I really like cheese nuggets - olives baked in a cheese dough. But then I pretty much like anything with cheese.

Okay, my biggest tip would be to stay at a Universal hotel if at all possible, especially if you are going during a busy time. With the more expensive hotels you get a pass so you do not have to stand in any regular lines but in the much shorter express lines (kind of like fastpass). It can save a lot of time if it is busy. Also, you get the pass for the day before and after the hotel stay so one night gets you two days, two nights three days etc. We went in late August / Labor Day and the pass saved quite a bit the first day, less the second as it wasn't very busy. The more luxurious hotels are not cheap (though less than fancy Disney hotels), but there are also less expensive Universal places. We actually only stayed one night at a luxury property (for two days of passes) and the other nights at Cabana Bay which I loved. For a reasonable price we got to stay in one of their family suites - kind of a living room with kitchenette and pull-out couch as well as a bedroom. It is themed very nicely like a roadtrip motel in the 50's. You do not get the Express Pass but you are within easy walking distance to Volcano Bay (Universal's waterpark), early entry into Harry Potter World, and buses to CityWalk (from which you can easily walk to the other parks) run pretty much constantly. Cabana Bay also has a very nice food court (in the style of a diner), a great pool, activities, and a bowling alley (rather expensive). I actually enjoyed Cabana Bay more than the other, more expensive Universal hotel we stayed at because I loved the theme, appreciated the easily available, affordable food, and was glad that everyone had their own bed. Also, you are allowed to pool hop at Universal so you can use all the fancy pools at the other hotels as well. Aside of that, Universal is a lot easier to organize than Disney. It tends to be less crowded and a touring plan is much less important. A lot (most) of the rides rely heavily on 3D/motion simulation. Also, you will get wet a lot - and not just a little bit but really soaking.

Hm, I will have to look at all the suggestions more in detail. I did look at the chromosome segments and I think it is on my father's side. Again, I wouldn't be surprised about the African if my ancestors lived in the US/Spain etc. but on my mother's side they have pretty much all lived in small towns in a limited area and as far as I can tell there were no sailors/soldiers etc. but small farmers etc.

Yes, I would definitely be excited to have something more exotic! However, I am not so sure about there being much movement between Europe and Africa. I can not imagine someone from Africa moving to a small town in Germany in the 1700s and being integrated (this is just my perception so I MAY be wrong). I definitely can see some sailor etc. having kids in Africa but not so much bringing them back to Germany. I guess I will have to look more into my father's family as I really can't see how it could be my mother's family (also that seems more likely based on the DNA).

So, I just got my 23andme results and for the most part they are as expected and fairly boring. I do know my family tree on one side pretty far back (late 1700s) but have little idea about my father's side. However, to the best of my knowledge all of my ancestors are from Germany (and on my mother's side from a fairly small part of it). The results I got pretty much agree with that (80+% German or general European). There is a fairly large amount of Czech but I think I know where that comes from (my father's maternal grandmother) and it isn't surprising given how close that is to Germany. However, the results also show a very small percentage of Sub-Saharan Africa (0.3%). Now that number seems really small and at first I figured it is just a leftover from way long ago - we all have African ancestors after all. But the way they show it on the website it seems it means something different. 23andme notes this likely means that I have a Sudanese ancestor who was likely born between 1700 and 1790. Pretty exciting but also very confusing! I just can't imagine how someone from the Sudan (or anywhere close) could have gotten into my family tree way back then. I don't imagine many moved from Africa to Europe back then? I know that some of you have quite a bit of experience with 23andme/genetics/genealogy so was wondering whether anyone has an idea? I know that small percentages can mean all kinds of stuff so is there any other explanation for this result?

Amazon is always a good idea. I might put in one for Ikea this year for younger ds - we are redoing rooms and he has a lot of stuff he would like to get. I will probably get older ds one for either Steam or Nintendo.

How about a game or jigsaw puzzle or cool Lego set for everyone to share? Depending on what it is you could try it out on Christmas Eve.

