Couple of March Stories

It took some time for me to write again. It is not that last couple of months were uneventful, but I just didn't have enough inspiration to put anything in writing.
Questions would be, did you miss me, and did you miss my writing? I am not a writer by trade, it is not my profession, I only do it "for myself", how I say it, but also, I hope that my writing could make anyone who reads it - think.

March was quite interesting. It consisted of couple of events that I wanted to describe, but as I said, I wasn't inspired to do so.

Mission (Not) Accomplished
It has been 10 years since a very famous statement and speech, "Mission Accomplished" was bravely delivered (May 1st, 2003) to the world. As we know, mission was NOT accomplished in regards to people who were liberated - it was certainly accomplished in regards to people who made money from this. It was another great example of "USAism", giving people "freedom". What really bad is, the rest of the world, who actually supported it (except lone opposers of this ideology).
For all ignorant fat brains, make no mistake, for all who were responsible for making 6.5 million Iraqi children orphans, there will be a day when they'll be brought to justice. For all healthy brains, you know what you are supposed to do.

By education
Another March event that I found interesting was a night with Oliver Stone at Harvey Theatre at Banff Centre. We don't exactly live in the centre of the world, and not too many cultural events happen here, so this was an excellent opportunity to hear first hand from someone who "got it", and someone who's made all fat brains feel uncomfortable.

Of course, thanks to Tim Berners Lee, you can find all information about Mr.Stone on the internet. However, you can't find there the reasons, why he's been doing what he's been doing. That was the best part of the evening - the man helped me to see things clearer, and to understand my purpose better.
He said that he wanted to make sure that we don't do same things again. Of course, he referred to horrors he witnessed in Vietnam, that actually have happened on a consistent basis during last 40 years. "To make sure that we don't do same things again" = this is what helped me to understand what was my mission.

How can this be achieved? It can be achieved by education - not your every day education, spread by private schools, by your society, by your family, but by getting education from people of the world, people who've seen it from a different angle. And by you becoming aware.
This can be achieved by asking questions, by asking interesting questions. It can be achieved by questioning status quos, following examples of Bradley Manning. You can achieve it by making you know who, feel uncomfortable. Not by breaking their laws, not by violence, but by pure education, by exposing their rotten fat brains. That's the way. The only way. Don't allow to be seen as someone who even don't know that he/she doesn't know.

Sacroiliac joint and lessons learned
I also injured my back in March 2013. To be precise that happened on Saturday, March 16th. It was a great day for skiing, lots of new snow fell over night, and I was going to take my friend Gyula to Mt.Norquay - it would be his first time on this mountain.
I got up, and first thing I did was to put my ski socks on. I did it with my left sock, and then somehow my right sock got stuck, and I pulled harder. I was bent over, so when I pulled, it was same thing as I was lifting something with my back and my spine, instead of with my legs. I did put the sock on, but when I straightened myself and my back, I felt a weird pain in my lower back. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and when I bent over sink,I felt a shooting pain in my lower back. I couldn't bend as the pain was stronger than I was able to handle it.

I tried to stretch, and it was obvious to me that I was totally fine to stand with my spine being straight, but my every attempt to bend forward was interrupted by excruciating pain in my lower back. Gyula was up, so I asked him to stretch me, to pull my legs while I was laying on my back - however, nothing helped. There was just more pain. There was no way to ski that day. Well, I could only get back to bed and find any position in which I wouldn't feel pain. Ada applied an oil that I got from Philippines and I felt a bit better.

I was able to walk and to stand but only with straight back, or bent backwards. If I tried to bend forward, I would almost faint because of pain.

On Monday I went to Glen Sather clinic at UofA, to see Blaire who fixed my knee in 2011. After assessment he explained that there was a problem with one of my disks, between L5 and S1. The disk slipped backwards, hitting my nerves, so when I was bending forward, it would push even harder and that was the source of pain. Good thing was we knew what happened.
Why that happened? The real culprit was my sacroiliac joint, actually the right side of the joint. This side was much more stiffer than the left one, so it made me compensate with the spine (this compensation was going on for years), and finally pulling the sock resulted with disk displacement.

I took a week of daily therapy - they would put me in this machine in which they strap you and then you get stretched for 30 minutes, similar to Procrustes bed. I had to be patient to go through this. Also, Blaire would work on right hand side of the joint, making it more flexible. He also showed me very important exercises that would rebuilt balance in my spine.
All of that really helped, but I felt this pain for a while. It was same feeling as I had a beef stew in my lower back. It was almost impossible to sit, and it was difficult to sleep. But I was persistent and patient, and therapy helped. I was actually skiing on March 30th, only 2 weeks after the injury.
I was careful that day, and it did feel weird, while scaling steeper slopes. I still did 8000 m vertical that day. It was even better the next day, when I even didn't think about my back. I did 10 000 m vertical on March 31st.

