and it has ruined Spielberg. If you wish not to laugh everytime you watch one of his movies than stop reading...

His trick is to have people stand around and stare a LOT...


It makes sense that this would heighten your sense of curiosity or suspence. In real life someone would say something!!! You get wigged out by the unnatural silence from everyone on screen.

However after watching The Lost World in the background of packing I couldn't help but laugh now that I've noticed this. JP2 has at least 7 good silent stare moments. Not only does stop the flow of the movie, but it eats up precious time to make Spielberg movies seem longer.

So now whenever I see wide eyed starring towards off camera I can't help but chuckle and crack some Rifftrax lines.

At Mike's suggestion here is an example clip of them making fun of it (though their usually a little more polished than this particular format)

All In One Day!!!

So I knew today would be one of the big key days of my quick return to Canada...

I had NO idea it was going to be this memorable!

So the big event of the 2nd

My job interview with

PARKS ALBERTA...

So it was a Tyrrell style interview workshop (actually to be fair I'm pretty sure the museum borrowed the format from these guys...) in which you interview one on one, but also than have a day long seminar style group interview testing various interpretive qualities.

I had to be at the interview (on the OTHER side of town) by 9 am. So for the first time this trip I went to bed before midnight so I could in theory get some sleep.

5:30am: Things don't go according to plan. Of course being a little stressed about the interview I had a somewhat restless sleep... Making it truly unrestful my dad gets sick waking up mom who than at this early hour decides to do dishes?!?

The loud rattling and clanging wake me up sufficently to allow my mind to worry, and thus I'm effectively awake here on in...

8:30am: I arrive a good half hour early before the interview starts. At the exact same time as the interviewers in fact. So I appear ubber keen which is good.

8:55am: The interview process begins with me being both the first one on one interview of 2008. Hoping that means I cast the shadow others had to surpass.

My goal, though there are many parks to choose from, I REALLY want the job at:


Dinosaur Provincial Park

Overall I'm content with my performance at the workshop. Not happy or estatic, but also not angry or depressed by.

The only area I feel I nailed in the top 10% was the drama portion. Here we had to assume a 3 character's and sing as ourselves. Definately had among the most diverse character voices.

The program scripting went alright though I only got 3/4 done mine in the 30 min provided (I'm the slowest handwriter in the universe!). My 2 minute presentation went alright (over time, but as again I was the FIRST to go the timer didn't notice or warn me, and it so I stretched my talk thinking I'd sped through it too fast...). The only part I bombed was the natural history test, but as it was mostly on Rockie Mountain stuff I wasn't too bummed (that and 75% of us didn't know the stuff).

My big hope is that I managed to get in a few words towards the end with the head man of DPP himself, and I got a good vibe from it.

Basically it's over PHEW! Now I have to play the waiting game... which sucks... I'm going to play Hungry Hungry Hippos instead!

So after this Amber showed up to hang-out, and we decided to goto the Loose Moose Improve Comedy Show.

It was only my third time there, and the first in years since they moved locations. The show had been entertaining in the way improv is. When the second last act comes along, and it's time for ambush someone from the audience...

Now it should be pointed out I've been up for 15-16 hours on 5 hours sleep, and had my nerves shot royal throughout the day...

The hostess actress Rebecca Northan jumps up into the audience in search of a victim. Now you'll note her name has a link here. Earlier in the show she had an improv related punishment of having to tell the audience why she was NOT famous. So despite having some parts in movies and TV including 2 episodes of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, we the audience hadn't done our part she informed us.

Anyways she jumps up onto the steps, and I make the mistake of making eye contact... oops. I can tell instantly I'm the target, though she takes her time to grab me and haul me down on stage...

Oh and she looked more like this. In that she was a French Clown with the nose, and whacky French accent.

The sketch I get plugged into is me and this clown after 5 years of marriage. Now I'm not going to claim I was brilliant, but despite their best efforts they didn't embrass or dumbfound me to the point of looking, well dumb :P

After trying to turn me into a bad husband by ambush I turned it around by acting like one (in a very silly me way) she suddenly left the house leaving with me and our "son"... Who was a puppet! Junior was doomed from the start LOL

I already guessed Jrs. rough routine of being ubber brat so I stepped it up a notch by making me look like the BAD one. Giving it beer when it started crying, and pretending I thought everything it said was a line from TV.