I'd definitely give her the big gift for Christmas. She can have some smaller stuff for her birthday and combined with a cake/party/going-out etc. it will still feel special. Going the other way, I would be afraid that even for an older kid the theoretical knowledge (I already got my big gift and won't be getting much for Christmas) won't be enough to soften the blow if there really is little under the tree at Christmas (this depends a bit on how lavish your Christmases have been in the past of course). To be honest, I would be disappointed in the same case even if I knew / understood intellectually. Also, I would probably try to still get a number of gifts to make birthday/Christmas feel special (I am all about gifts though) but would try to spend less money. Obviously, it depends on what the child enjoys but often there can be cheaper alternatives that still make good gifts e.g. in the past I have gotten used Legos and used comics quite inexpensively, I guess it also depends a bit on what the main gift is as some are more fun in the moment than others. I would try to make sure there is plenty to do/enjoy at Christmas (e.g. a new game, jigsaw puzzle, books etc.)

Mud!

All my jobs have been fairly enjoyable. I loved being a nanny. Nothing bad about it. I enjoyed working as an auditor - there is quite a bit of interaction with different people, you get to work with different clients in various industries, you are generally very well treated, there is enough pressure to make it interesting, and we worked in teams consisting of mostly young people of the same age which made it quite fun. I do enjoy my current job as a translator. It is very flexible, I work from home, and I get to translate interesting stuff (well, most of the time) from quite different areas. Negatives are that I have practically no interaction with other people (other than per email) which is rather lonely and I don't have set evenings/days off. Also, as a freelancer everthing is a bit uncertain - I never know how much I will make in a month etc.

No personal experience but I would take a close look at the reviews and see what the problems are: poor customer service, late delivery, poor quality... and then decide whether it is something that is important to you. People differ in what they consider a problem. E.g. if I order something for Christmas on Amazon now I don't really care whether it takes two or ten days to arrive. Also, sometimes poor reviews are mostly for a certain aspect.

Definitely will check out these two games! Any other recommendations?

I am looking for a computer game for myself for Christmas (yes, I know it is kind of sad having to buy your own presents but still - a present is a present). It needs to run on a regular PC (fairly new but definitely not a gaming computer). Generally, I have enjoyed adventure games, puzzles, and some strategy games. I suck at action type stuff so would rather avoid that. I especially like themes of mystery, treasure searches, history, etc. I do not like horror so nothing to bloody/gruesome or dark/depressing. So what would you recommend (I'll probably buy on Steam but that isn't absolutely necessary)?

Well, to me the problem isn't a stance on immigration (i.e. how strongly it should be enforced) but the way we treat people and even more how we think of them. To me, a country may well be in its right to send people back (or not - depending on circumstances) but there is no excuse for talking about immigrants (even if they arrive illegaly) as somehow less worthy of human dignity or as lesser people than others. Why should someone who had the good fortune to be born in the US be a better or more worthy person than someone from another place? Even if we assume that an immigrant enters the country illegally (though I believe asking for refuge is legal?) they are still people and need to be treated with fairness and compassion.

I grew up in Germany and of course always heard about the Nazi atrocities but I never could quite wrap my mind around anti-semitism. It just always sounded so silly and pointless. Obviously, any discrimination is wrong but to a certain extent I can understand (but not excuse!) it if it is of someone fundamentally different/threatening. But Jewish? I just never could understand it and I could never understand how people could get swept away by it. I still don't understand anti-semitism but I do see now how it is basically happening again (though hopefully it will stop before more harm is done). The feeling of superiority, of being somehow "better" as people than others, the reverence for military power and authoritanism... I still don't understand it but I see it happening. It is deeply disturbing to say the least as I would have hoped we have learned from our tragic mistakes.

Could you require a talk/intro session for students that want to sign up for your class in which you emphasize the difficulty (i.e. scare them a bit) and recommend them taking the General Biology class first? Maybe it would sway at least a couple of kids.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Okay, I do not work in this field at all but just a thought (probably not doable but you never know): Could something be done with the course offerings? I don't know what classes you teach but would it help if different classes were offered, a more introductory/easier one and one that is more advanced? Especially at a community college I could imagine that the level of ability of the students might differ quite a bit. Also, are all the students taking the class majoring in the subject? I think lowering standards seems less of a problem for a general requirement class.