What did I learn from this?

1. When you wake up and get up from the bed, walk a bit, stretch a bit, and only then put your socks on
2. The second thing that I learned was a real eye opener. I was not able to do anything on my own for a week. It felt as it lasted a year. I couldn't put the socks on  :), I couldn't put pants on, I couldn't walk properly, I couldn't walk downstairs. This was the first time that I understood people who were disabled. I felt I must say ashamed, as I wasn't kind in the past towards people who had physical limitations. I felt guilty too, and I was asking myself how could I be so not sensitive?
I finally got a proof of an old proverb that person with a full belly doesn't believe someone who is hungry.
I understand it now.

My friend's success

It's been more than 7 years since I started practicing Bikram yoga. I remember vividly when I went first time to the yoga studio on December 13th, 2005. I expected half naked sweaty people and environment full of sexual energy. I thought that I would "check out all attractive women" in the class.
Hahaha!
What was I thinking about?? Well, it didn't take long time for other thoughts to kick in. Actually, a real survival mode was triggered, and after less then 5 minutes I didn't see all these attractive women, I didn't care about these women, it didn't matter that they were in front me, stretching and showing amazing form of their bodies. I wanted to survive and my body was surviving. I lost count of poses, and it didn't matter anymore if there were 15, 20 or 26 of them. I was wondering if the hell was as hot as the practice room.

Well, I did survive it, and I actually stayed inside of the room for whole 90 minutes. I even didn't miss any of 26 poses that comprise Bikram yoga practice. I even came back 4 times in next 6 days and after that, I was "officially" hooked up to Bikram yoga. Ever since that cold December day I haven't looked back and I continued to practice it. I must express my big thanks to two wonderful girls who took me to yoga on that December 13th, Elisabeth and Kamila.

I've gained amazing benefits from the practice. It helped me both, physically and mentally. It helped me maintain my flexibility, strength and enabled me to become tougher. So many times I hit the wall, but then, I would still prevail by staying in the room and continuing practice, and usually, there would be a second wind and I would be triumphant at the end.

It taught me to hang on 20 seconds longer, 30 seconds longer, even when pain was unbearable. There were moments when I wasn't able to decrease my heart beat, and there were moments as I was in a death zone on Shishapangma, when I was grasping for air. But I would still continue doing it. I learned that I can do anything that lasts 20 seconds, even 30, 40, or 60 seconds. Why wouldn't I be able to do it? It taught me not to quit, not to resign. It eliminated the "give up" switch from my brain, and I didn't have choice anymore - only choice was to be there and do it.
This helped me so much in running and free style skiing. Every time when I was hitting the wall, during fast cross-country races during big hill climbs, when my heart was almost exploding, I would still continue, and I never quit any race, and I never stopped running in any race, not for even 3 seconds, since 2005. It somehow refreshed my internal toughness routines, and it seemed that I didn't recognize pain.
It helped me stop that burning sensation in my thighs and quads while competing in Mountain Smoker ski race. My legs were certainly complaining about it, but I was not quitting and I was not slowing down.

It brought awareness about my own power and how much I can do with my own body. It helped me understand myself better.

Through the years I invited some of my friends to the practice, and majority of them came couple of times but they were not persistent and they never reaped the benefits of Bikram yoga. I was happy that they would come, at least once, as I was sharing something new and different with them. I also knew that they knew what was working best for them. I still wish that they continued it.

Gyula and yoga

For years I was trying to convince my friend Gyula, to join me in practicing Bikram yoga. We've shared a long history of unprecedented adventures, and I was craving to see him sweat and "suffer" during yoga practice, and actually conquer it at the end.
I talked lot about it. I demonstrated some of the poses. I challenged him by questioning his toughness:" My friend, you say that you are tough. Well, if you are so tough, you'll come with me. Let's find out how tough you are".  :)
Gyula didn't listen anything I was telling him. He wouldn't go with me to Bikram yoga. In my mind that was OK, as I was old enough now to know that people were different and that all of us had our own ways of finding our "green azure".
And then some events that occurred in late 2010 and early 2011 practically made my friend Gyula to start experiencing Bikram yoga. He started going to practices!! I didn't go with him as I was injured at the time, but we would talk about it on a daily basis, and he was sharing with me his "awesome" experiences. It seemed that Gyula was now hooked up to yoga. He wouldn't miss a practice and he was one of few who was doing so called "doubles" (two practices in a row). He even did a "challenge", but not the normal challenge of 30 days, he did 90 days in a row!!! That was totally amazing. I was happy for him that he was able to find new avenues for himself and that he was able to unleash his powers that were buried for many years. Gyula was certainly  inspirational before his yoga immersion, but now he's been ueber inspirational.

