Sunday, April 15, 2007

check... check mate? or life check?

i've been trying not to dwell on my successful completion of the criteria set out for me by the new zealand government. afterall i wasted more then enough time on that stupid countdown. however this week i found that everyone else in my life wasn't quite over it.

not that it resulted in a bad thing. in fact kinda the opposite!

owain has been saying we need to hangout more, and though i thought he was just saying this to be nice it turns out he really meant it!

isn't it funny. i came down here to start a whole new life. as in one totally different from when i was at the tyrrell (like for example where i might have friends who want to hang out with me!), and here i am trying to live like it was the good old days again...

have to endeavour to make sure i keep an open mind to my "new life"...

so last time me and owain really hung out was to play table tennis. this time around he wanted to try a game called chess...

now i was VERY hesitant to play this... i happen to know that this is a game that is played only by smart people! though some might say i try to hide behind my small brain size a bit much, but trust me it causes a bit of a problem when it comes to thinking...

before i knew it though owain had me playing chess... now technically what happened was that he said he was going to show me "some stuff"... i assumed that this was unrelated to the whole chess thing... turns out that he was teaching me how all the pieces worked... so by the time he asked if i was ready to play, i knew all the rules...

well if i can learn all that, chess can't be that hard right?


well turns out there's a reason its a smart person game... so confusing and complicated.

fortunately owain's a good sport, and was helping me out with what moves to make and correcting my improper moves...

then came the weirdest thing ever. owain moved a piece and said "check"

i was confused. "what?"

he pointed at the piece he had moved and my king, and restated "check"

i got even more mixed up! what did he mean? again he stated "check"

we weren't in a restaurant... he must have meant i needed to inspect my king... for some reason. not sure why. so i picked it up. owain just kinda cringed.

"i'll have to teach you chess again someday," he said ending our first game of chess... so inspecting the piece is how you win? i thought you had to kill the king... oh... i get it now...

as i had to work later that day, owain figured we'd conclude our hang out day with something a little more low key. so we parked down on the couch and watched a movie...

not just any movie, but one of my favourites! jurassic park...

man i forgot how awesome a movie it was, and that was a fun way to spend the afternoon. owain had a bunch of really good questions about the dinosaurs in the movie which i answered, but as i did i realized that maybe other people had the same questions... i have an idea for a later entry on this topic, so stay tuned people of the innerweb!

at the end of the movie i had to set out on for work. it was here i was greeted with a surprise... i ran into craig on route...

now i haven't really talked to craig a lot lately... to be honest i was kinda worried he was still angry at me for messing up his room, and deleting his homework. not to the mention the whole smuggling myself into new zealand in his luggage in the first place...

he just started walking with me towards the museum. we didn't say too much on the walk... i was really worried. that usually means that a person is mad at you doesn't it?

then suddenly breaking the long silence as we reached the museum "you did good traum" craig said well inspecting the museum up and down. "i didn't think you'd make it, and i'd have to save your butt like usual." he smiled...

wait what? that didn't sound mad... adding to my unsureness he gestured me over to a goofy head cutout for visitors. we stuck our heads through (man this reminded me of when he used to play with me as a hatchling!).

"so you aren't mad with me?" i hesitantly asked.

craig just stood with his head as that of an antarctic explorer thinking for a moment. "no traumador. i was never 'mad'. let's just say," he paused. "disappointed."

"see when you hatched, and i had to take care of you that made sense traum. you were so helpless back then," he started, but i didn't understand what this had to do with what i'd asked... "then you got the job at the tyrrell, and looked like you'd started on your own path. i well, i guess i just thought that my days of having to look after you had come to an end."

"now it sucks that they booted you out of there, and to be honest i should have told you how sorry i was about about that a lot sooner then now, but i never had the right opportunity," craig looked at me. "i've been proud of how you've grown up. you could have gone the route of many of the theropods that came before you, and been the brute savage, but instead you've stayed a civilized little rex."

"all we need from you now is to work on your thinking," his voice turned a little more stern. "i don't mind helping you traumador. i really don't, but," i knew where this was going. "you need to think about how it going to effect me too!"

there was silence for a minute. i felt really bad.

"that having been said and done i'm not mad at you... anymore," his voice was more understanding. "i'm willing to start with a fresh slate again, but remember as it's fresh this isn't going to be like when you hatched. i can't take care of you like that anymore. you're already in your teens (we t-rexs only live to be 20, so at almost 4 years old he's right), and if you're going to do what you say, and make a new life for yourself, you have to do just that. make it yourself."

"i'll be here to help you, but you can't keep falling on me with these big things," he looked up at me again. "that smuggling stunt you pulled with yourself just about sunk me traum. i want you to know that. in that case you were the bad guy. not someone else, but you. in the future you need to think will your action effect others like that. because if you don't then you'll be no better then the other tyrannosaurs, and you know what their like..."

another long silence. even though he said he wasn't mad i coulda sworn craig was. cause what he just said made me feel even worse.

"nope you did pretty good. a new museum. looks like a career in the making," he seemed to say to himself. " you've got a better idea of what do with yourself in life right now then i do."

"really?" i asked.

"though you might have trouble with the big picture stuff buddy you need to stop beating yourself up for the peanut brain thing," he looked at me. "you've got a talent when it comes to the little things in life that others can have a lot of trouble with. you need to use that more."

i didn't know what to say...

craig got up from the cut out. "well i guess you've got work. it was good straightening things out with you traumador," he started walking away. "so we're on a clean state... be seeing you."

man what a day...

this must be all because i agreed to play chess!

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