On a recent vacation I had the great opportunity to get up very close to a cheetah named Ruuxa. What an incredible creature. Ruuxa was abandoned by his mother and was hand raised by the keepers at the San Diego Safari Park in Escondido, California.

He was not doing well his first couple of weeks, as part of his socialization he was paired up with a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy named Raina for companionship. The pair has had quite the storied history. Ruuxa was born with bowed front legs, and Raina had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. After each had surgery they healed better than anticipated, in fact miraculously. The veterinarians credit the friendship between the animals as much the medical team.

Both are back doing their work as animal ambassadors. Ruuxa demonstrates his speed and Raina keeps him calm in the public spaces. They are both teaching examples of love, support, strength, and friendship. They are besties for life, and sharing it with the world.

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On Wednesday, May 7, the San Diego Wild Animal Park announced that Raina, the companion Rhodesian Ridgeback to Ruuxa, has passed away from her long battle with cancer. I was notified of this announcement by my sister-in-law with whom I met Raina and Ruuxa.

Immediately I began weeping, and my heart is crushed. During the Covid-19 the memories of my recent trip to the Animal Park have been very happy. Truly the highlight of my entire California adventure was to meet these two phenomenal creatures and their trainers. My heart goes out to all the caregivers for Raina and Ruuxa, I can only imagine how crushed they are. I pray for them and for Little Rae, who has some big paw prints to fill.

Thank you all for such cherished memories, and one of the best experiences of my life, meeting Raina and Ruuxa. God bless your work to save these amazing animals.

Should self-esteem and self-worth be forged by one’s self-image? Are they completely interdependent? With the current social media environment, I do not believe they can be separated. Social media is harshly critical of physical appearances and meeting the ridiculous standards set forth by social media and peers precludes the ability to separate them. Millennials and Gen-Xers cannot be pulled away from their social media feeds. They feign and swoon with every like, view, and/or comment.

Photo filters alter and distort attempting to correct some exaggerated flaw pointed out by some random follower. Body dysmorphic disorder is on the rise across all ages. Men and women obsessed with ‘likes’ to the point of physical and mental health deterioration. This pattern does not seem to be going away. Strangers dictate their self-image, shattering their self-esteem, and in turn, diminishing their self-worth.

Let’s hope the “Me Too” movement has a spillover influence on the self-value this generation has in the future. That they will base their self-worth on their opinions of themselves, not by a media platform and trolls.

Super Bowl Sunday, February 2, 2020, was about the same as the past three or four years. Not of particular interest to me. I was not vested in either team, but do enjoy a good game. It was a day with massive amounts of food and wine, and couple of good commercials. Not overly humorous, and a couple truly emotionally manipulative ads. Generational targets were perhaps more blatant than those of the past, not a new concept. Think back to the 2008 E-trade commercial with the talking and trading infant. Hip and happening baby with new online technology. Directed squarely at Gen X’ers finally settling into parenthood. The tack is somewhat different, but still playing to generational vanities. Below is one of my favs because it reminds me of my younger days, while including actors with whom the millennials are familiar. Actually spanning the generations

https://youtu.be/85iRQdjCzj0

MIT has released an article which delves into the slippery slope of deepfakes.

We have come to the point in imagery where reality is not always reality. The truth versus fiction lines are now blurred causng us to question everything that we see. Did he really say that? Maybe, but not necessarily. This concept is rather unsettling for the generations who were born when news and photos were reliably the truth.

During these times, we must be vigilant and unceasing in our searching for the truth. We must be constantly challenging inconstancies regarding people we know.

Check out this article from IT World Canada about Google mixing up photo storage and deep fake tool. This is truly scary about where we could end up with this technology.

https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/hashtag-trending-google-accidentally-mixes-photos-storage-deep-fake-detection-tool-fake-traffic-jam/426907

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

I have no idea what to say. This is completely out of my wheelhouse. I will do my best to write on something of interest, I’m sure you will let me know whether I succeeded or not. Thank you for your support.