#dr. neff

[weirdlookindog]

Red Dragon Comics #3 - Street & Smith, May 1948.

Cover art by Bob Powell.

First comic book appearance of Dr. Bill Neff the Spook Show Magician.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

1950s-1960s Spook Shows

[awareness-and-healing]

.❤️.

.

[noisyexpertobject]

Winter 2023 Blog Update (Part 6 of 6) ~ Media Recommendations List

Winter 2023 Blog Update (Part 6 of 6) ~ Media Recommendations List #Triggers #Confrontation #Communication #Assertiveness #Boundaries #LifeTransitions #Wholeheartedness #Vocation #Perfectionism #Goals #DonMiguelRuiz #ToltecWisdom #Enneagram #RubenÖstlund

If you’re interested in followup resources to explore some of the themes I’ve covered in my Winter 2023 Blog Update project, please consider my media recommendations below. Please note that my suggested media list includes affiliate links from Amazon. I may earn a small commission if these items are purchased using the links I have provided.  Throughout my freelance writing work, I’ve contented…

[bdkinz]

Self compassion as a door to compassion for others

Self compassion as a door to compassion for others

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a meaningful holiday for me. It is one of a series of opportunities in the year to take stock and to start anew. Unlike other times, such as my birthday and my wedding anniversary, part of the power of Rosh Hashanah is how together, communally, we are all together in this process of establishing a New Beginning, a new hope for the upcoming year. Through the…

[ironunderstands]

Double Indemnity, Spellbound and how a retroactive plot twist kicked the communities ass (which also has some VERY interesting implications for Aventio)

I had a very enlightening conversation on TikTok about the nature of these two romance/thrillers, and while unfortunately, I have no idea how to watch them, the plot synopses I’ve seen and analysis other people have made have caused me to come to this conclusion/interpretation of these references:

On the first viewing of the Double Indemnity questline, the reference to the DI movie is meant to be played straight, with Aventurine and Ratio being just as doomed to fail as they are in the movie, and their relationship as equally as toxic and fake.

On second viewing, it’s the complete opposite, and the track (and other movie reference) you receive at the end, Spellbound, proves it.

Let’s start with Double Indemnity.

Also disclaimer I’m gonna be over simplifying the plot/themes of these movies because a) both are singular references, DI is only referenced in the name of the quest itself and Spellbound is only referenced in a track you receive once you complete DI, and references this small probably aren’t meant to be anything more than a fun Easter egg for those who notice it b) this is hoyoverse they aren’t clever enough for that anyways c) the nature of references isn’t going to be having everything be the exact same anyways, so I’m just going to go with the overall interpretation of DI + Spellbound/their impact, picking the stuff which aligns with the actual plot of the DI quest, I don’t care what happens in one frame at 30:01.56 minutes in and neither do the writers

Anyways, how does the Double Indemnity reference on the first viewing seem?

On our first play through of the Double Indemnity quest, we are made to believe that Dr. Ratio and Aventurine do not trust each other, but they are begrudgingly working together for the sake of stealing Penacony for the IPC. Then, Aventurine makes it seem as if he wishes to use the singer Robin’s- also the sister of Sunday, the head of the Oak Family and the one they are negotiating with- death as a means to pressure Sunday into forking over some of the Family’s secrets, which Aventurine will then use against him in future negotiations.

With this setup, the Double Indemnity reference is a solemn warning- Aventurine and Ratio will fail.

You see, in the movie, Phyllis Dietrechson intends to kill her husband in order to earn the money from the Double Indemnity clause (which is a real legal thing btw!), roping in one Walter Neff when he falls for her. However, their relationship isn’t stable and in the end, Walter betrays Phyllis, ratting her out to the investigator Keyes, ultimately meaning they don’t earn the DI clause, also killing Phyllis in the process.

Hopefully you can already see where I’m going with this, but it’s time to draw some fun parallels.

Sunday is Keyes, Ratio is Walter, Aventurine is Phyliss and Robin is Phyliss’s husband.

Although Aventurine a) isn’t married to Robin and b) he didn’t actually kill her, he is the one who witnessed her “death” and in the first viewing of the Double Indemnity quest, we are made to believe he intends to profit off of it, although this time the payout isn’t money: it’s Penacony.

To do this, he enlists the help of Ratio- albeit not seducing him, but still convincing him to help nonetheless- and together they go to meet Sunday for negotiations.