This is the point where I am going to state why I am writing this post. Perhaps my "introduction" was a bit too long :)

Just last week Ada and I attended 3rd Alberta Bikram Yoga Championship in which Gyula participated. He actually competed on a provincial level with so many young guns. That was something that I didn't expect, and if someone told me in 2010 that Gyula would be competing in yoga, I would say that they were crazy.

As a picture is worth thousands of words, you can see some of action during the championships. Of course you can see my friend Gyula.

Getting ready for the competition

The stage

There were around 250 people in audience

Mr.Gyula and participants

MC and participants

Starting his presentation

Standing head to knee pose

Standing bow pulling pose

Bow pose

Rabbit pose

Head to knee with stretching pose

Spider pose

I don't know what is the name of this pose

Gyula is done - Bravo!

Everything is ready for winner's ceremony

Winners in junior category

Winners in senior category

Very well deserved Diploma!

Leaving Alberta Royal Museum

In front of Deluxe Burger Bar

Oh ya!! Finally meat  :)

I got my $9.95 back

I dislike banks. I dislike their business practices.
I didn't have any opinion about banks when I was little, or in my teen years, and even after that. When I was younger I thought that banks were there so that we can borrow money when we need it. I also thought that you can actually save money if you put it in a bank, and that you can gain more money because of interest that banks were paying to you. I thought that bankers were good people that were helping this world to become a better place by helping us to build what was needed to build.
When I say "bankers", I am not referring to countless front line or back office banks employees. I am referring to those who call the shots, to those who run this "business". To those that don't have the upper limit, and who propagate this ever-present culture of "more".

Apparently, they, the bankers, this system of theirs, this financial system, this corporate "world" has helped the world to advance and become better. That's what bankers, financiers, economists and all propagators of this system have been telling us for a long time. If you challenge them, and say that this system has created a modern day slavery as well, they ask you:"How would you buy a house without a bank?" "How would you pay for school without banks?", "How would you buy a car without banks?". They would even continue their defense, by stopping any debate, by labeling you: "You must be some lefty red communist-socialist".
Suddenly you would be accused of modern day heresy, and if they could, these bankers, financiers and economists, they would burn you, but after long and slow torture. They are shutting down any conversation about something different, about some other ways of doing business.
(These questions are actually good questions, and I can add more of them: How can you buy a decent house, let's say in Vancouver without a bank? Is there any other way of doing it? Is there any other alternative that would make banks obsolete?)

I've been observing how average people get scared and get used by banks. They lack knowledge that bankers possess. So called "products" knowledge, financial "knowledge". This lack of knowledge makes them feel small and insignificant, once they are in front of bankers. They are made to feel inadequate. Another aspect is obvious lack of money, as average people don't have it. This means that banks can bully them and use them any way they can.

Hundreds of million people have been bullied by banks since 1980s, when banks decided to "expand" their reach with new "products". It is not my intent to write about these products, because I don't know enough about it, but I will buy lunch anyone who can explain CDSs, derivatives, or any other new "product" and if actually was able to get into this world of investing.
Imagine, how much average people know about these "products".

Banks can change anything at any time anywhere in regards to your accounts. They can charge you more for any "service", at any given day. They can change terms and conditions whenever it pleases them. They can switch plans on your accounts at any way that gives them financial advantage. Of course, they will "inform" you, by sending you "changes in terms and conditions", but who can understand all of that, realistically?
Banks have tremendous power of you as they possess all information about you. Their data mining departments can uncover all patterns in your life.
On the other hand, you as an average citizen don't know anything about banks. Majority of their activities are  secretive and they operate in grand secrecy. That's "normal", as you've been told. "That's how we do business", you've been told that too.

I was plainly naive. For many years. I was naive about banks, about this financial system, about bankers, about this economic system. It took me some time to get it. But I did get it.

I am writing this because I want YOU to start opposing banks by decreasing your involvement with banks. I want you to read that small print they put in their letters and their product materials. I want you to check your account on a weekly basis, by checking all transactions, especially those that involve charges by your bank. Pay attention to dates around New Year, that's the time when they will change your plan and charge you more.
Don't be afraid when you talk to the bankers. Ask them questions. Ask them if they knew how many customers they have. Ask them if they knew how much their CEO made. Ask them who are the real owners of the bank. Ask them why interest rates for saving accounts are so low. Ask them why interest rates for mortgages are low. Ask them who owns Federal Reserve in USA and who owns Bank of Canada. Ask them interesting questions.

