Interesting perspective on the current economic situation

This is, of course, a very partisan view of things, but offers an interesting perspective (that you probably won't see reported in the news... at least not on CNN) on the chain of events that got us to where we are today in our economy.

Click here if you can't see the embedded video below.

On the eve of the commencement of my thirtieth year...

(or the night before my 29th birthday), I have much to ponder, but that's probably not a whole lot different than normal. (I tend to over think things, the curse of an engineer's mind.)  While my 29th birthday is tomorrow, I've recently been more focused on my 30th birthday.  Some might say that your birthday is just another day (I've actually said it before too) or that a 30th birthday is just another birthday, but ticking off those days, months, years, decades is important and offers an opportunity to reflect on the past, present and future.  They represent milestones in our lives and should be remembered and celebrated.

An old envelope

I recently found a sealed envelope from 9 December 1993 as I was going through old papers.  I wasn't supposed to open it until 2004 so I guess I was a little late.  Inside was three sheets with a bunch of questions to find out the "Details of the Life and Times of Mike Clement".  It appears to have been part of some long forgotten early-morning Seminary class activity.

Some things remain the same:

• "My favorite color is: blue" which you can tell by my closet.
• "When I have nothing to do, I like thinking about: what I will do when I'm older" which is evidenced by this post.
• "The subject I enjoy most in school is: Orchestra or Art" which I wish I had more time to work on now.

Some things change as I, at the time, thought I'd major in "music or art".  That said, I also indicated when asked "What would you like your future posterity to understand about you at this point in your life?" I wrote "I'm indecisive about which career to pursue.  My life is sort of on a road coming to a crossroads."  A somewhat grand statement for a freshman in high school, but this was actually written shortly before I started really getting into computer programming which would go on to be my career and one of my passions.

When I'm thirty...

Number 17 was "When I am 30 yrs old, I hope to" to which I answered "be married, have kids and have a lot of money."  I've got the first two with a wonderful wife, two crazy and adorable boys and a baby on the way.  I guess I have a year to work on the third item :)

So what's next?  The hours turn to days turn to months turn to years so easily without taking inventory of where you are and where you want to be.  I've been writing and rewriting a list of goals in my head for a few months now, in particular a "before I'm 30" list.  I think I haven't put it in writing yet because I'm not sure I really want to commit to everything I want to do (a fear of failure).  In the meantime I feel like I've been drifting a bit.  I did accomplish one of the things I've had bouncing around which was to start a technical blog, but have neglected many other things and haven't even been very good about writing on that blog as I would have liked.  That said, I plan to use my birthday as an opportunity to write down a list of goals to get started on.  Some will be private goals, but some I will make public here to help me via peer pressure.  So look for a follow up post soon!

July Photos

Finished posting July photos. Here's a slideshow:

Some highlights include...

Super Alex

 

A trip to the planetarium

First ultrasound

 

Grandpa and Grandma Clement visiting

 

And the arrival of the Wii.

As usual, here is a link to the entire album!

July 2008

If you hadn't heard...

Clement baby number 3 is due February 22nd.  Gender coming soon...

A Very Dark Knight

Jennifer wanted to finish up Breaking Dawn tonight so I went to see The Dark Knight.  We tried to go see it two weeks ago but the showing we were going to was sold out when we got there about a half hour before the show.

About all I can say for the movie is "wow".  It captured pretty much everything I love about Batman, especially the Batman/Bruce Wayne struggle and the Batman/Joker relationship.

I highly recommend it, but it's pretty intense and dark the whole way through and some parts are a little bit disturbing so it's not for everyone (one review I heard said "Only see it if you can drive yourself there"), but I thought it was really well done.