There are some things you just don't say. You don't yell out "bomb!" on an airplane, make jokes about carrying weapons while going through security, or, as Michael Scott from The Office knows, loudly proclaim that a boat you're currently on is sinking.
Those are all pretty obvious examples, but sometimes etiquette and decorum are a little more subtle. If you're not experienced in the ways of the venue you're in, you might not know all the unspoken rules. And you might find out the hard way. Cruise ships, for example, have their own very specific set of rules and regulations that guests should abide by.
On December 10, 2023, Royal Caribbean’s Serenade of the Seas set sail on the Ultimate World Cruise—a 274-day global trek that visits 11 world wonders and over 60 countries.
9 months is a very long time to be aboard a boat, even a giant cruise ship. Photo by Peter Hansen on Unsplash
This incredible trip covered the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Mediterranean and Europe with a ticket price that ranges from $53,999 to $117,599 per passenger.
With such a unique and incredible offering, it's understandable that Royal Caribbean wanted to invite plenty of influencers to help them get the word out.
Aboard the Serenade to the Seas was popular TikToker Marc Sebastian, who documented his experience throughout the journey. In one video with over 4.3 million views, he revealed what he’s learned over his first few weeks aboard the ship; the biggest was the one word you’re not allowed to say.
"So here's [what] I've learned about cruising since I've spent 18 nights on this floating retirement home with a Cheesecake Factory attached. First, number one, you're not supposed to talk about the Titanic," he says in the clip.
Titanic! It's the ultimate taboo when you're on a giant ship traversing the ocean. Even after all these years, it's still too soon to make even lighthearted comparisons or jokes.
@marcsebastianf someone get whoopi on the line girl i have some goss for her #ultimateworldcruise #worldcruise #serenadeoftheseas #cruisetok #cruise #9monthcruise #titanic
“Who knew that? I didn’t,” Sebastian said. “I brought it up to an entire room of people having lunch that our ship is only 100 feet longer than the Titanic — when I tell you that utensils dropped. Waiters gasped. It’s dead silent.”
Sebastian was flabbergasted. "It wasn't in the... handbook," he joked. "Not that I read the handbook, clearly."
After the unexpected reaction, his cruise friend told him, “You’re not allowed to talk about the Titanic.” It makes sense.
Who wants to be reminded of the tragedy that killed around 1,500 people while sinking one of the most impressive engineering feats of the era? More experienced cruisers chimed in that they were familiar with the unique piece of etiquette.
Pro tip: Don't ask the band on board to play "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion Giphy
"When I went on a cruise, my mom told me saying Titanic was equivalent to screaming ‘bomb’ at an airport," Mikayla wrote in the comments.
"It’s like saying Macbeth in a theatre, it’s an unspoken rule" another commenter added.
"I’m sorry you’re telling me you had a Harry Potter like experience saying Voldemort at Hogwarts but it was the titanic on a modern day cruise I’m cryingggg" joked another.
Later in the video covering little known cruise facts, Sebastian admits he was surprised to learn that cruise ships have godmothers and that the pools are filled with seawater.
In an update from June of 2024, Sebastian explains that he only stayed on the cruise for 18 nights. He was not booked to stay throughout the entire voyage, and for him, that was a relief.
He initially jokes that he was kicked off the boat for saving a penguin that had jumped aboard. But in the end, he admits he was more than happy to deboard early.
"I walked off that ship not a happy man," he said, saying the ship was overstimulating and stressful. In another video, he films as the ship navigates the Drake Passage, one of the most notoriously dangerous and choppy stretches of water in the world. It looks stressful indeed, to say the least.
Cruising isn't for everyone, let alone for 274 days straight! But now Sebastian knows the golden rule for his next cruise.
This story originally appeared last year. It has been updated.
Make delayed gratification a habit, not a chore.
There are two types of people in this world: people who impulse buy and people with superhuman willpower.
Does this sound familiar? You’re tapping through Instagram stories, and it appears. A cropped t-shirt starring Hello Kitty as a teeny, kitten-sized tomato, ripe and still on the vine. It’s the crop top of your dreams.
Or is it? Perhaps the fact that it’s currently 2 a.m. and the melatonin you took 15 minutes ago is starting to whisper things like “Buy it,” or “You need that shirt,” to you—not kismet.
(Spoiler alert: it’s the latter.)
You must resist the urge to impulse buy. Credit: www.sanrio.com
Here’s the thing: 84% of us have been there. We’ve all made purchases that seemed brilliant at midnight and embarrassing by morning. In fact, 40% of all e-commerce spending comes from spontaneous snap purchases.
