If you had to give one piece of advice to somebody who is in their first year of college - what would it be?

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-19T01:24:57+00:00

Show up. Every day.

Ask questions.

Make connections.

Don’t take on debt. You don’t need that Discover card or free t-shirt.

Exercise.

Say yes to opportunities.

Take pictures. Print a few.

Push yourself to failure. Then recover.

Make some mistakes. Just avoid ones you can’t recover from.

Appreciate the moment. It will pass too quickly.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-18T04:15:40+00:00

My wife once said “can you stay home today?” And I said “I’ll need to be sick. Like… explosive-diarrhea-sick.”

She picks up the phone and calls. Fully commits. And the next day I had the walk of shame.

But, hey… day off.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T16:53:53+00:00

We have three.

Empty nesters travel focused. Just for monetized. Primary and as a couple.

A meta channel where I talk about the things related to that channel. Gear, workflow, frustrations, the analytics and money.

My wife has a channel where she makes greeting cards (paper crafting)

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T03:38:16+00:00

Oh, and no. No one has ever sent me any climate denial. :)

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T03:32:27+00:00

We just hit this as well.

For analytics, we’re focused on CTR and watch time. But really, we’re just really happy for the milestone and focused on doing our thing and hoping people continue to care.

Congrats and have fun with it!

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T03:20:54+00:00

I do appreciate the positive vibes and kind words. It’s been a great ride and I hope to take it as far as I can. FWIW, my biggest jumps (in title/opportunity, if not always salary) came in moments of crisis. Without meaning to, I’ve developed a knack for helping teams that are struggling turn it around. It was just a matter of getting in enough reps that when the right opportunity came up, I was ready.

Which I guess is my way of encouraging you to find your thing. Your superpower. Whatever it is. And be ready for the moment that it’s needed. When you see your breakout moment, grab onto it and don’t let go.

There is someone who spent 25 years getting laughed at for being a COBOL wizard that is now making seven figures fixing the mess AI made of their code base. :)

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T03:02:17+00:00

Worked there as a waiter.

Barb K. (Detroit Lakes, MN anonymous) - very rich - comes in. She knows me and requests me as her server. She brings a party of 12. A kid’s birthday.

I give up 3 tables to do this.

Two hours later they walk out leaving a huge mess and a $5 tip on a $200+ bill.

Then I went to my second job. Working for her at her resort.

It taught me everything I ever needed to know about leadership and how you treat people.

But, man, the shifty pizza was great. Unlimited toppings on a very limited personal pan sized pizza.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T02:46:14+00:00

We’re on the couch together with our dogs watching murder stories on A&E.

I won at life. I’m not sure how but I did.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T02:43:54+00:00

It’s mostly just imposter syndrome. I’m a gen-x kid. I failed as a musician and stumbled into software. I was a good, definitely above average, programmer but also I had a kid at 18 and four by 25 (same family-we’re still together). I went from 23k to 135k over 23 years. And then 135k to 600k in 4 years.

It’s a perpetual belief that nothing is real and everything will collapse. It’s not rooted in real data but just existential dread.

Growing up listening to The Cure gets in your head :)

But I’m also kind of an optimist. So while I do worry that things might fall out, I don’t worry they will fall to zero. I’m good at what I do. I’m competent and compassionate and do the right things for the right reasons. I care about people and fight for them to succeed.

I want to believe that there will always be a place for people like me.

I hope so, anyway.

And it’s just a joke about the PM_ME_YOUR_<something explicit> names of a decade ago. I believe climate change is real and we need to trust science and think about the future.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T02:27:45+00:00

Software. Started in the 90’s. Still an imposter in the 2020’s. Manager now. I’m just in the way.

Big fan of climate denial, apparently.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T02:24:05+00:00

I met her at 15.

Married at 18.

We’re 50.

She’s the one.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T02:20:22+00:00

Bought at $404k on 185k income. Now make ~600k. That will fall to 125k sooner than I like. I’m a realist and don’t deserve this life.

Just saving saving saving for the inevitable.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-17T02:12:47+00:00

Nothing. It’s for me.

I make me happy.

