Countdown to Christmas

It's that time again...Christmas...

Aw... I can see it now... the tree, the decorations (if we ever make it to pull them out of storage).  Snowflakes falling outside (except I live in Oklahoma where it doesn't snow at Christmastime). A fire burning in the hearth (I hope, it's our first winter in the new apartment which does have a fireplace, so lets hope it works!).

The crazy Black Friday shopping (we went out this morning and it wasn't actually that bad, Best Buy was definitely the worst of the places we went - Game Exchange, Hastings, PetCo, Big Lots, Atwood's being the others), the cooking (mmm....Roast Beast), the presents.

But the best part of this time of year is Christmas music.  I love it, whether it's the light fun stuff like Have a Holly Jolly Christmas or heavier fare like The River (I'm especially fond of Robert Downy Jr.'s Ally McBeal rendition).

For more traditional songs, I like Silent Night and O Tannenbaum the best.  I was always fond of Little Drummer Boy while growing up.  I am also a fan of most of the old standards: Rudolf, Frosty, Winter Wonderland, and the like, but my favorite I'll Be Home for Christmas.  I'm not usually too held up by who sings any of these songs, but some are better than others.

Anyway, here is my Top 10 Favorite Christmas Songs:

10. Santa's Beard by The Beach Boys
9.   Belleau Wood by Garth Brooks
8.   Silver Bells - Bing Crosby
7.   Santa Baby by Madonna (I also really like the Ally McBeal version)
6.   We Wish You a Merry Christmas by John Denver and the Muppets
5.   The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) by Dave Seville and the Chipmunks
4.   I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey
3.   The Gift (The Nightingale Song/A Poor Orphan Girl Named Maria) by Aselin Debison
2.   Christmas Is Coming by John Denver and the Muppets
1.   Snoopy's Christmas (Christmas Bells) by The Royal Guardsmen

As you can see, I'm not going into a whole lot of detail on this one, just letting the songs stand for themselves.    I recommend going out and finding them for a good listen if you are into this kind of thing.

There have been a number of great Christmas albums both compilations and studio albums.  Now has a number of great Christmas collections out and the A Very Special Christmas series is also good.

But as for the Greatest Christmas Albums of All Time here are my Top 5:

5.  Christmas Portrait by The Carpenters
4.  Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey
3.  Christmas Through Your Eyes by Gloria Estefan
2.  The Beach Boys Christmas Album
1.  A Christmas Together by John Denver and the Muppets

So, there's my list.  And now I wanna know your's.  What is your favorite Christmas song (traditional or modern) or album?  What is your favorite part of the holidays?

Leave a comment below or hit me up on my twitter @NerdIsNewCool

In the meantime, Happy Holidays

Nerd Is the New Cool, signing off.

Hiatus Til After Thanksgiving

Due to the Holidays, Nerd Is The New Cool, will not be posting only sporadically for the rest of 2012.  Our next post will be our Countdown to Christmas Special, sometime between Black Friday and Sunday the 25. See you then and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This Nerd's Life

So, since last time I've done a few things...

Firstly, I bought an Xbox 360 and am on Xbox Live, both for the first time.  As I've said before, see our award winning blog entry Summer of the Nerd, I'm not a big (video) gamer.  So this is kinda a deal...something of a Real World Quest to add on some XP to up my Nerd Level.  

Secondly, I'm almost finished reading The Cases That Haunt Us by former FBI profiler John Douglas.  It's an interesting read, I especially enjoyed the sections on Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac.  If I don't get to lazy, I'll post a review on Good Reads and post a link in an upcoming blog.  But I'll probably get to lazy.  

Nextly, I started reading Game of Thrones.  Hopefully, this will get Katie Wilson to stop telling me over and over and over how great it is...hold on my wife is saying something...what?  No way... I am not an idiot...sorry for the interruption, my wife was trying to tell me Katie isn't talking to me directly in her blog, but it's prerecorded and everyone can see it...silly wife.  You know what I'm talking about don't you, person I'm writing this directly to... Anyway, Game of Thrones, I'm 225 pages in and it's pretty good so far.  Still haven't got to episode 3 of the HBO show yet, but, you know, eventually.  It's awesome and all, so...I'm just really worried about how my wife will react when...NO SPOILERS!...'cause she's crazy in the head...

