One of my favorite nerdy women would be Amy Sedaris. I admire her because she simply does her thing, is good at it, and she is funny. And, she is a DIY queen – have you seen her craft books? Like me, Amy also has pet rabbits, loves vintage and collects Blythe dolls, too. Here’s the picture I submitted for a Blythe “Heroes” contest. I made my Blythe doll pose like Amy Sedaris from her book, I LIKE YOU.

These days you don’t want anything to go to waste!

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From Missy: 

“I took the wind from the sea
I took the blood from an arrow
I took the wisdom of spring”

These are lyrics to my favorite song by the singer Laura Marling. This song was the inspiration for my Loved Letter Envelope Locket.

My Loved Letter Envelope Locket is made from a vintage envelope charm. Tucked away inside this charm is a miniature original drawing of an arrow on one side, and a heart on the other. This is drawn on heavy watercolor paper that is dyed with tea to give it a weathered look. Each charm is unique, so expect variations on the envelope locket, as it has a lovely copper patina.

The envelope locket measures about 1 inch wide and about .75 inches tall when closed. The envelope is attached to a chain that is 18 inches in length and has a lobster claw clasp closure.

Once again most of our bloggers are resolving to lose weight and hit writing goals this year — we’re kind of predictable in that way. However, maybe because of the continued recession or the fact that we’re getting older, almost all of the resolutions seem a bit more practical this year — except for Sarah Fazeli’s. Actually, I think that’s why I like Sarah Fazeli’s resolution best of all. 

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, … AND LOSE WEIGHT

My resolution last year was to “change my eating habits for the better.” I did that, and even though it took me till the last few months to do so, I have managed to not only succeed, but also to drop 30 pounds in the process. My resolution for 2012: to stick with my gym habits and keep working out till I reach my goal. If I stick to it like I have over the last few months, I will be healthier and more fit than I have ever been in my whole life.

Zack Bunker from Tall Glass of Shame and Runway Rundown

Lose 25 pounds.  In 2011 I think I gained 25 pounds.  So I am looking to go back to 2010 basically.
Patrick Connolly from Piping Hot Nerd: Adventures of a Bagpiper Mastering Manhattan

My 2011 resolutions were: keep my job, lose weight, finish novel. I did all of those things: kept the job until they fired all of us, lost weight and then gained half of it back, and yes, I finished the novel. This year the big resolution is to get paid to write, for the first time ever. The rest is always the same. Lose weight. Work. Be happy. All that. Goes without saying.
Gudrun Cram-Drach from Secret Life of an Expat

I think that for 2011 I resolved to be nicer to myself, and I think for the most part I have been pretty good at refraining from constant self-recrimination.  For 2012, I resolve to take better care of my health.  I’ll be thirty-five this year, and while a marathon is not my style, I’d like to maintain my recent healthy habits like walking and eating more veggies, and add some new ones in time.  Also, I’d like to be less angry.  I’m pretty sure it will kill me or incarcerate me if left untreated.
Roya Hamadani from Fierce Foodie

Since I didn’t make a resolution last year, I didn’t have to stick to one. It worked out really well. Can’t I just stick with that one for this year too? No? Ok, I resolute that I will lose 10 pounds (and gain it back, and lose it, and gain it back again, and, well… you get the picture).

Frankie V from Frankie Says…

I always keep my resolutions pretty simple and vague, as to make them easily achievable. So this year I will continue to “show them all”, “get even” , and “settle the score”… oh and lose ten to fifteen more pounds.

Sam the Sham from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, … AND WRITE! 

