Author: Overcoming Adversity | Buteau’s Odyssey

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A couple of weeks ago, after a hiking accident, I found myself in a hospital. Despite feeling raw, when the doctor entered, I noticed something about his scrubs. They were inside-out. I didn’t say anything at first, but my internal monologue was on it: Does he know? Would it be kind to say something? Or is it not my business… and just awkward? But as he handed me my discharge papers, I decided to go for it. In response, he paused and deadpanned: “Most scrubs are reversible.” In other words, they were fine. It was mildly embarrassing, but also clarifying.…

If you ordered a bone-in ribeye and were served orange chicken, how would you react? That’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (henceforth The Mummy). It’s not so much a mummy movie as it is an Evil Dead movie. Shades of The Exorcist, as well? There’s nothing reminiscent of popular mummified cinema or established monster lore. Cronin gets nasty with peeling flesh and vomitron effects, but overall, the filmmaker’s desire to avoid classic familiarity feels like a pointed betrayal. Did an intern type the wrong title by accident, and no one noticed??? Jack Reynor stars as Charlie Cannon, an American journalist at…

Parental Alienation (PA) is a term used to describe the refusal of a child or adolescent to engage with one parent due to the intentional or unintentional negative influence and/or manipulation of the other parent, often in the context of a high-conflict relationship breakdown, separation, or divorce. The short- and long-term negative impacts of PA on children and adolescents — who are already stressed, saddened, and confused by the myriad disruptions and breakdown of their family unit — can be devastating. Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) was introduced in the 1980s by American child psychiatrist Dr. Richard A. Gardner. He asserted…

While streaming Is This Thing On? on Hulu last night, I found myself wishing that Alex and Tess Novak were my therapy clients. The film, starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern and directed by Bradley Cooper (who also plays Alex’s brother), opens with a matter-of-fact but consequential decision: the end of a 20-year marriage. The separation unfolds with a kind of emotional flatness that is, at times, frustrating. Tess’ expression rarely shifts from brow-bending disappointment. Alex comes alive only in an unexpected new arena—stand-up comedy—where he begins to process the marriage and its demise in front of strangers rather than…

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As a college professor for over 30 years, I’ve watched the hyper-fetishization of the first-year experience. Do colleges and universities not also have an ethical responsibility to students, families, and the larger community to offer just as much deep and thoughtful planning and programming for college seniors? I believe institutions should think much more seriously about instituting what I’m calling “the Senior Launch” as an infrastructure of support for seniors to bookend the college experience. While there are some colleges claiming to be doing something of the sort, they’re often advertised as, “Need a credit? Take this.” Essentially, that’s cheap…

How countless video game adaptations rich with harvested lore fail miserably, while a brain-teaser walking simulator becomes a trippy psychological thriller? Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8 stays faithful to KOTAKE CREATE’s The Exit 8, crafting a compelling 94 minutes from a subway passageway loop. Kawamura and co-writer Kentaro Hirase key into the Escherian horrors of lemmings caught in a tedious cycle, finding drama in a mundane game of “What’s Different This Time?” It’s like getting caught in a nightmare version of a Highlights magazine picture puzzle, except with more societal commentary and Kubrickian bleeding walls. Kazunari Ninomiya stars as “The Lost…

A’ja Wilson — the superstar center for Las Vegas — has earned WNBA MVP honors four times. And based on the odds, Wilson could take home trophy No. 5 at the end of the season.Let’s take a look at a few names of players who are in the WNBA MVP race with odds via FanDuel Sportsbook as of April 16.This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about Sports Betting on FOX Sports.WNBA regular-season MVP 2026Caitlin Clark (Fever): +270 (bet $10 to win…

This post is the second in a two-part series. You can read Part 1 here. People who continually present themselves as a victim to pull others in tend to repeat this pattern, and it does not stay confined to one situation or one relationship. The same kind of sequence appears again and again. Something is raised that invites concern, and the other person is gradually drawn in. Once they are sufficiently engaged, their response is reworked, corrected, or dismissed. And through that, the centre of the interaction shifts back to the victim. It begins to feel less like a conversation…