I am skiing again

I was skiing again and it felt great!
In the big picture I (and everyone else) don't depend on skiing (well, few people do), and skiing doesn't help us make living, and for many it is not even a hobby.
But skiing again was a big thing for me.

It was important for me to be able to ski down without falling, and still to enjoy it  :)
To prove to myself that I can do it.

I've gradually resumed doing things I love to do, and skiing finally came to that list. If there were more snow, or better to say, better/more snow, I would be probably skiing much earlier. It was so warm that we didn't get much snow, as we get normally - and when it came, not much fell, and it got quite cold.
And I am a bit less resistant to very cold temperatures.
And there was no way I would go ski somewhere in powder.

I would normally ski on a Christmas Day, but this year I didn't. In the past I would go to Kicking Horse and have the resort mountain for myself - probably the best resort skiing during any holidays.
This year I slept in, and after nice Christmas breakfast we went snowshoeing around Lake Minnewanka. It was a cold day, with blue skies, sunshine, that started with - 21 C.
It did get warmer later.

Back to skiing.....I was a bit concerned about going skiing, as it is always hard to predict when and how we'll fall down. And I didn't want to fall down 😃. Especially I didn't want to fall on my left arm.
That's why I took it easy. I was tentative and careful.
Or could I say I was smart?
I watched for the terrain, especially for ice, and took my time. I didn't ski fast.

There was something I was thinking a lot - It gets discouraging to see professional skiers getting back to skiing after their injuries. It looks so easy for them. They look like they are fearless and invincible - they do it as nothing happened. I believe that they have some doubts too though, and that is not easy to come back. Probably I can only guess it.
And they have big teams, support, all types of specialists who help them get back to it.
And strength.
And that is good for them.

I would imagine that big majority of women would feel like that when they are constantly bombarded by "beauty" industry, to be and to look perfect - so this situation actually helped me to understand that.
But then I might be wrong, as I've never been a professional skier or a woman.
But it is important to understand it. Without judging.

What I know at this moment is that I did ski and that I enjoyed it (beside quite few people on the mountain). This also means that I am looking forward to do it more in 2017.

I am swimming again

Yesterday was four months since I injured my arm. It is interesting how now from this perspective, the injury feels and looks as something ancient. At the beginning it seemed that I will never be able to move my arm, or to do anything with it.

And yesterday, I was able to swim again. That was an unforgettable feeling. Of course, as I wrote before, in the big picture of overall life, it is super small, infinitesimal thing, but in my world, it had a profound effect.

I was moving through water again! I was moving my arms, and most importantly I was moving my, still, crooked left arm. I was swimming.
I was quite protective of the arm, during first couple of meters, but then, it just became natural, as always before. I was swimming breaststroke, and it worked. Of course it wasn't fast, and it wasn't executed with a best style, but it did work. When I switched to free style, I felt a bit of pain in my left elbow, as I was now moving my arm much faster. And also, at this moment I wasn't able to extend my arm fully. I am still working on extension, and wear my "ex-tensor" splint religiously 8 hrs per night.

During the last two months since I started my (occupational) therapy, I was able to improve both extension and flexion of my elbow for 20 degrees. Of course, all of this was possible thanks to occupational therapy experts Susan, Sheryl and Sally. They have helped tremendously.
I am still far away to having a fully functional arm, but I am on the right track. Normal number for flexion is 145 degrees, and I was 114 on this Tuesday. If I can reach 130, my flexion will be in a functional range. In regards to extension, normally it is 0 degrees, and I had actually negative value of -3 degrees before the injury, and now I am 29 degrees before a treatment and I was 20 degrees after the treatment. That is almost a functional range.

This has been an interesting journey. Best thing was when I accepted that this will be a long process. It felt liberating when I understood that there is no miracle with such an injury. There was no unfortunately Dr. Leonard McCoy and his medical tricorder to instantly fix my ligaments, tendons and nerves :) 😆 But on the other hand everything else that Susan, Cheryl and Sally have used helped me to get to this stage.

I mentioned somewhere that my newest the most favourite animal was a turtle. I adopted the best attributes of a turtle - slow but steady.