Maybe this is how it goes when you have kids – your New Years resolutions become lifetime resolutions.  Maybe I’ll get last years done this year, maybe I won’t, but I can certainly start.  Keep working on my scripts.  Shoot a microbudget feature film.  Plug away at the self indulgent novel that I know at least 5 people want to read.  Find a good day care for my sprouting child.  Run a 5K in under 30 minutes.  See my friends more.  Score a goal.  Surf.  Dunk.  Get a dog.  Buy a house, if only to no longer be president of the HOA.  Too many?  Too few?  Too early to start now?
Josh Pullin from Stay-at-Home Dad

The one thing I didn’t get around to is finishing my memoir THE YEAR THAT SUCKED. So, that’s what I’ll do in 2011. Really. Honest. I just took a memoir intensive course and ventured into a writing partnership for just that purpose. Plus, if I don’t finish it this year, then I’ll have to face up to you guys next year. I don’t wanna do that. Oh and I need to lose 20 lbs before our big 10th Anniversary party in June.

Amy Robinson, Blogumnist Editor and writer of Tall Drink of Nerd

So the 2011 goals – Overall grade: C-

• Write one new novel, one new screenplay, and shoot one short film. Check on the novel. CHeck on the screenplay. Fail on the short film.
• Volunteer two days per month. Total fail. I tried to assuage my guilt by over-donating to my regular charities. While they were happy, I’m still faced with the knowledge I didn’t get out into the real world and help others.
• Limit news/political intake to 15 minutes per day. This probably wound up being about right. But only because there were days when I was on a complete media blackout and other days where I didn’t stop reading HuffPo. Providing that it’s possible to fail through success.

2012 Goals:

• Be better. In general and specifically.
• Volunteer once a month.
• Write ten pages per day, every weekday.

R. B. Ripley from Hyperbolic Tendencies

THE RESOLUTIONS THAT (GASP!) DON’T INVOLVE WRITING OR WEIGHT LOSS

I will finally do that burlesque show I’ve been talking about since 2009. There. Now I’m on the record! I’ll be the one in a wig and glitter. Get out your tassles, Frances!

Sarah Fazeli from Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered

Less moping, more hoping!  (which is kind of ambitious for an election year) (and seems like a more succinct iteration of last year’s resolution) (so we’ll see how it goes)

Michael Kass from Single White Nerd

My 2012 resolution is to try and be more organized. Things really get messy cos I am working on lots of things at once, and I love to multi-task. You do not want to see my craft room, trust me. My resolution for 2011 was better penmanship. I started out good, and sometimes I take my time writing my name when I sign a check, but I feel I have slipped up again. My writing is not so neat lately. I need to slow down and take my time.

Missy Kulik from Dork Lifesyle

Finally get around to watching BREAKING BAD. I know. I know [dodges boot] I’ll get to it. Geez. I got around to quitting smoking in 2011, I’ll get around to more important things like watching a television show in 2012.

Joshua Mauldin from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

I think I wrote about keeping your resolutions to yourself, but what the heck. Last year I vowed to try to run a half-marathon. I did that in October, and felt really good about it, but I know there’s more in the tank. This year, I’m doing a full 26.2 miles. Pittsburgh Marathon. May 6. I’m already registered, so there’s no backing out now (and no reason to keep it to myself).

Joe Rusin from On the Contrary

Last year I resolved to do better with anger management. It didn’t really go so well, but it’s not really my fault since the rest of the world didn’t live up to their resolution to STOP PISSING ME OFF.  So this year, I’m just gonna try and keep my DVR above 50% and make more gratuitous and obscure musical theatre references. God, I hope you get them.

Eric Sims from California Seething

Travel more?  My 2011 Resolution was to travel and i didn’t do any of it, because I was so busy. So I guess 2012, Im freaking going somewhere. Even if it’s Dallas. Ok, not Dallas, but somewhere.

