iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 24/09/2026

First day of our second round of Newspaper Club for 2nd-6th graders is complete! My staff increased 45%. BEHOLD a GROWING NEWSROOM! And I can safely say that the kids are still alright. My favorite story idea from day 1 -- Student binders: Are they too big? We ask staff and students.

A stack of blue and white press badges and a stack of blue and white Reporters notebooks on a table

A third grader holds up their large, the ring binder in front of tables with students sitting around notebooks and binders

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 17/09/2026

Jazz-loving New Yorkers, don't sleep on The Pocket. Wonderful acoustics in this beautiful, cozy venue. And get to know Lawrence Fields and his Acoustic Trio. I will be waiting for them to come to DC and grab tickets fast.

Flyer for The Pocket jazz club that says " Groove is Law" , 130 West, 46th street NY

Lawrence fields on Piano and Yasushi Nakamura on bass on stage lit in red and green at The Pocket club in nyc

Yasushi Nakamura on bass and Mark Whitfield Jr. On drums on stage lit in red and green at The Pocket club in nyc

View of white cloth-covered tables, chairs and booths at The Pocket jazz clubs in NYC

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 14/09/2026

Back in NYC. You know what that means...

View of a jazz club stage from the front row with a grand piano, double bass lying on its side, and a drum set. The back wall is red and the stage is illuminated with blue lights.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 02/07/2026

After the success of the GameBoy Pocket, it was time...

View of the front of an original Nintendo Entertainment System with a hand sliding in a super Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt game cartridge

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 28/06/2026

Success! Maybe she caught the hardware bug. I only wish I had a better game selection.

Child playing Super Mario Land on an old soccer GameBoy Pocket with a black and white screen

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 28/06/2026

11yo discovered my old GameBoy Pocket and is on a mission to resurrect it.

Child with glasses leaning over a turned over GameBoy pocket device with screwdriver and tweezers

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 22/06/2026

Father's Day family D&D ... Tomb of the Serpent Kings

D&D miniature figures on a drawn map showing them in the hallway going toward a chamber room with an open coffin

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 10/06/2026

That's not a coupon. That's a warning.

A Chuck E. Cheese coupon for 1 large 1-topping pizza and 4 drinks for $29.99

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 08/06/2026

Last day of school newspaper club means it's time for a publishing party! Celebrating the students' hard work with treats over final_final draft copies of the paper.

A pile of bags of chips, candy and cookies on a table next to a stack of three draft issues of the Pony Press school newspaper

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 23/05/2026

My deepest condolences.

The title text "Sorry, Neelix Lives" above an overhead view of Voyager

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 28/04/2026

I immediately checked the news...

Phone notification from the Amazon Music app that says " Miley Cyrus exclusive: celebrate party in the USA with an exclusive anniversary vinyl"

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 23/04/2026

My children are very supportive when I tell them I need quiet time for some heads down work.

Hand drawn sign in notebook paper with a sharpie that says "Do not disturb, Mommy work in progress" around a drawing of a stick figure in a chair typing on a computer surrounded by large bubbled explanation points.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 21/04/2026

::taps and flips the Media Prime Radiant:: We've reached a Crisis inflection point for THE BETTER

Screenshot of the mobile site for theonion.info, where the onion has relaunched InfoWars full of satire ads saying "Turn Your Piss Into Gold" and Demon Guard holy protection patches.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 14/04/2026

A fox has had kits under our neighbor's shed every year for a while now, and the babies for this year have finally emerged! These are bad photos because I had to zoom a lot, but I'll post better ones when I have them. I know the skyline likes/needs nature!

Two Fox kits standing next to a fence and shed, which has a burrow den underneath.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 08/04/2026

Has gamification gone too far

Screenshot of workout app stats showing lifted weight volume is the equivalent of lifting 36,545 Costco hotdogs

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 27/03/2026

My grape hyacinths are singing

A close up of some blue-purple grape hyacinths in full bloom. I like them so much because they remind me of Texas bluebonnets

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 22/03/2026

Tomorrow is the first meeting of the School Newspaper Club! I have a full lesson, assignment list and materials ready to go. Each kid gets their own reporter's notebook and badge. We have a lot of work (and fun!) ahead of us.

Newspaper club class materials laid out on display including a lesson paper handout defining what a journalist is and listing code of ethics next to a reporter's notebook and a badge and lanyard that says PRESS.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 10/03/2026

Did the me-thing and repaired our wall clock instead of buying a new one. All hail the few-dollar fix!

Close up on a wall clock face with a pair of pliers and a box of clock movement parts.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 09/03/2026

Just me using a Bluetooth mouse to darn socks...

Gray sock with hole in top of foot with a Logitech Bluetooth mouse placed on top

Gray sock with hole fitted snuggly on a dark gray Bluetooth mouse, which is inside and you can see it through the hole

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 04/03/2026

If you've met with me in the past few years (or paid attention to my profile photo), you know my signature dark green space color. (It's actually teal.) I recently had to move to a new office, but I brought my color with me. It's a work in progress, but the room energy is already an upgrade.

