Preview of Drum to Come

So been on a vacation in Drumheller for a week now. Sadly my trip ends in less than 36 hours. In fact functionally I've got just over 24 hours to go.

Due to a number of factors I'm only giving you a taste of whats gone on up here. I will be posting a lot more soon. PROMISE!

Among the most key is catching up with the peoples that made my life here in Drumheller so memorable. As of today I've managed some quality time with everyone I sought out (though maybe not the amount of time I'd have liked)

Discoveries everywhere. Though to be honest the best weren't mine, but I was along for the ride at least.

Some very unexpected adventures. This photo was taken from one. Bet you can't guess where it was taken from ;p

And of course Traumador had a TON of adventures up here. Of which this picture doesn't even come close to conveying. Seriously some of the best Traum photos and adventures ever will be coming from this Drum expedition.

Plus find out my current obsession. All coming soon once I return home, and nothing more adventure wise is occurring.

Projects A Plenty!

Oops. With life being as crazy as it tends to be it's not like I don't have enough trouble posting stuff on this blog as is.

Add into that normal mix something a tad drastic like flying halfway across the world, and well I just haven't had time to do it!

I do have lots of "real" life to report, but its just not as fun to write about frankly. So you'll have to wait for all that stuff later.

I will however note that though this blog has been silent for a bit, my other two (yeah I'm a bit of a blog junkie...) have been bustling with activity.


For good reason too! With the trip to Canada I've been able to retrieve a number of key computer files that I'd been separated from for over a year. Meaning that the last remnants of the Drum years are ready to finally be put together and shown the light of day...


Though this movie was shot in 2004, and finally completed in early 2006, Hardcore Apocalypse After Next Tuesday has long been overdue for an Internet debut... Why I'm punishing the world with it I'm not sure, but it will clearly demonstrate how the Prehistoric Insanity crew improved heaps over its 4 summer existence.

Check out the teaser at Prehistoric Insanity. Also keep checking in there as the movie should be up by mid September!

That project being of course our Sci-Fi (I've always wanted to make a space movie, and now I finally will!) movie Delta Patrol. It is looking very promising folks!

Granted the break of nearly 2 years on filming it means that its been a bit of work to get back into the editing process. I'm aiming to work on it for at least an hour each week. With the promise of a blooper every Sunday night.

Check out the progress by checking, once again, Prehistoric Insanity.

Of course as the sole member of PI Digital I'm ever busy. Not only with all the models from Delta Patrol but also my other on going project Traumador.
If you've lost base with what's going on with Traumador nows a great time to get back up to speed. Not only is the fact he is in Australia exciting enough, but he's just re met Lillian the girl of his dreams! Will Traumador finally find love and happiness? Find out as this is my attempt at making a friendly entry point into Traumador's life.

Of course there's lots of CG to do for these posts. Especially with my current goal of getting a CG Dino or other critter into ever 5th post at most. I'm also hoping to get some more Vlogs going again too.

The point being I like a full plate! So this blog may get ignored from time to time, but I promise I'm back onto my goal of at least one post a week... after August. Sorry just being home is very hectic at moment, but I'll try my best!

The Dark Knight... Pure Batman!

(I don't give too many spoilers... that's for you Peter so read this!)

Well just saw The Dark Knight (stupid late release in New Zealand!), and it was simply awesome! Definitely in the best superhero movies of all time, and my favourite movie of this year (though Kung Fu Panda put up a fight against both this and Iron Man).

First off I'll say Heath Ledger's Joker is indeed the awesome, and is everything I could want in a non-Mark Hamil Joker (the Bruce Timm cartoons still being my favourite super hero thing ever. better than the comics and any movies... though this movie nearly does it in parts!). Even if not for Ledgers death I'm sure his take on part would be getting a lot of praise... Just maybe not the over the top oscar talk it has been getting.

This emphasises the only problem with the movie. It has been over hyped. ALOT!