Matt Udvari from Gamer by Design

THE REBEL OR JUST FORGETFUL NON-RESOLUTERS

I don’t do this.
CH from CH’s Picture of the Day

To remember my 2011 resolution and accomplish it.
Ryan Dixon, FIERCE ANTICIPATION editor and writer of The Ryan Dixon Line

ONCE UPON A TIME, AMERICAN HORROR STORY, PAN AM and gasp! NEW GIRL all made both the Best of and Worst of lists. The bigger surprise, however, is how many cable shows ended up in the Worse of, which in the past might as well have been called a “worst broadcast and reality shows of the year” list. However, in 2011, many of us were disappointed by what were supposed to be the quality shows. Especially…

THE WALKING DEAD 

THE WALKING DEAD. I so didn’t care what happened to that little girl after she wandered off… After two episodes I was already sick of hearing about her, so dragging the storyline out to the mid-season finale (whatever the hell that is) really annoyed me. All the fun of the first season’s constant change was replaced with pregnancy tests and a big boring farm housing a barn full of zombies. I know i’ll tune back in when they resume episodes in February, but if they don’t pick up the pace soon I’m going to tune out. I have been reading the graphic novel it is based on, and boy don’t I wish they did it better justice. Now I see what all you fanboy purists were bitching about after episode 3 last year.
Zack Bunker from Tall Glass of Shame and Runway Rundown

For the second year in a row, I’m giving Worst of honors to THE BORING WALKING DEAD. Last year, it felt like I spent an entire season waiting for this show to live up to the promise of its series opener, only to be disappointed by the season finale. This year, I spent the entire season just waiting for something to happen, only to be a little bit pleasantly surprised by its last two episodes. That time-spent math is so bad. Sadly, I feel compelled to keep watching, because the show has promised that Michionne (one of the most badass black women in comic history) will be introduced in season, and I’m hoping that even this show’s writing staff won’t be able to figure out how to render her completely boring.

Ernessa from Fierce and Nerdy

THE WALKING DEAD. I want to love it.I try and try, but it just keeps disappointing.

CH from CH’s Picture of the Day

MORE NON-QUALITY CABLE

Pfff I don’t know. HUNG has lost its appeal, but I couldn’t say why. And the last episode of ENTOURAGE was pretty terrible. I hope there’s an Ari spinoff where he turns into an a-hole again.

Gudrun Cram-Drach from Secret Life of an Expat

 
The second half of AMERICAN HORROR STORY. It’s not that hard to engross viewers in a mystery, it’s damn near-impossible to pay off that mystery in a satisfying way [see Dexter Season One]. Once the writers started to reveal the secrets (I had a bad feeling when they note-for-note copied the Columbine incident for a character’s exposition) the show went downhill fast.

Joshua Mauldin from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

PAN AM was a total plane wreck. A wanna be that never got off the ground.
Patrick Connolly from Piping Hot Nerd: Adventures of a Bagpiper Mastering Manhattan

It’s sad how far  GLEE has fallen. It was my favorite show in its dazzling, unmarred first season. Now its a crapshoot if its even watchable week to week. Inconsistent much? Also, anything with “Real” and “Housewives” in the title.

Sarah Fazeli from Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered
 
The GOP debates- or as they are known on Bravo- The Real Nutbags of the American Right. They are like one long infomercial for Obama’s reelection. Also, GLEE. Is this what teen entertainment has been reduced to? John Hughes must be rolling in his grave. I ought to track down the writers of GLEE and duct-tape their butt-cheeks together. Saturday detention would be totally worth it.

Eric Sims from California Seething

Sadly, I must say SUPERNATURAL has been deeply disappointing since the whole “Cass is the new God and not a very good one” plot line.  Woe is me!

Roya Hamadani from Fierce Foodie

GRIMM.  I don’t understand why people like this show.
Michael Kass from Single White Nerd

PARENTHOOD.  An over-dramatization of an already overly dramatic experience.  None for me, thanks.

Josh Pullin from Stay-at-Home Dad

I’m not sure I have the right to say this, since I only watched about 7 minutes of it – but it was that bad that I had to turn it off. TWO BROKE GIRLS was so annoyingly stupid for the 7 minutes that I watched it, that all I could keep thinking was, “Wow, Kat Denning’s got big boobs, and a nice ‘real-girl figure’…”

Frankie V from Frankie Says…

NEW GIRL. Zooey, STOP IT. You’re adorable. I get that, America gets that. You don’t need to do this… Let’s stop this charade… call me.

