Tracy Triceratops Interview!

"Why aren't you following Tracy Triceratops!?" Is the latest thing I've been saying to friends and people on Instagram. Tracy's Hu-Mum Krissy, has a way of capturing your imagination with her photos of her Dino Ilk. You can get lost in her Instagram for hours on end. Every post just begs to be poured over and takes you on an adventure with them. Also there's something about seeing a bunch of dinos on a couch with popcorn, it just gets me right in the feels!
Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I'm a Triceratops! I've got three horns and I'm an herbivore. I like to go on adventures with my hu-Mum. Hiking is THE BEST! Being outdoors and in the forest is my favourite thing! Being surrounded by ferns is a wonderful feeling- just like being at a buffet!

How long have you lived in Canada? What part of Scotland are you from?

I've lived in Canada since around 2007. I was adopted in Glasgow- which will always be home but Canada is really awesome too. My hu-Mum is 100% Canadian but she lived in Glasgow for a few years- it was great! I've lived in Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario and now I live in Vancouver, BC!

Do you ever get to go back to Scotland and see your old neighborhood regularly?

We try and go back every other year. We were last there in the summer of 2016. I have a sistersaurus who lives in Glasgow. I miss her a lot.

How did you two meet at first?

Well, my hu-Mum used to walk past the adoption shop I was living in with a bunch of other plushies. She used to stare in the window and remember how when she was small, she had a best plushie long neck dinosaur and it was just the best thing ever! She wanted to rescue one of us and have an adventure dino pal again! For her birthday, I magically showed up for the party! Surprise!  We've pretty much been inseparable ever since! (Eventually, Mum went back to the shop (I was a bit lonely) and fell in love with Steve Stegosaurus and then he joined our herd! He's the best brother I could ask for!

Teas and Dinos, do you give them decaf? What is it like for their cold-blooded metabolism to be supercharged with caffeine?

We mostly drink caffeinated tea but we do have soft spot for peppermint tea! We are limited to tea only in the morning- otherwise we'd be up all night. Tea goes really well with biscuits so.... we might have a slight problem with eating a lot of cookies!

Vegan cookies, what’s their favorite foods, favorite teas?

I love pizza with mushrooms and olives, chocolate chip cookies, donuts, corn on the cob, ferns, tofu scramble, various curries and potato chips.

Brontosaurus and walking dead, what’s the age limit for a bront to watch that show or zombie movies?

There's no age limit really. If one of us is scared then they don't have to watch or maybe we just watch something else. Sometimes there's some bad dreams but that's what Mums are for.

Is it hard for a dino to get a passport or does she even need one?

I technically don't have a passport, which usually means I'm x-rayed quite a lot.


Scottish traditions that the dinos have learned?

We celebrate Burns night with homemade veggie haggis! And we call it Hogmanay, not "New Year". And we recognize St. Andrews Day. We really like deep fried Mars bars!

Do they tend to talk a lot during movies?

Mum says Yes, we do.

Do think that they will in our time, revive dinos or clone mammoths?

Mammoths! I heard on the radio that it's more possible!

What makes you love Dinos so much? When did it all start? 

Mum had toy dinos when she was wee. She never gave up on our magic! We are quite majestic creatures.

Can you give me a rundown on what are the names of your dinos and their personalities?

Tracy Triceratops- the leader of the herd. She's outgoing but also shy sometimes. She is always ready for an adventure! She's the reason the entire herd is vegetarian- she refuses to let any of them eat each other.

Steve Stegosaurus- resident jokester. Used to be the shy-guy buts he's lost that title. Steve doesn't realize how funny he is.

Tommy T-Rex- athletic dude- But not heavy on the dude part. (He does call everyone Dude tho) He is the bad dream chaser of the herd and loves cuddles. He is Steve's best friend.

Vince Velociraptor- the baby of the herd. He always wants to help and has taken an interest in cooking over the last year. Waffles are his specialty.

Brendan Brachiosaurus- the shyest of the bunch. Wants to be an artist when he grows up. He enjoys colouring. He is dating Brett.

Brett Violet Brachiosaurus- Brett joined us via a plushie buddy in WA state. She is a free spirit and Tracy's best girl friend. She is a great delegator and keeps the peace when there is a disturbance in the herd.

Utah Raptor- an English Raptor who enjoys reading, night lights and pocket adventures. He is quite content to stay out of the lime light.

Tino Triceratops- another gifted dino but this one came from over the ocean. He has had some culture shock but is settling in just fine. He and Vince are best friends and are usually found playing hide and seek around the flat.

Thanks so much Krissy and Tracy! You all are straight up awesome!

You can find Tracy getting into all types of adventures at

Personal update and such

I do apologise for not being more prompt on putting out new material on my blog as of late.
It's been a rough couple of weeks.

I was let go from my job. So that was terrible. Especially for someone who has a fear of always getting fired.

It's true. If I see an office door closed, I assume that I am the subject of discussion in there. That everyone is gathered around and talking about how terrible I am, but no one will ever tell me to my face, because I am a nice guy. Actually, I am a doormat to more specific. I am seething with anger underneath my skin. I am a 4 ton wrecking ball, waiting to be swung at a derelict building. But I never show it. I just nod my head and listen. But I digress.

The fear in me keeps me from doing well because I never think it's truly good enough. So I guess that falls into the perfectionist avenue. But I wouldn't say that I am. I just don't have any confidence in what I can do with my life and skills.