Even when wife returned and found out about the beer, and accused me of previously giving the baby bad things I kept up the not fighting the way they wanted me to by applogizing "again" for these supposed past deeds which surprised the heck out of them.

So in the end how did I get embrassed and take away a weird experience. Well it wasn't too bad. Just really funny and surreal. Especially in my state of mind at the time.

So she'd wanted kisses throughout the sketch, and I only gave her pecks on the check to which she started setting up my downfall with "5 years of marriage and you call that a kiss!". So at the end she ambushed me with the desire for a GOOD kiss. Thank the Lords of Kobal I know how to stage kiss!

So a good fake out of just pressing lips together with a lot of suggestive body and head movements the crowd went estatic as the lights dimmed. A very sincere thank you from Rebecca during the applause (I think more for keeping the sketch moving and not stagnating than anything else), and a bow to the crowd I returned to my chair.

Though I wasn't in top form (I thought of several hilarious things could have done after the fact) I did keep this ambush sketch going for at least 5 mins without losing my cool or rythm. I didn't steal the show apart from once or twice (the baby beer was the audiences fav of my stuff), but I sure did surprise people.

In fact I had 5 people after the show come up congragulate me, and once ask "were you actually a member of the audience?!?".

So I now wrap up this ubber long day (at 20 hours awake now). Been a long long ride.

I hear back from Alb Parks later in the month so keep you posted.

Yet despite the interview being the important event of the day... somehow having to kiss a French Clown takes the moment of the day...

Oh and now I'm probably in trouble... Don't tell Rhonwyn PLEASE ;p

What Darth Vadar Really Wanted

Awesome remix of Episode 4 using James Earl's Jones lines from coming to America. Very funny!

Sad Day

As a HUGE fan of the Bruce Timm DC animated cartoon series I've been lucky enough to get 10 seasons worth of stuff.

Only one problem with that. Once you've seen all 10 you've seen them all.

Today I finished off the last 4 episodes of Batman Beyond. The last episodes I needed to see of the Timm cartoons.

No more for me. *tear*

One Year Later... Drumheller

Finally here on my return trip I've gotten around to the number one thing on my list to do. Return to Drumheller to check in on the good museum Tyrrell and her crew.

The Town

Setting the stage for the overall trip this quote from David Loyd was pretty telling. "It's Drumheller nothing really changes around here."


I mean apart from a little erosion since my last time here in December 2006 the Badlands remain fairly unchanged (considering the rocks are some 70 million years old that stands to reason).

Due to both the snow of winter and the quickness of my trip I only got preview levels of the badlands and their beautiful layers... Definitely no fossil prospecting in there either :(

On the surface nothing in Drum had really changed. Yet looking closely subtle changes were abound everywhere. All the "Cementosaurs" for example had new paint jobs (resulting in the extinction of my favourite "Funkosaurus Rocks" *tear*).

To be all little frank I didn't care for 90% of the new paint jobs I saw...

Though this new job on the Fast Gas Corythosaur was not only a major improvement, but the best of the lot.

I didn't snap a picture out of disgust, but probably should have, the ground sloth had changed from the logical brown to green?!?!?

The Crew

My main objective of this trip was to catch up with and see all my good friends at the museum.

Though I only managed to make it into town for 1.5 functional days (spread over 3 actual days) I feel I was more than efficient in this regard.

Out of all the people who still live and work in Drum I saw 100% of them. Sadly I only talked to 99% of them with one key person disappearing without managing to say even hello... I guess there's always next time?

Here are the old guard mixed with the new at Rowley. Yes this trip was perfectly timed for Rowley!

The main event was a surprise per-b-day party for my main man Tyler. With him and Kelly expecting their baby around the time of his actual b-day it was decided by the staff to celebrate it now while he definitely could. It also meant this was a real surprise for him...