However, Ratio “betrayed” Aventurine, ratting him out to Sunday behind his back and informing him of his plan, which mirrors how Walter confesses to Keyes. This results in Aventurine being sentenced to death, much like how Phyllis dies by Walter’s hand, Aventurine seems like he will die by Ratio’s, calling him a wretch before slinking off.

And there you go, their partnership is as doomed as the one in the movie, failing because their trust + love didn’t hold up till the end, a devious foreshadowing.

At least, that’s how it seems on the first playthrough.

Because Aventurine and Ratio’s plan SUCCEEDS.

And on the second viewing, knowing that the betrayal is fake, you realize they succeed because they do the one thing the people in DI (and I’ll get to Spellbound) DONT do- they actually TRUST each other.

Ratio and Aventurine’s plot is a success. And it’s because they deliberately made it seem like they were doing a Double Indemnity plot. Like they were going to make the same mistakes as the characters in the movie. Sunday falls for the false appearance hook, line and sinker, and that’s his downfall.

They win because they TRUST each other, you can even say because they actually LOVE each other, unlike the characters in the movie, where it’s more list than anything else. Walter and Phyllis don’t make it together to the end but Ratio and Aventurine DO, and they get to continue on with their lives because of it. The reference to Double Indemnity in this quest is genius because it works both before and after you learn the retroactive twist of Penacony. It makes you believe Aventurine + Ratio are doomed to fail, and it makes you realize they were always going to succeed, expertly dawning the false appearances Sunday expects from them, becoming literal actors playing out the roles of two people who will fall short due to their selfishness. Sunday believes he’s seen this film before which is why he BUYS IT, and god it’s just beautiful looking back on it. He thinks he’s Keyes about to uncover a dastardly plot to profit off his sisters death, and in turn he paints Ratio and Aventurine with the identities of those he believes would do such a thing, which they do their best to play into. Ugh it’s amazing.

And now, for Spellbound.

You receive this track after completing Double Indemnity, containing the description above.

Now, this is a reference to Spellbound, another one of Hitchcock’s films.

The main characters in this one are Dr. Anthony Edwards, a man suffering from amnesia, and Dr. Constance Peterson, a psychoanalyst who he was meant to replace, who discovers a dark secret about Edward’s while they fall for one another; he’s an imposter. He believes he killed the real Dr. Edward’s, but she thinks he’s just suffering from a guilt complex. Fake Edward’s goes missing, and the real Edward’s assistant arrived and informs them that he’s missing. She finds Fake Edward again, living under the pseudonym John Brown, and although he tries to leave, she convinces him to stay, telling him that with the help of her mentor, psychoanalysis can help recover his lost memories.

Through an incredibly complicated psychoanalysis of dream, Constance begins to uncover the truth- learning the person who believes himself to be Dr. Edward’s (and is using the pseudonym John Brown) is actually a man named John Ballantyne. Ballantyne accidentally caused the death of his younger brother in the past, resulting in his deep guilt, as well as recalling the location where the real Edwards died- skiing off a cliff to his death. With his memories, they find the body, but it has a bullet wound, so Ballantyne is taken into custody.

However, her boss, Dr. Murchison lets it slip that he actually used to know (and didn’t like) Dr. Edwards, and through another complicated sequence gets him to confess his guilt and ultimately kill himself, which frees Ballantyne, ending the movie with the two going on a honeymoon.

So, what does this mean in the context of the quest line?

Well, let’s say Ballantyne and Constance are representative of Ratio and Aventurine respectively.

“Every psychoanalyst must first have someone else diagnose them.”

If we read Aventurine as the psychoanalyst (Constance) and Ratio as the diagnoser/doctor (Ballantyne), it reveals an interesting interpretation.

That being that they knew the truth from the start/ they had already succeeded.

Or in other words, unlike in Double Indemnity, in Spellbound, they actually succeed.

In the film, Constance is the one doing the diagnosing, the one trying to figure out the truth, and you can see that in Aventurine pretending he’s trying to find out the truth behind Robin’s death. However, in the DI quest, it’s the opposite. Ratio’s as Ballantyne is the one doing the diagnosing for the psychoanalysist, Constance, or rather, Aventurine.

To diagnose someone, you must be very familiar with them, or at the very least the ailment plaguing them, and Ratio he knows Aventurine through and through at the start, and what plagues him (his own sense of meaninglessness) unlike the protagonists in Spellbound who despite falling for one another quickly, don’t begin being intimately familiar with one another.

