Happy derryXgiving 2012!

The year has been zooming by. I can’t believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow!

I’ve been more or less laying low the past few weeks. I’ve been catching up on some personal things.

Like The Best Show on WFMU. About a month ago, I realized that I was 7 months behind on the three hour weekly show. I also had about 30 Best Show Gems podcasts that were unheard. I was ready to give up my “Friends of Tom” Card! I’m now caught up and plan on not falling behind. It wasn’t a trivial task to get caught up on over 80 hours of programming. Every opportunity I had where I had 5 minutes or more of downtime, I had the earbuds in.

The one thing coming out of listening to all of these shows is that I’m now inspired to go back through the Led Zeppelin albums with a critical ear and try and appreciate them a little more. I’ve been tough on Led Zeppelin; I don’t really know why. I’ve just put in my head that they are overrated, and I just haven’t ever really paid much attention to their stuff. I’m changing that. I’m not just going to blast through and listen to everything in one day, though; I’m going to go through one by one and listen to each album multiple times and extract as much as I can from them individually before I move onto the next. I think this will help create the anticipation for the next one and help me to appreciate each one on their own. People (myself included) nowadays have the tendency to blast through everything that exists too quickly and not really take the time to let stuff soak in. I can’t imagine how lame some of the season transitions in LOST come off when you can just queue up the next episode.

I also have been actually using my Xbox360, which sat pretty much idle for the last 6 months since I finished Batman: Arkham City. Halo 4 has been pretty awesome, and I’ve been trying to get some time in playing that. Let’s go back a second. The campaign story for Halo 4 is pretty much the dumbest thing I ever saw, but the multiplayer is pretty amazing. We want our clan tag to be “Tall Boy”, but you’re limited to four characters. That sucks.

I’ve also been doing some more reading than usual. Not blogs and stuff on computer screens. Books and comic books. It’s a really relaxing activity that helps after a long day. Sometimes reading stuff on the computer only adds to the stress, so cracking a book is therapeutic. I know; it’s lame.

Of course, I’ve been keeping a pretty good balance between food and exercise. Not that I’m counting or anything, but I was able to drop 10 pounds through pizza season, and I’m still going. I’ve bumped up the intensity and frequency at the gym, so I’m getting closer to the shape I want to maintain and am able to eat a lot more garbage without it making an impact. Working out is good stuff, people.

We’ve also been putting together plans for the wedding. I’m not saying I’ve dedicated a ridiculous amount of time for that, but every little bit adds up.

I mention all of this stuff, because it’s my way of saying this is what I’m thankful for. The ability to balance and keep all of these things in my personal life, writing, gaming, cooking, training, eating, reading, music, podcasts, tall boys, that is what I am thankful for this year, along with the givens, health, family, puppies, and pizza.

If nothing else, writing a post about Thanksgiving allows me to bring back my favorite Thanksgiving themed image:

As far as what I’m doing for Thanksgiving, this year will be modeled after last year and the years before, waking up early, driving down to my parents’ house in Middletown, NY, and helping to get everything ready. And this year, I’m making something classic from scratch, and it’s going to be amazing (and just like last year, I’ll be giving you the recipe AFTER the holiday so you can dig it back up next year.).

I hope that everyone is able to enjoy their holiday, and that it’s filled with lots of love, food, and tall boys!