Funny side story I was nearly the weak link in altering him to this event. People over the net told me about the party, but neglected to inform me that it was a secret. I nearly mentioned in the email to Tyler I was excited to make it to his party, but opted not to mention it as it was a no brainer I would be showing up to it... Dodged a big social responsibility bullet there for sure!

I was sadly not as camera happy as I normally am, and only got a few individual shots. Like this one of Yumi and Kristen (the wonderful hero who gave me the ride out to Drum!). Here we enjoy a breakfast before me and Kristen hit the road for home.

On the first night in Drum a number of us, having just enjoyed the new all museum staff band, returned to Cam and Megan's to hang out further. Here Megan and Luke rejoice in the comfort knowing Spiderman's got them covered.

Chara loving Peter Bond's painting (set piece and prop in the The Hardcore Apocalypse After Next Tuesday) from inside a laundry basket on the second self of Cam's puter room. It was a fun night as you can tell...

Also full of surprises as it turns out Chara is actually just the hidden form of a transformer Buster Primer... 5 geek points for everyone who catches why I gave her this name.

I also met the new member of Cam and Megan's family in the form of Lucy. Cam found her as a stray hanging outside Yavis' (which speaking of which I went to, and you'd never recognize it now that it's smoke free!).

The Royal Tyrrell Museum

My secondary objective of the trip (honestly not first but second!) was to hit the museum.

Cam was nice enough to take an hour out of his one day off this week to come into work so I could check it out.

The one bright spot is that Cam had never had his picture taken with the Allosaur despite it being his favourite Dinosaur. So the hour paid for itself (or so I try to lie to myself).

My main goal of the quick pop into the museum was to see all the displays that were put up and completed RIGHT after my departure for New Zealand

The Ceratopsians

Greeting you to display is an old friend, whose had a bit of a upgrade in the meantime.

It's partner now stands high above as the official greeter to the display area. Breaking their eternal conflict (which to be honest I'll miss as I thought the dueling Chasmosaurs were among the coolest mounts due to the life like nature of their interaction).

This mountain-Chamosaur as it's called is a little controversial with people at the museum. Some think it's a silly place to put the skeleton. I though think it is cool in that it's a unique perspective and point of view you normally don't get of a Dinosaur skeleton.

They also have a very cool section of metal cut outs to give you the sense of scale of the various sorts of ceratopsians.

As an aside with the lovely Cam as my human model in this shot, this is going to be used shortly to make new cast members for Traumador's upcoming adventures. That's a big hint as ALL of these ceratopsian families will make an appearance... with one of them being a new main cast member!!! You'll have to guess which one.

The real fossil mount of the Dinosaur Park Pacyrhinosaur is VERY impressive in person. It's awesome to see the real skeleton in the gallery. It give the public an idea of what palaeontologists call a complete skeleton, and how hard it is to mount real bones as opposed to casts.

The Eotriceratops cast by Mark is awesome to see finally on display... No thanks to me and my near accidentally knocking off the horn in 2005... Not that it was a serious near knocking off, but it sure smartened me up when working in the cast lab!

Part 1 of the museums own Styracosaur.

Part 2 of the the Styracosaur.

Lords of the Land

The revamped Theropod Hall that is for the most part the same idea, but with a nice new decor and atmosphere of an art gallery. Complete with classic music playing softly throughout!

This space was also officially dedicated to late museum director Bruce Naylor which is fitting. So let's go through the new Naylor Hall.

It's a Dromaeosaur the best we've ever seen!!!

A Saurornitholestes.

It is about time there were LOTS of raptors up in the museum. Their crowd pleasers, and frankly are just cool skeletons.

Some more Ornithomimids

New Geo Station

Because they took out the teaky booth by Lillian's corner there was a need for somewhere for the GEOs to do their thing. Complete with real ceratopsian bone in the front for people to interact with, a gallery map on the counter top, and a simulation micro fossil matrix dig station it's pretty awesome.

Cretaceous Alberta

Technically the first display in the museum, but due to my foolish uploading of these photos first and this being my favourite display it's the last. I'll go with saving the best for last.