I swam for 1 km, mixing breaststroke and free style, and the longest distance I was able to do at once was 150 m. When I swim next time, next week, I will try to do 1.5 km, and do 3 x 200 m at once. I am still weak, my left arm is weak, and it will take time to build muscles - that's why I still feel pain - as there has been muscle atrophy. When I look at my left biceps/triceps, they look pathetic 😮.

But it will get better and it will get to where it was, and I have an opportunity now to make it even stronger.

I am continuing this journey of recovery, and I am excited to do it.

Happy End for Establishment

Lado and Kornelija had dreams. They probably dreamt big. They were going to become somebody, and they were contenders.
Except they didn't live long enough to experience that and to make their judgement calls. They didn't live enough to finish schools, travel, get married, have families.
All was gone during one afternoon in 1992.
They were 18 and 20 when they died. In the war that has many truths. They fought for something that they didn't know they were fighting for. They thought there were fighting for something else.
The outcome that is not part of this story was different.
I was the lucky one on that October 10th, 1992.

Kornelija

Not far from Lado's and Kornelija's destroyed, but now liberated country there is a country that was country once as well. Kids were going to schools, they had enough food and water, and they've never heard sound that is produced by bomb shelling. Many of them were going to become somebody and to be contenders. To have families, to get education, to travel, to see sunrises and sunsets.
Their country was run by the "dictator".

Libya has ~6.4 million people, and approximately 1.5 million are children. Children are younger than Kornelija and Lado when they died. Good thing is that majority of children is still around, so they still have a chance to become somebody. And some of them will.

If you live in already free countries, and if you ever feel that you have some problems, try to imagine life in Libya. No need to mention other liberated countries. I cannot paint a picture of it as it would be a long description, but there is some great visual art that can accurately show you that. Even as a secondary or a third degree experience, you'll probably get a picture.
However, I know how that kind of life looks like. If you knew me you might've known about it. Or not, as I don't talk about it.
If you don't know me I could tell you about a war.

As a citizen of this world I am writing this as I am deeply concerned about our future. Two days from now there will be a new person running the most powerful country in the world, that I call the Empire. There are 4 candidates, but only 2 of them are contenders. Not much choice, especially if you research the main candidates. And yes, I say "research", not just read what is served by mainstream media.
This person decisions will affect us all, directly or indirectly.
I wouldn't be able to endorse or to vote for either one of the two main candidates. As everybody knows, one of them is totally out of any rational, common sense, and I expressed my thoughts about him on the great human achievement of the 21st century, Facebook.
I fear much more the other candidate, though.

HRC

This other candidate is a person who will become the person in charge of the Empire in just couple of days, and this person is responsible for destruction of Libya (and there is much more that you can easily research by yourself). This person also claims that she has spent her life fighting for kids and families.
Except when these kids are from Libya and have a wrong colour of skin.
This person is HRC.

This person will of course propagate different "truths", and that is expected. That's what privileged politicians do. HRC is enveloped in many layers of human "wisdom", and she claims she is experienced. Smart. Knows the ropes. Seen it all. Helped building her own country and the world. Knows policies.
And much of it is truth. There is a public record of it, as HRC served the people.
Her supporters will confirm that. Millions support her.

Millions are blind. Brain dead. Selfish. Unaware. Fake. They have their iPhone, TV, football, baseball, couch, their black Fridays/Cyber mondays, and their "sales" and "deals". If they travel they travel to all inclusive resorts. They get drunk a lot. They eat a lot. They have a good life. The catch is that they are not bad people, on the contrary, they are good people.
But good people can also be asleep.
Many of them are brilliant, but they don't have other choice. Or they are lazy to find out about other choices (other 2 candidates). They still believe that their system works. They don't understand that their system only works for their masters. Who create, approve, translate, manage and enforce the "laws".
They are slaves of the system they believe is the only right system.

It is so sad that at the end there is a choice between such a 2 people (unfortunately other 2 don't have any chance). Out of 300 000 000+ they haven't been able to choose anyone better!!!
How is that possible? That so many brilliant people end up with such choice?
They deserve better.
How is possible that their establishment can possess and exercise such power?
The Empire is the best ever empire to exist, and I know that there are so many empathetic, compassionate and good people who live in the Empire and truly fight for it. And for the all world. These people should be running the Empire, their society, and help the world become great like they are.
Nurses, teachers, drivers, carpenters, engineers, architects, doctors, surgeons......(I am forgetting here probably many, but if you care you'll get the picture).
Not these professional, privileged politicians.
But decent human beings.