I once had a job that I loved and was good at it. Then a vindictive person got me fired from it and it broke me. I am still broken from it. 6 years of living like this. The job was great though. So many things that I took for granted back then, that I would never do now. I had a salary job with insurance and vacation and sick time. After that, I had to sell my transformer collection, my dvds, my books, my guns, some old rings, knives, my tiki collection. Just to stay afloat. I had to rely on my parents and friends to help me as well. It was a truly stressful time.

I worked part time at a hardware store for two years and it messed up my back. Also after loosing my insurance, caused me to quit taking my anxiety meds which made me pack on weight. So I had to learn to live without the meds and also the weight loss gave me type 2 diabetes.

It's a daily struggle living with it. A struggle that, somedays I win, and some I lose.  So yeah, life broke me down and used me up and now I just care about a full time job. I just care about my girlfriend. I care about taking care of her and making sure that she's ok and happy. I just want to be a good man for her. But it's hard being this way though. It's hard fighting with anxiety, low self esteem and no confidence. It's been putting some extra mileage on me.

That's something I have notice over the last couple of years. That stress can take a decade off your face in just a couple of years.

I am currently looking for another job right now. I have two solid leads and I truly hope one of them pans out.

The publisher that was looking at my book, has turned out to be a little naive and too green to work with, so I withdrew my submission and now I am looking for a home for it.

I am tired of being chewed up and spit out by life.

Alright, that's the end of my rant. I shall go back to posting about toys and cool stuff that some people would enjoy reading.

Hope you all are well and enjoying the cooler weather and seeing the leaves change. You don't know it, but you fall lovers are a part of a secret organization called Autumn's Children. It's sort of like The Autumn people but without all the gloom and doom and scary carnival.

If you feel more invigorated with life during this season, if you feel a warmth in your chest when the cold wind blows around you, if you smile while walking thru the fallen leaves. Then you are one of us.

McLuhan was right.

The closer we get to the “global village” the closer we get to being complete apathetic monsters. In bringing all social and political functions together within this world wide web,an implosion will occur and it will doom us all. This is not what Marshall McLuhan imagined. Marshall McLuhan predicted the Internet as an “extension of consciousness”, not focus on the self and narcissism personified.

Random fact

Random fact about me: I am pretty good at impersonations. But only impersonating people that impersonate other people. For example, Like Jay Mohr's Christopher Walken.  I found out today that I can impersonate David Bowie, but only as Jemaine Clement impersonating David Bowie. Does that make me a lazy impersonator?  What do you think? 

Captain Terror's revenge!

 This is a reworking of Captain Terror of the cartoon Speed Racer. I gave him a more evil look. He's been burned by being wrecked accidentally by Speed and his goggles and helmet were cut off of him by paramedics. So he's sewn them back together and still wears them during the races. 
I gave him a kind of Mignola style lighting.

So, after drawing this picture. I felt that I had more to say about him. I kept having little images of him recovering in the burn unit of a hospital and seething with hatred for Speed.  The next thing I knew I was writing a non linear short story about the whole thing. 

Captain Terror before the terrible wreck

The doctors told me that I have fourth degree burns over 60% of my face in the crash; I could not feel much pain because of all the nerve damage, I do have that to be thankful for. My hands and torso hurt the most; they were covered in second degree burns

Speed used his shocks to jump over a wrecked car in front of him and landed on the front of my car in the process, causing him to skip over the wreck and throwing me into a wall and explode into a ball of pure hell and made three minutes trapped in that wreckage seem like an eternity while the fire devoured my face and hands.

I lost most of my teeth in the crash and spent over 10grand on getting them all back and looking perfect. I figured it would be a striking contrast with my scarred face to see my ivory white veneers between what used to be my lips.

You don't know the true meaning of pain until you have had skin grafts. The tops and the palms of my hands were very damaged and had to have extensive micro surgeries and skin grafts from my thighs. Once the nerves became receptive to the touch, it was as if, everything was boiling water that touched them.

 I had to spend over a year with voice coaches and ventriloquists to teach me how to talk without having lips.

I gathered up my uniform that was pulled off of me in the E.R. room. I had tailors re-stitch my jumpsuit back together while I worked on my helmet and goggles.

Speed came to my room to visit and probably to gloat about what he had done to me. I sat there in my oxygen tent seething in anger. I felt as though I was right back in the wreck watching the back of the mach 5 drive off. I busted the stitches on the skin grafts on my wrists trying to free myself and from my restraints to get at his throat.

Speed’s father also came by my room in the burn ward to show his sympathies. He expressed his deepest apologies and about the seriousness of my wreck that speed caused
due to his inferior driving skills. I interrupted his heart felt speech by hocking up a blood clot and spitting it onto the inside of my oxygen tent. Speed’s father flinched when it hit the plastic. I always thought he was made of tougher things than that.

I tried to salvage every workable part of my wrecked car, so when I am able to race again, I would have most of the original that back and we could both have our revenge on Speed Racer and his Mach 5.

When they lowered me into the whirlpool for debridement, to free the bits of melted cloth off my body I was not given pain killers or anesthesia for my pain. Something about having these burns would not allow it. I didn’t scream once when they scraped the burnt bits off me, or when the jets of water tore at the raw meat off my body

They tried to talk me into working with some of the unburned flesh on my forehead to fashion myself a new nose but I wouldn’t do it. They told me about nasal irrigations  I never want to forget what he did to me. I want to catch my reflection on the hood of my car and be fueled with rage and vengeance.