In this way, they have already succeeded. Aventurine and Ratio already know one another, and while they might not know the reason behind Robin’s death, that was never what they were searching for in the beginning, meaning they effectively can skip through all the drama (aka the ups and downs of Spellbound, finding out the truth behind Robin’s/Edwards’ death), and reach their happy ending- a honeymoon; or in DI’s case, Aventurine attaining his cornerstone, and fulfilling his end of the plan.

Interestingly, Aventurine slots into the role of Ballantyne and Ratio as Constance equally well, with the phone call Constance makes to save Ballantyne being reminiscent of the note Ratio makes to save Aventurine, as well as Aventurine being the replacement, or in the sense, the one to find the truth about Robin.

Personally, I think Aventurine and Ratio are reminiscent of both the main leads in Spellbound, which is why it’s complicated to discern the meaning of the reference. Oh how I wish I knew what the original Chinese description for this was (if you do please tell me 🙏).

Is it just meant to signify them being in love? Is it meant to signify that they will succeed, due to how well they know each other? Is it both, which is what the inclusion of Double Indemnity (the movie) suggests?

Either way, it adds onto the already present idea that the trust between Aventurine and Ratio is what allowed them to succeed in Penacony, and that’s not just something expressed by these movie references.

Think Aventurines Eidolons: Stag Hunt Game and Prisoner’s Dilemma, both of which are game theories about trust. Or how Aventurine says that Ratio knows him best, or how Ratio entrusts Aventurine with close secrets of his, like him being the “Genius” of the council of Mundanites.

“Do you trust me?” “That depends on you.”

These are 2 lines in their 2.0 conversation that really stick out to me. Ratio will always offer his trust so long as Aventurine can prove himself worthy of it, and as we have seen, Aventurine always delivers, proving himself long before Penacony in the Final Victor lightcone, albeit in his weird homoerotic way.

Therefore Ratio will always trust him.

And because of that, they win.

Now whether you take the deep trust between them to be romantic or platonic, or infer the literal honeymoon at the end of Spellbound to mean something for Aventio, either way the feeling absolutely there, and it’s crucial for an understanding of their relationship.

Also damn, the retroactive plot twist fucking slaps.

[ronmerchant]

Dr. Neff's Madhouse of Mystery- 1950

[king-crawler]

The Disney villain book i ordered 3 weeks ago finally came and the sleeve was oily and chafed but at least I get the fabled single paragraph of King Candy insight

this is truly a game changer

And ralf

[TEXT DESCRIPTION BELOW]

Page 166: Disney Villains: Delightfully Evil.

KING CANDY - WRECK-IT RALPH.

RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2012.

DIRECTOR: Rich Moore.

VOICE TALENT: Alan Tudyk.

ANIMATOR: Zach Parrish.

"Everyone should have known with a pass code like UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, START that this sugary-sweet king was not on the up-and-up. Who in the gaming world doesn't know that cheat code?! King Candy is the ruler of Sugar Rush, a video game made of everything sweet to eat, or as a wise Wreck- It Ralph sees it, a "candy-coated heart of darkness.' " But Sugar Rush was not always such a dark place; it was once a happy kingdom where Princess Vanellope von Schweetz ruled until an evil racer from a game called Turbo Time messed with her code and took her game for his own. The biggest shock? King Candy and that villainous racer known as Turbo are one and the same. Alan Tudyk, the voice of King Candy, said he had imagined King Candy to be a much bigger character, size-wise, and found it really funny that he was actually such a small man."

“Portrait of King Candy. Artist: Clay Loftis. Medium: Digital."

“Final Frames of Turbo from Wreck-It Ralph (2012)”

"Concept art of Turbo. Artist: Jim Kim. Medium: digital."

Page 184: Disney Villains: Delightfully Evil.

WRECK-IT RALPH - Wreck-It Ralph.

RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2012.

DIRECTOR: Rich Moore.

VOICE TALENT: John C. Reilly

ANIMATOR: Nik Ranieri

“Wreck-It Ralph is a "bad guy" who has been forced to spend every day for the last thirty years trying to destroy the apartment building that took his home away and to thwart Fix-It Felix from fixing everything Ralph wrecks. After "wrecking" the thirtieth anniversary celebration of his game, Ralph decides to go on a quest to earn a medal and prove to everyone, including himself, that he can be a good guy and do good things. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Rich Moore said that the idea for Wreck-It Ralph came when he was asked by Walt Disney Animation Studios to revamp an idea they had been working on for a while: a movie that takes place in a video game. "Video game characters do the same job every day," said Moore. "I don't know how you could tell a story about that, and then it kind of hits me. ... What if the main character did not like his job? If you had a character who is actually wondering: Is this all there is to life?" "

Concept Art of Vanellope and Ralph. Artist: Bill Schwab. Medium: digital.

