12 ways to survive the holidays

The holiday break is fast approaching, and with that time often comes extended visits with family – depending on the nature of the family, it can either be hilarious fun, or awkward and boring.

Here’s 12 ways, in no particular order, to survive the holidays if your family is the latter…

1.  Hulu

Hulu has become the de facto location for viewing high quality, and timely, television content online, and the holiday break is a good time to catch up on shows or discover new ones – like the BBC’s Spaced.

2.  Netflix

Just as with Hulu, Netflix has become a prime destination for DVD delivery and streaming movies to various devices, so the holidays can be used to continue plowing through the sequential DVDs of Stargate: SG-1’s 10 seasons or streaming movies like The Boondock Saints to your cousin’s XBOX 360.

3.  Subversion

If you have multiple computers and a decent hosting service, you’ve probably already figured this out:  setup Subversion repositories for your documents and other important files, so that you can sync data between computers without needing external hard drives or burning 15 DVD’s.  This can be useful to finish that novel about penguins in space in the next few weeks, especially if a niece accidentally deletes your local copy.

4.  IM/ Email / Twitter

The fact that you’re reading this means you’re probably already an email and IM user, possibly a Twitterer as well.  Keeping ties with the outside world helps to retain your sanity when you’re snowed in to a cabin in Colorado with 30 family members for two weeks – don’t forget to tweet hourly on how annoyed you are with the epic snow.

5.  Facebook

Unless you live in the area where you grew up, chances are your group of friends aren’t local to the holiday festivities – make sure you write, poke, zombie attack, and otherwise annoy them via Facebook while you’re away.  Because they might forget who you are if you don’t.

6.  Podcasts

For many technophiles, podcasts have become a daily source of portable audio information on the daily commute or at the gym, allowing programs like MSNBC’s Countdown to be heard on-demand.  But some of these programs will undoubtedly take a break as the end of the year approaches, so it’d be worth browsing through the far-reaching and intriguing archives of  programs like the BBC’s World Service Documentaries.

7.  Netbook

Netbooks aren’t known for their reliable battery life or large screens, but they’re extremely useful for their ability to go anywhere you do – for $200-300, you can avoid having to fight with the rest of the family for time on the house’s aging desktop machine.  And you can blog about the latest Star Wars rumors from the steaming hot tub.

8.  Movie Theaters

Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, 2012, Ninja Assassin, Armored, Planet 51, Brothers, Old Dogs… there’s plenty of excuses during the month of December to disappear for three hours and escape from reality.  As long as it’s not a Twilight movie.

9.  Google Reader

Just like email or podcasts, keeping up on the events of the outside world is a useful distraction and may even stimulate the brain a bit – if you’re not following feeds via Google Reader already, you should be.  News, webcomics, comedy sites, geek blogs, and more… all at your sugar-coated fingertips.

10.  E-reader

With the release of the Nook, the Kindle, and software for the iPod/iPhone, reading books is no longer a “hassle”, since they don’t have to be carted around.  This will let you read trash romance novels like “Pleasure Unbound” without worrying about someone judging you by the horribly explicit and unnecessary cover.

11.  Local Rock Concerts

Unless you’re a fan of rap or other genres, local rock concerts in small, dingy clubs are a cheap way to spend an evening, and maybe even discover a new band of amazingly talented teenagers.  Beer, music, wannabe rockstars, and a mass of hyper, sweaty people is probably better than your holiday domestic conditions… right?

12.  Patience

If all else fails, have patience and take solace in the knowledge that your situation is only temporary – your mundane worklife will return soon enough.

Kyle can be found on his blog, on Facebook, via email, or on Twitter.