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Well, I took the family to see “Walking with Dinosaurs: the Live Experience” last night at the Scottrade Center in nearby St. Louis. While expensive (at least to me; the office troll does not go to many shows), the show was fun. Actually, seeing Boy #2 as he kept turning to me silently with that “Dad, this is great!” expression on his face took the pain out of my pocketbook a little. And the St. Louis Post-Dispatch discounts that lowered the cost by 25% were nice, too.

The “free walking” animatronic-style, life-sized dinosaurs were rather well done, I think. I don’t know how advanced the technology is or if this show could have been done some time ago, but I thought the dinosaurs’ creators did a marvelous job and that they looked, and generally moved, quite realistically. (The supports under the dinos that are really doing the moving and such were not nearly as distracting as I had considered they might be.) And the actors in the fantastic Raptor suits and such did a good job, I believe. The sound system was, I thought, fantastic. If the roars and grumblings were coming from the Scottrade Center’s sound system and not from the dinos, themselves, I couldn’t tell; the synchronization with the dinos’ mouths and the “illusion of origination” (if it was an illusion) was great. I greatly doubt that the dinosaurs moved as fluidly as they would in “real life,” yet they moved much more fluidly than I was expecting. Also, my wife and I thought that the set design, itself, and the changing-with-the-era “stage foliage” was creative and well thought out.

While I didn’t find it completely possible to suspend all disbelief and imagine there really were live dinosaurs roaming around on the floor, at the same time while watching them I did find myself able to better imagine what it would be like seeing the creatures face-to-face — or, rather, face-to-knee-cap, as it would more likely be. The presence of the human “paleontologist” on the floor with the dinos added a good bit of scale to the creatures; without him it would have been harder to comprehend how truly large they were, given the utter lack of experience we have with creatures of such enormous proportions.

The soundtrack during the show was not too bad. Being a soundtrack fan, I wouldn’t have minded buying a copy, but after the show diving into the mass of people at the “official merchandise” stand was not something I was interested in attempting, especially since I wasn’t even sure if they were selling CDs. Actually, I didn’t even buy a $20 program. I told the kids they could cut pictures out of the newspaper if they wanted a commemorative book. (”Dude, you’re cheap…”)

[I might mention, too, that based on the reactions of our 3.71-year-old, the show was not too scary for most young ones. Well, I'd call it Not-Scary-But-With-Potential. Depending on your child's disposition and where your seats are located, your outcome might be totally different. We watched Boy #4's face last night for signs that it was too much, but the poker face was hard to crack for info. No nightmares last night and positive feelings about it today, so I take that as a good sign.]

You can check out the show’s website here: www.dinosaurlive.com. Worth the price? Please forgive me for demurring. As mentioned above, the office troll doesn’t have much experience on which to base such a conclusion. But glad we went? Yes. Or more accurately, glad we took our kids.

Now, that said, the show was chock full of evolutionist assumptions. Really, that should surprise no one. The supposed God-like creative powers of Evolution are duly lauded and worshiped by the script writers. My kids are used to that by now and are quick, themselves, to point out to me when a narrator is overstepping his bounds, so I wasn’t too worried about that. But I will admit that understanding the proper time frames of Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 and understanding that the Scripture does indicate that there was a “world that was” before the “world that is” is a big help in settings like this. (Some of what I’ve written on that can be found in the posts collected under the “Life on Mars” tag, listed in reverse order with the first post at the bottom.)

Also, there is obviously one piece of equipment that the Scottrade Center desperately needs to install: A flash-detecting, camera-vaporizing chemical laser. (Actually, I guess a missile system might be more realistic.) Even given the pre-show announcement that there should be no flash photography during the show, you would have thought the days of elementary school and “opposite day” were back and that the announcement had been meant to encourage flash photography. Really annoying. Don’t ask me to sort out which part of me is more annoyed, the righteous indignation part or the self-righteous indignation part — I’m still working on that. But one good self-targeting SDI-technology chemical laser could have fixed that problem. (Really, people: were your kids watching you as you disregarded the rules just because you didn’t like them? Have fun when they get to high school!)

