It’s time for my annual awards!  Here they are:

Best Music Album of 2008

Feel Good Ghosts — Cloud Cult

This is the first Cloud Cult album I heard.  I was tipped onto it by the song “When Water Comes to Life” when I heard it on KEXP.  After grabbing this album and really enjoying it (it takes a couple of listens to really get into it) I grabbed some of their older albums and wasn’t nearly as impressed.

This artist is pretty amazing as he and his wife had a child die a few years ago and their last 3 or 4 albums have been them dealing with this in the only way they know how…by writing music.  This album talks about “Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes” and has songs called “No One Said It Would Be Easy”, “The Ghost Inside Our House”, and “May Your Hearts Stay Strong”.  The lyrics are sad, but the music is happy.  You can tell that they are on the tail end of the grieving process.  It’s an amazing listen and I suggest that people read the lyrics along with the music.  They’re very powerful.

Runners Up

• Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends — Coldplay

A strong new Coldplay album came out this year.  While some songs are excellent, I found a few tracks fairly boring.  I thought they’d be a shoe-in this year, but the album was slightly disappointing.  Not to say I don’t enjoy it, because I do.  I just don’t think they did enough to take “Best Album” this year.

Best Book of 2008

The Appeal by John Grisham

This book made me mad.  It’s about a corporation rigging an election in order to elect a judge that they believed would rule in their favor.  It made me mad because of the feasibility of the events that took place in the book.  After reading it, you KNOW that things like this happen.  

Excellently written, as most Grisham books are.  I wasn’t a fan of the “Hollywood” ending, but I understand that he had to do it that way in order for the reader to find some satisfaction with the conclusion.  

Kudos, Mr. Grisham.  You’ve now written two books in a row that will make the reader mad at the judicial system in this country.  It appears that Mr. Grisham is now attempting to make people more aware of corruption through his talented story telling abilities.  

Runners Up

• The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman

I think this is the only other novel that I read this year that came out in 2008.  It was a fun story…not too deep and not the best written, but still a fun adventure about a guy who invented a time machine that can only take him forward in time.  He had some creative ideas about what the future looks like.

Best Movie of 2008

The Dark Knight

When’s the last time you sat down for over 2.5 hours without noticing how much time has passed?  It’s rare when that happens to me, but The Dark Knight gripped my interest from start to finish.  When that movie was over I felt like I had been holding my breath the entire time…I was exhausted! Amazing acting combined with an amazing script helped this movie easily steal the category.

Runners Up

• Cloverfield

A very original and creative movie.  I absolutely enjoyed it all the way through.  It’s very tense and keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time.  Very satisfying movie.

• Wall-E

An excellent Pixar movie…one of their best.

Best TV Series of 2008

Burn Notice

This is a very fun show.  It’s about an ex-CIA agent who got a “burn notice” which means all his identity’s got stripped and he was dumped in Miami.  As long as he doesn’t do anything stupid (try to find out why he got burned or try to leave Miami) they’ll let him life.

2008 saw the first half of season 2 and it’s been a very exciting one.  They took the episodic formula they developed during season 1 and fine tuned it, and then started twisting it around to keep it fresh.  

The show is somewhat serialized where he has an overarching goal for 3 or 4 episodes, but it’s just a sub-plot to whatever mission he took on for the current episode.  Usually he accepts missions (spy on somebody, rescue a kidnapped person, etc) for money to finance his overall mission of getting to the bottom of his burn notice.  We last left the show with a big cliffhanger, and Nicole and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Runners Up

• Psych

If you grew up in the 1980s, you’ll love this show. The actors are excellent and the references to 80s pop culture are priceless and have us laughing so hard, we usually end up needing to pause or rewind to recover.

• 30 Rock

A very clever show with an excellent cast.  The writing is excellent and the jokes are just flying at you full speed.  It’s been fun watching some of the character development they’ve been working on this season. 

Best Gadget of 2008

Macbook Pro

The impossible has happened.  I, a guy who grew up hating Macs, bought a Macbook Pro.  And it’s amazing!  

The Mac OS X operating system is far superior to Windows XP and Windows Vista.  But even if you prefer Windows XP, then I’d suggest that you still buy the Macbook Pro.  I purchased VMWare Fusion which allows me to run Windows inside OS X.  

I can go on and on about all the different features that I love about the Macbook Pro, but instead of doing that I’ll just say this:  If you’re in the market for a new computer…go Mac.  You won’t be disappointed.

Runners Up

• iPhone 3G

I upgraded to the new iPhone 3G this year and really like it.  More hard drive space, faster internet, and an integrated GPS makes it even more useful than the original.  Plus, the amazing App Store allows developers like me to easily build apps and distribute them to a large market for free.  I look forward to releasing an app to it next year.

• Canon Rebel

Nicole and I got this camera as a wedding present and the pictures that it takes are just amazing.  Swappable lenses, fast shutter speed, and numerous features makes it the best camera I’ve ever owned, by far.

Best Video Game of 2008

Spore

We’ve waited a long time for this one and it…well…it did disappoint.  But I still give it best game of the year due to the ground it broke.  Just wait for the next few games to follow along behind it.  It set the ball in motion for more integrated social networking in a video game as well as mixing genres of many types of games.  The creators bundled with the game were an amazing technological feat as well.  

Runners Up

• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Blizzard does it again.  How can they keep an MMO alive that’s so old?  By telling such great stories.  I’m only a few hours into this game, but it’s been a nice change from the old one which burned me out from all the repetition.

•  Call of Duty 5

I’m sure I’d vote this game as the top one of the year if I had played it.  It sounds amazing.

Best Thing I “Discovered” in 2008 That’s Been Around for a Long Time

Marriage

What can I say?  I’m a big fan.  :)  Knowing that I’ll be spending the rest of my life with my wife makes me so very happy.  Nothing can top that feeling.

Runners Up

• Dave Ramsey

A few friends tipped me onto Dave Ramsey this year.  After reading his book and listening daily to his podcast, Nicole and I decided to change our spending and saving habits.  What this man teaches has changed our entire perspective of money and wealth.  I believe that what he teaches can help you in whatever stage of life you’re in:  whether you’re deep in debt, just barely making ends meet, or thriving in an abundance of money.

Best Event of 2008

May 17, 2008 — Wedding of Ryan & Nicole Barnard

This day is to forever be the best day of my life.  I’m sure that a child’s birth will come pretty dang close…but I don’t know how anything can top how I felt during this event.  Thank you to everybody who was able to make it, and to everybody who supported us during the planning stages.

Runners Up

• May 18 - June 11, 2008 — Honeymoon

Nicole and I spent about 3 wonderful weeks in Italy.  It was such a great way to start off our marriage.  

• July 16, 2008 — Leyla’s Birthday

I’m an uncle!  Leyla is my adorable niece, born to my sister Jessi and her husband Rick.  Congratulations, you guys!