So I came across a quote, which I originally saw as a screenshot in some random context, but I tracked it down to this Tweet. It was a response to the prompt, “Tell me you’re a woman without telling me you’re a woman,” and the quote went like this:

Telling…

Every now and again I’ll see some list on some travel site about the good and bad things about living in Japan. …

“Make sure you have a backup plan.”

In some contexts, that’s reasonable advice. But it’s taken me about three decades to understand that it’s a concept that took my life in all sorts of wrong directions.

It was something my father said, but not like in a movie scene where…

Good Will Hunting is a terrible movie for all sorts of reasons, but I find the fundamental premise particularly toxic. It’s something that hits me on a deeper level, because I’m basically the person that the fantasy of Good Will Hunting is supposed to appeal to.

I grew up in…

“You see, the thing you need to know about Japan is…”

I didn’t hear the rest of what the guy was saying. You know how you blink a couple times because your brain needs to catch up with the reality of a moment? …

I have a drawing, a story, a project, a thing, anything, one of many many things I want to work on. I’m sitting down, I’m at my computer, I have my pen and pencil and sketchbook and whatever else I need and I’m ready to go. Time to start.

But…

(No spoilers that could impact anything, partly because this movie is so devoid of any meaningful structure that it’s not really possible to spoil anything.)

Did I miss something? Were there a bunch of other movies made in this cinematic universe that I didn’t see?

“He said he wants to maybe retire on a beach in Thailand with me,” says my friend over lunch. Out of context, it sounds like a pleasant enough idea. But she’s not thrilled about it.

“It’s so weird that he included me in that fantasy. As if I’m just an…