Sam the Sham from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

 DISAPPOINTING REALITY

SUPER BOWL XLV – Green Bay Packers 31 – Pittsburgh Steelers 25. Enough said.

Ryan Dixon, FIERCE ANTICIPATION editor and writer of The Ryan Dixon Line

WE THE PEOPLE with Gloria Alred.  Why does she have a court show?  I hope everyone understands that this show is 100% fake.  These are actors doing re-enactments of old court cases.  It’s from Entertainment Studios, the same people behind AMERICA’S COURT with Judge Ross, which is also fake.  And don’t get me started on the sub-par production values.  My high school AV department could crank out a better show than this.

Jersey Joe from Kicking Back with Jersey Joe

LADY HOGGERS - I mean, WHY???

Missy Kulik from Dork Lifesyle

All Real Housewives shows. Why do I feel like I’m the only person who’s not entertained by manufactured conflict? It raises my blood pressure to watch 5 min of this thing.

Matt Udvari from Gamer by Design

Amy wasn’t the only one who will dearly miss this show. For the first time ever an already cancelled show is making an appearance on our Best of list. Also of note: a return of the scripted show. This is our most fictional Best of list yet. GAME OF THRONES, ONCE UPON A TIME, and AMERICAN HORROR STORY also received its share of love, but OUAT and AHS are just two of the shows that’ll also show up on tomorrow’s worst of list. What other dramas did we both love and hate? Come back tomorrow to find out. 

MORE DRAMA FOR YOUR MAMA

PRIME SUSPECT.  I suspect that this show, which has already been cancelled, may be brought back to prime time.  That Maria Bello is something else.

Josh Pullin from Stay-at-Home Dad
 
AMERICAN HORROR STORY. The best new show on television this season. It has all my favorite things: A wicked sense of humor, freaks, creepy plot twists, sex, bitchy gay ghosts, things that make you cringe and the most horrific neighbor you can imagine played brilliantly by Jessica Lange. (If she doesn’t win an Emmy I will eat my blogumn.) I haven’t enjoyed a show this much since Twin Peaks!
Zack Bunker from Tall Glass of Shame and Runway Rundown

The First Half of AMERICAN HORROR STORY. This show started out with a bang. A great mystery, macabre characters, creepiness at every turn. Jessica Lange chain smoking and chewing scenery. Tami Taylor sans drawl. What could go wrong?

Joshua Mauldin from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

I am going to say REVENGE even though I only saw one episode. I am busy trying to catch up with life on DVD.  Shame on me.  I work in television.

Patrick Connolly from Piping Hot Nerd: Adventures of a Bagpiper Mastering Manhattan

RINGER because an actress like Sarah Michelle Gellar should be on TV dammit.  Buffy will never die!

Roya Hamadani from Fierce Foodie

I can’t remember the last time a show took over my day-to-day imagination like the all-too-brief ten episodes of HBO’s GAME OF THRONES.

Ryan Dixon, FIERCE ANTICIPATION editor and writer of The Ryan Dixon Line
 
GAME OF THRONES. It was like a medieval fantasy version of THE WIRE with its multiple characters and story arcs (and willingness to kill off any character). There was a fair amount of sex and violence, but none of it gratuitous, since it all worked to move the story forward instead of being merely exploitive like the awful TRUE BLOOD. Plus, it’s gotten a lot of people (myself included) to read the books, to which so far the series has been remarkably faithful.

Joe Rusin from On the Contrary

ONCE UPON A TIME.  I don’t know why.  I really don’t.  But I kind of love it.

Michael Kass from Single White Nerd
 

ONCE UPON A TIME on ABC. Why didn’t I think of this show? Why didn’t I write it? Why am I not starring in it? I demand to know. It’s like someone took the way I think and made an hour-long drama out of it.