Page 185: Disney Villains: Delightfully Evil.

Story sketches of Ralph. Artist: Jim Kim. Medium: Graphite

Final character pose of Ralph.

Final frame of ralph with the Bad-Anon support group from Wreck-It Ralph, 2012.

“Bad-Anon-One Game at a Time

"I'm bad, and that's good. I will never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."

-The Bad Guy Affirmation

Evervone needs a little help from their friends, even if their friends are a group of "bad guys." Bad-Anon is a place where the who's who of gaming bad guys can meet and talk about their feelings and what it is like to always be the one everyone loves to beat. Here are some of the familiar faces from the video games of the 1980s and 1990s.”

Bowser--King Koopa from Super Mario Bros.

Clyde--Ghost from Pac-Man.

Dr. Robotnik- -as himself from Sonic the Hedgehog.

Kano--as himself from Mortal Kombat.

M. Bison--as himself from Street Fighter.

Neff-as himself from Altered Beast.

Zangief-Red Cyclone from the Street Fighter series.

[TEXT DESCRIPTION END]

[transastronautistic]

Managing Autistic Burnout

Two AuDHD mental health professionals discuss burnout and how to handle it in ep 2 of their Divergent Conversations podcast:

PATRICK CASALE: ...You talk about sensory soothing a lot, and you talk about skills and techniques to kind of manage burnout when you're in it. And I'm just curious about things that our listeners — who may not be mental health professionals and may not have access to the things that we do — that they can do when they're experiencing some of this stuff.

DR. MEGAN NEFF: Yeah, yeah. ...I talk about sensory detox a lot, sensory soothing. You have to have some interoceptive awareness to be able to identify when you're sensory overloaded and then soothe yourself. So sometimes you have to actually go back a few steps and kind of work on interoceptive awareness...That sounds like a big thing, work on interoceptive awareness, but there's simple mindfulness things.

Like, I have a smoothie right here, I can grab my smoothie, I can focus on the sensation of the coldness on my hand and what that feels like, I can do that for 10 seconds while I drink my morning smoothie. And by mindfully attending to the sensory experience, putting my smoothie down, noticing the difference in my hand, that's interoceptive awareness builder right there. And it's not an extra I have to do in my day, it's when I'm grabbing my coffee or my smoothie. 

...And it often, I think, takes a lot of experimenting, especially for later-in-life diagnosed people and high maskers who maybe are so disassociated from the body by the time they get to diagnosis or identification. It takes a lot of experimenting to figure out, what is soothing for my body? What does my body, like? What doesn't it like? 

So, giving yourself a lot of kind of play space to figure that out. Rest, there's lots and lots of rest, dropping demands — and those can be small. Like, sometimes we think, "Well, I can't leave my job." Or "I can't, you know, walk away from my business." 

For our family, there's some demands that can always be dropped, for example, family dinner. If someone is having an overloading day they can eat in their room, they can eat in a quiet space. That's an example of a more simple demand drop — or maybe not showering that day. Like, there can be these more simple demand drops. But I think thinking through where can I drop demands. 

And spending less time masking. So, figuring out who are the safe people to be around who I don't have to mask as much. Are there things I can say no to? To say no is huge, just like working on boundaries. And then that gets into people pleasing. 

...I just spewed off a random list. There's more and I think I have a few blog posts that talk about recovery tips; we can link to that. You're going to get a more linear version of me when I write versus when I talk.

Megan's Resources for Autism and Burnout: 

How to Spot Autistic Burnout: https://neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/autistic-burnout-symptoms

What Causes Autistic Burnout: https://neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/what-causes-autistic-burnout

Autistic Burnout Recovery: https://neurodivergentinsights.com/blog/autistic-burnout-recovery

Autistic Burnout Workbook:  https://neurodivergentinsights.com/neurodivergentstore/p/autistic-burnout-guide-and-worksheets

[okuberlik]

Your Twin Peaks fun fact of the day

Day #5

Many of the characters names in Twin Peaks weren't chosen just because.

Several characters are named after film noir figures, here are some examples:

Madeleine Ferguson, Laura's cousin, shares her first name with Kim Novak's character in Vertigo and her surname with James Stewart character in that same movie. Curiously enough, the movie surrounds a dead blonde and her brunette doppelgänger.

There's an insurance agent on Twin Peaks named Walter Neff, which plays homage to Fred MacMurray's character in Double Indemnity.

Also, the vet Dr. Lydecker and Waldo the bird both pay tribute to Clifton Webb's character in Laura.