Though I'd seen the new Albertosaur family just before I left, but their new environment was sway! (in the words of Batman Beyond)

My only compliant is how open it is. The premise of the display is you walking into Alberta 70 million years ago with the pack of Albertosaurs from the Dry Island bonebed. You're surrounded by their prehistoric jungle to the sides, but removing the illusion is open ends into the present. Be nice if even the into the gallery side had a backdrop behind the running Albertosaur.

Otherwise it's a brilliant addition, and a worthy replacement of Lillian's corner. Which brings the museum's restoration back to the cutting edge of science.

New Finds. Fresh Minds.

After being taken down for a year for an Ice Age display (which I sadly missed) the old classic museum concept of show casing the curators and researchers is back. I have to say it is a very impressive upgrade. With such displays as a cast saurpod visitors can stand beside to compare themselves too, and this Francois' current research in theropod bite force and methodology. Very nice.

Off till at least the Spring

Though 1.5 days was hardly enough, it was FUN as! It was awesome catching up with everyone I saw. Equally amazing to see the place I've invested so much into evolve into something better.

With a mere 2 weeks till I head back down under (including the actual down under of Australia!) my last big outstanding to do is get that job at Dinosaur Provincial Park so I can return and visit the museum in its real prime the summer! (Well okay I'd also like to visit Edmonton, but time grows short).

Funny As Palaeo Commercials

Over at Laelaps there are several funny palaeo related commericals. Among my favourite are a series of caveman era themed Cup of Noodle ads like this Moa one below. Laelaps has several more posted (not wanting to steal his thunder from posting them I just advertise ;p )

Blind Music Purchases

So after a year in New Zealand, a place at least 6 months behind the rest of the world entertainment-wise and typically only mainstream, I've been relatively without no music.

Thanks to two relief efforts by Karen and Clare I thankful had some needed injections to my limited library of music. However in preparation for the plunge back down under I ventured out and picked up some new CDs.

I however haven't seen any movies this year really so what was I to get?

Rather than scout out the music in their films first I took gambles on the following. Let's see how I did.

So Seinfield's animated movie. That alone had me avoid this one in theatres.

What attracted it to my attention though was it's by the same people who made Antz, one of my fav soundtracks. The music however was by Rupert Gregson-Williams, brother of Antz composer Harry Gregson-Williams... In the case of Harry I these days buy his stuff without reference due to the overall high quality of his work, and he has yet to sting me (pun intended!) unlike any other artist on that elite list.

Would I cut his brother a break? To be honest no. However my usual review site Film Tracks compared it to not just Antz, but Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, and my all time favourite Chicken Run. Though I disagree with film tracks on some topics (John Williams for example... he hasn't been any good since the 90's... tracks blindly worships the ground he walks on EVEN War of the Worlds' music!?!) they've never led me astray when comparing things to Chicken Run.

So picking up the Bee Movie CD, were they right? Yes indeed. In fact album to album their dead ringers of each other. Both are fun throughout, but have 4 amazing standout silly zany fun tracks. I suspect this will be a Craig classic.

Than I found on film tracks minutes after returning from buying the Bee Movie CD that Water Horse was done by James Newton Howard... oh man

Howard being my favourite of all time, and the first one I ever just picked up at total random without seeing the movie. With no track record established for Howard in 2002 I just grabbed Atlantis for some reason. It was brilliant. Just like SOME of the tracks from Water Horse.

Water Horse has about 4-5 really good tracks in and of itself. Sadly not as consistently good as Atlantis or one of his water themed best Lady in the Water, but still entertaining none the less.

Long Overdue Update

I have been back in Calgary for about 3 weeks now, and the trip with my parents went well.

So far I've caught up with 90% of people in Calgary, and I plan to head up to Drumheller and possibly Edmonton if I can manage it to catch up with all them folks.

I will try to get a post up with my own photos of my trip with the parental units, but my mother has set up a very detailed and complete account of our travels on her own new blog. It's a much better version than I'd be able to give you.

The fictional mirror image of that trip and ALL my others through out New Zealand are currently in progress in Traumador's life (the reason I'll be too busy to give you a good account of the REAL trip) so be sure to check that out as well.