Feel Good Friday - YouTube Videos

 

When I'm in a down mood, I have a few self-care ways to fix it.  I'll pick up an old favorite to read.  I'll stream an old favorite TV Show or movie.  I'll write in my journal or my BuJo.  I'll play video games.  But sometimes I'm in the middle of something else and just need an auditory pick me up.  So I'll grab one of my playlists and start listening.

"Real Fight" by HalaCG is one of the best pick-me-up listens for me.  It's a song created as if from the point of view of Toph from The Last Airbender.  I've never really watched the show (though it's on my list), but this song is just an ultimate in girl-power and a kick in the ass of anyone who thinks someone like Toph - young, female and blind - can't keep up or even surpass those who are older, male and sighted.  It just pulls me back to knowing my own strengths.

I don't remember if it was Rich or Tedd that introduced me to The Stupendium, but I've been eternally grateful that they did.  This song ("Why Did I Say Okie Dokie?") was, if I remember correctly, one of his first big ones.  And the original of the song is awesome, but this orchestral version just hits me in the feels every time.  

This is another of The Stupendium's songs that I love to listen to. It's very different than most of his others. Most of his music videos are game-related raps. But this one is a love letter to the Mars Rover Opportunity. It is so full of hope for the future, so thankful to what the little Rover has done for us. It lifts me up because of that hope.

   

 I'm fairly late to the geek rap scene and hadn't heard of rap cyphers.  There are a lot of great ones out there including many of my favorite geek rappers.  But this one being all the ladies is just fantastic!  There are so many great lady geek rappers out there and a bunch of them are pulled together.  Plus it gives me a lot of anime that I need to check out one of these days.

Who would win in a rap battle between various people? That's what Epic Rap Battles of History asks with every video they put out.  What I love about Alexander the Great vs Ivan the Terrible is the turn deftness of the rappers, as well as the pull-ins that they do (watch the video and you'll understand).  I listen to this one so much that I can almost rap along with them.

Natewantstobattle has long been a favorite of mine.  He's such a talented musician, not only with parody songs but also with many of his original pieces.  I started listening to his Pokemon parodies, like this one.  "Kanto" (a parody of Back Home) shows off just how many things he can do - singing, playing different instruments, mixing himself singing the different parts.  And this so just feels like I'm coming back home.

I'll end this one of my favorites from the now defunct (I think) Screen Team.  This is an original that showed me that I'm not alone in my geekiness and that I should never apologize for who I am.  It's a great way to bolster me out of whatever has gotten me down.

There are (and probably will continue to be) more songs on my playlist  if you're interested to see what else helps bring me out of the doldrums.

* Actually, I was wrong.  I am instead ending this on one that I shot 9 years ago, with my adorable Pete singing the Mayonnaise song.  This is one that never fails to cheer me up no matter how low I'm feeling.

Let's Talk - #1 & #2

I just found this through TamTam at HAVFAITH and thought it looked like an interesting thing to get involved in.  Let's Talk is a bi-monthly vlogging meme hosted by Hayley's World and Stroller Adventures.  Twice a month, Hayley posts a theme to vlog (or if you're feeling shy, blog) about and gives you the chance to link up.  Since I'm a bit of a nut, I decided to do all three at once.  I'm adding weeks 1 and 2 here, but you'll need to wait until next week to see what I had to share for week 3 (since the link-up won't go live until then). Gives you something (hopefully) to come back for!

The first week, the topic was 2012 and resolutions.  Here's what I had to say on the subject:

Can you tell I'm a little nervous?  Still, I had fun letting my thoughts run out there.

The next topic given was talking about your SO.  I love talking about Rich, so this one went a little longer.  I hope you don't mind listening to me ramble.

I did mention in the video that I'd link up to where I talked about my wedding bunnies. So, for those who missed me talking about them the first time around, you can find the picture and the story here.

Next week, I'll be back to talk about movies.  I hope you come back to hear what I have to say!

Monday's Music Moves Me - Elemental Girl (And Spotlight Dancer!)

Sorry for the late entry today.  I've been trying to get housework done before computer work, because I have a tendency to lose myself in the internet if I do it the other way around.  But now that I've got the housework from my To Do list finished, I'm able to focus on the fun stuff that I want to do do.