One more comment: the only dinosaur to be greeted with stadium-wide applause upon her appearance was the adult Tyrannosaurus Rex. The T-Rex still continues to be the star of the dinosaur world after all these years. Do you think the other dinosaurs ever feel like having a T-Rex in the show just sucks all the oxygen out of the arena for the rest of them? Wow — the cat fights and backbiting that must go on in the dressing rooms, I can only imagine

Google gadgets are now available for linux.

Download the .deb files here.

You can launch the program by pressing “alt+f2″ and typing “ggl-gtk”.

If you want to launch it in the sidebar, type ” /usr/bin/ggl-gtk -s -bg” instead.

Add one of those commands to “system - preferences - sessions” to start google gadgets when you start your pc.

God, grant me the strength to live in a world that does not acknowledge me as a full human being and yet to know, with fullest unshakeable conviction, that I am.

Beloved, protect me from grasping hands that seek to draw themselves upon my canvas.

Cherisher, grant me the strength to make it through puberty. Let me escape becoming an object in my own sight as soon as my breasts appear.

Friend, enable me not to be erased by the desire to be desired. Let me not build myself on foundations of water. Help me not fill myself with the emptiness of men’s desire.

Sustainer, as I grow to maturity, give me the courage to see beyond the imperfect world of injustice that human beings have created, and give me the vision to see the dream of beauty and justice that saints and visionaries have dreamed.

Omnipotent over tyrants, enable me to sustain my spirituality as I traverse the spaces of a world that tramples on my dreams – tramples them like a crazed elephant that knows not what it does.

Compassionate One, come to my aid when I meet love and injustice together. For in my world love rarely comes unaccompanied by the other. And if I want love from a man, it usually means encountering rejection of part of me.

Creator, grant me the strength to channel Your Attribute of Creation when I give birth. Support me through nine months of creation, and through hours of labor that rip my body apart.

Sustain me when a helpless infant is placed into my hands before I am even recovered from labor and blood loss.

Keep me from coming apart when an infant’s unending needs become my responsibility alone, and the father is responsible for playtime. Support me through nights of lost sleep and days of endless work. Help me be patient and eloquent when I’m told “This is what all mothers do, day in and day out. Mothers enjoy it. What’s wrong with you? Why are you depressed?”

Strengthen my heart when I am obliged to hand over my baby to strangers for care so I can go to work. And Creator, create a world where childcare does not have to mean abuse, neglect, and bottles propped on pillows.

Give me many times the focus and strength of a mere man so I can make a home habitable and a child happy and healthy, while I also work fulltime.

Give me the creativity to excel in sales, academia, cleaning, engineering, … even while my supervisors do not acknowledge when I excel.

Give me the strength to complete a day of work, before I hurry home to plunge into preparing a meal. And then give me the fortitude not to collapse inwardly upon myself when I deal with the man who buries himself in a TV show while I feed the children and tidy the house.

Originator, give me the fortitude to not smack them when they sneer and call me the weaker sex.

And Beloved, let the eyes of others see my dream. Let the minds of others see the possibilities of equality. Let men and women see full humanity shared by both, without either losing any part of it.

Compassionate and Just One, let my daughters see the world I dream of – in reality.

why is it that things never seem that important until they are gone?  Please Hug your loved ones extra tight today.  Tell them how important they are to you.

you know how they say it’s the little things that mean the most?  It true.  A smile can make someones day.  Just a simple “hello” can change someones mood.  With in ourselves we hold the power to affect others.  Be a super-hero, use this power for good.

Thank you all for taking the time to comment, sometimes it’s the comments that help me through the day.  They make me smile, they make think, they let me know I am not nearly as alone as I feel.  You make a difference in my day.

I completed tasks yesterday, I got some things done.  It made me feel good.  I crossed things off my list and I liked it.  It was even Tuesday, and it wasn’t so bad.  We’ll see what today brings.

Shoot for the moon, then even if you miss, you’ll still end up among the stars.

Remember, YOU are a Super-Hero.