AMURICA FUNK YEAH!

Literally 2 weeks today I get to go to america!
So I decided to give you all a look at my schedual! Sadly I didn't get tickets to Comic con, however I will still be visiting San Diego on the Sunday and enjoying the ambience!

So I set out on Thursday the 24th, my flight leaves Heathrow at 7 in the morning which will make for very early departure, I most likely wont even go to bed on Wednesday night so I can sleep on the plane. I will be getting to Chicago at 10:45 and leaving again at 12:45 for the final leg of my journey arriving in Salt Lake city - three months late for their comic con - to meet up with Elizabeth and her almost 6 month old son Sherlock!
Most likely we'll ride back to theirs, pick up her husband from work and grab dinner, then watch the Pioneer day fireworks... all while I try not to fall asleep on everyone!
When we wake up the next day, the twenty fifth, we will spend most of the day chilling out at Elizabeth's house while her husband is at work, playing games, watching movies and tv shows, the usual nerdisms. When he gets off work however it's the first leg of our journey down to Anaheim! We'll drive to a stop off in Saint George to rest for the night and eat and rest some more.
The 26th sees us driving the rest of the way through to Anaheim, passing through Vegas (but not stopping) possibly dropping by Calico ghost town before heading on down to our hotel in California; Hotel Pepper Tree.
Day 4, the 27th! Comicon Sunday. Sure I don't have a ticket but my friends do and I'm looking forward to looking around and enjoying everything going on around the outside of comic con!
28th and 29th will be devoted to all things Disneyland. We're gonna try and hit both Disneyland and California Adventure, but I'm a super wuss like wimp and I don't know how well I'll do on any of the rides. FYI I'm allergic to pineapple but I'm totally gonna pig out on dole whip in the tikki room.
Wednesday the 30th  is LA in the morning and Vegas in the afternoon and evening, topped off with a show at the Rio; Penn and Teller! You have no idea how excited I am for Penn and Teller, not to mention my suite at The Luxor. I got a deluxe tower suite. It has it's own freaking wet bar. a living room and a separate bedroom. I could easily spend the whole holiday in that room, but I wont, we'll be in Vegas on the 30th to the 1st when we'll be driving back up to Saint George. At some point in Vegas I'm planning to go to a club or two just to have a bit of fun, but I think that'll probably be on the second night. We might go see another show (Circe Du Soleil?) but no plans as yet.
On the 2nd we will be heading out for a nice long hike in Zions National park - by the way if you havent seen it google it, it looks incredible.
Followed on the 3rd by more hiking in Kanarraville Falls and Bryce Canyon on the 4th. All of which are amazing and I can't wait to get some amazing pictures.
Then back to Payson to hang out at Elizabeths for three days. We're planning to visit a bunch of things while we're chilling including a drive in cinema, a shooting range, some badass DnD sessionage.
Then I will spend the last day, friday the 8th crying a little because its going to totally suck coming home after spending two and a half weeks out there.

So as you can imagine; I'm super stoked. Super excited and I cannot wait. I realised today that there are fewer days until I go than I will be spending there. fourteen days left. Sixteen days there.
SO EXCITED!

VIDEO!
-James

Love is in America

It kind of annoys me that my 200th post comes on valentines day, especially since I said all I have to say on the subject last year. I thought about doing something special for my 200th post, I thought about pulling out all the stops and bringing you something worth reading, but I didn't realise it was the 200th post until now.
So instead of doing something special for post 200 I'm going to announce that I'm going to do something special for the 2 year anniversary (24th of July) On the 24th of July I will begin a trip across some of the western states of America, visiting our friend, Liz from the Stuff and Things podcast. We'll be going to San Diego for Comicon, then going up to Disneyland in Anaheim and Hollywood LA, then I'll be heading back across to Las Vegas and finish off in Utah where we will podcast in person and chronicle our whole trip for you guys at home.

I've got my new camera I need inspiration and this is as good a place as any to get it.

