Top 10 Nerd Moments of 2013

10) Bill Nye on Dancing with the Stars

Do you remember watching Bill Nye the Science Guy on the Disney Channel?? I definitely do. Imagine my surprise when I saw ol’ Bill on Season 17 of Dancing with the Stars. Now, he wasn’t very good and was eliminated on week three, but I think that this is a win for nerds everywhere – especially at the ripe age of 57. Just remember, he made science and bowties cool before Matt Smith did.

9) The Bluth’s frozen banana stand

There’s always money in the banana stand! In real life however, there wasn’t any money because these delightfully frozen bananas were actually free to the public (if you were lucky enough to get one). As part of an international promotion, Netflix took the iconic “Bluth’s Frozen Bananas” stand to London, New York City, and Los Angeles to celebrate the season four release of Arrested Development. The iconic banana stand also made a final appearance at Bluth’s family hometown, Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California, where several stars of the show were seen handing out free frozen bananas to fans and very confused, uninformed tourists.

8) Comic Con

Cities around the country have experienced record attendance highs for annual comic conventions. New York City comic con has now reached San Diego comic con numbers, and Baltimore Comic Con also broke it’s record. Like it or not, 2013 was the year of the nerd.

7) Eve online battle

If you have ever been an online gamer, I’m sure you’ve heard of Eve Online (a massively-multiplayer online space-war game). The game’s two biggest alliances, TEST and CFC were duking it out in virtual space for over five hours. The reason: some idiot accidentally warped into an area of space he wasn’t supposed to be in, they called for back-up, and inadvertently started a massive battle that consisted of over 4,000 players and totaled over 2,500 virtual deaths. The battle ended when CFC called in their huge fleet and TEST was forced to flee. This is also the biggest battle to ever occur on Eve Online. Nerd win!

6) Blossoming of J-law

I’m only putting this on the list because she’s an honorary nerd and this was a huge year for her. She’s played roles such as Mystique and Katniss, (and totally owned it) and also won an Oscar; no big deal. In my opinion, she’s every nerd’s wet dream. She’s not afraid to let her nerd flag fly, make awesome faces (or talk about food), and has blossomed into the lovable dork that every girl wants to be.

5) Mars penis

NASA may have not noticed the penis-shaped tracks, but the internet sure did. Thanks to Reddit users, the whole world now knows of the little rover with mischievous remote-operators. If I were an alien from another planet, I would think the planet Earth was overcompensating for something…like maybe intelligence. NASA still hasn’t commented on the event but still has the picture on their site. However, Mars did reply with this:

4) New Harry Potter movie

JK Rowling is teaming up with Warner Bros. to bring the new wizarding franchise, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” to the big screen. No, the new movie is not part of the Harry Potter series, but it does take place in the same magical world. Daniel Radcliffe has already said he won’t be a part of the movie, but Emma Watson and Rupert Grint haven’t made a statement yet. Keep your fingers crossed!

3) Dr. Who 50th Anniversary

I’m not particularly a Dr. Who fan (it’s way too campy for me), but this does make the top 3 because all my friends wouldn’t stop talking about it. No matter where I went, Dr. Who was there. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram….the internet; people are obsessed with this show. Imagine how many girls fantasized about Matt Smith and David Tennant in the same episode (and the same dream). Apparently this one episode was recorded as the largest simultaneous broadcast of a TV drama.

2) San Fran Bat-kid

This is a serious win for humanity. Miles Scott, 5, was diagnosed with leukemia at 18 months old and ended treatments in June – he is now in remission. Every kid wanted to be a superhero growing up, and this kid saved the entire city of Gotham a.k.a San Francisco. Thanks to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, social media, and the city of San Fran, Miles got to team up with Batman to stop the Penguin and the Riddler from destroying the city. President Obama sent Miles an encouraging video and even Ben Affleck and Adam West reached out on Twitter. This is truly a heartwarming event for even the Grinch-iest of Grinches.

1) The release of PS4 and Xbox One

The rivalry between Playstation and Xbox has always been huge, but the rift between the two has grown even more since the release of the PS4 and Xbox One. I’ve always been a Playstation fan, so imagine my delight when die-hard Xbox fans switched over to the darkside because the new Xbox sucks a big one. The PS4 is cheaper, doesn’t require a paid subscription, and provides an overall better experience for the non-casual gamer. Honorable mention: the Wii U – I feel bad because it had no chance in hell at competing with Sony and Microsoft.

Later nerds!- AK