"I took the most excellent hit..."

Well, the year is quickly coming to an end and it’s taking work productivity, Lynne Spears’s parenting books, and Paris Hilton’s bankroll along with it.

Reflecting on 2007, the hot items this year were smartphones and gaming consoles, particularly the iPhone and the Nintendo Wii. Both were difficult to get a hold of and anyone who was able to get one suddenly became very popular.

Getting these items sometimes required desperate and extreme measures. People waited in line for hours (some waited for days) to be one of the first few to obtain an iPhone. On the day of its release, the mayor of Philadelphia planned to wait in line all day for an iPhone until a passer-by asked him how he could spend his entire day in line when his city boasted one of the nation’s highest murder rates.

A father found out how much demand there was for the Wii and its games when he put his son’s Guitar Hero III up for sale to punish him for smoking pot, and unexpectedly sold it for over $9000 on an online auction. The Wii wasn't the only console in high demand, though. Desperate to get his hands on a PlayStation 3, an employee at EB Games stole one from his own store and stuffed the box with a phonebook in its place.

So what do we have to look forward to in 2008? There will undoubtedly be more tech toys that everyone will want to get their hands on, but technological advances aren’t just going to be seen in gaming consoles and phones. In fact, it’s moving to game shows, where technology will be giving American Gladiators a 21st century facelift and I couldn’t be more giddy about it.



Although the events have been modified and the gladiators are bigger and more athletic (likely thanks to the same decade of steroids that Major League Baseball and the WWE has experienced), I don’t know if they can ever live up to the original events and gladiators. These updates might be a downgrade. After all, this is what it has to compete with:



While the writers strike marches on and new episodes of TV shows like The Office and Grey’s Anatomy have come to an abrupt halt, we must turn to unscripted television for our entertainment these days. Sometimes, though, the funniest things can’t be written:



As you're out partying next week and making your resolutions, GURU wishes you a safe New Years and, in the words of my favorite original American Gladiator, Malibu, have an "excellent" 2008. "Sweeeet!"