But what if I told you that buyer’s remorse, or impulse buying, could be eliminated with a single rule that requires zero brain power?
Say hello to the 30/30 rule, a surprisingly simple technique that’s helping millions of people break the impulse-buying cycle and mend their relationship with money.
Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus were your classic American success disasters. After enduring tough childhoods—each scarred by an unstable home life and substance abuse—they climbed up the corporate ladder, and at just 28, had made it.
Millburn became the youngest director in his company’s 140-year history, expertly managing 150 retail stores. Meanwhile, Nicodermus thrived in sales and marketing. With substantial six-figure salaries, they indulged their every whim, fancy, and desire. Luxury cars, designer wardrobes, flashy watches that cost more than most single-family homes. This was the life, right?
Nope.
They were also miserable, drowning in debt, and working 80-hour weeks.
- YouTube Credit: www.youtube.com
The wake-up call came in 2009 when Millburn’s mom died of lung cancer and his marriage fell apart in the same month. While going through his mother’s house,, he donated everything instead of renting a storage unit for her belongings. He let go.
This was the moment that changed everything.
Nicodermus saw the profound changes Millburn experienced after finding minimalism, then started his own journey. Inspired by minimalist bloggers like Colin Wright, Leo Babauta, and Joshua Becker, the two launched The Minimalists.
At the time, the website provided them an outlet to document their transformation and give tips to people on how to live more intentionally. Since then, they’ve published bestselling books on minimalism, produced multiple Emmy-nominated Netflix documentaries, and built a worldwide community of millions of people seeking a way out of compulsive consumption.
Ready for this earth-shattering revelation? If something costs more than $30, wait 30 hours before buying it. If it’s over $100, wait 30 days.
Is that it?
Yep. No apps that track your spending, no complicated budgeting spreadsheets, no vision boards, or empty promises to yourself that you’ll “do better next time.”
A man who didn't use the 30/30 rule. Photo credit: Canva
Also called the “Wait for It Rule,” this deliberate delay creates space between the initial impulse to buy and the actual purchase.
“If something I want costs more than $30, I ask myself whether I can get by without it for the next 30 hours,” Millburn explains. “This extra time helps me assess whether or not this new thing will add value to my life.”
Of course, there are caveats. This rule only applies to non-essential items, including decorations, clothing, games, cosmetics, and gadgets. Groceries, cleaning supplies, and life requirements don’t count. Go ahead and buy that toilet paper.
Here’s what is going on in your brain: 95% of purchase decisions happen subconsciously, often driven by emotional states rather than logical reasoning. It’s like that Ariana Grande song, “7 Rings.”
“I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it,” she sings.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
When we see something we want, our brain’s reward center (the limbic system) floods with dopamine before our logical brain even shows up to the party. How convenient.
“Early research suggests that stress exposure influences basic neural circuits involved in reward processing and learning while also biasing decisions towards habit and modulating our propensity to engage in risk-taking,” explains Anthony J. Porcelli and Mauricio R. Delagado in their landmark research paper, “Stress and Decision Making: Effects on Valuation, Learning, and Risk-taking.”
The 30/30 rule basically forces your brain to experience something it despises: delayed gratification. It’s the ability to resist immediate rewards for larger, long-term gratification. By not acting on impulse, your prefrontal cortex (the responsible adult part of your brain) has a moment to chat with the limbic system (the reward center, which is acting like an impulsive toddler with a credit card).
Whether it’s days or hours, a few important things happen during this wind-down period.
No one is asking you to become a monk or live an ascetic life and own only three things—the 30/30 rule challenges you to buy with intention instead of impulse. The rule works because it creates space between wanting something and having it—space where you remember your actual priorities.
So, the next time you’re about to use Apple Pay to buy fake currency on a phone game, try this. Close the app. Set an alert for 30 hours from now. See what happens.
Most likely, you’ll realize that you never needed it all. And if you still want it after waiting? Woohoo! Go for it, buy it guilt-free knowing it was a choice, not a reaction.
The best purchases, it turns out, are often the ones we don’t make.
All GIFs and images via Exposure Labs.
Photographer James Balog and his crew were hanging out near a glacier when their camera captured something extraordinary. They were in Greenland, gathering footage from the time-lapse they'd positioned all around the Arctic Circle for the last several years.
They were also there to shoot scenes for a documentary. And while they were hoping to capture some cool moments on camera, no one expected a huge chunk of a glacier to snap clean off and slide into the ocean right in front of their eyes.
Massive swells created by large chunks of glacier falling away.