Yet unlike the Star Wars prequels it didn't leave a bad taste though, and in fact had me really into it for the most part. It just wasn't a surprise like Batman Begins was.

So if you haven't seen Dark Knight don't go in expecting the greatest movie ever when you do. It has flaws. Batman Begins was a much better product overall, and could be argued as being better than its sequel due to this. However when The Dark Knight was hitting its stride it was way cooler and more fun!

What I enjoyed the most is that unlike most Superhero movies that start strong and than kind of putter out towards the end, The Dark Knight started weak and got better all the way to the end. I LOVE where the third movie is heading... Though I will admit using just Batman mythos characters I'm not sure who the bad guys will be (in a way. I have my suspicions but that'll have to wait).

Rather than give a bunch of spoilers or ramble about stuff I'm sure is being talked about everywhere, I wanted to say my favourite part was not actually the Joker. Which is "funny" (pun intended) as he is my favourite comic book villain, and Ledger's version is great. Given all the hoopla going on everywhere else I wanted to emphasis the other thing that worked in this film, and that was...

The Dark Knight himself!

In Batman Begins we got a very select sampling of the character of Batman. For the Dark Knight they pulled out all the stops and give us tons of the classic essential moments in live action.

There's the night club confrontation, jumping on a moving car, using normal materials around him to turn an impossible situation around, and many more I won't spoil. When you watch it though pay attention to how every time Batman appears in this movie he is covering a lot more of the classic Batman spread than the first film.

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I'm sure one of the most underrated scenes by most people is the detective work that he does early in the film. Something I felt was sorely lacking in the first film.

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Perhaps the only aspect they didn't do enough of was gadgetry. My buddy I went with didn't like how he didn't adapt to a few things despite hitting them ALOT through the movie. Also the one big gizmo towards the end, though cool, was kinda a let down). I add I hated how *spoiler* he didn't use a SINGLE batrang in the whole film BOO! I love those things!

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At the same time in the first movie it was a VERY gadgety Batman, and it was cool to see in this film him not having to rely entirely on high tech stuff to be a hero.

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So yeah definitely go see the Dark Knight, and pay attention to all the cool Batman moments in addition to the Ledger stuff you've no doubt being hearing about non stop. Just remember it isn't perfect!

Well Work is Work

I've managed a steady gig for the last two weeks, and its been going well. It'll be good to FINALLY get paid.

At the same time its work LOL. Not that playing with kids all day is a new thing to me. Sadly I'm getting older though and I am feeling tried at the end of the days. Maybe it was good I graduated from the summer camp league.

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As I've only been averaging a few hours after work I'll have to update on stuff at the end of the week.

The Lovely Ladies in My Life

Well thankfully my New Zealand Immigration problems have resolved themselves for the most part (okay and by resolved "themselves" I really mean I resolved them through sheer angry force).

As I was down in the dumps last week the lady folk in my life (currently the majority of my New Zealand based social circle are female) went out and were very thoughtful.


Rhonwyn and Clare bought me this Iron Man action figure (seen riding the beginning of my New Zealand Styracosaur collection) as a morale boost present. It did the trick. He even shots that blue thing off his arm!

Hulking Out...

Well given my recent problems with New Zealand Immigration (mostly solved now thankfully!) I've had a lot of rage and anger.

Now if there's one thing I tend to do is bottle these up and release it when there's a lot more of it stored up. Due to this tendency I've had a soft spot for the Hulk ever since I got in comics earlier this decade.

In fact it was this issue of the Ultimates, the one where the Hulk comes out in style to do battle with the Ultimates, that was my first comic purchase. Until than I'd been borrowing my friends copies of things to read. It is still among my favourite single issues of any book, and definitely my favourite Ultimates issue.

So great was my love of this issue, and Ultimate Hulk that I did something I've never done for any other Marvel character. I actually picked up regular Marvel Hulk for a while... Even more surprising I enjoyed it for that while (till the last few issues).

So how did The Incredible Hulk pan up to my expectations

Well in one word it SMASHED all my doubts.

