RioVida Networks

RioVida Networks brings causes, celebrities, music, film makers, artist and corporations together for mutual benefit.

  • Brandi Carlile echoes Joan Baez in more ways than one

    Brandi Carlile has a most amazing voice with perfect elocution. Her voice is beautiful and haunting. It stays with you after you heard it. A bit of a siren call like Joan Baez. You can’t unhear their voices. Once you did you know that voice.

    Another way that Brandi is impactful like Joan Baez use to be is that she sings ballads that actually talk about things that we care about. Feelings and issues. Relationships gone wrong and the feelings we may experience as we work them out.

    When you are depressed, get help. People care! Many more people than you may realize, care about you.
    When you are depressed, get help. People care! Many more people than you may realize, care about you. (Official version… click on photo to play)

    “By the way, I forgive you.” is related to a friend of Brandi’s who committed suicide when they were in High School. “Hold out your hand” is about gun violence. Brandi supports the effort by Seattle school children who don’t want to get shot. The students behind “March For Our Lives” in Seattle made a video and Brandi decided to support their effort with her song “Hold out your Hand.”

    On facebook Brandi exclaims:

    “These young people are asking for a change – are you listening?

    Responsible gun laws are on a spectrum and as much as we’d like it to be, it isn’t black and white. Some of these kids hunt with their parents, some of them are enlisting into service and will carry a weapon in defense of your way of life. Don’t make the mistake of broad brushing what they’re asking for.

    We can’t allow ourselves to be divided and conquered any longer by organizations that profit from our division. There can be and there IS a way that we can create change from the center of the debate.”

    A singer songwriter activist who is also amazingly talented like Brandi, doesn’t come along very often.  Let’s support her by purchasing her new album.

    http://bytheway.brandicarlile.com/

    Or, even better go see her live.  It surely will be an experience that stays with you. You can catch her at the Mondavi Winery in Napa, CA on July 14th, and at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA on August 22nd, 2018.   She is actively touring the entire country.  Check her website for dates near you.

    You may also enjoy her YouTube channel.  Or say hello to her on facebook.

  • Dr. Robin Goodman recommends to help kids feel good on the inside for a positive self image.

    Stay connected with your kids. Let them know they are important to you.  Give them ideas on how to feel good about themselves. Sit down with them to make a list about all the things that makes kids unique. Help them become self-aware of their wonderful qualities. This will help their self-esteem.

    Remind them of their own unique qualities when they have a hard time with other skills.  Model non-competitive behaviors with other.  If they see the parent compete with the neighbors, it will make them think they have to become competitive whether they wish to or not.   Instead point out that everyone has different qualities and that is ok. Finding the good in oneself and in others is a great practice and can become a fun game.

    This will help the child become more resilient. If they have a hard time with one thing, they and you can remind them about something that they are naturally talented in. Remind them of a skill they acquired through practice.

    Share with them if there is something is hard for you, so they know that it is normal that we have good days or bad days.  This will help them cope when thing are difficult. Self-esteem is closely related with a realistic self-image.

    Also listen to them and pay attention to them.  If you are separated from your kids all day because of school and your work, you can connect with them through their Hawkeye Smartwatches and your Vigilint Family Assistant app.

    Hawkeye Watches by Vigilint Biosensors keep parents connected to kids.

  • Guns, guns, guns – Americans love guns, despite the many mass murders

    The Hunters Little House on the Prairie
    The Hunters Little House on the Prairie

    In America, we grow up with a romantic vision of being explorers who conquer the wilds and create new homes and lives in the wilderness.  During the frontier days Americans hunted for food.  They sustained themselves and lived off the land.  Beautiful vistas, wide open grasslands, forests, and log cabins by the lake were a fact of life, not such a very long time ago.

    Shooting dear, rabbits, or even wild boars, geese and ducks was a way of life.  Hunting was a necessary part of sustaining the family in a land that had few stores.   It was romanticized in literature, in TV Shows and the movies.

