Melyssa-with-a-Y

Did I happen to mention that the USPS is going to issue Star Wars stamps later this year? They have a sheet of different options, including Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, C-3PO, and others. You can go check out the options for the stamps (and vote for your favorite, for another few weeks) here . Apparently the Leia and R2-D2 stamp is getting a lot of votes. I think I'd like the Han Solo one more if it were a better likeness of Harrison Ford. ;) In the meantime, they have created R2-D2 mailboxes and placed 400 them around the country. (I have yet to see one, but maybe they've posted a location list someplace...) So you knew this was going to happen. Classic! What I really want is one of those mailboxes. How many of them do you think will get stolen? (yes, it's a Federal offense, but really... people are stupid, and we all know how nutty Star Wars fans are!) Oh, and incidentally, postage rates are going up again this month! Better go out now and buy some 2-centers (Mo...

I don't even know how to begin. Today I learned that one of my favorite professors from Business School passed away last month. Nothing I can say here would do justice to what a great man he was, or how strong he must have been to keep teaching through all of his (apparently ineffective) treatments, and even get to tenure at UMD a few years ago. Josh Newberg suffered from treatment-resistant depression. None of his students ever knew this about him, however, because he always showed amazing enthusiasm and a willingness to help us learn - I think he'd have taught us everything in his packed brain if he could have! "Law and Technology Policy" was my favorite class of my second year -- and as far as I know, this was the last time the class was taught (at least by Josh). We talked about everything from the creative commons to the Microsoft anti-trust suit to Napster. I had to give a presentation on Napster and how it violated copyright laws. I wrote a term paper on the co...

Why can't people just change the channel if there's something they don't like on tv? The FCC, in yet another maneuver to control EVERYTHING we see and hear, has recommended to Congress that the government be allowed to regulate television violence -- even on PAY CABLE channels! According to the WaPo : The report -- commissioned by members of Congress in 2004 and based on hundreds of comments from parents, industry officials, academic experts and others -- concludes that Congress has the authority to regulate "excessive violence" and to extend its reach for the first time into basic-cable TV channels that consumers pay to receive. Seriously? Almost every television these days comes with a little thing called a remote. If you don't like what's on, you don't have to watch it! It's called free will! Whatever happened to parental responsibility? Why should the government have anything to say about what's on, particularly on pay channels? If you...

On Friday, Mom & Dad Fratkin, along with "Uncle" Norman, arrived in Austin. We tried to have lunch at Enoteca Vespaio on South Congress, but Dad & Norman were running a little late on the trek from Houston (too many antique stops, I suppose)... so Mom & I had lunch at the South Congress Cafe instead. Very tasty. I took Mom to see my new office in the afternoon, and she needed to chat with some of my co-workers. We went from there to the gym, where Tina kicked my a** (mostly because I hadn't been to the gym since Monday!) and mom got a quick massage. After we cleaned up, Norman used his little Garmin nuvi to find my house, and I gave them a quick tour. [You'd think mom had never seen a car navigation system before... she was enthralled!] Dad apparently approved of my house.... he even checked out the duplex that's for sale across the street. Dinner on Friday was at Castle Hill , one of Norman's favorites -- and now I know why! He had the Voodoo ...

E is a good guy. He's funny (as long as you like sarcasm), bright, and a mensch. He knows more about Tiger Woods than I would ever have thought necessary. He's a BoSox fan and a Cowboys fan ( ICK! BLECH !), and a good father. And he looooves cheesy 70's music. He was put through the ringer by a nasty divorce, and is on his way to healing. What E needs more than anything else is a friend. After talking to him for a month, I realized how much I miss my guy friends. In my late 20's I spent a lot of time hanging out with some amazing guys, but haven't spoken to many of them in a while -- either because they went off and got married, I moved, or we drifted apart. [some of those I'm working on 'finding' again.] I miss going to baseball games, trying new restaurants, flirting even though we knew nothing would ever come of it, and just hanging out. I have worked hard to keep up with a few of you ( you know who you are ), and always smile when an email ...

Or rather, "if you like honey, put your cell phone away." Researchers in the UK have recently determined that whole colonies of bees are dying out because of electro-magnetic interference from cell phones. Alarmingly, this situation has already presented itself in the US: The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast. No wonder honey is so expensive! But that's not all we need bees for, of course: The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left". The thing that the article fails to answer, however, is how we go about fixing this disaster. Keep cell phones away from bee colonies? Certainly. Stop using them altogether? Not likely. UPDATE: U...

