With 2008 behind us I thought I'd browse my library and see which releases stood out from the crowd last year. The list may seem a bit long, but considering the fact that I added more than 300 artists to my collection - it's fairly whittled down.

* Meiko - Meiko
* Liam Finn - I'll Be Lightning
* Jeremy Messersmith - The Silver City
* Serge Severe - Concrete Techniques
* Flobots - Fight With Tools
* Robyn - Robyn
* Don Cavalli - Cryland
* Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
* Jacob Golden - Revenge Song
* Brightblack Morning Light - Motion To Rejoin
* The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing
* Santogold - Santogold
* Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
* Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
* The Fireman - Electric Arguments
* Ben Sollee - Learning To Bend
* Estelle - Shine
* Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
* These United States - Crimes
* Plus/Minus - X's On Your Eyes
* The Welcome Wagon - The Welcome Wagon
* Beach House - Devotion
* The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
* The Moondoggies - Don't Be A Stranger
* The Seedy Seeds - Count The Days
* Paddy Casey - Addicted To Company. Pt. 1
* Amanda Palmer - Who Killed Amanda Palmer
* A Fine Frenzy - One Cell In The Sea
* The Watson Twins - Fire Songs
* Rootz Underground - Movement
* Ani DiFranco - Red Letter Year
* The Punch Brothers - Punch
* Cold Play - Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
* The Weepies - Hideaway
* The Virgins - The Virgins
* Janelle Monae - Metropolis: The Chase Suite
* Pictures & Sound - Pictures & Sound
* Benji Hughes - A Love Extreme
* Frances - All The While

The majority of visitors to my site tend to be family, friends or folks searching for information on using a Macbook as a home entertainment media center. It's been about a year since I deployed my Macbook - so I figured an update to my original post was in order.

* I finally broke down and bought a big-screen TV. I'd been planning to purchase a 42-inch unit, but ended up finding a good deal on an even larger 47" Vizio unit at Costco. To take advantage of the TV's plethora of HDMI inputs - I'm using a mini-DVI/DVI converter and DVI/HDMI cable to pump full 1080P video from the laptop to the TV. The image quality is simply stunning.

* My wife and I purchased a pair of 3G iPhones. How does this fit into the equation? A lot. The Remote Buddy software I purchased allows us to use the iPhones to control just about every aspect of the machine from anywhere in the house. The free i.TV application gives us channel line-up information and access to our Netflix DVD and streaming queues. And the Air Sharing app lets me transfer media from the Macbook to the iPhone wirelessly.

* Speaking of Netflix - up until just a few weeks ago there was no Mac support for the Nextflix streaming service. To remedy this - we purchased the Roku Netflix Player. I guess I could have waited and saved $100, but it's not a total loss. The Roku is super small, completely silent and soon enough will support HD streaming and (rumor has it) other streaming services like Hulu and Youtube.

* The addition of the iPhones has forced me to dive head long into the world of iTunes. I'm still not a fan. The application is bloated in size, but thin on features - a very bad combination. Oh well, at least the switch to iTunes has reduced the number of applications I need. I'm no longer using Max for ripping or Cog for playing.

* To be honest - I don't really use iTunes that much on the Macbook since most of my media management is done on my desktop PC. Instead, I access my massive music collection on the Macbook using Lala. I'm a long time user and huge fan of this free online music service. I have the majority of my music uploaded to their servers and can now access it from any Internet enabled computer - including the Macbook.

* In my last post I mentioned that I choose MPlayer instead of VLC, but the most recent release of VLC has won me over and I've made the switch back.

* Handbrake is still just about the best thing ever invented. Go download your free copy now.

* My EyeTV 250 Plus TV tuner is still working great. In fact, the several software releases issued over the past year have fixed a number of bugs and made the device a lot more reliable. I highly recommend this device, but make sure you buy the 2008 version. It supports HDTV signals over unencrypted cable - where as my 2007 model will only support HDTV signal over the antenna.

* The 10.5.4 Leopard upgrade finally fixed the nasty DVD Player bug that I, and others, were encountering. To be honest - I'm shocked it took Apple so long to fix this issue. Oh well, I'm just happy it's finally working.

* Oh, and as I predicted in my first post - the VCR is now gone and I haven't missed it at all.

DJ Earworm is back with another mash-up of the top 25 singles of 2008.

* Flo Rida Featuring T-Pain - Low
* Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
* Alicia Keys - No One
* Lil Wayne Featuring Static Major - Lollipop
* Timbaland Featuring OneRepublic - Apologize
* Jordin Sparks Duet With Chris Brown - No Air
* Sara Bareilles - Love Song
* Usher Featuring Young Jeezy - Love in This Club
* Chris Brown - With You
* Chris Brown - Forever
* Ray J & Yung Berg - Sexy Can I
* Rihanna - Take a Bow
* Coldplay - Viva La Vida
* Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
* T.I. - Whatever You Like
* Rihanna - Disturbia
* Rihanna - Don't Stop the Music
* Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful of Sunshine
* Chris Brown Featuring T-Pain - Kiss Kiss
* Ne-Yo - Closer
* Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
* Mariah Carey - Touch My Body
* Madonna Featuring Justin Timberlake - 4 Minutes
* Pink - So What
* Finger Eleven - Paralyzer

P.S. These songs are catchy enough, but I only own two of these albums (yet).

Well isn't this cute? My mother and I bought each other the same Christmas gift - Paul McCartney's newest release.

Ben covering John Lennon's provocative anthem.

It's interesting to see that Yoko Ono herself was moved to post a comment to the video.

I think my life is now complete. :)

Ozzy Osbourne - yet another idiot that amuses me.

I've got a love/hate/love thing for Kanye. He's an idiot, but I dig his flow.