Right around the time I turned six, my dad also read The Hobbit to me and my older brother. I don’t have a ton of memories from that age, but that is one that has always stuck with me. I can’t wait to read it, and all sorts of other books, to my kids. Great to see some lists of good books to start out with.

The water point is also a good one. Typically they will ask if you want “still” or not, but it is always good to specify. Free water is definitely not the norm. At smaller, more local places you can find it more often, but it is atypical. If you are coming from the US, be prepared to be paying a lot for basic drinks…

My favorite tip for when people come to visit is the former Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen (http://www.stiftung-hsh.de). Is the best of the historical tours I have been on in the City and provides a super interesting glimpse into the more recent history of Berlin. Tours are often guided by former inmates.

One of my favorites that I played with a friend was the original _Splosion Man_.

I used a site specific to expats in Germany (toytowngermany). It is a good way of meeting English speakers here, which is great if you aren’t yet too comfortable in German. The first group I ended up meeting was for kickball. I think it helped that it was a sport/activity — makes it easier to chat with new people and…

I have noticed that I drink much more water since starting my current job — they have a water machine in the kitchen that dispenses water with and without gas. I keep a glass at my desk that I refill multiple times a day. It gives me a reason to get up and walk around as well.

This is my game, too. As a kid I always played as Yoshi, but picked the game back up in college (and was forced to pick someone else). My roommates and I became insanely good at this game. We all ended up in a University Mario Kart N64 tournament. I got first place, my roommates got 2nd and 3rd (out of 250). I won a…

Love a Chimay Blue... delicious Belgian beer.

The only thing that really bothers me about the calendar is what happens when you scroll... seriously, scrolling in monthly view is crazy. Also that it displays everyone's birthday... Otherwise I don't mind it, though I barely use a calendar anyway.

A fair point. What made it an (easier) transition for me was simply that my most important email is one that I own. Originally it was set up to work through a gmail account, but I recently switched it to work through Outlook.com instead. That said, I still keep my various accounts (gmail included) and use them for…

Microsoft really did a great job with Outlook. I hated hotmail, but now I have moved over to using Outlook over Gmail for the most part.

Having just walked out of the subway in Berlin, this would be a really cool game to play. They just need to make sure they have enough of the lines blocked off due to construction to make it realistic.

Agreed. This all looks so delicious. About to leave for lunch, too... Pretty sure the top image is soba noodles — would love a giant pile of them right now.

CTR? And I found MK64 to be way better than the SNES version. It and Super Smash Bros made the N64 the most used console on my Freshman Hall at University (this being around the time Halo 3 came out).

I honestly would be more excited for a well-made kart racer than I ever was for any of the other angry bird games. Mario Kart 64 still stands (in my book) as one of the greatest quick-play, multiplayer games ever. It was simple, but had a lot of depth to it if you played enough to figure out its little tricks.

As I understand it (and as a quick search still seems to support), yes, you will have to reinstall everything. It is basically a clean install rather than a true upgrade.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "update". You can go from using the preview to using the full version of 8.1, but in doing so you will lose your downloaded programs.

Yes, if you installed the Preview, updating the the full version will mean you will lose all installed apps. I am pretty sure you can keep your personal files, however.

This is why I like reading comments on io9.

This was my thought, too. I want this movie to be good, but the movement was just completely unbelievable.