At the culmination of last year's year in review, I told 2008 that I was 'glad to meet her acquaintance.' I take it back. What a jerk she turned out to be.

Music

Album sales continue to plummet while digital downloads continue to rise. iTunes reached one billion sales for the first time ever and vinyl records had its biggest year (1.88 million units) since the Nielsen SoundScan began tracking album sales in 1991.

Rage Against the Machine made waves at the 2008 Republican National Convention, solidifying them as the most prolific political band of my generation.

Chinese Democracy, the first Guns N' Roses album in 17 years, was finally released after years of speculation.

Britney Spears has seemed to turn it around, making us forget that she went completely psycho.

Columbia University graduates Vampire Weekend burst into the mainstream seemingly out of nowhere, and aren't going anywhere.

Politics

The United States of America made history this year by electing its first black President, Barack Obama.

Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich cast a dark cloud over his home state just as they were reveling in the victory of Barack Obama.

Politics and pop culture become one.

The GOP's choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate proves that nobody in the Continental United States has any clue about what goes on in Alaska.

The Al Franken/Norm Coleman Senate race in Minnesota Senate race still isn't over.

Sports

Our hometown Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series this year, breaking a 25 year championship hiatus in Philadelphia. There were bigger sports stories this year, but not in my house.

Sports Illustrated named 2008 the Best Year Ever. I'll leave it at that.

Film

Like last year, I didn't get to the movies too much this year. I did see a few, however.

2008 marked the year that I saw my all-time favorite movie, In Bruges.

Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight deserves an Oscar, regardless of what anyone says.

Wall-E will go down in history as the best animated film to ever grace the silver screen.

Television

AMC's Mad Men officially replaces The Sopranos as television's best show.

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow became cable television's new media darling.

Elvis Costello's new show on Sundance, Spectacle, proves that rock n' roll is intelligent.

The Office continues to be network television's best comedy, while The Colbert Report, in my view, surpassed The Daily Show.

Technology

Google continued its quest to take over the world in 2008, providing us with interesting yet frightening new technologies what seems like on a weekly basis.

Unique visitors to Facebook have skyrocketed since September 2007 (up 116%), making it the top social networking site and second to Blogger as the top social media site. With numbers like that, it won't last long.

Apple reached its goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008 by October while setting record profits. PC sales, especially Dells, continue to stall.

Books

Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series continued to dominate the market this year, claiming four of the top five spots in USA Today's top 150 best sellers for the final week of 2008. The other? J.K Rowling's Tales of the Beedle Bard.

The most interesting book I read this year was Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's My Stroke of Insight.

Next on my list is Malcolm Gladwell's latest, Outliers: The Story of Success.

Business

Ouch. I don't even want to discuss it.

2009...can it actually be worse than 2008? Let's hope not.