These millions will enable HRC to get a job that she doesn't deserve to have. She doesn't deserve it not because she lacks any of skills needed for this position, on the contrary, she is qualified, based on her resume. Has it all. Done it all. And that is expected, if you spend a life time being part of the elite's power structure. Being privileged. Have it your way all the time. And also, being an obedient puppet to your masters, military industrial complex with 'too big to fail' banks and bankers, and those who own the media.
She doesn't deserve it because she doesn't have compassion towards human beings. If there was a unit for being fake, not authentic, tricky, distrustful, it would be called HRC (and all those similar). This might sound harsh, and unacceptable, and it might anger many - but that's how I feel, and that's what my sixth sense is telling me - based on what I've experienced, seen, and researched.
I've seen people die because of establishment's decisions.

One day she will invite you to her home and not long after that she will be ecstatic when your father is killed like a dog.

With Qaddafi's son in White House

This will be yet another example how there will be a wrong person holding an important job. And this time, it is the most dangerous since I've been aware.
Why not someone who is humane, warm, authentic, compassionate, merciful, who will talk instead of using bombs? Someone who will drop the shields?
Yes I know, that's too naive. As species we are not there yet.
Or are we?
One of the reasons why I am scared is because I've met people like HRC and they didn't treat me well. They threw me under the bus. And I survived.

HRC is responsible for hardships and lost future of Libyan people. Her "judgement" convinced her boss (and his European allies) at that time to destroy a whole country because "dictator was slamming rebellion against him", because of Arab spring.
That is an official reason for this destruction.
HRC knows the real reason. She knows that and her buddies/bosses from military industrial complex and banksters/media know it.

HRC is responsible for other destructions (find it on the internet, do your research), but any smart, compassionate and understanding humane, human being would agree that it is quite a lot, to destroy a whole country.
I am skeptical and don't trust anyone who destroys.

Would she support her government to be overthrown because of her government's role in suppressing people's desire for change? Do you remember Occupy movement?

The Empire is big and strong because of all faults, weaknesses and strength of its people. And there are, many of them who want something different, they want change, they know that the system that the Empire is based on will not last too long. None of the Empires did. These bright people recognize danger to the world when HRC becomes "commander in chief".
These people are stunningly brave, courageous and beautiful at the same time, and some of them sacrificed themselves for different and better future.
Unfortunately they are minority for now, and all the rest, sleeping crowd will prevail yet again.

It would be unfair not to say that HRC did good things too. You can find it on the internet if you are interested, it is quite easy to do that.
I could write another story about that, and it would be a good story, because it would have a happy end, and it would certainly end on a positive note.
But, nothing in nature ends in a positive note all the time. When a lioness kills a zebra, it is not quite good ending for the zebra.

Ask prisoners in the Empire's prisons. Has there been a happy end? Will HRC (at least) close Guantanamo Bay? Her predecessor lied about that. Of course there is an excuse for that.
Imagine if you as an average person lie like that, and if you lie that much?
If you always have an excuse.
Well, politicians do have it. Establishment does have it.
There is a message, directly from the top - lying is allowed, and as a matter of fact, quite allowed (while writing this it felt as I discovered a new continent)  :)

And now when HRC will have an absolute power, only question is who will be the next to be destroyed. Anyone who doesn't want to be liberated? Anyone who doesn't comply to the Empire's rules?  Or whatever her masters want to do next. Maybe they'll want to play with some new weapons, or maybe they'll simply want MORE.
Imagine if they dismantle or liberate North Korea, or China or Russia, how many refugees will be in that case?
HRC will comply, and she will work for her masters, not for millions who "choose" her.

Unfortunately there will be more Kornelija's and Lado's and more Libyan children. Who cares about them if the only goal is to have more?
I want more too, but I am still conscious about others. They should have more too. All of us can have more.

If all of this is a problem, what is the solution to the problem?
Only solution is to educate yourself and find those bright, brave and courageous people, and together plant a seed for some different future.
Question establishment at any place, any time, any occasion. Question them, make them possibly uncomfortable by exposing their incompetence, and hold them responsible - execute consequences based on their lack of accountability. Create consequences.
And never repeat what they've done. Create a policy that explicitly says that.
Create not that happy end for establishment.