If you don't pay attention to a small print and if you don't check your account, there is a big chance that you will be robbed. Banks will  always offer you "help" to "protect" you from external culprits (of course, you pay for this help), but they'll never tell you that you should be afraid of them. They won't tell you that you actually have to protect yourself from them. Of course, all of that is "normal" business.

Little country of Iceland wasn't afraid of bankers, they let their banks fail and they jailed bakers. Of course, resistance will say that "Iceland is insignificant"...See on video below how Iceland president is saying "Let banks go bankrupt".

Now let's go back to my $25 dollars.
On January 3rd this year I discovered that balance on my chequing account with one of 5 big Canadian banks (bank from now on in this post) was different from one that I expected. This was an account that I was forced to open in 2011 by the bank because I opened a foreign currency account. I didn't chose any monthly plan, as I didn't have any intentions of using this account. The balance was $0.00. Later, in 2011 I transferred some money to the bank and as I paid $25 fee for this transfer to my previous bank, the bank reimbursed me with $25 by depositing this $25 to this chequing account. This account had a balance of $25 at that time. Well, the bank got my business and they acted on it, by basically giving me this money for free. I was thankful for that. Well, that was my money. They automatically deposited this money into this chequing account (they didn't ask me what I wanted to do with it - perhaps I wanted to get it as cash, or to have it deposited to my foreign account.....). Well, I wasn't complaining as I got my $25. I was naive.
In next more than a year, throughout the rest of 2011 and 2012, I never touched this account. Balance was always $25.

And then, on January 3rd of this year, I found out that this balance was now $15.05. I was trying to remember if I used this account for anything. I didn't - only charge was $9.95 on December 31st, and this was charge for my new account plan.
Well, I never requested this plan to be activated, I never ask anything about it, and the bank still changed it. The bank practically stole my $9.95. I say that they stole it from me and I am repeating it, they stole it. Of course, business people will say that bank was only doing their business, and their business is to get more profit, so all of that was clean. I am aware of their "business", as they probably have their policies and who knows what procedures that kick in in case of accounts like mine.
However, they did this without my knowledge. It is same as if I had $25 in my pocket and someone took $9.95 without me knowing it, because of some "service" I never wanted. Imagine if I took $9.95 from any bank?
I phoned the bank and asked what was going on. They said that they converted my account to this $9.95 monthly plan. I said that I didn't want that, I didn't authorize that and that I wanted my money back. They said that they would reimburse my money. They didn't explain why they "upgraded" my account. They didn't apologize. It was OK that that person on the phone didn't apologize. They make so little money in call centres. I would want apology from someone from their so called executive team.

They actually did reimburse me. Then, I went to the bank branch, withdraw my $25 and closed the account. The teller asked me why I was closing the account and I explained that to him. I also asked if he knew how many customers the bank had. He didn't know. I asked because I wanted to calculate how much money the bank would gain from people if they "upgraded" plans to 0.1% of their customers. Well, the bank has 7 000 000 customers, and if let's say they try to do "business" by "giving" the monthly plan of $9.95 to 1% of all of their customers, and if 1% percent of this number was unlucky not to notice that they were paying now $119.40 per year for their account, and they had same plan as me, the bank would earn amount of (7000 customers X $119.40) = $835 800.
When you compare this amount with $3.2 billion that this bank made as pure profit for 2011, it looks awfully little, but the bank would have gotten this only because people didn't check their accounts and changes in their plans. Obviously, this is assumed calculation, but think that I am talking here about only one 'product'. Imagine how much money they make on all products and fees.
Again, this is normal practice, all of this is OK, it is completely legal, it is the way how this business is done. Money, banks and their business (and much more) is explained in the video below.

Fortunately for me, I did check my account, and I got my money back. Someone might say that $9.95 is not much, but I don't agree with them. That money was mine, and this bank (I used it as an example, but all other banks are same) used their business practices to try to fool me and rob me. Again, someone might say that these words were too strong and I am also sure that majority of people would still support the banks.
They would support them because they've been told for a long time that this economical system is the one that is right and that there are no other alternatives. They've been told that Earth was flat, again. And they believe it.

I say, don't trust them. Question bankers, economists, and all those who spread their "truth". Question them and by doing that you'll start protecting yourself in a long run. Don't get loans from banks. Don't spend without reason. Decline their credit cards and other tempting offers. You really don't need any of that. Bank with a Credit union. Use cash instead of debit and credit cards. It is a start of a process that will contribute that all of these unpeople lose their power. Inevitably they will get their der untergang. Even better, think about alternatives to todays banking and financial systems. There must be some other ways. Perhaps big banks and other big companies could be cut down? For now. Think about what is opposite of mergers and acquisitions.
Interesting question: Do you really need banks and why do you need them?