For nearly an hour and 15 minutes, Balog and his crew stood by and watched as a piece of ice the size of lower Manhattan — but with ice-equivalent buildings that were two to three times taller than that — simply melted away.
A representation demonstrating the massive size of ice that broke off into the sea.
As far as anyone knows, this was an unprecedented geological catastrophe and they caught the entire thing on tape. It won't be the last time something like this happens either.
Balog had a reputation since the early 1980s as a conservationist and environmental photographer. And for nearly 20 years, he'd scoffed at the climate change heralds shouting, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
"I didn't think that humans were capable of changing the basic physics and chemistry of this entire, huge planet. It didn't seem probable, it didn't seem possible," he explained in the 2012 documentary film "Chasing Ice."
There was too much margin of error in the computer simulations, too many other pressing problems to address about our beautiful planet. As far as he was concerned, these melodramatic doomsayers were distracting from the real issues.
That was then.
The glacier ice continues to erode away.
He was sent on a photo expedition of the Arctic by National Geographic, and that first northern trip was more than enough to see the damage for himself.
"It was about actual tangible physical evidence that was preserved in the ice cores of Greenland and Antarctica," he said in a 2012 interview with ThinkProgress. "That was really the smoking gun showing how far outside normal, natural variation the world has become. And that's when I started to really get the message that this was something consequential and serious and needed to be dealt with."
Some of that evidence may have been the fact that more Arctic landmass has melted away in the last 20 years than the previous 10,000 years.
This article originally appeared 10 years ago.
Roommate creates 'emotionally hostile refrigerator' to stop snack thief
Some things are just universally frustrating. At the top of that list is likely looking forward to eating something delicious you stored in the refrigerator, only to find it missing. Whether this happens in a communal fridge at work, a dorm room, or at home with your family, the experience is equally frustrating and disappointing.
One person has been dealing with this very scenario: he noticed his snacks and other food disappearing from the shared refrigerator. No, a mouse hadn't figured out how to raid the refrigerator—but it would've been a more understandable culprit. Turns out the man's roommate had been helping himself to food items he did not purchase. We aren't talking about community items like milk or coffee creamer. The missing food includes items like leftovers and personal snacks.
Craving dilemma: donuts vs. healthy snacks.Photo credit: Canva
The man initially shared his frustrating situation on the Reddit thread, r/AITA, after his roommate took offense to his solution. What was the solution? Well, feeling like he was out of options after directly speaking to the roommate and labeling food that belonged to him, the man devised a plan. To get the inconsiderate roommate to stop eating everything in the fridge, the man turned to Googly eyes. He put Googly eyes on everything in the refrigerator that belonged to him in hopes it would deter the sneaky snacker. His plan worked, but the snacking roommate's comments about his solution had the man wondering if he crossed a line.
"My roommate eats everything. I’ll buy a pack of cheese sticks, and they’re gone by morning. I asked nicely, then labeled stuff. No change. So I got creative: I bought a pack of stick-on googly eyes and put them on everything. Milk? Eyes. Leftover spaghetti? Judging you. Even taped one to a banana. It worked. He said it 'creeped him out' and he stopped eating my stuff," he shared in the forum.
Man puzzled by a googly-eyed potato in the fridge.Photo credit: Canva
He went on to say that his roommate described his googly-eye trick as passive-aggressive, likening him to "creating an emotionally hostile refrigerator." Who knew kitchen appliances could be so openly ruthless to late-night snack bandits? Overwhelmingly, people agreed that the master of the googly eyes is not the bad guy in this situation.
"That phrase is pure gold. Roommate sounds like he's got some serious food guilt if googly eyes make him feel judged," someone says.
"It's not 'passive-aggressive' if you discussed the problem in person and asked him to stop, and he ignored you. You just got creative in how to address it. I can't think why it worked, but since it did, more power to you. Tell him if he agrees not ever to eat your labeled food, and doesn't, you'll restore the refrigerator to its pre-surveillance condition, unless and until he starts stealing food again." Another person writes.
Judgmental banknote: "Put the leftovers back, Bill!"Photo credit: Canva
'Did he use the phrase "emotionally hostile refrigerator"? Really? Because it makes him too uncomfortable to steal your food? I'd have laughed his sorry butt right out the door," someone else quipped.
One person suggests upping the ante, commenting, "Put the eyes everywhere. Under the toilet seat. On the front door. On the stairs."