I am running again

I ran today for the first time since I injured myself. It wasn't a long run, and it wasn't a hard run - it was the first run. It felt great. It felt as a new beginning.
I did spend considerable time hiking since surgery, and all of that was done in a careful manner - no slips, no falls, as I had to protect my arm. I wasn't supposed to do it, but I did it.
But I haven't run, until today.
Today, my arm was working. Not as how it should, and how it did, but it was sufficient for my run. I ran for 5 km, all flat, went for 2.5 km, and then turned back. I did it in 25 minutes. This would be considered slow, in normal circumstances, but today it felt fast.

I was feeling my arm, and it was moving almost as any normal, healthy arm. It did feel stiff, and I've felt its limited mobility. I am still far away from even functional mobility.
It will take long time to get it back. Mobility.
Two days ago I tried to hold a guitar, and play, but it didn't work. I can't bend my arm enough, so that I could play harmonies. I can do individual notes, and simple chords, but nothing else. And I get tired, my wrist, my hand, common extensor and flexor tendons get really tired.

Last time I ran on July 17th, and I almost don't remember it. I did go "running" in the meantime, except I didn't run, as I was just walking around a track, or up ski hill. It did help me to increase my heart rate. It did convince me that I can still do it.
I did run 5 laps on a track, and that felt good too, but I don't count it.

I have been walking every day. Between 8 and 10 km. Carrying a bag with soup cans in it. I carry it with my recovering arm, so that it can get extension - I do it for 2 km, and then next 20 minutes I work on my wrist mobility - pronation and supination. And then again I carry the bag, and then again wrist exercises.
I add more weight every couple of days.

Another aspect of this story is that I am using both hands as I am typing. My arm is good enough to allow me to type on a keyboard. I cannot type for a long time, as my wrist and forearm gets very sore, and I feel pain. I stop a bit, take some rest, and continue. As my friend Jack said, it is a child's phase, where I am (re)learning new skills, and new synapses in my brain are created.
It is amazing feeling to be able to type. I wish I were able to write, but that's taking a bit more time. Well, I've learned how to write with my other hand, so I can claim that I am ambidextrous  :)

I will run now on a daily basis - to built it up, to get where I was before. I will do a test run in 3 weeks, to do 10 km under 50 minutes. And yes, that is still ueber slow, but it will work at this stage.

I also started working on my biceps and triceps muscles, including forearm muscles. My arm experienced atrophy, so I have to fix it. I am doing it on my own, as there is no existing protocol for me in a physio therapy world. My physio therapist haven't seen such elbow damage in his career, so everything in regards to physio is (will be) new.
This was a special case. I wish it were not.

I am dreaming about racing again.

Twofers

There are days when I am inspired to do more. On those days I feel lighter than usual, but there are days when I feel tired. However, I still do more.

It is not that I don't do enough, I am quite productive (well, I still have slacker days) - it's when I feel the absence of physical pain that I obtain when doing my sports. Obviously, things are not same as they were 15 years ago - I need more time for recovery, and I need more time to warm up.

I learned to warm up properly. I remember, some 11-12 years ago while playing tennis with my mentor Jack, I was quite impatient - as he would take his time to warm up and get going. I was eager and ready to hit hard from the very start but Jack wasn't. He took his time, and I was annoyed by that. At that time I didn't know that I would be applying the same "technique" in the future.

So, yes - I do take my time now, and I do warm up properly  :)

But, I still do more, when I am inspired. There are days when I do two things - I go running and then I go to the yoga class. Or I go running and then I play tennis. Or I run, I cycle, and I play tennis.
I often do more than one activity during the day. And I really do it, I push hard. That means that if you see me during or after my activity I will be sweaty and my heart rate will be elevated. When I have fun, I really have fun. Even when fun is running or cycling uphill.

Of course, in many instances "less is more", and I apply that too.

