About a Boy

The following post contains spoilers. Reader discretion is advised.

The first time I heard about the novel About a Boy by Nick Hornby was at my first year of social work, where we read a few excerpts at the English class. It wasn't until much later that I watched the movie and liked it. A few weeks ago the movie was on TV again and I rewatched, liked it again and decided to read the book as well. Now I finished the book and it's really good.
So, what are the differences? Up to about half the book the movie was quite a good adaptation, only leaving out a few minor things (Marcus renting Groundhog Day) and changing others (in the book, they went to the picnic with Suzie's car). The later part contained more discrepancies and the ending is totally different. Where the ending in the movie with Marcus and Will singing Killing me Softly was very sweet, the ending in the book with the jail was much better at showing how much the characters have grown during the story.
In conclusion, this is a very nice story, the differences make it worth both reading and watching it. They are both new entries in my favourite books/movies :)

X-Men: The Last Stand & First Class anomalies

I recently watched the latest X-Men movie (First Class). It is by far the best of the series. But the end brings some anomalies with the beginning of the third movie (Last Stand).
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The majority of First Class is set in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. At the end of the movie Charles/Prof X still has hair, loses the ability to walk, parts ways with Erik/Magneto and starts his school.
The prologue of Last Stand is set "20 years ago" (the majority of the movie is set "in the not too distant future", so this should be in the 80s), where a bald and walking Charles goes with Erik to visit Jean Grey's parents and talk to them about his school.

I think there are two possible explanations for these anomalies.
1) Each od these two movies is set in its own universe, while the other three are set in either or both.
2) Some time after the events of First Class Magneto takes his helmet off and returns to Xavier. Xavier installs some kind of iron exoskeleton and sends telepathic signals to Magneto who in turn uses his powers to move the exoskeleton.

School's out!

For more than a week now, but haven't had the will to post it :D I finished all of my exams so I'm free until October. Except for that one day in September when I have to enrol. But until then I have lots of free time.

I borrowed some Discworld books from the library, I started playing SimCity4 and I plan on doing some programming for fun. And watch movies.

Series' cancellation

Towards the end of May is the time, when most series get the final verdict, either they are cancelled or renewed. I picked up a few new series to watch this year , so I was especially curious which ones I'll get to watch next season again. The result? Only The Game of Thrones.
Here are the ones that didn't make it:

• No Ordinary Family: I actually gave up on this super-powered family after about 10 episodes myself, so no tears shed here.
• Shit My Dad Says: A nice comedy about father-son relationships. It ended with a cliffhanger!
• Better With You: Another comedy, this time about three couples (a mature couple, their two daughters and their boyfriends). Luckily this one had a nice finale that rounded up the story.
• Off the Map: Grey's Anatomy in the jungle, what could be wrong about that? Apparently enough to get them cancelled with a cliffhanger.
• The Event: Biggest disappointment. The show was getting better with each episode. One more episode next week. There's a bit of hope that the show may be picked up by some other network... fingers crossed.
• Lie to Me: Not a new show, this one got cancelled after three seasons. It was a good show, with real science behind it, good actors and characters. Unfortunately it missed a central plot, a red line to connect the episodes.
  
• (Smallville: Not cancelled, but finally reached its final season. It's finally over and I'm free from its spell. At least until the spin-offs come...)