Sarah Fazeli from Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered
 

I don’t watcha  lot of TV except for Sunday AMC shows and stupid pawning shows that make me fall asleep at 12:30. So Im gonna have to default to the latest AMC show, HELL ON WHEELS. Otherwise known as “that train show with Common.”

Matt Udvari from Gamer by Design

DOWNTON ABBEY – I love the scenery, costumes, and the story. I love how it really transports me to another time.

Missy Kulik from Dork Lifesyle
 
I know it’s not groundbreaking, or mind-bending, or even that exciting, but something about PAN AM has me hooked. Those little blue dresses, jet setting around the world, opportunities to meet good-looking men in suits in a hotel lobby… some of my deepest fantasies are embedded in that show. I’m sure that’s what ABC was counting on with us 25-35 year olds.

Frankie V from Frankie Says…
 

*DEAD* 

HAPPY ENDINGS makes me laugh so hard. It’s a modern version of FRIENDS.

CH from CH’s Picture of the Day

I don’t know if it’s because if my friends Sallie Patrick and Delia Hauser had a baby, she would look exactly like Zooey Daschanal or because she’s just so darn awkwardly adorable in this show. But NEW GIRL is the only new show right now that I just have to watch every week and as close to its time slot as possible. I love her roommates and I just adore all the high jinks they get into. Couldn’t love this show more . Though, I also want to give shout-outs to the hilarious (and way better than FRIENDS) HAPPY ENDINGS (Damon Wayons Jr — who knew?), REVENGE, and ONCE UPON A TIME, which I’m enjoying despite that annoying-as-heck kid.

Ernessa from Fierce and Nerdy

NEW GIRL.  I jumped on the bandwagon late on this one, but I’m glad I did.  It’s nice to see a new sitcom back on television and Zooey Deschanel is hilarious. The show is funny, imaginative, and has great writing.  The laughs work and shouldn’t be missed!

Jersey Joe from Kicking Back with Jersey Joe
 
Comedy – UP ALL NIGHT (Fox). It’s the cast. I can’t get enough of Christina Applegate and the relationship she and Will Arnett (who is refreshingly un-schticky) is just fabulous. Maya Rudolph’s gravy. Drama – AWAKE on NBC. Just wait, you’ll see.

R. B. Ripley from Hyperbolic Tendencies

LOUIE. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I’m supposed to pick some piece of shit show that premiered in 2011 but, to quote the theme song, it’s “Louie, Louie, Louie, Louie.” When I watch Louie, I’m 24 again, laughing uncontrollably in the back of the Comedy Cellar watching a genius at work on a Tuesday night and begging the MC for a five minute spot in front of the six drunks left in the club at 11:30 PM (two of them are making out and one only speaks Hebrew) so I can try out my new Scrooge McDuck: Baby Raper bit. It’s a shitty, wonderful life being a comic and he nails it perfectly.

Eric Sims from California Seething

NON-FICTION GEMS 

CURIOSITY (on The Discovery Channel). I think the format of the show, coupled with the breadth of topics it covers keeps this show engaging to not just science nerds, but also anybody, as the title suggests, curious about a given topic. The Adam Savage episode particularly blew my mind, talking about technology extending human life well into the future.

Sam the Sham from FIERCE ANTICIPATION

MASTERCHEF FRANCE– LOVED IT! MASTERCHEF was great for my language studies. Here’s why: people bring their accents from all over the country, they talk normally so you hear lots of swearing and slang, you learn about French food, not just what’s done in the restaurant but what home chefs are capable of (for example, they don’t panic when faced with a dessert challenge, or octopus for that matter), you learn about French chefs, big shot visits every week for the final elimination challenge, and they go to cool places in France to do their challenges. They even went to New York City for one episode, which was disappointing because the challenge in cooking “American food” was to make a hamburger and cheesecake. Even the chefs are clueless about what we eat.

Gudrun Cram-Drach from Secret Life of an Expat