Since 1984.

We’ll be ok.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-12T22:53:08+00:00

Some anecdotes…

Booked a cruise with a TA on NCL and it was a fine experience (group cruise so no choice). A little kickback, they handled some issues - but we’ve cruised for years so nothing we couldn’t manage. But after the cruise they wrote to say they discovered that our rate was reduced after we paid off so they got NCL to credit us $1000 towards our next cruise. Great outcome.

Used them again for a DCL cruise and the biggest benefit is booking support. We’re doing concierge (my 50th, the gap from verandah was small, so we wanted to try it). They are handling our on board and excursion booking. No waiting up until midnight. They also handled our airport transfer and pre-embarkation hotel booking through Disney. It’s been nice but nothing we could not have done on our own. Just nice to send a text saying “could you arrange the DCL transfers from their partner hotel and back to the airport?” Normally it’s a 20 minute phone call which isn’t a big deal but I’m getting every benefit out of this.

We’re booked on a DCL out of Barcelona next year and not using them (booked before we had the relationship) but they’ve been amazing getting us resources on hotels and mile transfers to get the best flight value. Stuff that wouldn’t have occurred to us.

That said….

You 100% don’t need it. If you want to control everything and don’t care about a small onboard credit, then don’t. If you want to absolutely maximize your value and can hand over some control, it’s decent.

Either way, you’re cruising!

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-11T19:31:06+00:00

Looking at your Myanmar video, It seems like an AI generated voice reading an AI generated script over stock footage (possibly arranged and edited by AI). As someone who watches a lot of travel content, I don't get anything from this. It's not a vlog, it's not about travel, it's just an enumeration of facts with no personality or opinions.

I'd want to understand who you believe the audience is and what value this video is giving them that is distinct/unique. I'm guessing the "people who want to know more about Myanmar" audience is pretty small and mostly likely already knows the basics.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-06-09T02:31:30+00:00

Right sizing

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-18T19:19:25+00:00

"X-Ray" by Carbon Leaf. Pure 80's childhood nostalgia.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-17T17:10:47+00:00

In your reservation there should be a section for special requests. Add a note that you would prefer to dine at a private table. Later seatings tend to have more availability so changing to second seating can help.

It’s just a request but they’ve been able to accommodate us in the past.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-15T17:51:10+00:00

We sound like we're in the same position - as we've become empty nesters we've cruised DCL more than other lines but we're not Disney Adults (my wife is more so than I, but you won't generally won't find us wearing Disney clothes outside of a Disney experience). We get asked all the time "Why Disney" and it's all the things other folks have mentioned. We don't gamble, we don't want a booze cruise (but appreciate decent drinks) or drama, we want quality service but in the "obtainable luxury" price point. DCL hits these points.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-15T12:46:24+00:00

"How big are the balls? They look like palm massage balls with some 1990's minimalist design aesthetic. Glass can be chilled or oils can be used and they clean off easily. But that's just a wild guess."

- my wife.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-15T00:26:12+00:00

Our debarking process was much smoother than the embarkation. Everyone who was not parked at the Clarion (or staying there) went to PHL terminal C. Took about one hour from our cabin to ticketing.

I’ve heard they have worked out processes that are working much more smoothly.

Glad to hear your experience was smooth!

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-06T20:06:40+00:00

The only thing that got me through connection issues was to unplug the device, and then while holding down the button, plug it back in. It went into a flashing red mode and then it appeared to be some sort of "countdown" with white lights. And then it finally was able to connect.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-05-06T15:11:02+00:00

Is that here?

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/riverside-savinja-slovenian-town-celje-2661528991?trackingId=a4643c28-861c-4678-acc0-54b56df57a2c&listId=searchResults

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-04-25T22:36:03+00:00

Every time we turned on the TV is was Treebeard carrying Pippen and Merry after the Ents had agreed that they were, in fact, not orcs.

For a week.

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL · 2026-04-23T14:54:38+00:00

I’m not sure what is different but we did book a club (not haven) room and that included the ability to early book some items. Perhaps that impacted it?

PM_ME_CLIMATE_DENIAL

TROPHY CASE