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My Oscar nomination ritual has been the same for the last several years – start stalking the morning shows (all of them) around  7 a.m., because even though they’re not on for about another hour and a half, I don’t wanna miss anything. I then answer the phone about five minutes before the nominations come on, and it’s always my sister, and then when they start I have to hang up on her, because for some reason, her TV is always 10 to 15 seconds ahead of mine and she cannot keep a secret to save her life.

Anyway, the nominations are pretty much what you’d expect, following the leads of the Golden Globes and the SAG awards, with a few notable points:

— The directing category includes Lee Daniels (“Precious”) and Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”), making them, respectively, the second African-American and the third woman to be given that honor. And if either of them wins, they would be the first winner of either of those distinctions.

— The decision to nominate ten films in the Best Picture category, as if this show wasn’t long enough, yielded some very interesting things. I really thought that “The Hangover,” which won Best Comedy in the Golden Globes, had a shot, because they had to nominate something. But “Up,” which also got a Best Original Screenplay nomination, and “The Blind Side,” which made a gazillion dollars and got Sandra Bullock a nod, got the quirky vote. Also, “District 9,” which joins probable winner “Avatar” as nominated sci-fi flicks. Go geeks! Go geeks! It’s your birthday! Sadly, no “Hangover” means no Mike Tyson presentation. Sigh.

— Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal got nods for “Crazy Heart,” but it wasn’t nominated for Best Film, which sort of surprised me.

— I was watching the nominations on the “Today” show, where “The Hurt Locker”‘s Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie were in the studio. The emotional hug between the two when Renner’s nomination for Best Actor was read was so awesome. I’m really psyched about Renner, because he’s been one of those “Hey, I know that guy!” actors for so long. Remember “The Unusuals” on ABC? He was in it. And also…”SWAT” with Colin Farrell and L.L. Cool J. That alone endears him to me.

— Way to be classy, Meredith Vieira, for saying to just nominated Kathryn Bigelow, “So James Cameron…he’s your ex, right?” Of course, the question ended in how proud Cameron was of her, but to ask the question like that seemed like she was gonna say “And so is it awkward to be in his category?”

— George Clooney’s continued quest to rule the world continues. When he is revealed to be a dapper alien, don’t ask surprised like I didn’t tell you.

I’m looking forward to the actual ceremony, because with 10 movies it’s gonna be eight years long, and I can’t wait to see what Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are gonna say to make fun of that fact. Also, being able to say “Oscar winner Mo’Nique” will be cool, right? Because when you saw “Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins” and she was beating up Martin Lawrence, how many of you saw that coming?