So, here I am for this week's

And I'm pretty excited about it this week, not just because I love sharing some of my favorite music with y'all, but also because I've been made today's Spotlight Dancer!  I'm really proud to be spotlighted like this, and I hope that anyone that decides to stop by because of it will decide to stick around for awhile.  I haven't been part of Monday's Music Moves Me for long, but I've had fun every week adding my favorite music to that week's topic.

This week, we're talking about the elements.  Songs involving fire, water, earth and air.  I've seen a lot of people use rain related songs and, I'll admit, when I started making my list, a lot of mine were rain related songs.  But I love a challenge, so I'm going to add a few songs that hit some of the other elements.

First, of course, I'm going to start with the first song that comes to mind when I hear the word "elements".  It may not be technically the four "classics", but it does help make them up.



Anyone that has watched what I share knows that I like a wide variety of music. One of my favorites is Tori Amos. Her music is both familiar and different with each album, and that's what I love about her. I tried to see what other music of hers that I could find to fit the theme, but the closest I was able to come was this: "Little Earthquakes".



This is one that some may consider a bit of a cheat, but hey, it's my list of music, so I'm adding it! I love a capella groups, and one of the best to (re)emerge on the world scene in the last several years is Straight No Chaser. This is a medley of Earth, Wind and Fire songs that they've done at some of their shows.



I love this song. It's one that I think everyone who is trying to do the best for themselves should adopt as a theme song. Just hearing it brings tears tears to my eyes and watching the video - full blown tears. The quality of the video isn't the best, but it was the only copy I could find on YouTube. And it's important for everyone to remember that "life is not tried, it's just merely survived if you're standing outside the fire".



I had to have one water song, and yes, it's rain related. When most people think of the movie Beaches, the song they think of is "Wind Beneath My Wings". My favorite, however, is this song. "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today". This version is sung by Bette Midler during a visit to the Johnny Carson Show.




Powered by Linky Tools
Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list...

Monday's Music Moves Me - Freebie Week!

This week is "Freebie Week" at Monday's Music Moves Me. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorites from my Geekery Mix. If you'd like to listen to the whole list on YouTube, you can find it here.


I'm a huge gamer. I've been gaming since a friend introduced me in college. And the words in this parody song are EXACTLY what it was like back in those days. I still game, but no more of the late nights.



This is another parody song. My husband is a scientist (though he's gotten out of laboratory science and is working in a related field) and I was with him through trying to get his doctorate and his post-doc years. Yeah, we had some days like this!



Another great bit of Old School Gaming Geekery. I will wander around my house, finding myself humming this.



As I've mentioned before, I'm a comics geek. And I have loved Neil Patrick Harris since his Doogie Howser days. (And does that man have a VOICE on him!) When I found out there was a musical episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold and that NPH was the villain, I had to have it. This is one of my favorite songs from the ep.



BabelColour is the best when it comes to putting the perfect Doctor Who moments to music. I had never heard the song "What About Everything" before I saw this video. I've come to love not only the video (with BabelColour's perfection once again), but the song as well. It's one I'll put on when I'm in a reflective mood.



Finally, this isn't a song. It's an episode. But it my absolute favorite Children in Need episode. Doctor Who fans will understand. Those who aren't as familiar with it might not.

Writer's Workshop - What to choose, what to choose?

It's been awhile since I've participated in Mama Kat's writer's workshop.  At first, it was that all my blogging had gone on hold.  Then I'd see the prompts early in the week, say, "Ah HA!  Yes, I've GOT to write about that!" and promptly forget about it 20 minutes later.  This week, however, the stars are starting to align and I'm diving back in.
This week, I've had a tough time deciding between several great prompts.  I mean, look at them!

1.) Tell us about a kids TV show that you would be happy watching…without your kids.
2.) What was the last thing your child threw a temper tantrum over? Write a blog post from his/her point of view.
3.) Do you love YouTube? Share five of your all time favorite YouTube videos.
4.) Pumpkins! Anything with pumpkins!
5.) Open Instagram (if you have an account) and scroll down to the 4th photo shared by a friend. Share the photo, link to the person who posted it, and let it inspire a blog post.