Not until a month ago did I know how to call such endeavors. I didn't have a name for the days when I was doing more than one activity.
And than, after reading a book by an iconic mountain climber Ed Viesturs "No Shortcuts to the Top", I learned a great way to call these activities.
As a high mountain climber, Ed Viesturs would sometimes climb two 8000 meter peaks during one expedition. The first climb would be used for acclimatization, and that enabled him to climb the second one easier. He called it a "Twofer", and he did quite a few of them. Climb two 8000 meter peaks during one trip to Himalayas.
That is indeed such an effort that I guess, only him and his partners (and few others who did it) can comprehend. I guess, it gets "easier" when you do it once, or twice :).
I recommend reading the book, and perhaps reading his other books. Even if you don't hike, scramble, climb, or even if you are not active. It will inspire you to become better.

So, let's get back to twofers.
Well, I am also tough :) as I do my twofers too. They are of course quite different than Ed Viesturs twofers (and much easier  :)), but as my friend Stephane says, all of us are at a different level, and each one of us has his/her own zone in which we operate..
So at my level, I do two and sometimes three activities in a day. For example, I will go running 10 km today, and in the evening I will go to do yoga.
When in the office, I will ride my bike to work, go running while there, ride my bike home, and then play tennis in the evening. Or will do yoga.
That means I would do almost a double twofer in a day. Or just a twofer.
It does feel good when I do it using only my power. When I am not stuck in traffic. When I run for 60 minutes and I don't see anyone.
When I don't have a smart phone.

I walked 4.7 million steps in 2015

First time in my life I measured and recorded more details of my physical activities. In the past I did capture some of it - number of my runs, time, and some routes.
This time I captured more information.

On top of Mt.Joffre, June 20th, 2015

Running
I was curious to see how many times I ran in 2015, and at the end, the result was pretty good :). I ran 102 times, and that is a little bit less than I wanted (I was hoping  I could run 115 times). However, I was quite happy with it.
In the past, I ran a bit more or a bit less:

2010 = 117
2011=  75
2012 = 115
2013 =  92
2014 =  67
2015 = 102

Total is 568. I ran 568 times in 6 years, and that equals to almost 95 times per year.
It wasn't always easy to get out and run, especially during cold days.

A table below describes my running in 2015.



As I already wrote in my previous post, numbers and data are powerful - they can tell us a story.

In 2015 I ran 102 times and during these runs I run 950 km. It took me 5377 minutes with average pace of 5:03. Not bad (kind of not bad, it would've "sounded" better if I did faster than 5 minutes).
My average speed was 11.9 km/h, and I burnt 84480 calories.

It is interesting to mention that I also gained almost 8 km of altitude during my 102 runs (7807 meters). There were no hills running, all of it happened through normal runs.

Walking
I love to walk. That's the closest physical activity to our ancestors. They didn't drive cars everywhere, they walked and ran instead.
I walked 4 776 126 steps. This is of course approximate number, but I can say that it was around 4.7 million.


The most number of steps I did in July (463 533), when I had an average of almost 15 000 steps per day. It was a month of long mountain traverses.
I walked the most on June 19th, when we did approach to Mt.Joffre - 35 867 steps. During week of June 15-22, I did the most steps in one week - 141 826.

Cycling
I only do mountain biking and I can only do it during certain months. I usually start in late April, when snow melts, and sometimes I can even ride until early November. This year it was over in October as we got early snow.



These are just the numbers but it is fun for me to see and read what I did. It was also fun to prepare the numbers, to get from raw data to presentable information.
I do not do this because of the numbers or because I want to do more steps, or to do more runs, or want to break some records.
Only goal is to do it.
Am I going to continue doing it? I will, and who knows how much in 2016.
All will be done with my own power.

We did almost great in 2015

It is amazing how much we can learn about behaviours and patterns when we know and have enough information. I am not an expert on data, but I pay attention to it, and I invest an effort to collect it. It is fun to do it as well. In order to leverage power of data, we need to collect it first. As an executive of Dawnbreakers since 2009, I have built a data information repository about the club thanks to some useful websites. When I joined Dawnbreakers in January 2009, there were no any websites associated with the club, so there was no data. At the end of every meeting, no information was saved and we didn’t know anything about our attendance, number of speeches, words of the day, meeting themes, and awards winners. Obviously some data was kept, to be passed to Toastmasters International, but only officers in charge (VP of Education, VP of Membership) possessed it.