That really sucks... However, if you are stuck with the job (or just enjoy it etc.) and are deciding what to do I would look at the problem more closely and see what feels the least invasive/like giving up: Is the number of withdraws large enough to affect the outcome? If so, what is the reason for withdrawals and is there a way around them? E.g. if people withdraw for personal reasons, could that be taken out of the equation? Do you feel your tests ARE maybe harder than they really need to be? Could the tests be changed so they are still challenging and require effort to do well but will have less bad grades? Would it be possible to limit the scope of material for a text somewhat and concentrate more on the crucial elements? Or would other kinds of evaluation work? Clearly, it is crucial that students understand the material but some ways of testing may not work so well for them (e.g. my son doesn't really have a flair for writing essays and so might not do very well in a test that requires a lot of writing about a subject even if he knows the important facts). Or would you rather grade on a curve? Everything else would stay the same and just the meaning of grades would change e.g. I live overseas and here we have grades from 1-6; 1s are generally quite rare. There are usually some 2s but mostly 3s and 4s. Less 5s and 6s which are pretty much failing. In contrast the US uses less different grades. Depending on how you adjust the grading you could have As as good-very good, Bs as average to okay, and have Cs be more like Ds. It would look good on paper but doesn't change the difficulties. A C would just be a "worse" grade than now and after a while people would become aware of it. All this is not to say you should do one of the above or that your current way of doing it isn't the best one. But if you want to keep the job AND have to adjust to this, I think it comes down to the lesser evil.

I can totally understand your concern but hopefully, the child will "pick" one way or the other soon? It sounds like that would not be discouraged and especially if the child does experience a sense of isolation compared to the other kids it seems likely that soon a decision will be made? If so, I don't think it will really matter too much in the long term. Hope it works out for your family.

Maybe some small craft set for a ship in a bottle (or similar)? Books about history/sailing? Guitar picks (Is that what they are called)? Notes? A special knife/plane etc. for woodworking? Cool socks? A magazine to go with one of his hobbies?

To a certain extent I can see both sides but I do think such an issue should be handled with some grace. I think it is perfectly okay to not want a long-term relationship with a new-found relation, but I don't think it is okay to be rude about it. And as far as relatives "popping up uninvited" - well, they almost always do, don't they? I mean for the most parts we didn't ask for our siblings, cousins, etc. We get them without our consent and have no choice about it (we do have of course a choice how much contact we want). I was raised with the idea that "family secrets" are a bad idea (which doesn't necessarily mean there aren't any in my family). But today things have largely changed and stuff that happened 50+ years ago doesn't seem worth getting all upset about to me.

Huh, it is interesting how different we experience things. I had a fairly normal, happy upbringing and would be more excited than anything else to find a half-sibling (at least I think I would). I have ordered my DNA test but don't expect any great surprises. I don't THINK there are hidden skeletons in my parents' generation and anything farther back really wouldn't bother me.

I did not read the replies but only the OP (sorry to all those who hate that) but personally I am not a fan of worrying about "cultural appropriation" aside of the most glaring cases. What is so wrong about adapting other people's customs etc. to your own needs? That is one of the main ways societies change (and quite often for the better). It seems a bit stingy to grudge others the same experiences (again I am not talking about really glaring examples here) - like if you are not 100% Italian you can't eat pizza? I honestly don't quite get the whole thing. (I will get around to reading the replies sometime soon and maybe will change my outlook)

Yes, I dislike that one too, a lot. Happens to me mostly on Tripadvisor. You say perfectly politely that you wonder how to get from your hotel in X to place Y and everyone will tell you why a) a hotel in X is a horrible idea and b) Y is not worth your time. Which wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't explained earlier why it has to be hotel X and why place Y is on my list.