Stephen Mejias

Today is a special Monday in Stereophile land. Today is JA's birthday. Happy birthday, JA. Today is also Kristina Roman's first day with us.

I should say: "Today is also Kristina Roman's first day back with us." KR's been here before. If you open up your October 2005 issue of Stereophile, you'll find her in the masthead:

Editorial Intern — Kristina Roman

KR just enjoyed an excellent semester at Boston University and is now home for the summer. We're lucky to have her with us. We'll try to keep her busy and smiling. Primarily, Kristina will be helping us collect data for the 2007 Buyer's Guide. We couldn't do it without her, really. But Kristina works fast; she's no joke. So, I'll be handing over a few other duties, as well.

When Kristina joined us last summer, I tried to make sure that she was aware of the importance of her contributions. I wanted her to know that, no matter how small or simple her work might seem, her efforts made a huge impact on the overall product.

Because KR has such an outstanding work ethic, this wasn't a difficult task; she's self-motivated.

But still: some positive reinforcement always helps. I know this because JA is possibly the world's coolest boss. He's taught me a lot about what it means to do a good job, to do doingfully, and to keep rocking. Alright. So, before this gets too cheesy, all I'm really trying to say here is this: When I think of what values I'd like to share with Kristina, I simply have to think of the values that JA has shared with me. Thanks, JA, for being a wonderful boss, mentor, inspiration, influence, role model, friend, person. Happy birthday, my man.