Thenly (WTF's with all the "-ly" endings, Nerd?  You were an English major for crying out loud.  Knock it off...), my dad bought Last Night on Earth the Zombie board game...he took it home with him though...butt-head. 

Alsoly, Shadowman 1 came out it's awesome...go check it out...

Finally (I said knock off the "-ly" bullstuff...oh wait, that one's right, never mind ..), I went to Diwali Night: great show (singing, dancing, comedy), great food, and a great job by everyone involved.  Congrats to the Oklahoma State University Indian Student Association for putting together a great program.  Especially, to my kids - past and present who participated - who were part of this event.  You know who you are and I am very proud of all of you.   

And now back to our regularly scheduled Top Ten, already not in progress...

I was going to do a Top Ten Characters I want to see in the Justice League Movie, but that is a little more in-depth than I want to go tonight so will added to the "but that's another" blog list.  So this week, we're doing the whole no top ten thing this week.  

And I wanna hear from you...what have you been up to this last week?  Why didn't you write my blog?  Who do you think Jack the Ripper really was?  Why is a raven like a writing desk?  Should more words end in "-ly?"  Leave a comment below or hit up my twitter page @nerdisnewcool.

Nerd is the New Cool, signing off
  

P.S.ly, if Katie Wilson is reading this, you don't need a restraining order, I'm not actually crazy...but I understand if you get one.  

Top Ten Favorite YouTube Videos

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am a bit of a YouTube junkie.  And while there are any number of channels I enjoy to frequent (Screen Team Show, Geek and Sundry,...) there are also great videos I've discovered just from random searches and clicking links.  

Here I present to you a very fleeting list of my all-time favorite.  I couldn't make this list again, for the videos listed would be quite different in a different moment.  Also, I excluded episodes of webseries for the most part (both number 7 and number 3 actually break that rule but both shows are non sequitur so I don't think I'm cheating too much) so The Guild, Walking in Circles, and Bite Me all didn't make the list, despite being   awesome.  

10. What is Deja vu? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSf8i8bHIns&feature=related) by Vsauce I actually discovered this one while searching YouTube for the the links to the other videos on this list.  I was already familiar with Vsauce from some of his other videos and from mentions by other YouTubers, but didn't have a favorite video of his.  This one really caught my eye though and became a "favorite of the moment" as I often experience "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French" and found this an interesting explanation of it.  

9. ASDF Movie 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCnj-uiRCn8&NR=1&feature=endscreen) by Cake Bomb (TomSka) OK, first off...don't tell my wife I like ASDF, I'll never hear the end of it.  She *loves* ASDF.  And she watches them over and over and over and over and...you get the picture.  I was actually going to put ASDF Movie 2 ("I like trains"/"Pie Flavor!"/"Die Potato!" "Not today") but then I found this new(ish) one that I don't think she even knows about (Mwahahaha).  Of course, now that I've told the interweb that she doesn't know about it, she's gonna tell me she saw it way long back before it came out a-go.  You'd have to know my wife.  Moving on now.  

8.  Charlie the Unicorn (aka Candy Mountain Charlie) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsGYh8AacgY) by FilmCow (this link goes to SecretAgentBob's feed which I think is the official version of the video).  OMG, but this video is annoying.  And how.  "Charlie."  Good gravy but I hate this video.  So you're asking yourself why did it make my list of favorites?  Because I hate it... but it's so funny.  "Shun the non-believer shun." "Aw! they took my frickin' kidney!" If you haven't seen it, don't watch it -- I mean, watch it -- but don't watch it.  I'm sorry.  *hangs head in shame*