How can I decide between those?!!!  Well... actually, I knew that 5 was out.  I don't have an Instagram account.  And four... well, it didn't draw me in as much.  But with the other three, my brain has been running around and around, trying to decide which one is best.  I mean, there are a few kids TV shows that I love watching even when my kids aren't around.  And I suspect writing about Pete's last tantrum from his point of view would have everyone cracking up.  And the YouTube videos... I've got a favorite list to pull from.  So what to do?

Answer all three!

Let's start with 1) Tell us about a kids TV show that you would be happy watching

I actually have four that I watch without the boys on a regular basis, three of which are comic-based.  I've actually set up the DVR to tape Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Iron Man: Armored Adventures and Young Justice.  I've been on a huge superhero kick and this feeds nicely into it.  Avengers is straight up Superhero Team adventures, but it does help develop the characters, and the storylines that they've had are very engaging.  Iron Man is basically asking "what if we put the people in Tony Stark's world back in High School?" The artistic style is CGI, which is kind of eh for me, but the storylines pull me in every time.  Young Justice is a step away from Teen Titans.  They have a lot of the same backstory, but they don't go by the name Teen Titans and their line-up is a bit different from both the comic and the TV series.  Plus is has Mia as Green Arrow's protege in the group and Alan Tudyk as the voice of Green Arrow. *swoon*

Here's a brief glimpse at all three of these shows:


Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes

Iron Man: Armored Adventures
Young Justice

The fourth one is just pure awesome in a 30 minute format: Phineas and Ferb.  Seriously, this is probably the best kids show on television right now.  

For those unfamiliar with the show, it's about two young brothers and how they make their summer count.  Every day, with every episode, you'll hear Phineas say, "Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!"  And they, along with their friends, proceed to build something that is beyond imagination - often breaking a few laws of physics along the way.  Their older sister, Candace, is always trying to bust them to their mother and her attempts just add to the fun.  There's always a B-Plot as well, involving their pet platypus, Perry.  They think that because he's a platypus, he doesn't do much.  What they don't know, however, is that he's actually a secret agent that fights his nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, as the later tries his latest scheme to take over the Tri-State area. 

So why do I like it?  First of all, it's just a FUN show, and one that doesn't take itself too seriously.  There are physical gags, intellectual puns, self-referential humor... there's always laugh out loud moments.  I know that if I'm in a bad mood, an episode of P & F will often turn that around.

Second, the characters are awesome.  They each have their little quirks, their problems, their strengths and each gets explored at one time or another throughout the run of the series.  And it's not just the "stars", but the secondary characters as well.  Whether we're watching Isabella and her crush on the clueless Phineas, finding out the softer side of the bully Buford, or smiling along with Candace's boyfriend, Jeremy, at his girlfriend's latest attempts to bust her brothers, we know that we're getting to know the characters a little better.

Then there's the fact that, unlike so many kids shows that drive me insane, the kids have parents that are involved in their lives and also have *gasp* personalities.  Linda Flynn-Fletcher and Lawrence Fletcher have their own quirks, strengths and weaknesses.  Linda was a former pop-star who is incredibly happy being a stay-at-home mom.  Lawrence owns an antique store and, while he sees a little more than Linda does of the boys' contraptions, he seems to be a little more clueless.  But the important thing is that they are always there, in the background, letting the kids be kids yet being a steadying presence. Soooo much better than Max and Ruby.

Finally, there's the music.  Each episode has an original song, often in a different style.  Being the music lover that I am, I love any show that incorporates songs into their episodes.  Most shows have music, and those that have songs are usually spotlighting an artist for that song.  P & F have a different song, often sung by the characters, every week.  The songs are catchy, they introduce kids to a wide variety of musical styles, and they mesh perfectly with the show.  I honestly would love a copy of every single song they play on the show. It would be on the CD player in my van and I'd listen to it even when the kids weren't with me.  (I do have one of the discs already, and that gets played a lot.)

Now here's a taste of this wonderful show, showcasing one of my favorite songs, "Busted":

And here's another favorite, "Ain't Got Rhythm":

  I'd better stop now, or I'll end up posting every song.  But seriously, if you haven't checked out Phineas and Ferb before, go.  It's so worth it.


