What bad habit will you NOT be giving up in the New Year?
Mike Cullen
I will not be giving up cussing. Yes, I drop the F-Bomb like it's just a regular word, but I firmly believe it's one of two perfect words in the English dictionary (the other being the four letter s-word), that can be used a noun, adjective, verb, and adverb. I have been told that I swear quite a bit; that's too effing bad for your clearly sensitive ears. My father was a sailor, and my mother cusses worse then him, and, as a result, I maintain that my "bad habit" is in fact genetic and cannot be fixed.
 Joe Lipsett
Watching television.
I'm not talking about watching a show or two throughout the week. I'm talking about watching an exhaustive list of shows — many that I like, many that I can't actually understand why I watch — each and every week. For a few years I more or less stopped watching television because I didn't have cable. Then when I discovered that I can watch virtually anything online, I rekindled my romance with the tube, and I've never looked back, despite it affecting my sleeping habits, my social life, and my academic career. The thing is that there's just so much great television out there, why would I ever want to turn that down. So while I may endeavour to watch less bad television in the new year, my television watching habits are here to stay.
Taryn Cheal
I have decided to embrace my judgemental self and continue to judge people on what they wear. I have fairly strong opinions on people's clothes and I really do try to not be rude (even in my head) but I have decided that it is just fine, because some people should be shamed into wearing nicer clothes. I have always felt bad for judging people on their clothes but I have come to realize, more and more, that people out there need help because they are clueless. By not holding back on my judgements I will use those observations to aid my new style column, Clothes Minded, and help to fix the egregious style problems I see on a daily basis.
Emily Goodacre
I will not be cutting down on my Diet Coke consumption. People tend to make fun of me or tell me how bad it is for me when they find out about my little addiction. But I feel there are far worse vices to have, and would it be better for me to smoke, drink, or do drugs instead? We all need something in our lives that's bad for us, so I'll be holding on to this one in 2012.
Agnes Cadieux
What not to give up? The list in my head is so long I can hardly choose. I am most likely guilty of all the things my fellow writers have already mentioned, but the one thing I think I will continue doing this year is be a closet smoker. Yes. I smoke. Not a lot, but I do nonetheless. I know it's bad and I'm not entirely proud of it, but it allows me a moment to go off on my own, away from the world to blacken my lungs in some deep, dark corner where I'm sure no one will see me. I suppose it's easier not to give up since I don't smoke for social status, nor do I do it openly. On the other hand, it's a slow and sure death sentence and I probably should quit. But I'm not gonna. At least not this year.
April Yorke
I'm going to continue to hold out hope for Hollywood. If Deadwood alum John Hawkes can find his niche, I'm going to hold out hope that Ian McShane can find a part worthy of his talents. Same goes for nerd girl catnip Lee Pace. I'm going to hope that Ed gets a DVD release. I'm going to hope that Kristen Bell appears in something that I actually want to watch. I'm going to hope that at least one watchable original movie can be produced by a studio. I'm going to hope that absolutely everyone gets to shine in The Avengers. Even though 2011 was a pretty darn good year for movies, I'm going to hope that 2012 is just that little bit better because, hey, why not?
 Leigh Daniels
The thing that I will not stop doing this year is not holding the elevator for slow people when I'm on it and they're trying to make it. Okay, in all honesty, even that makes me sound nicer than I really am. What I'm really not going to stop doing is actively pressing the door close button when I know someone is coming, so I don't have to wait for them to get off on their floor. I moved this year, and, in my last apartment, I lived on the top floor. I knew I was going to be waiting for someone that was going to get off on the second or third (or eighth—does it really matter?) floor. That plus the fact that our elevator was the slowest moving thing on earth made me reach for that door close when I saw someone struggling to open the front door. At my new apartment the doors close dangerously fast on their own, so my input will not be as necessary, but I will continue my practice of not holding them.
Brendan Blom
I'm going to continue to eat chocolate virtually every day. And it will not always be the healthier dark kind. While we're on the topic, I will also continue to eat too many cookies and pastries and salty snacks, and to drink beer, wine, mixed drinks, and hard liquor of various kinds, whenever I feel like it, and without feeling guilty about it. Why? Because there are many more important things in life to stress about than trying to regulate the small amounts of pure pleasure we get each day.
Kelsa Staffa
Well, you know what? I'm not giving up anything, dammit. Brendan's right—we only have one life and I am going to enjoy it! That said, luckily I know when to cut things back for my own good—for example, I am going to the Dominican Republic in two weeks and have a belly approaching the size of John Candy's, so there will be no Pepsi, alcohol, or McDonalds until I get there. But I mean really, in the grand scheme of things, unless you're a Victoria's Secret model, who cares what you look like? Unless you're an Olympic athlete, who cares how nutritious your meals are? Yes, you need to be reasonable to stay in good health. But you certainly don't need to aspire to be on a professional level of anything, if you don't want to. So I'm keeping my wine habit, I'm keeping my chips habit, and I'm keeping my relatively sedentary lifestyle, thank you very much. Because in the end, happiness is what counts.
Lauren Cheal
Sleeping in. I truly love sleeping in, and I have decided to no longer feel bad when I do it (which is all the time). There is just nothing like sleeping until you wake up naturally, rested and preferably with a purring cat nearby. I have often felt bad for sleeping in, as if I am wasting some sort of potential for the day and myself. Surely these feelings come from the high stature we give to productivity and activity-which are fine goals, but we have gone too far with it. Now I see a greater truth. Sleeping in is the absolute best, and any time spent doing it is time extremely well-spent.
Tags: ask the writers, be better hollywood, death by chocolate, diet coke, eff you, faith, judgement is coming, legal stimulants, new years resolutions, sleeping in, smoking, snooze, swearing, television for the everlasting win, unresolutions, vices, we are a mean bunch, you are going to have to sprint to make it
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