View from the doorway of a makeshift home office with a pink upholstered executive chair against dark teal green walls. A portable tray desk supports a laptop and one piece of abstract pink and green art sits on top of an end table behind the chair. A window has a view of the backyard on the far wall.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 09/02/2026

Casita de Benito -- Casita de mi Abuela

Bad Bunny dancing on the roof of the small pink house modeled after typical island houses on Puerto Rico that he uses as a stage in his performances. groups of people are dancing in front of the house and the house is surrounded by sugar cane.

Pink concrete house in Puerto Rick with black metal gates and brown window bars. An unbloomed flamboyan tree rises above the house against the sky in t he background.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 01/02/2026

The children's half-igloo... Col-ice-sseum?... is holding

A half cylinder structure built out of small compact snow blocks with a child's rainbow pinwheel in front of it on a snow yard

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 17/01/2026

The types of notes the tooth fairy leaves in our house... ("Unseen I am. - T.F.")

Written in wiggly blood red writing, "Unseen I am. - T.F."

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 13/01/2026

I am forever and always a creature of habit

Screenshot of Duolingo app celebrating a 1700 day streak.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 11/01/2026

We've started a BookIt-inspired reward system for the kids for reading substantially-sized books. (Bonus points if they are parent recommendations, and cash for high grades from us on book reports.) Today's selection table:

A grid of books laid out on a table. In order: The book of Cthulhu, into the wild, a canticle for Leibowitz. Ben and Me, The Chocolate War, Hamlet, a Wrinkle in time, East West, A wizard of Earth Sea, blade runner, the secret garden. Frankenstein, Realms of Valor, pirates honor, 1984, brave new world, notes from the underground

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 07/01/2026

They don't make books like they used to.

Book cover of 1970 edition of H.R. Lovecraft's The Tomb

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 28/12/2025

Happy Birthday to me! Listening to the great Monty Alexander at Blues Alley. This drummer y'all!

View of the stage at Blues Alley in Washington DC. Brick walls with hanging yellow lights and back lights off purple and red. On stage is a drummer to the left, a double bass player in the middle and Monty Alexander on piano in the better in front of a crowd seated at small tables.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 25/12/2025

Christmas family game haul. I've been waiting all week!

4 board/card games stacked on a table, titles include Beard Wizards, Codenames, Cult Following, and Hex Effects.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 03/12/2025

Ah yes, again it is time for one of my favorite seasonal memes

Meme image of skeleton barbell squatting a large amount of weight the the overlay text: My body is a machine that turns [screenshot of special game promotion price in the Steam Store] into [another screenshot of the Steam interface that says "Play time: 0 minutes; Last played: Never"]

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 02/12/2025

Wonky heart patch. The child will be happy, that's all that matters 🤍

Sweater hole patched with white yarn into the shape of a lumpy heart

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 02/12/2025

Child got new sweater. Child gets hole in new sweater. Can I fix it?

A beige, white and pink knitted sweater being held by a hand with a finger poking though an area with some broken strands, forming a hole.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 20/11/2025

Home from school and it continues...

screenshot of text messages from a kid that say "mommy" "mommy" "where do i go to get the app creator thingy"

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 09/11/2025

Can't get out of my head how much Guy in Talamasca looks like Schmendrick the Magician.

Schmendrick the Magician from The Last Unicorn

Nicholas Denton as Guy Anatole in Talamasca: The Secret Order

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 21/10/2025

Let the kids be car DJ this afternoon

Photo of car dashboard screen showing the track Sandstorm by Darude has been playing for 46 seconds

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 19/10/2025

I have a spider friend that has been outside my kitchen sink window for a few weeks. A highlight of my day is checking her status. Today we have a Charlotte's Web situation. New egg sac just dropped!

A small brown curved leaf in a thin side web. Under the curve hangs a round gray egg sac. A spider rests on the side of the egg sac

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 18/10/2025

A beautiful day to travel back home from NY -> DC.

View from train window over water of Manhattan skyline in the distance. Sun hidden behind the clouds in the sky.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 12/10/2025

Oh look. A treasure chest. Unattended. For the taking.

Miniature D&D figurines on a grid map surrounding s drawing of a large treasure chest.

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 11/10/2025

10yo started reading the 5th edition Players Handbook last night and was still reading it this morning. Game invite sign went up this afternoon and now she's DMing for the first time. It's all happening! Complete with goldfish cracker enemies #dnd #5e

Sign taped on a door written with black and blue marker on notebook paper that says "Don't miss out! DND tonight! 5:00-8/7:00"

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 20/09/2025

Introducing the kids to one of my favorite animes. Space Brothers.

Poster for Space Brothers anime showing two adult brothers, one blonde and in an orange astronaut suit and the other with black hair wearing a business suit while holding a pug dog in a space suit

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 18/09/2025

Continually exercising my voting rights.

screenshot of two email subject lines saying "Your subscription has been canceled"

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Melissa Young @techsassy.me · 07/09/2025

Cleaning out a dresser organizer and suddenly... Baby tooth. Good or bad omen?

Open empty wooden box with three small empty compartments receipt for one small baby tooth at the bottom of the middle one.

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