nakedsushi

Whaat? Was it a ramen restaurant -- as in a restaurant that specializes in ramen? In my experience, unless the restaurant is a ramen restaurant, they're probably not gonna make you the broth from scratch. From the ramen I've had at ramen restaurants, there's definitely a difference. The texture of the noodles is more chewy and less wrinkled, the broth is richer and less salty, and the slices of meat just melt in my mouth.

Yes. It was my first Le Carre book and I really liked it. It is a slog and very confusing at first, but the payoff is very worth it. I recommend it if you want a rewarding book. But just a warning, it's a complete opposite of Ian Flemming (as mentioned in the podcast) so don't go into it expecting a whole lot of action.

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach Yes! I third the pick for The Art of Fielding. I don't even like baseball, but really liked The Art of Fielding. Wouldn't mind reading it again. My only concern is that it kind of has the same "feel" as A Sense of an Ending does in that it's kind of a bildungsroman centered on a male character. Not sure if we want to branch out between books. As an extra credit project, people should read Vanity Fair's How A Book is Born *after* The Art of Fielding: Vanity Fair's How a Book is Born: The Making of The Art of Fielding by Keith Gessen It's an interesting short piece about how the book got published.

Which other work by Barnes do you recommend? I liked his prose and the technicalities of his writing, but did not enjoy the actual plot or story as much as I wanted to in The Sense of an Ending. I'm interested in reading more of his stuff.

I just got done listening to episode 0 in the car and am psyched for the next episode. A request though: Can we have a theme song too, like the Idle Thumbs theme song? I found myself singing along to the Idle Thumbs theme song ( ) but with the lyrics:Books, reading a book, reading a book, reading a boo-ok. But I'm sure a better theme song can be had!

I wouldn't mind reading Bel Canto. I'd like to suggest books that we normally wouldn't read or have read, so Murakami is a no go for me. Same for Lolita, since most people have read it. How about another Nabokov? Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Loved the omnibus. The first "story" was heartbreaking and got me hooked.

Oops, forgot to sign in to the forums till the reminder in the Idle Books podcast 0. I'm biased because I work there, but the site is great and has encouraged me to read a lot more books than i used to. Here I am: http://www.goodreads.com/louise

Hello thread revival! So I'm playing the beta and while I can see this as a game I would enjoy --oneday-- I'm still very new to it and the DoTA mechanics. Unfortunately, most of the people I've been playing with in the public games are jerk-faces and aren't helpful at all, which makes being new pretty frustrating. Instead of "Hey, newb, how about doing X instead of Y?" I get a bunch of, "OMG, useless. Just quit, blah blah." If anyone would like to play or give me some pointers, my summoner's name is the same as my handle here. I usually get on in the evenings.

Moon I was alerted to this movie last week thru an Idlethumbs tweet and checked out the trailer. The trailer made this movie feel exactly like Solaris, which I didn't care much for, but since I'm a sci-fi fiend, I went to watch it anyway. It was great. The trailer was misleading, but I won't say why for fear of spoilers. Moon is just a well paced movie with a haunting score (another one by Clint Mansell) and it gave me something to think about after the movie was over. Don't come into the theater thinking you'll see an action packed movie with tons of special effects. It's more of a thinking-type sci fi than a lasers and space battles sci fi. The only thing I was a little unsure of was the Kevin Spacey robot. His facial expressions were hilarious and cute, but it was too much Kevin Spacey and not enough robot.

Now that I've been playing for a week, the analog stick on the 360 isn't too bad. It's still tricky playing charge players, but I'm glad I didn't go looking all over the place for a gamepad now.

Let's play! I got the 360 version last week and tried to play with the dpad, but couldn't pull off anyone's Supers or Ultras at all. Switched to analog stick and that seems to work alright for me except now I can't pull off some specials that require precise movements like ones that require the 'Z shaped' movement icon. Works fine when I use the dpad, not so good with the analog stick. If anyone wants to play, send me an invite when I'm on. But don't laugh at my lack of skills. I only know how to play 2 characters GT: NakedSushi

Thanks for reading my reader-mail guys. I hope all my marketing friends don't end up de-friending me. At least I'll get less email blasts then.

I don't consciously have an online persona other than not sharing too personal things about myself. But I have been told by people whom I've met and communicated with online and then met IRL later that I'm exactly the same online and IRL. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing I do think the internet provides some sort of barrier for people which allows them to be more forward or open than they usually are. There were several people I've met, who have been very opinionated online, but meek and "internet awkward" in real life.

Yeah Spencer's great when he's not being mysterious