Now on to prompt 2:  What was the last thing your child threw a temper tantrum over? Write a blog post from his/her point of view.
My mommy can be so mean sometimes!  I mean, I love her and all, but she is so mean.  Like, earlier today.  Teddy was eating a lunchable.  It was my lunchable, left over from yesterday.  You know those little snack pack size ones?  I love the little cookies.  The rest can just get thrown away, but those cookies are so yummy.  Anyway, it was mine, mine, MINE!  And Mommy told Teddy he could have it.
And then when I tried to take it away from him, she got mad at me. ME!  Can't she see that it wasn't Teddy's,to eat?  I don't care that I didn't finish mine yesterday.  It's still no excuse for him to eat it instead of me.  
So she kept pulling me away from him and I kept going back and trying to take it out of his hands.  I even hit him once or twice to get him to let go.  So he's yelling and I'm yelling and Mommy's siding with Perfect Teddy. *rolleyes*.  She threatened to send me to bed for the whole day right then and there!  I was sure she wasn't going to do it, so I kept hitting him and trying to take my lunch away from him, all the time repeating "It's my lunch!  It's my lunch!"  What's so hard to understand about that? 
But I must have made her pretty mad because she came up to where I was just about to get my lunch back, picked me up and started walking upstairs.  By then, I was crying pretty hard.  It wasn't fair to send ME to bed when it was all Mommy and Teddy's faults.  They should have been the ones that went to bed.  But I know how Mommy works, so I decided to try meeting her half way.  "Mommy," I told her, "I just wanna share it wif Teddy!  I just wanna share it!"  And as I knew she would, she stopped and set me down on the stairs.  She blah-blah-blahed at me for a minute or two and I pretended to be listening, but I can't remember what she said.  It probably wasn't important anyway.
Of course, things STILL can't go my way.  I ran back downstairs and asked Teddy if he would share it with me, only to find out that he'd eaten not just the little cookies but all the cheese too!  How COULD he?  I shouldn't have to tell him I want cheese.  He should know.  After all, that's what brothers do, right?  Read each others minds?  Otherwise, how would we be able to annoy each other all the time?  I know that I read his mind.  It would just be nice if he'd read mine at the times it mattered. 
Anyway, I started screaming and crying again because Teddy just made me SO mad.  I told Mommy what made me mad and, in one of her more brilliant moves, she got a slice of cheese out of the fridge for me to eat.  I mean, that's what I wanted all along.  Why couldn't she have mentioned that we had cheese in the house at the beginning of this so we wouldn't have so much drama?  Honestly.  I just don't get her sometimes.  
Oh, and can I say that I thought being four was gonna be awesome, but it just seems to SUCK.


I had a hard time finding his voice on that one, but I'm still happy with the way it came out.  Pete's been temper central lately, so I had a lot to work with.
And now for my final prompt: 3.) Do you love YouTube? Share five of your all time favorite YouTube videos.
I do love YouTube.  It's my go-to place when I want to find visual evidence of a show, introduce Rich to music he hadn't heard before, or find the Funny.  I've got a lot more than five favorites (if you're interested, most of them are on my geekery mix).  Anyway, here goes:
I'm a huge fan of Neil Gaiman.  He can write literally anything and it will be good.  This book, Instructions, is one of my favorite children's books of all time.  Here we get to heard Neil read the story while Charles Vess' beautiful illustrations are highlighted.

Babelcolour is THE name in Doctor Who tribute videos.  He's made fake trailers, done tributes, shows the history of the show in one awesome video... I don't think I've ever seen him create anything bad.  This is one of my favorites, set to Carbon Leaf's "What About Everything.

When it comes to parody songs, I've always felt the geekier the better.  And being the gaming geek that I am, "Roll a D6" is near the top of both my "most awesome parody songs" list and my "most awesome videos" list.

All of the reboot of Doctor Who is on Netflix... except the Children in Need specials they shoot yearly.  This short episode, where the 10th Doctor gets a chance to meet the 5th Doctor when their TARDISes collide, is one the best.  Especially because of the 10th Doctor's speech at the end.  Because, for so many of us, Peter Davison was our Doctor.