As an extra added bonus, if I get enough interest I will go to Comicon on one of the days in cosplay. E-mail suggestions of what I should go as to James@minority-opinions.com

and incase you missed it last year, heres my valentines post:

So I strongly considered ignoring the fact that it's valentine's day and moving onto another subject, partly because I'm single but also because it's a Christian holiday that celebrates one of their saints. However I put in my atheistic notions about Christmas so ignoring Valentine's feels kind of like I'm raising the birth of a person that I believe to be fictional above the life of actual people (specifically Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni, though there were many more martyrs by the name of Valentyne)

For me St. Valentine's day isn't about martyrs who died to give christian weddings to soldiers who were forbidden or martyrs who died because they were teaching christianity under the oppressive rule of the Roman empire, its just a day that people can set aside in their relationships to celebrate.

Like their anniversary it's a moment when the celebrations should come from both side, the effort should be equal and heart felt. Often it's not, but it should be.

I see Valentines day as an opportunity to be with the one you love, to show them just how much you care despite all the things they have to put up with on a daily basis, despite work keeping them apart or the day to day life keeping you from showing it, Valentines day is an oportunity to make sure your partner knows just how much you care.

I don't know if thats callous or beautiful, and it most certainly isn't the Atheism opinion as a whole. It's just my opinion, my feeling.

Happy Valentines day everyone. I hope the ones that you most care for and who most care for you show you the way you deserve to be shown.

surprisingly-good-movie-tube
- James

Whats wrong with that? Sexism.

Like most of you I was brought up watching Disney movies, and I loved them. I still do. Lion King, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, all amazing films, but with one common thread that isn't quite politically correct.
With the possibly exception of Lion King every one of these movies tell you that a woman needs a man to save her and the most important thing in life is to get married.

This isn't news, I know. Most people that are cynical enough to really think about it have realised that Cinderella needs a man to save her from serving her step mother and sisters, Snow white needed a man to come and kiss her to rescue her from the queens poison, Sleeping beauty required a prince to come along and wake her with a kiss, Little Mermaid needed a man to save her from giant Ursula. Even in the lion king the lionesses couldn't take back pride rock without Simba.

They were great films and still are, but I wonder if they didn't perpetuate the cycle of sexism that led to most women getting paid less than men, or women being less trusted in a business environment. Women don't deserve to earn as much because they need men more than the other way around. Women aren't as useful because they need a man to help them.

Perhaps if we'd had more films about a woman saving the day we'd have a more equal society. Perhaps if we had more of that today, and not just super women wearing very little or very tight clothes? (I'm looking at you resident evil movies)
Who knows?

Maybe just once we could make a game where the main character was female and looked realistic and maybe lets make her english... like the new tomb raider, that was pretty baddass. Go play that.

Tubage
- James

New this week.

Nothing really.
Nothing particularly interesting or important has happened this week. I have been learning just how hard it is to keep up with everything when I have a job. I mean seriously; I've been here 2 weeks now and I'm yet to have a proper session at the gym or write a chapter of my books or anything. How do people do it? seriously! I get up at 6:45, leave work at 7:45 get to work at 9, leave work at 5 get home at 6:15, eat dinner a little later, then I'm too tired to do anything and go to bed at 10:30.
How do people have lives?
Its ridiculous.
On another note; I've started work on iOS development. It's a point and click adventure game, like the old monkey island and day of the tentacle games.
We plan to set it in a 1920s environment with disney's robin-hood style anthropomorphic animal characters.
The game doesn't have a name yet, but the main character and the fem fatale are called Kit Ironsmith and Anne Dawson respectively. Kit is a red fox private detective and Anne is an arctic fox fancer at the locale burlesque club.

The development company name we've gone with is;

I'm excited about this project, I've already got a lot of design stuff and narrative doc stuff done and my friend Liz has a load of art. At the moment (until we win the lottery) we're planning on making it on gamesalad as simply as possible (little to no animation, no audio dialogue, etc...) but hopefully it'll do well and we'll be able to turn it into a real company etc... etc... etc...

Welp, thats all for this day.

Disney-princess-after-ever-after
-James

Thirty-three Of Fifty-Two

Characters

Rapunzel

So I'm betting you didn't expect to see this little lady on my of 52 list, huh? She's the lead princess in a Disney film. But I did have tangled up as one of my favourite films so it's not that unexpected is it? But anyway, she's great.

Rapunzel is full of wonder, self conscious, beaten down by her mother, yet she still finds it in her to make her dreams come true.
She's cute, awkward, endearing, a little naive and beautiful. Seriously; if it was a possibility I would marry this girl. I say that, knowing full well she wouldn't take me.

