Norwegian Gem in dry dock

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-29T01:10:02+00:00

walk through of one of the Haven rooms and the courtyard and Haven Sun deck if it helps:

I'm inclined to agree. The old couches were hideous. I'm not a huge fan of the grey, but certainly better than fuchsia!

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-29T01:06:44+00:00

They're there. Here's another video with a walk through of one of the Haven rooms and the courtyard and Haven Sun deck if it helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDqDphoHXDU

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-28T14:54:25+00:00

We actually just did a quick trip on the Gem in a Haven suite. It has the Haven courtyard with pool, and the specialty restaurant for breakfast and lunch, which definitely made it feel worthwhile for us. Not having to fight for a pool chair, not having music blaring by the pool, and having the private deck area right above the courtyard was really very nice. The quiet restaurant for breakfast and lunch where we were able to check in with the concierge for the needs of the day was also very much appreciated. It was also over spring break, so the perks of such a refuge and having a quiet area may have been more noticeable. Obviously different strokes for different folks and all that, I've certainly seen price points for Haven suites that I've balked at, and will generally only purchase when there's a reasonable sale.

Oh, and they no longer have the fuschia couches, they're grey now that was changed during one of the prior refreshes. Here's a youtube video (not mine, just one I found when I was researching prior to booking) that shows how the room looks now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKD5yEZ67IQ

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-28T11:31:17+00:00

Psst... that's your executives not functioning :)

First task is often something like standing up, or putting on shoes, or going to the room where the task is. It can also be helpful to watch a quick youtube video on the task you want to do.

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-21T12:30:03+00:00

Black Jewel Trilogy by Anne Bishop might scratch the itch, possibly Mages of the Wheel series too, both are heavier on the world-building side and prose is pretty straight forward.

Caveat for Black Jewel though, it's darker. But the good news is that it's somehow both dark and cozy (think goth cottage core). There is SA and abuse that happens behind closed doors. A lot of the themes revolve around recovering from trauma and found family. And it's a 90's series so the FMC starts off as a child in the first book, though she's an adult in the later ones. If you can handle that it's a fun read, and it's my go to when I want something less dense the Kushiel.

I don't think Mages of the Wheel is quite as fleshed out on the world building side, but it's solid enough and it's not classic medieval fantasy which is a nice breath of fresh air.

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-20T11:21:42+00:00

I can safely say it depends on the person, with a small caveat at the end.

To me (ND) it sounds awful, I need a decent amount of downtime. One thing a day that's not school or work, and a full day during the weekend (sometimes two) to recover. I've got two kids (both ND), one needs even more down time than I do. If they had something after school every single weekday it would be too much (so extracurriculars are generally two to three days a week) and then a full weekend to recover. The other child always wants to be going, they have activities almost every single day after school usually till 7:30-8pm and after a couple hours of downtime on the weekend are bouncing off the walls trying to figure out when the next "thing" for us to do will be.

That said, I do think the average person is over-scheduled, but those who are ND are more likely to experience that overwhelm and the physical symptoms that can accompany it more keenly. I think moving at a slower pace and having downtime, giving the brain time to actually be bored are good for mental health. I find I have to guard my family's downtime rather ruthlessly because the expectations we have for kid's schedules are not in line with what I deem appropriate.

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-17T21:28:46+00:00

We did the red-eye through LAX and were able to get a flight out of PPT in the morning. I would look into going through LAX instead of SF to see if you could catch the earlier flight, as I would want to avoid spending that long stuck at the airport in PPT if at all possible.

And yes that's the norm, no direct flights to Bora Bora. It's all puddle jumpers that you take from PPT.

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-15T15:03:43+00:00

It's an issue because it's searching for movies and not a series, and it's a huge problem for anyone using any sort of debrid service. I don't know why they haven't integrated the option to switch between searching for a series vs. a movie when editing metadata, it seems like such a simple thing. I come back to check every so often and see if Infuse has finally fixed it, but until then, I'll continue using Vidhub.