This movie was so much better than the last Hulk movie.

At the same time it had a few things I wasn't crazy about. To be honest I liked Eric Banna as Bruce Banner a lot more than Ed Norton. Don't get me wrong Norton does fine in the role, and is watchable. I just liked Banna more (partially because he can act and be different in movies unlike Norton).

Otherwise the movie was spot on what it needed to be!

The part I enjoyed the most was how his origin mixed elements from most of the Hulk's incarnations. They had bits from the 60's comic, 80's TV show (actually there was a TON of hat tips to the show throughout the movie if you missed them), and most important the mission statement of the Ultimate verse.

In the Ultimate universe of Marvel 90% of heroes (and many villains) owe their creation and origin causing events to a Super-Human research and development. I'm really digging the way these new Marvel Studio movies are grabbing key Ultimate concepts, and building their Avengers along the same lines as the Ultimates (who are of course the Ultimate Avengers, just Mark Miller thought Avengers was a dumb name for the team as their not "avenging" anything).

Liv Tyler as Betty Ross was much better than I expected. In fact she comes across as rather intelligent which I didn't think she could do.

William Hurt as General Ross was the number one human highlight of the movie. He struck the balance that made Ross a great villain, but one we couldn't quite hate.

The Hulk though takes the cake as the best thing about the movie. Which is the way it should be. Sadly in the last Hulk motion picture the Hulk took a background role. This movie he has plenty of fights, and their extremely satisfying!

The end fight is everything I love in a fight. It also has the my favourite use of a Comic characters catch phrase in a movie for "HULK SMASH!". I won't ruin it for you, just go see it!

Tony Stark coming to General Ross at the end about the Avengers wrapped it up nicely, and definitely has me excited for Avengers, as I think it'll start off with the Avengers trying to take down the Hulk just like Ultimates #5.

Stark's appearance does require one to quickly compare his movie to Hulk's. Sadly I have to say that Iron Man was still a bit better. I'd say the key reason is that Bruce Banner just isn't as fun to watch as Stark. Especially given the casting difference too. Ed Norton is Ed Norton (sadly in 2005 I was forced to watch EVERY Norton movie made up until that point by my roommates) you're not getting anything too interesting. Downey on the other hand was too much fun to watch.


My finally thought is related to the future Hulk villain they set up in the Abomination's creation. The funny part was Mr. Blue was taken directly from the regular Hulk I was reading in 2003 so this movie was tailored very heavily from ALL the Hulk I'd read. However as clearly their setting up the Leader, the next Hulk movie enters territory of the character I hardly know (the only Leader story I read was so bad that it caused me to dump reading regular Hulk).

New Zealand Update

After a very angry phone call to NZ immigration I've resolved part my immigration problem. They're (almost grudgingly it seemed) granting me a temporary work permit till they sort out my proper one.

It's far from over, but this is a big step to surviving.

Now I JUST need to figure out how I'm still going to make it to Canada in August.

I'm really starting to HATE New Zealand!

Well if you've been paying attention I haven't been talking about my current life much on here.

The reason is that a lot of factors have been in limbo, and I didn't have much to report. Sadly not much if anything has changed on that front either...

I'm still waiting for my work permit to clear.

I'm still waiting for my health results to be checked.

I'm still waiting for the ministry to education to properly enter me into their work force.

Now I don't mean to complain, but frankly I'm at my breaking point.

All of these various things were only supposed to take between 1 to 4 weeks depending on which item we're talking. For the work permit in particular I'm in the middle of week FUCKING 8, and the bloody kiwis still haven't moved off their god damn asses!

The kicker being today I was just told by NZ immigration that my permit will be ANOTHER 3-4 weeks of processing. So let's do the math on this. 4 + 8 doesn't = 3-4 weeks... I know I'm a primary teacher (I can even show you the four maths strategies you can use to solve that problem).

