World Cup and Blog Template

1) The 2nd 2014 World Cup semifinals ended in penalties with Argentina winning 4-2 against the Netherlands. I particularly dislike penalties. It seems so unfair that 5 players get to share the pressure of scoring a goal each while a goalkeeper bears all the pressure of saving 5 goals.

2) I feel like updating the look of the blog. Something more simpler. A new colour scheme. It was sometime end of last year that I decided on the look of this blog, creating the background, banner, icons but only started posting in March. Months later, now, when I am posting more frequently, the look of the blog no longer suits me. So expect things to change in the next few weeks.

Book after Movie: Children of Men

How many times have I or any other reader complained that a movie adaptation is soo much different from the book that it is based on. Yet there are instances when I'm glad that the movie deviates from the book. Perhaps this is only in the cases where I have only read the book after watching movie. Maybe not? But the two I remember is where I had watch the movie first.

The first being Ella Enchanted.

More recently Children of Men.

I loved the Children of Men movie when it came out a few years ago. A bleak vision of the future that seem so simple and probable. Like Ella Enchanted, I didn't even know it was based on a book until a few years later.

The thing about reading a book that has been turned into a movie is that you already know the story. The fun of discovery and surprise goes out the window. But I was pleasantly surprise soon after I started the Children of Men book that the story is quite different from the movie. Yes the premise is the same, mankind can no longer procreate, and the cast of characters are similar with similar characteristics and yet some of their roles in the story is different. The book too delves more into power hungry leaders and the tendency of power to corrupt those who believe they set out to do good. While the movie did this as well by showing the unraveling of the rebellion I saw the movie more of a dangerous journey to find a safe haven and hope.

Did I know what would happen to Theo halfway through the book? No. Theo in the book was faced with different obstacles than the Theo in the movie. And like I have said at the start of this post I rather like rediscovering a somewhat similar story.

Have you had similar experiences as I had with a book?

Neglected

This blog has been thoroughly neglected.

I'll try and do better.

I've been wanting to write some posts for awhile. Unfortunately most of the time when I'm actually online, I'm using either my phone or my iPad and that isn't the ideal way to blog. If only they make a better blogger app.

Anyway, I've just finished reading a book which I'll blog about soon.

Divergent Trailer...

I've been avoiding watching the Divergent trailer for a long while but I finally saw it the other day when some entertainment show on TV featured the trailer...just as the movie's premiere is upon us. Have to say, I'm not quite sold on it. It lacks that must see vibe. I'm not sure which trailer version I saw but it also look a bit incoherent. If I hadn't read the book I would never have known what it was suppose to be about from trailer. Of course this doesn't mean that I won't watch the movie...of course I will.

Anyway the movie opens this week, let's see how it does at the box office.  If I'm going to make a guess...I don't think it will do as well as Twilight or The Hunger Games...it just doesn't have that xfactor.

Ender's Game (2013)

Recently I watched Ender's Game. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the movie as much as I'd like. I won't compare the book and the movie. I think movies should be able to stand on its own regardless of its faithfulness to the book. Instead, I'll just say what I didn't like about the movie. Two main things really: I thought the dialogue was weak. The movie has some great actors yet everything that's said on screen seemed a bit awkward and off. I don't believe them as the characters they're playing. Secondly a lot of adaptations are often trying to squeeze hundreds of pages into a 2 hour movie. As a result scenes are often rushed. The same is evident here and what made it worse is that the movie does little to indicate that months or years have passed in between. One moment Ender is a new kid in battle school, a few scenes latter he has gained the respect of his peers and soon he is in command school. Anyone who has not read the book may have had the impression that Ender is breezing his way through his military career, which is not true.

Have you seen Ender's Game. What did you think of it?

I still watch American Idol

I do. I still find it entertaining, plus there's not much great TV to watch other than it. Scratch that, there is a lot of great TV shows out there, but they are not airing in Singapore at all or are only aired on the more premium cable channels. And I kinda think this season of American Idol probably has the best panel of judges who really seem to know what they are talking about rather than just seeking a response from the audience. I'm hearing less of the shallow and simplistic "you look great or sound great" comment. They are giving more constructive criticism, from the actual singing to the contestants handling of the stage, going deeper on why the performance is good, bad or how they can do better. So yeah, I'll give a thumbs up for this season. Let's hope the contestants use all the good feedback and give us better performances.

Hello World

I have to admit, this is not my first blog. The others had more specific themes, which also meant they required more work. Writing reviews is not easy especially when you're not much of a writer.

So with this blog, I want it to be more general where I'll just blog whatever I like. And what I like mostly is reading books and watching tv and movies. That's also where I got the title of my blog and my blogger nickname because I do love wandering through the shelves looking at books and DVDs.

Anyway, I do hope this is the beginning of a fun blogging adventure.