I spent Monday-Wednesday of last week in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for a conference. It's a cute, small town, and a gorgeous resort hotel . I posted my photos here . I had a few minutes to roam around on Monday afternoon before the meeting officially started, and wouldn't yo u know it, I found a yarn shop! [I broke down and bought some sock yarn, but I haven't figured out what pattern to use with it.] In the meantime, because you have to fly to Spokane to get to CdA, and you can't get to Spokane directly from Austin, I spent a lot of time in airports and on planes, which gave me ample time to work on mom's socks, thereby avoiding the dreaded "second-sock-itis". :) When I left, I only had the toe done; by the time I got home I was ready to do the heel. Unfortunately, as I got closer to the top of the sock, it occurred to me that I was running out of yarn! I have about 10 rows left... I may cut the ribbing a little short, or find a coordinating color. Next...

From Mighty Girl : Don’t ever let anyone tell you that something is too competitive. Once you subtract the people who don’t work very hard, or the people who aren’t as good as you, your competition shrinks dramatically. That said, an original idea sells itself. Instead of spending a year pushing the same product everyone else has, spend that time thinking of a product or service that no one else offers. If you do, you won’t need to do much marketing, people will find you. Don’t believe the myth that “if you liked your job, no one would pay you to do it.” It’s essential that you love your work for you to be as happy and financially successful as possible in your life. The person who loves her job will always beat out the person who’s doing it for the paycheck.

Saturday was touristy day for me in San Antonio. The ridiculous April cold front that dropped snow on DC also dropped rain and 40-degree weather on Texas. ARGH. Driving down wasn't too bad, except for the people who are afraid to drive next to 18-wheelers, which we have plenty of around here. But I made it in about 90 minutes. The NJB (who will now be known as 'E'... not to be confused with 'EJ' who has taken over my trips to the supermarket with Dani!) met me at a shopping center a little north of town - no sense taking two cars into that melee. It was noon when I got there, but we weren't all that hungry, so we went to see the McNay Museum of Art . This worked out rather well, as the current exhibit on Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat ends this weekend. I love pop art! [The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh still stands out as one of the best Internet2 Worshop evening events that I planned, back in June of '99]. The most interesting items (IMHO) were the papercuts of...

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. posted his father's speech about Vietnam on the Huffington Post today. These words are just as inspiring (and just as true) almost 40 years later. [Here I give you the first paragraph and the last - go read the rest for yourself.] "I do not want--as I believe most Americans do not want--to sell out American interests, to simply withdraw, to raise the white flag of surrender. That would be unacceptable to us as a country and as a people. But I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that the course we are following at the present time is deeply wrong. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that we are acting as if no other nations existed, against the judgment and desires of neutrals and our historic allies alike. I am concerned--as I believe most Americans are concerned--that our present course will not bring victory; will not bring peace; will not stop the bloodshed; and will not advance the interests of the United ...

Not a great measure, because it's based only on a selection of cities in each place, but still kind of fun! Your Travel Profile: You Are Extremely Well Traveled in the Southern United States (85%) You Are Very Well Traveled in Canada (80%) You Are Very Well Traveled in the Midwestern United States (75%) You Are Very Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (71%) You Are Well Traveled in Australia (50%) You Are Well Traveled in the Western United States (42%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Eastern Europe (40%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Southern Europe (27%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Scandinavia (20%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in the United Kingdom (13%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Latin America (7%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Western Europe (7%) You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%) You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%) You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%) [somewhat misleading, I have been to Israel, but no Israeli cities we...

What a great little video on YouTube ! Instructions on the best way to break your piece of matzah exactly in half, to make the perfect sandwich (with what looks like nutella - yum!) And even more Passover fun -- bunny Peeps demonstrating the ten plagues . (ok, not really "fun", but very funny.) :)

A quick item from today's WSJ -- A Baptist minister, [former Arkansas Governor Mike] Huckabee expressed impatience with the political choices so far of some religious conservatives. In the March Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, Mr. Giuliani led among Republicans with 38%; even among evangelical voters, the twice-divorced former New York City mayor, a supporter of abortion rights, received 37% to 2% for Mr. Huckabee. “If Republicans in this election vote in such a way as to say a candidate’s personal life and personal conduct in office doesn’t matter,” he declared, “ then a lot of Christian evangelical leaders owe Bill Clinton a public apology .”