Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 56)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos, we go smart and old-school, celebrate a kilovid of vlogbrothers and guess Doctor Who.

• In the first video in this volume, composer / YouTuber Bulbamike renders the QI theme in 8-bits. Also he renders Mr. Stephen Fry in a slightly odd aspect ratio, but never mind that.
• Next, we wish John good morning for the 500th time. A lot has changed and a lot will change, but I'm always thankful that I have all of the things that Hank and Jon produce in my life. Also I can't figure out when I started watching vlogbrothers, but I'm happy to postdate myself to that very first "Good Morning".
• Finally, Karen Kavett remixes a Guess Who board into a Doctor Who Guess Who board. I can't say that I've felt I needed one of these, but the process of taking something and making it definitively yours is really cool.

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 49)

This volume of my favourite YouTube videos is a chance to stop and reflect on the things you want to hold onto and the things you want to let go. Also the things you're going to pack for your next con...

• First, Hank Green, talks about Esther Day and how the value we bring to the world isn't measured in what we create nearly so much as it is in who we're with.
• Second, Ze Frank talks about the Finishing Book and the things that we're ready to let go.
• Finally, Karen Kavett, talks about the things you should take to Leakycon...

Blog: Favourite YouTube Videos (Volume 39)

In this volume of my favourite YouTube videos we get musical, beautiful and designy.

• First, Hank sings to us about the Subway where he used to go (and then lays down the facts about advertising).
• Then we have a live version of Watsky's 4am, one of my favourite's of his songs. 
• Next Cory Williams flies us beautifully over his hometown.
• Then Karen Kavett shows us what she's been up to when it comes to interior design.
• Finally we end on a lip dub from Meekakitty, which combined with Hank's video above might be the best indication of the state of music in the summer of 2012. (Also Tessa's crazy-eyes really sell this video.)

Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 21)

This volume of my favorite YouTube videos contains some thoughtfulness, some music, some video games and some laughs.

• The first video in this volume is from Corning, and (this might shock you) it's about glass. On the one hand it's a pretty standard corporate puff piece about how awesome they'll make your future, but I was mostly interested in it because it's a pretty good illustration (in my opinion) of how our technology should work for us over the next 20 years. I favorited this one because I thought the concepts were really interesting.
• The next video is by vlogger/designer Karen Kavett. These are her reflections on her time at RISD as she graduates. It's a cool, well produced video with a lot of heart and interesting reflections on her time as a student. It's nice to see someone who's education went so well and was so in line with where they wanted their life to go. 
• The third video in this volume is composer/pianist Laura Shigihara playing an improvised arraignment of music from Secret of Mana. It's a very restful piece and Secret of Mana's music always makes the hair on my arms stand up.
• The next video is a recording of a panel from the Calgary Comic Expo 2011, featuring the voices of the childhood of anyone of my generation, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche and Jess Harnell. I was lucky enough to attend this panel and I thoroughly enjoyed it and am glad the chance exists to relive it through YouTube.
• The final video for this volume is another video song from Pomplamoose, their original song River Shiver. 

Blog: Favorite YouTube Videos (Volume 17)

Welcome to the 17th volume of my favorite YouTube Videos. This volume has a lot of music and a little bit of thought about design.

• Have you listened to a good book lately? The first video in the volume is a video song for Hank Green's "This is Not Harry Potter." Harry Potter has always been an important touch stone in Nerdfighteria, and Hank puts out an annual song with sometime to do with Harry to celebrate that link. I always enjoy the one voice and guitar style and I think this is one of my favorite song Wednesday songs.
• The second video is the video for Janelle Monáe's song Tightrope. I noticed this song because it was in a car commercial and was hearing it 20-30 times a day (thanks YouTube/network television). When I looked the song up I discovered the video had a great concept (as I guess does the whole album, although I must confess that I haven't listened to it in its entirety), was really visually compelling and just a lot of fun.
• The third video is from designer and nerdfighter Karen Kavett. She plays an exciting game of "what if" with YouTube. As you might have guessed by now I spend quite a bit of time on YouTube so I find this pretty cool. Some of the ideas she has have since been taken up by YouTube and some of them are kinda crazy, but it's really refreshing to stop and think about how websites we use all the time are simply products of design.
• The last two videos in this volume are from Pomplamoose (are you surprised, I can tell that you are). The first is a great cover of Deck the Halls, complete with crazy exuberance  the thing I'm calling the "Pomplamoose Key Change" and one of the back up Natalies even smiling! The second is not only a great song but also a great story, which I'll let them tell you at the end of the video.

Blog : Cool Things on September 14, 2012

I'm starting a new series of posts on the blog side where I'm going to mention some of the cool things I've run across. I hope this is roughly weekly, but the blog schedule has to flex to the actually being a student schedule.

This first edition is mostly things from youtube, where I'm a little better oganized about keeping track of cool things (and you don't have to worry there's at least a year's worth of favorite YouTube videos before I have to do anything there). In the future I will hopefully be keeping track of all the cool things.

Videos

Let's start then with the inimitable Dodger, who has started a let's play series of the game They Bleed Pixels. The style of the game is pretty cool, I especially like the character's pose as she jumps, and how reactive the game looks. It looks like it can become incredibly frustrating so I'm just as happy to let someone else play. Dodger's Let's Play style is enjoyable, she's actually good at games, and makes for great back ground listening. I also appreciate how she goes back at the end of the prologue video to pick up the collectables she missed. Check out the following episodes too, unfortunately there isn't a playlist of them yet.

Another cool video I found this week is Karen Kavett's video on how she created a Doctor Who Guess Who set. She's pretty inspirational on the getting excited and making things front and she makes some pretty cool things. The video features the music from Chameleon Circuit.

The last video this week is the 1000th video from the vlogbrothers (well, technically the 1001st). It's pretty cool all the things that have come together over the last five years. DFTBA.

Games

This week I've also been playing (a bit to my chagrin) Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord, a downloadable title by Square-Enix on the Wii. This game is a pretty cheesy tower defense game (in which you have to defend your tower ... rather than use the tower for defense). The concept is a little weird/j-rpg the mechanics are a bit simple (and sometimes frustrating) but for some reason this is a hell of a lot of fun.

Yeah, that's what it looks like ... (via GameFAQs) 

Podcasts

I've recently run across the not-at-all new Film Sack from the Frog Pants Network. In which Scott Johnson, Brian Dunaway, Randy Jordan and Brian Ibbot discuss a movie each week, usually a B from a while ago and see how it feels, if it holds up and whether people should actually be interested. Despite not being much of a movie buff myself listening to these four guys talk about films is really fun and the kind of thing you can put on in the background while getting things done. I've started listening both to the oldest episode and going forward and the newest one going backward and we'll see what happens when the film sack trains collide.

On a related note, Film Sack's cousin podcast Autopilot is preparing for it's second season. This podcast (put together by Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt) takes a look at the pilots of television shows and is informative and entertaining. They released the first season earlier this year, and decided to fun the second season through Kickstarter (rather than through sponsorships). I enjoyed the first season enough to get on board to give them a kick.

Wrap-up

I'd like to thank my friend Daley for his bump to the blog earlier this week. He runs his blog at lingwhatics.ca and keeps a good eye on the world both there and on his twitter.

And finally, although I'm sure everyone's had enough gangnam style, here's the crew of Weekend Confirmed getting overwhelmed by the spirit of ... dance ...