    Fast Forward to Parkland, FL and Santa Fé, TX in 2018

    “I’d be comfortable with our teachers having guns,” said Tessa Ybarra, 15, a sophomore at Santa Fe High School. “If Ms. T and Ms. Perkins had guns, maybe they could have protected themselves,” she said, referring to Cynthia Tisdale and Glenda Ann Perkins, the two teachers killed on Friday.  NYT

    Do you agree with Tessa Ybarra?  The gun lobby agrees with her.

    The NRA, a 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt organization, claimed that they provided a means to raise millions of dollars to fund gun safety and educational projects of benefit to the general public.   While they certainly succeed in influencing Congress and have over 5 Million members, and a supportive group of wealthy individuals who support assault rifle sales to 18 year olds, the gun safety part of their proclaimed mission is failing miserably. Now they practically promote gun violence.

    “I don’t understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war,” said Sam Zeif, 18, sobbing after he described texting his family members during the attack. “Let’s never let this happen again, please, please.” Reuters

    Why is it that Americans as a whole, can’t understand that guns are used to kill innocent children and adults?  

    With school shooting on the rise it actually is not romantic any longer. Good Housekeeping reported that  since the beginning of 2018, 20 people were killed at school to do gun violence.

    Recie Tisdale, son of Cynthia Tisdale, who was a substitute teacher at Santa Fe High School. told the Washington Post, “She started substitute teaching because she loved to help children. She didn’t have to do it. She did it because she loved it.”

    Gun violence is not romantic.  Letting go of the Frontiers’ men fantasy will take a long time.  It is so compelling.  Meanwhile stay in touch with your kids and parents.  Talk to them, stay aware of what they are going through.   The Vigilint Parental Assistant App is designed to allow parents to communicate via  Hawkeye Smartwatches with their elementary school children. Harvard research shows that stress affects brain development. The damage caused to the next generation goes way beyond the gun violence.

    Protect, Encourage and Communicate with Your Children Always

    Photo by https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gun-deaths-wars/

  • How to help kids fit in while teaching the positive aspects of our heritage.

    Photo by: Allef Vinicius via Unsplash
    Photo by: Allef Vinicius via Unsplash

    We fall in love, get engaged and get married.  When we have kids we start to genuinely reflect about our own heritage and value system.

    Immigrants experience culture shock when value systems clash with those of others.

    When our kids arrive we naturally remember our own childhoods.  We want our kids to enjoy their childhood and grow up to have a wonderful life.  As parents with  want to prepare them in the best possible way.   When kids go to  school they experience new attitudes by their teachers and especially by their peers.  Often, these attitudes might raise issues that we never really consciously contemplated.

    To keep them our kids emotionally safe, we want the ability to communicate with them. We need to  allow them to ask questions, as they arise.  We do well to genuinely try to answer as many questions our children ask, as possible.  We want to admit that we may not have the answer ourselves. We also need to acknowledge that there are differences between the way we live at home and the way society shapes our attitudes and value systems.

    Other parents may have raised their kids with entirely different value systems. They may think it is adorable when a child doesn’t worry about soiling their clothes, touching doorways with muddy or sticky hands,  rough-houses, or throws rocks.   “Kids will be kids.”  is often the prevailing attitude. In other cultures the prevailing attitude maybe:   “Kids are seen not heard.”   Straddling the differences is a challenge for all families who wish to raise kids who develop situational awareness.

    I believe that being polite, considerate, and honest helps to foster self-respect.  These are traits that help us to get along with others and ourselves. Regardless of the setting, it fosters friendships and good will.  Most people greatly enjoy being treated in a considerate way;  being heard and listened to politely;  being able to rely that they are not lied to or deceived; that they are not being taken for granted.

    Most people regardless of their background love being treated with respect.

    Parents often struggle to find a healthy balance between the ways they wish to pass down to their children, and the need to allow kids to adapt to their surroundings.  Children need to get along with others, even with kids who encouraged to be tough and and mean.

    Communicate with your child, and perhaps even listen in with the  Vigilint Family Assistance app.   By empowering the child to share with you in real-time, what they are dealing with, as it happens, helps parents to better guide them in  practical ways.

    Your real-time advice helps your children feel safe and cared about.  At the very least kids will know, their parents care about them deeply.  This fosters self-esteem and helps children to develop a solution-oriented attitude and to seek advice when needed. They will not feel alone.  They feel supported by their families.