Calvin College is hosting one Festival of Faith & Writing.

Even though they [Calvin] teach Intelligent Design, Andrea and I are going to be attending said Festival.

Two very signifigant presences to me are going to be there:
- Douglas Coupland
- Frederick Buechner

Douglas Coupland has become something of a philosophical mentor to me through his writings in the past few years. His writings, a clever reminder of the more important ironies in life that I have a tendency to overlook in the process of living life itself.

While I haven't read any of his fiction yet, Buechner has become a theosophical mentor from the point that Andrea introduced me to his writings almost 2 years ago.

I am rather excited to be attending a writing conference with those names on the speaking roster—let alone a Christian writing conference.

I have high hopes of coming one step closer to unlocking life's mysteries there. ;)

So about a month ago, Andrea and I went to see Big Fish. It was such a good movie that each of us attempted to jealously snatch up intellectual ownership of the film.

But really, when it comes down to it, I think the movie has such a universal quality to it that most people will find it difficult not to see themselves in the film. It's just that good.

The following week, Andrea pointed the book out to me in Borders and I picked it up for reading. 179 pages, I finished it this past weekend.

I should have flown through the book. It should have moved me to cry all over again, but it did not. Because this is one of those odd situations in which the movie is better than the book.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say: "The movie is deeper than the book."

On a level, the changes and additions made by the movie are merely cosmetic.

So the tall tales are are a little more ridiculous in the movie.

So Edward Bloom has an affair with the girl from Specter in the book.

So in the book, the son William, is less a character in the story and more just a narrator.

So, a dozen other minor differences that make the story in the book less mythical.

The fact of the matter is that Big Fish is a good book. Another friend of mine commented that she wished she had read the book first and this is precisely what I felt, myself, when I set it down last night.

The changes made in the film, each seeming so small, take what Daniel Wallace did in his book and expound on it. In the end, the changes made in the movie build on the book and make a more complete story.

It leaves me thinking: "This is how book-to-movie adaptations should be done."

This just in from the 'Bout Freakin Time department:
Classic Star Wars Trilogy to be released on DVD.

Long have we waited for this news. And I'm sure many Bothans died...