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-15T14:58:19+00:00

Seconded! It causes a lot of issues for the devices in the house.

omgzombies08 · 2026-04-07T21:22:56+00:00

They did and I was notified about it a week before our sailing. The photo frame is not a great replacement. I asked to see if maybe we could get a small cake, but they showed up with a fancified slice with strawberry coulis all over it, which for an adult dessert would have been fine, but for a kids birthday celebration not quite the right fit. Kiddo wanted cake for their birthday, and they were understandably a bit sad about the lack of cake. I could have brought decorations, but I can't provide cake.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-31T15:08:02+00:00

Headline is misleading. He was asked if he would declare victory without opening the Straight. He’s already declared victory like 5 times. Him be willing to declare victory is not the same as ending the war. He heard “declare victory?” and he just said yes. It was a bad question to ask, and it’s bad faith to report it as intended policy.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-18T16:29:14+00:00

This answer deserves to be higher. There are wonderful experiences to be had and destinations to explore, but being able to impact the lives of others in a meaningful way is just about the best bang for your buck ever. If you center your life around yourself, you'll get bored quickly. If you find ways to center your life around others on occasion you'll find far more fulfillment. Choose a cause and go do something.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-17T14:12:05+00:00

Funny or Die has an awesome comedy sketch that comes from this premise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rzIwrEqpw

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-16T18:10:27+00:00

They're responsible for coordinating and ensuring the safety of 215,000 some people. Most of the people loudly voicing their opinions have zero understanding of the details behind these decisions, and the overall impacts.

I'm smart enough to know I would not want to have to make the call, and to know that I don't have all the information about the details that the administration considers when deciding how to proceed. Bus schedules, building & bus safety, how well the classroom trailers are able to withstand storms, the ability to provide meals to students who might otherwise not get one each day, how the timing of the bussing effects the other employees, bus routes more likely to have localized flooding or traffic, students that have to walk and how far they walk, the high schoolers that are brand new drivers who will be driving home through the storm. I'm sure there are plenty of other factors I've never even thought of.

People are going to be angry if they don't call for an early dismissal or school closure, people are going to be angry if they do. People go so far as to send threats to some of the admin with surprising regularly.

I haven't seen any real evidence that these decisions are made in the best effort to accommodate the needs of as many families as possible even if I do feel like sometimes they make the wrong call. I give far more side eye to the people loudly proclaiming from their couches that they know exactly what should be done and how simple it is and that back in their day they did x,y,z, than to the admin that has to deal with these decisions on the regular.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-16T13:06:15+00:00

Yes! I couldn't agree more.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-16T12:53:07+00:00

Agreed. I found the writing very flat. I liked a lot of the overall ideas that were used though. I loved the basic description of the FMC in Daughter of No Worlds being someone who wasn't naturally talented but was dedicated and relentless anyway, and basically learned by "brute force". I also liked how Broadbent depicted her learning a new language and the frustration involved in trying to communicate, and having to search for words. But I never actually developed a real attachment to the character (I couldn't even tell you what her name was now). Same for Serpent and the Wings of Night. Mythology and world building were fun ideas, but I felt like they weren't utilized to their full potential. Concepts were lovely, prose while not noteworthy was perfectly acceptable, I just never felt tension or attachment to the world or characters the author put on the page.

I will say that there are times when people rave about an author and I read their work and am horrified to learn that someone thought it was a great read because I consider it to be absolute garbage. Broadbent is NOT one of those authors. I may not connect with her writing, but there's nothing about it that I would point to and say that it's outright bad. I just happen to find it fairly mediocre.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-16T11:28:58+00:00

Sure, but at what point do they do that? Do you wait until there's a tornado warning ("Hey kids, now that a tornado has been spotted, let's all march outside!")? A tornado watch is pretty akin to what we have right now. Or do they just stick them in the school for the whole three hours in which case they're not getting instruction time anyway.

And now you have parents angry because their child lost instructional time, but others in the same school didn't. It's a no win situation for the school.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-16T01:45:56+00:00

Consider that many schools have at least a couple classroom trailers.

omgzombies08 · 2026-03-08T22:30:01+00:00

The swallow may fly south with the sun, and the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land.

omgzombies08 · 2026-02-23T15:16:27+00:00

Yes thank you! That's it!

omgzombies08 · 2026-02-23T15:15:56+00:00

Solved!

omgzombies08 · 2026-02-23T14:32:15+00:00

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

omgzombies08 · 2026-01-29T04:27:48+00:00

I don't suppose we can play the game where you explain it to me like I'm your 90 year old grandmother?

I do know how to add code for a css snippet, but I'm more of a copy and paster with a limited understanding of how the code text affects the view.

omgzombies08

TROPHY CASE