5 Geek Alternatives To Thanksgiving

Like many people I don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Being of Native American descent I find Thanksgiving (and for that matter Columbus Day and the Fourth of July) to be immensely problematic to put it diplomatically.

Nevertheless this doesn't stop strangers, friends, loved ones and family members from lecturing me about my personal decision in the most condescending manner possible.

So rather than channel my inner patronus, Midnighter, and go on a righteous rampage, I simply opt to go into hiding (either my apartment or rent a hotel room) until the holiday has passed.

Over the years I've found many wonderful alternatives to serving time with dysfunctional relatives and being forced to watch football.

Standard disclaimer: with any advice I offer, take what you can utilize, and disregard the rest.

1) Marathon

Ready the popcorn and open a cold beverage of your choice. Kick back and watch a marathon of your favorite flicks. Perhaps the Fast & Furious series before the seventh installment is released next year. Something of the Marvel cinematic oeuvre might be more to your palette. And why even limit it to movies. This is an opportunity to catch up on some of your favorite tv shows: the final season of Sons of Anarchy, Scandal, or The Flash, or in my case, Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

2) WWE Survivor Series

As a lifelong pro-wrestling fan, this is one "holiday tradition" that I do enjoy. This year's Survivor Series appears to be a most promising one. Team Cena battles Team Authority; The Divas in the traditional 4-team elimination match; The sinister Bray Wyatt battling the lunatic fringe, Dean Ambrose. Spend three hours enjoying trash talking, lunatics, chair swinging and and bodyslams through tables, with people who aren't your relatives.

3) Write Here, Write Now

This one goes out to my fellow writers.

For the past month or so, you may have noticed coffeeshops and libraries being more packed than usual. In addition to this attendance swell you've probably noticed people typing feverishly on their laptops as if to deactivate a nuclear warhead under a 20 second deadline.

There's a reason for this. No it's not Hydra. It's National Novel Writing Month….okay fine it's possible that Hydra could be behind NaNoWriMo, let me get back to you on that.

As the annual event comes to a close, many writing aspirants frantically attempt to churn out as many words possible to hit the 50,000 word goal. A day off to write uninterrupted can make all the difference in the world. I know this first hand.

Full disclosure time: A few years back I took my first stab at NaNoWriMo. Not only was I successful but my debut novel, Hollowstone, is the result. Last Thanksgiving I was putting the finishing touches on my sophomore title, West of Sunset.

Those two books alone have led to some amazing opportunities including this one here at Comicbook.com. So yes, it can happen.

Oh and by the way:

4) Greatness Awaits

So if you're a Playstation fan, you no doubt recognize this slogan for the Playstation 4. But if you're an X-Box person get your X-Box on, same goes for Nintendo or any other console. Use the day to level up that character you've been meaning to level or go vanquish another ancient unstoppable evil and brand new worlds or revisit some favorite ones. The point is, get your escapism on.

Usually around Thanksgiving I find myself playing Assassin's Creed III and/or Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

What can I say, there's something very cathartic about playing an abolitionist and a Native American warrior and vanquishing evil colonials, but I digress.  :-)

5) Organize your Cloud Drives

If you're a geek like me, you probably have libraries upon libraries of work files, articles, movies, music, photos, art, graphic novels, etc. And if you're as busy as I am, you do well to simply to upload and back up files, much less organize them. 

A day off like Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to get your files in order. More than that, if you regularly work from multiple devices like say a Macbook an iPad and iPhone, that will definitely maximize your efficiency. I'm not saying that you'll be rocking like the Oracle, but you'll TOTALLY be rocking like the Oracle, imho. ;-)

Hopefully some of these ideas will help. However you decide to spend the day, be safe and enjoy it.