I can't have a favorite video list without putting up a video of one of my boys.  This video was shot a few weeks ago when we had family in town for Pete's birthday.  We'd gone to Steak-n-Shake for lunch and Pete just started singing this song.  I wanted proof, so I turned my camera to video mode and just started recording.  You can hear Teddy prompting him in the background, too.

So those are my responses to three of the five prompts.  I hope you've enjoyed another glimpse into my mind and my life!

Recent Geekery

Between today's Free Comic Book Day fun at Rick's Comic City and a bunch of the geek stuff I've found online lately, I've been in Geek Heaven.  It's making my little geek heart soar!

First, I'll share the goodies I picked up at FCBD today.  For any of my readers that got their own goodies at a local Comic Shop, please feel free to share what you got.  I'm curious to see what else people picked up and what they think of said goodies.  At Rick's, they had a bunch of long boxes filled with comics they were selling for 50 cents.  So along with my freebies and the few new titles that I wanted to pick up (Doctor Who, anyone?  And DAY-UM, I want to talk about the Doctor vs Jack the Ripper with someone!), we also found several goodies among those boxes.  So here are the list of goodies that we came home with:

Free Comics
Sonic the Hedgehog
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse
The Intrepid EscapeGoat: The Princess and the Pyramid/The Stuff of Legend
Chip 'n' Dale, Rescue Rangers/Darkwing Duck
Pep Comics: Featuring Betty & Veronica
Young Justice/Batman: The Brave and the Bold Super Sampler
Geronimo Stilton, plus a complete story starring the Smurfs
X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Saga
Marvel Sneak Peeks
Son of Marvel Reading Chronology
Walter Koenig's Things to Come/The Mis-Adventures of Adam West
Green Lantern: Special Edition
The Darkness II: Confession

New Purchases
Green Arrow: Brightest Day, Issue 9 (My Mother's Day gift from my boys, who wanted to get me something GA)
Doctor Who, Issue #3 & #4
Doctor Who: A Fairytale Life

50 Cent Comics
Batman: The Blue, The Grey and the Bat
Batman: The Book of Shadows
Green Arrow #1-3 (the 1988 new format)
The Green Arrow: TPB by Jack Kirby - classics from the 1950's GA
Superman #464 & #469 (The boys picked out these)
Sonic The Hedgehog #216 & #217

I've read through the Doctor Who comics and a couple of the freebies, but I still have lots of reading to do tomorrow.  I'm really looking forward to it!

I've watched "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon", the first two episodes of Doctor Who, season 6.  I'm jonesing for someone to talk about it with.  I'm just really leery about putting my thoughts out here yet because I don't want to spoil it for someone who may not have had a chance to watch them yet.  Tomorrow, I'll be watching "Curse of the Black Spot".  And I've got some Sarah Jane Adventures that I want to watch as well.  I'm firmly in Whomania right now.

I'm going to start a new channel on YouTube for all the Geekery that I love there.  (Ok, I've actually started the channel now - small though it is to start - and you can find it here if you want to share in the awesome geekiness that I'm finding on YouTube.)  For the last several days, we've been having the video below playing pretty constantly in our house.  And it's making me want a regular gaming group again so badly I can taste it!



We had it playing before I left to visit with Dad tonight, and I actually turned to Teddy before I left and said, "This WILL be you one day.  You WILL be up until dawn rolling dice.  You don't have any choice."  I'm only mostly joking.  It is something I'd like to see him do.  Hell, it's something I'd love to do with him, Rich, and Pete when they boys are a bit older.

It brings back a lot of good memories though, particularly back in college.  Of course, we didn't play D&D in college.  We played GURPS (which fits so much better with rolling a d6 than D&D). But still... I was played a mage (during our fantasy fames) and I had one hell of an evil GM that I loved dearly (and would love to game with again if I could).  I kinda miss those days sometimes.

Rich had never seen this next video, so I had to introduce him to it.  Which is another one that gets me chair dancing.  And reminds me that I really need to check out The Guild far more often because I'm missing so much goodness.



And then Rich showed me "Game On", which I hadn't caught before.  Bollywood geekery rocks!



Gods, I better stop this for now.  Because otherwise I will be up until dawn finding Lovely Geekery.  And if you have some geekery on YouTube that you think I'd enjoy, PLEASE send it my way.  Because Geekery needs to be shared!