And Gordon Cole, whose name is a reference to Bert Moorhouse character in Sunset Boulevard, one of David Lynch's favorite movie and biggest inspiration.

But it's not just film noir references. For instance, Dale Cooper's, whose middle name is Bartholomew, initials are the same ones as D. B. Cooper the famous hijacker who parachuted from a plane in Washington with stolen cashed and disappeared out of the blue.

And last but not least, Harry Truman's name is a reference to the Harry Truman who refused to leave his lodge during the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

[anominous-user]

on another note, its interesting to me how with double indemnity, aventurine mainly parallels phyllis dietrichson (the female lead) and ratio walter neff (the male lead), while with spellbound, ratio parallels dr. constance petersen (the female lead) and aventurine the amnesiac j.b. (the male lead).

[weirdlookindog]

Ghost Breakers #1 - Street & Smith, September 1948.

Cover art by Bob Powell.

[lemondeabicyclette]

Dr. John Neff ❤️👍😇 : Dans les années 60, il y avait déjà des polémiques sur l'efficacité des vaccins. Cependant depuis 2021, les dommages causés par les vaccins anti Covid19 sont bien supérieurs à ceux du vaccin contre la variole et à ce jour, toujours aucune réaction de la part des autorités sanitaires françaises ou internationales 🙉🙊🙈🐌☠️😢😕

« Comment tout peut s'effondrer. » Quatre ans après la recherche pour ces ouvrages - si non enchanteurs, prophétiques - notre toit coule, nos politiques, whorenalisses et autres pousheurs de "soin$ public$" s'apprêtent à nous remettre une enième couche de groundup, une autre ronde de génocide sioniste et une autre bande de couaccinophiles par en arrière pis dans face et ce, dans un cloaque de corruption inflationniste.

[inloveforevr]

Hi Nafeesa! I wanted to get back into reading books but idk which ones to read first. Can you suggest good books for mental growth? Or just any good book for self improvement? I trust your judgement ❣️

Hi ❤️ that’s cute you trust my judgement 🥺 My top favourite is self compassion by Dr Kristin Neff. Second I would say 101 essays that will change the way you think by Brianna Weist. Some of the essays are a couple pages long so it’s less pressure. I also really like Atomic Habits by James Clear and The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. Pls let me know how you get on!

[marcmarcmomarc]

Lucien Dodge - Storks, Trolls

Christopher Flowers - Turbo, Pitch Perfect 2, the Secret Life of Pets duology, Sing

Gaille Heideman - Hotel Transylvania, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, Despicable Me 2, Partysaurus Rex, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Minions, Hotel Transylvania 3

Hannah Johnson - A Bug’s Life, The Angry Birds Movie

Leilani Jones-Wilmore - The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Monsters, Inc. duology, the Finding Nemo duology, Shrek 2, the Cars trilogy, the High School Musical trilogy, Ratatouille, Cars Toons: Mater’s Tall Tales, Up, The Princess and the Frog, Alice in Wonderland (2010), Toy Story 3, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Social Network, Gnomeo and Juliet, Brave, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, The Radiator Springs 500 1/2, Annie (2014), Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Despicable Me 3, The Boss Baby: Family Business, Sing 2, Hotel Transylvania 4: Transformania, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Trolls Band Together

J.P. Karliak - The Emoji Movie, The Angry Birds Movie 2

Miles Neff - The Incredibles, Despicable Me

Laura Post - Planes, The Peanuts Movie, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, The Boss Baby, West Side Story

Darrin Revitz - Cars Toons: Tales from Radiator Springs, Auntie Edna, Toy Story 4, Lamp Life, Cars on the Road

[thethirtyproject444]

I love your content. Please recommend ANY books and podcasts. Thanks.

I’m so glad! 💙 I haven’t read tonnes of these kinds of books but I’m working on building a list this year.

Books on mental health:

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before by Dr Julie Smith

Self Compassion by Kristin Neff (bitttt weird in places so alternatively just read up online about self-compassion)

Ones I found uplifting:

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Wild by Cheryl Strayed (she’s dumb a lot but I like the messages)

Podcasts:

The Wellness Edit

Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast

The Doctor’s Kitchen Podcast

Saturn Returns with Caggie (astrology)

Books I’m hoping to read soon:

Owning It by Caroline Foran

The Panic Years by Nell Frizzell

Stop People Pleasing by Patrick king

Feeling Good by David D. Burns

Hope this helped a bit! Anyone who can add anything, please feel free to do so!