First was the barrage of “Hail to the Gates!” articles I came across on Gizmodo.  Today, of course, marks the day of retirement for the Microsoft founder.  Though he is a lot less hip than Steve Jobs and has led a company whose products were just not as cool, you gotta give props to a guy that puts his fortune towards the world.  This is the parable of the 58 billion talents.  Though, if I were him, I would not name the foundation after myself…

Then there was this great article I came across about Legos!  Of course, some people know I have a childhood love for Legos.  But check out a few of these random tidbits from this article:

• Why is there a hole in the head of the mini-figs now? We added this hole on the top of the head just in case any kids got one of the heads stuck on their throat. That way they would be able to keep breathing.
• Why there are no black minifigs? When the minifigure was first introduced 30 years ago, it was given the iconic yellow skin tone to reflect the non-specific and transcendental quality of a child’s imagination. In 2002, as more licensed properties were added to the assortment, the decision was made to introduce ethnic and skin tones more in keeping with the actual characters and personalities who were being replicated. This included the introduction of black minifigures. However, these ethnic minifigures are only used in our licensed sets, all Lego playthemes continue to use the generic yellow face.
• What happens to all the bad pieces? Is there a Lego heaven? Do they recycle them? Due to the precision of the brick molding machines, there are very few “bad” pieces—only 18 elements in every million produced fail to meet the company’s high standards. Extra pieces or pieces from boxes that are caught on the line and identified as missing pieces or have boxes that are slightly damaged are used for donation boxes that are distributed to underprivileged children’s organizations around the world.

But finally I came across a great article that fell closer to my heart than technology or Legos.  It was written by a man named Jim Wallis, the president of Sojourners, a magazine with a mission “to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.”  His article was about the North Campus of New York Theological Seminary located in the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York.  Yes, in prison.  The article and some of the feedback he received is quite inspiring.  It gives a new meaning to “setting the captives free.”  About 70 inmates were getting a full seminary education while in jail.  One prisoner told Jim Wallis,

“Jim, most of us at Sing Sing come from just about four or five neighborhoods in New York City. It’s like a train. You get on the train in my neighborhood when you are nine or ten years old, and the train ends up here….at Sing Sing.” But this young man had experienced a spiritual conversion inside of that prison, and was now enrolled in the New York Seminary program training pastors to work inside the prison system and to go back and work in those neighborhoods from which they had come. After the session that night, the young man came up to me to say goodbye, looked me in the eye, and said, “When I get out, I am going to go back and stop that train.”

This is the message of the gospel: that lives enraptured by God may burst with a contagious hope to impact this world.

Growing up, I loved playing with Lego’s.  Perhaps it was because of their incredibly cool inter-locking ability or the endless possible end products or the fact that you can build and take it apart again and again.  Whatever it is, this engineer-in-da-makin was in love with them.  As a grew older, Lego’s really fell by the wayside — no more did I play with them.

Fast forward a few decades when I am dating Betty.  On our first trip to San Diego together, we took Erin and Lindsay (two adorable daughters of our good friends Dalon and Eva) to Legoland:

Legoland is great fun, but it must be experienced with the eyes of a child.  That’s what we did.  I think that trip sparked my interests in Legos once more.  When we got engaged a few months later, I decided to begin my search for the ultimate Lego cake topper.  But no such item was commercially available.  How would I relive my childhood on such a pivotal day of my adult life?  I did what I always do — Google.  Through the process, I came across this great website of a couple who designed their own Lego save-the-dates.  So, I basically did the same thing they did.

1. I designed the Lego cake-topper with Lego CAD:
   
2. Then, I ordered each individual part on Bricklink, effectively an eBay for Lego pieces.
    
3. Finally, I assembled the parts with superglue, including the dress that Betty made for herself using parts of her actual dress and veil (she got scraps from her dress from the tailoring done).