7.  Top 5 Creepiest Giant Spiders (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4QZNrI1ls) by TheEscapistMagazine part of the Top 5 with Lisa Foiles series.  Is anyone hotter than Lisa Foiles?  (bring back the blonde hair Lisa!)  If you don't already love Lisa with me you might also wanna check out this video (mostly for the introduction section - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whh-HkW3k2c&feature=relmfu) and, you know, all her other Top 5's and her current run on ReMag, oh and she's in some Black Nerd Comedy videos which is actually where I discovered her.  Here ends the ramble... As for this video, Lisa's countdown of Creepy Spiders, is bookend-ed by some hi-larious scenes of her being a girl about spiders - kinda reminds me of my mom...awkward.  This is only barely my favorite of my many favorite Top 5's and could easily have been another. 

6.  Harry Potter: How It Should Have Ended (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsYWT5Q_R_w) by HISHEdotcom and Starz Digital Media.  I love this video.  I've watched a whole lot of the other HISHE movies and none have been as good as this one (Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi are close, but most of the others are just stupid).  

5.  Batman vs. Superman trailer [Fan Edit] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRmmjxX0yR0&feature=relmfu) by Russkafin Created from scenes from Tim Burton's Batman films and Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, among other sources.  It was followed by a not as good second trailer a couple of years later (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwBblTwtFFc).  I would have loved to see this movie get made back in the ninties.  Other Superman/Batman trailers have come along some good and some bad, but this remains the greatest.  

4.  Pokemon! Party Rock Parody http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOQI-YHwvyU by ScreenTeamShow a parody of LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem and one of ScreenTeam's many awesome "Geekodies" of which it was hard to pick just one.  See Donkey Kong Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6BMmJVzQIU&list=PL936D49D56E7ABD1D&index=28&feature=plpp_video) and Take a Nerdy Picture for Me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBBJAk-egYU&list=PL936D49D56E7ABD1D&index=30) among others.  

3.  Scary Smash (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef2wnLL1s00) by Geek and Sundry.  The first episode of Written By a Kid (probably the only show on Geek and Sundry I like more than Tabletop), Scary Smash is intersecting scenes of a Kid telling a story and that story being brought to life I professional movie makers.  There have been other great - and a few meh - episodes of WBAK, but this one is still my favorite.  Also, best thing Dave Foley has done in years...

2.  The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WgT9gy4zQA) by (I think) AlbinoBlackSheep (which is the feed I got it from). My good friend @batchickcrazy introduced me to this a few years ago and it has had a semi-regular viewing ever since.  Godzilla, Batman, Chuck Norris, Abe Lincoln, its got everybody.  

1.  Grayson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_594699&feature=iv&src_vid=XiZuvJ48MZ0&v=QQyfQ7RMOXs) by Untamed Cinema (untamedc).  Aw, Grayson.  Where to begin.  The only Batman movie to even come close to standing up next to the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton films.  I would way more rather see this than any of the Dark Knight trilogy.  It makes me a little sad every time I watch it, cause it isn't real.  DC and WB, just let him make it for realzies.  It will be awesome.   Unless you've read the script.  Then it kinda sucks.  Don't read the script, only the trailer, just the trailer.  Trailer is awesome.  

So there you have them...my Top Ten YouTube Videos of the Moment.  Hope you enjoy them and give some likes and subscribes.  That's what keeps YouTubers going and their who keeps YouTube great.  

And now I wanna hear from you, what are your favorite YouTube videos?   Do you like or hate my picks?  Leave me a response below or on my twitter @nerdisnewcool.  

Bonus:  Not one of my favorites, but if you're gonna be a nerd blogger, writing a nerd blog about YouTube videos, you have to include Nyan Cat.  'Nuff Said.  

Under the Weather

Sorry, nerds and geekgirls, but I'm not feeling the greatest tonight - too much partying this weekend.  I have my next post "Top Ten Favorite YouTube Videos" about half written and I expect to post it tomorrow.  See you then.

Nerd is the New Cool, signing off.