My cousin, Richard, is NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondant, and he lives an incredible life report the news from the Middle East. Occasionally, our family is lucky enough to have him back stateside. The other benefit is that he tends to do the talk show circuit, and here is his appearance from last night’s Colbert Report.

While I’ve been working hard to improve the quality and quantity of this site, I wanted to make a plug for my other venture, Brickd.com. Brickd is a blog that features the best designed Lego creations that I dig up from around the web. It is a simple photo-blog, and I update it several times a day.

And so, my dear readers, I implore you to please visit the site and tell any and all of your Lego-loving fans.

I’m excited to introduce my latest web project: brickd.com. Brickd is a simple photoblog with the best Lego design work from around the web. I’ve found myself getting back into Lego building recently, and wanted to share some of the most impressive custom work that other builders create.

Please be sure to check out the site, subscribe to the RSS, follow Brickd on Twitter, and tell your friends.

If you were wondering why the blog was silent last week, it was because I was on a family trip to Paris.  I’ve been several times before, so it gave me the freedom to spend this trip exploring and discovering while keeping the tourist tasks to a minimum. We managed to be there for “Music Night”, which was an amazing night of revelry as the entire city poured into the streets and partied incredibly hard. It was also a blast getting to be in Europe during the World Cup and see what gigantic deal it is.

Paris never fails to disappoint, and the collision of history, fashion, youth, and amazing food gives the city a vibrancy you can’t find anywhere else in the world. Check out these pictures to see some of the visual highlights of the vacation.

My old college roommate, Ted, tied the knot this weekend to his most amazing lady, Andrea. They had wonderful ceremony with plenty of geek references (it was described as a “Magical Gathering”) held by the beach in Malibu. It was a blast getting to celebrate such a special occasion with so many friends, and here are some pictures from the day.