And then, Easy-Speak came. Together with Wang Yip, I introduced and "pushed" Easy-Speak three years ago. It was really Wang who started it but it was me who started populating its database with retroactive meetings information. I was able to do it because I had audio recordings of the meetings since October 2012. It was a long process in which I spent lots of time listening the audio, and then transcribing it to Easy-Speak. The process became easier when we exclusively started to use Easy-Speak for our club management. Thanks to Blaine Zuk who as VP of Education pushed it in 2014, we utilize now Easy-Speak as our meeting/members/data management tool. It is a private application and only authorized users can leverage its data and functions.

Some of our data

As I enjoy working with data and I am curious, I am pleased to present some insights about Dawnbreakers 2015 year, and provide some comparisons with 2013 and 2014.

Meetings

Everything starts and ends with meetings. Without them, nothing would happen. So, there were 43 meetings in 2015. That is pretty close to previous two years, when we had 44 (in 2013) and 43 (in 2014) meetings. 

Do you know who was the most frequent participant?
People who attended more than 50% of meetings:

Congratulations to Peter Kossowan who only missed 3 meetings. And that is not all, Peter performed 37 roles during meetings he attended. And he was always the first one to show up and help setting the room up.

18 people (in the table above) attended more than half of all meetings.

Speeches

There were 113 speeches in 2015. For comparison, there were 117 speeches in 2013, and 99 speeches in 2014.
This is where we can improve. Basically we didn’t use opportunities to speak, as there were 16 speaking slots that were not used in 2015. If you are asking how I got to that number, it is a simple calculation: 43 meetings x 3 speeches = 129 speeches. Out of 129 possible speeches we had 113, so that means that 16 were not delivered.
This number is actually very close to the number in 2013 when we had 117 speeches during 44 meetings, and this resulted with 15 unused slots. In 2014 we were not that successful, as out of 129 slots we only used 99.
Below is the list of people who delivered the most speeches in 2015:

The most frequent speaker was Richard Coulter, who spoke 6 times out of 20 meetings.

Icebreakers

It is always special to witness an Icebreaker speech, and at Dawnbreakers we had that privilege more than less 14 times!
We always say that someone becomes a toastmaster only once they deliver their Icebreaker speech.

There were 3 icebreakers in March and 3 in June, 2 in January and February.
There were no icebreakers in May, September and December.
Also, there were 16 icebreakers in 2013 and 17 in 2014.
This also means that there have been 47 new people (who gave Icebreaker) in our club since, and that means we got lots of fresh blood and new ideas.

Being "ditched"

Yes, you can get ditched at Dawnbreakers. Many of us were ditched numerous times. We were ditched by our fellow members. We also ditched our colleagues. I did it too.
If you were a toastmaster at Dawnbreakers you know that feeling: It is 6:55 AM, and your Sgt. at Arms hasn’t arrived yet (well, thanks to Peter Kossowan, the room is already arranged). Chairman is also absent, and even more, 2 out of 3 evaluators are missing. So, you try quickly to assign these roles to others, and now folks will do multiple roles. Great! It was never that bad, as described above, but it did happen numerous times. People accept their roles, they say they are coming, and then they don’t show up. Obviously, in reality, in our world this happens - sometimes something happens that takes priority. Sometimes it is a bad traffic. Sometimes we miscalculate time, when time changes in spring or fall. Sometimes there is some emergency. But, there were some people who did it more than twice, or even more than three times.

There were 57 "ditchings" in 2015. 26 different people “ditched” us, and 23 people didn't. 1 person ditched us 6 times, 2 people 5 times, and 1 person 4 times. There were also 4 people who didn’t show up 3 times, and 5 people 2 times.

In the big picture all of this is good as well. It gave us opportunities to improvise and to come up with impromptu solutions.

Conclusion

It was a great year. We've been improving in all areas. You really see the strength of our club when you attend other club's meetings. It is important that we maintain this high bar and actually go higher with it.

Also, this is just the beginning of this “data journey”, as we only have 3 years of data. We’ll be getting more information as we go, and future reports will give us better idea about club success. It will also set us up for better and more leveraged meetings in the future. I also hope that someone else will recognize this and invest his/her time to continue collecting and analyzing data.

When I get bored of it.