This whole time I'm hemorrhaging money. Not only is life costing me, but I can't work legally! I'm going to have to turn down work which is being offered to me. That's kiwi kids going without a teacher for a day mind you. All so that some government pencil pushers can justify their existence. Whilst they do that I'm pretty much broke, and sick of having to go to my parents for help (who can't and won't be keeping it up... but you can't, and I certainly don't blame them!).

The kiwis are constantly saying that their (ass backwards) country needs teachers, and they can't figure out why the hell none of their teacher trainees are not staying here.

Okay class, let's ponder this problem for moment...

Okay I'm hearing some very good answers, and most of you are something like. MAYBE IF YOU FUCKING LET TEACHERS WORK THAN THEY'D DO SO!

If they don't come through for me in another 2-3 weeks I'm going to have to leave the country for good. Let's put this in context. I not only am a trained teacher, but I'm one trained in the New Zealand system! After all this investment their system has put into me, why are they forcing me to take it elsewhere?!?

Anyways I'm done typing about this (for now). I've not only had to try and keep myself calm on this all day, but I just tucked in an indescribably upset lady-type person who is hysteric over this somewhat real threat of my having to leave for good.

So yeah I kinda irked at this country right now, and it might take it a while to get back in my good books. If at all.

It's really up to them.

Wishing I had owned a camera sooner!

Though I'm not a real palaontologist (and sadly never will be) on occasion due through my time at the Tyrrell I've been exposed to stuff that the majority of palaeo people haven't been yet (though hopefully they will be soon).

Recently over at Manabu Sakamoto's blog the Raptor's Nest there's been some discussion about ceratopsians (here and here) that have hit on Pachyrhinosaur growth rates. Now I was unaware of this, but nobody at the Tyrrell has published on the amazing material they've dug up at Pipestone Creek.

Back in 2005 I had the opportunity to see the amazing series of a dozen or so skulls (most being composites of various incomplete bits and pieces, but still pretty good matches) that chronicled most of the age ranges of Pachyrhinos. I was given a personal briefing/lesson on the specimens by either Darren Tanke or Mark Mitchell (I think it was Darren, but I can't remember, and BOTH have been so kind to me over the years with sharing their incredible knowledge). The true crime and tragedy was I didn't own a camera at the time, and didn't manage any pictures. NOOOOOOO!

I did manage a "spare" (not that I bowl, but the term is appropriate) of managing some photo's in 2006 when I finally got a camera. Peter Bond and I managed an impromptu photographing session through the Tyrrell's collections. In our snap shot rampage I got a couple pictures of just some of these Pachyrhino elements. However due to the limited time of our access, and the specimens being put away into storage these were the only images of the series I got.

I'll try to contact Darren Tanke for further info on it.


Here is the best photo I have of various lower jaw elements of the series.

I think at some point they were thinking about putting some of the material on display, and had this excellent sculpt made up. As to whether it was going into the new ceratopsian display or not I have no idea (from my memory the ceratopsian display was only imagined in LATE 2005, after the success of the Dinosaur Park symposium, to accompany the 2007 ceratopsian symposium). Last time I was at the museum in early 2008 this was not in the public gallery (at least to my knowledge. Sadly it was a rather quick visit).

Of course this adult skull (cast on the left, original fossil on the right) isn't unique, but shows the excellent preservation and condition of the Pipestone material.

Since one of the Raptor's Nest posts is on the new Albertoceratops...

Here's the photo I took of it in Jan from the Tyrrell's new ceratopsian display.

Unknown Soundtrack...

I've been getting a lot more involved on flickr (check out my photostream), and a number of benefits have been coming from it. Not only am I "meeting" new cool people, but I'm finding their blogs. I WILL be updating my blog roll soon!

One of my new favourites (especially his pictures) is El Pensieve de Dinorider. However I'm currently in his debut. Not only did his blog alert me to the existence of the Prehistoric Park soundtrack, but it allowed me to get it cheap!

Traumador will probably have some uses for this soon (the DAMN museum quest is finally near its end!!!), and its nice to have some music in my current broke-ness.