"Act surprised when they are pointed out to you," someone else adds, writing, "'I only did the ones in the fridge, I don’t know where those are coming from.' Or pretend you don’t even see them."
feel fridge GIF Giphy
People could not get over the phrase "emotionally hostile refrigerator" and encouraged more shenanigans to make the fridge live up to its new name. Someone suggested making angry eyebrows above the eyes, while others offered turning them into smiley faces with conversation bubbles. Other people thought making a sign for the refrigerator door that warned that it was emotionally hostile would be fitting. Since the googly eyes seem to be doing the trick, it doesn't seem like they'll be going away any time soon.
This serves as a reminder that it's always best practice to ask before eating something that isn't yours, even if it's inside a shared refrigerator. If not, you may find yourself feeling like somebody's watching you.
Woman living in her car for 600 days has zero regrets. Here's how she does it.
With housing becoming so unaffordable, people are turning to different options. It's likely no coincidence that with the increase in housing prices, there's been increased interest in van life. Some of these vans are outfitted with beds, toilets, and sinks, while others are regular minivans with the seats removed. Some van lifers take things to the next level by outfitting an old school bus to become a tiny mobile home essentially.
Typically, individuals who choose to live on the road are childless and invest a significant amount of money to get started. But what if you're low on funds and don't own a van? No worries; Taylor Bowen-Loven has figured out how to live in her car for over 600 days comfortably, and she wants to share her knowledge with other single women who want to live rent-free while traveling the country.
Woman enjoying the view from a camper's window.Photo credit: Canva
Car living isn't for everyone, and it's certainly not for those who enjoy the kind of luxuries only a permanent address can give. Others, however, could be comfortable living in a shoe if it meant not having to pay a couple of thousand in rent every month. If that's you, then you might want to learn how it's done. Bowen-Loven has become sort of a pro at the unique lifestyle after nearly two years of car living.
When the 34-year-old first moved into her car, it was partly out of necessity and partly out of choice. She explains in one of her older videos that after being offered a place to sublet from a friend in Texas, the situation quickly turned sour, which required her to think on her feet. Not ready to return to her family in North Carolina and not willing to risk her mental health in an uncomfortable living situation, she sought advice on turning her car into a livable space while she traveled the country.
Along the way, she saved a decent amount of money by not having to pay rent and utilities and was able to visit states she wouldn't have been able to afford to see otherwise. The woman documents her journey on her social media page, sharing exactly what she found to be a waste of money and what works best. One of the first things on the list is safety. Since she sleeps in public places, she uses specialized shades to black out her windows so no one can see inside her space. She also has multiple forms of self-protection stashed in different areas of her car, all within arm's reach no matter her location within the vehicle.
As a solo traveling woman, she prefers to park in public places like truck stops, 24-hour gas stations, and big retail stores with all-night security patrols. She also tries to find longer-term parking spots by making arrangements with business owners, but car life isn't always easy. The woman documents how she lost one of her long-term spaces after the business owner changed his mind about allowing her to park in his lot.
Bowen-Loven also doesn't have a job that requires her to be stationary, which allows her nomadic lifestyle. Instead of clocking in for a nine-to-five where she has to live in one location, she DoorDash in whatever city she's currently in. If you're curious about her showering, hair styling, or personal hygiene routines, the nomad has a gym membership that grants her access to facilities in any state.
Bowen-Loven also utilizes the Rover app to pet sit. It not only provides her with another source of income but also offers an air-conditioned place to stay during the hotter months, accommodating pet owners on vacation for a week or two at a time. It's the perfect gig for someone living the van life who wants a short break from sleeping in their vehicle. Instead of staying in her home state of North Carolina, Bowen-Loven follows the sun to avoid dealing with the colder fall and winter months.
If you think you need a large SUV or to spend upwards of $30k a year on a place to live, you don't. Bowen-Loven makes it work with her Prius, and before her short stint at trying apartment living again, the car fit her and her service dog Sugar, who passed away last year. The nomadic woman believes so much in living the kind of life you want that she wrote an ebook called Nomad Unlocked: A Solo Female's Guide to Living on the Road.
When one woman explained that car life wouldn't work for her family of seven, Bowen-Loven didn't hesitate to ease the concern, writing, "Nope, not in a car, but have seen large families do bus life and RV life!"
In another comment, someone responds to her video, asking if renters are okay by saying, "No, I am NOT okay. Especially living in a beach town in Southern California. I am seriously considering buying an RV." To which Bowen-Loven responds, "Girllll I don’t even wanna ask how much the rent is 😭. I want to buy an RV tooo!!! There’s apps I talk about in my ebook that are great too for finding good parking areas for RVs. But yes rv life and nomad life are soooo much better in my opinion!!"