I don't really have much to say on this subject, she's just so awesome, beating people up with a frying pan, singing songs and getting the trust of all of the people she comes in contact with.
Oh and that smile and her myriad of expressions... damn. If she was a part of the UK royal family I would be a royalist.

Seriously; one of my exs I dated specifically because for a short while she reminded me of this character.

In the past year I've bought a bunch of Disney soundtracks for the first time since the lion king came out, and this girl is the one who started it all. I mean look at her! She's wearing pink n purple while adventuring with her frog... chameleon.

Just watch this film and try not to fall in love with her. It's impossible.

Just-a-great-example-of-Rapunzel's-character.
- James

Twenty-Four of Fifty-Two

Games

Kingdom Hearts I & II

Disney and Square Enix (Square Soft as it was then known) 'Kingdom Hearts' is probably my favourite game series of all time. Don't get me wrong; I can't stand chain of memories, I think the DS was the wrong device for 358/2, and I haven’t played birth by sleep, 3D: Dream Drop Distance or Coded (hadn't even heard of that one when I started this of 52). But Kingdom Hearts One, Kingdom hearts two and hopefully Kingdom Hearts 3 when it eventually (if ever) comes out were amazing, and unlike anything I'd played before.

If I regret anything in my life, it's posting my copies to myself when I moved from Scotland back to London. the package was stolen and I've been unable to play them since. It wasn't my fault, but I can't help but feel that if I'd brought them in my suitcase (there was room!) I would still have them. If not for that fateful event they would remain in my collection of old games I can never sell (a collection that includes; Star Wars: Republic commando [xbox], both Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic games [xbox], Skies of Arcadia [Game Cube], Tales of Symphonia [Game Cube] and Ultimate Spiderman [Game Cube]).

The game follows Sora, a young boy from a small island as he is thrown into a war between forces he didn't even know existed while he looks for his friends Riku and Kairi. He is joined by Donald Duck and Goofy who are searching for their king Mickey Mouse and a cast of Disney characters to help in their journey.
 Gifted with the mighty Keyblade, Sora must battle the heartless through world after world to find his friends and stop the leader of the Heartless, Ansem.
As the game continues it shows that his friend Riku has turned to the side of the Heartless. The game's story is an emotional rollercoaster as you try to help Riku, save Kairi and stop Ansem and the heartless from snuffing out the universe.

Great game, but they've taken too long re-releasing it and releasing the sequel.

Kingdom-Hearts-2-Opening-Square's-always-been-great-at-CG-videos
- James

P.S. Can't-mention-Squares-Awesome-Cut-Scenes-Without-This-(released-in-1999)

P.P.S. If anyone gets the urge to buy me the games again I wouldn't say no :P

Olympic depression

With the olympics coming to a close this weekend I noticed something. The ages of some of the contestants. I've seen people aged nineteen, eighteen, even sixteen and I can't help but think 'How depressing is that?' This is the highlight of their lives. There isn't a competition bigger than the olympics and they got to it before they even hit twenty.

Yes, it's very impressive. I am incredibly impressed - which, considering I don't like sports, is quite an achievement - but it makes me sad. The rest of their lives will never live up to these moments of their lives. They will never do anything quite as amazing. They've lived their dream... now what do they look forward to? Now what do they dream about? What do the push themselves for?

The Olympics is an amazing event where people watch person after person living their dream. Living the greatest moments of their lives, knowing that as soon as they're done they will fall back into obscurity - for the most part.

I'm twenty-five and I'm yet to fulfil my dreams, but that's ok; I'm young, I still have a significant portion of my life ahead of me - and if i manage to fulfil my dream within the year, for me it's not just a one time thing; it's what I'll be doing for the rest of my life.
Something like athletics or gymnastics just seems, to me, not to have so much longevity. Once you've fulfilled your potential that's it, it's over. you don't see many 50 year old gymnasts - hell I'm not sure I've seen any in their thirties.

They say that one of the biggest killers of old people is retirement. They don't have anything pushing them, nothing making them get up every day. I guess all we can really hope is that when these athletes retire from their events and no longer have their Olympic dream pushing them they will be able to find a new dream.

I hope so. They've done so well to come as far as they have, it would be a shame for all that energy, beleif and effort vanished so soon.

Do-you-have-a-dream?
- James