Rx Insanity
I haven’t posted in awhile, it’s been busy around here all through this long hot summer. Today I wanted to share this experience with you because it seems insane to me and I don’t understand why things have to be this way.
I take a prescription medication for an underactive thyroid. I have to take it every day for the rest of my life.
Over the past year I have been filling this prescription through a pharmacy in Canada because they let me have 100 pills for $34 dollars and they send the prescription to me through the mail. I can order 200 hundred pills at once.
That’s .34 cents per pill.
Today I decided to fill the prescription at the local pharmacy because it is so hot outside I think it may affect the the integrity of the dosage to have it mailed and sitting around in postal trucks and mailboxes. Thyroid medication has to be precise or you get really sick so this is an important consideration when the temperature in the sun is over 120 degrees.
At the pharmacy they informed me that if I use my insurance they can only let me have 30 pills at a time, and that these 30 pills will cost $22.17. So I can go down there every month to refill the prescription, and altogether using this system 100 pills will cost me $73.87.
This is approximately .74 cents per pill.
It’s also a major pain for me to have to do this over and over for no good reason.
When I informed th
em that I wished to have 100 pills like the doctor wrote on the prescription and not use my insurance, they charged me $127.67.
This is the same rate somebody who didn’t have insurance at all would pay. It’s $53.80 more than somebody who has insurance will pay, and $93.67 more than I can get them for by ordering them from Canada.
It’s $1.28 per pill.
Keep in mind that the US first sells these same pills to Canada at a profit before Canada sells them back to me at the .34 cents per pill price. It’s the exact same stock bottle with the American label on the bottle.
This is insurance in America and it sucks. There is no possible way that health is a more important consideration than profit.
New online yoga store
The Advaita Yoga Ashrama (AYA) has a new online store. They carry mostly yoga books by Swami Sivananda, but also books by other authors, malas, ayurvedic soaps, and a few cds and dvds. They will be adding more products to the store in the coming weeks, so check back regularly.
2010 in review
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.
Crunchy numbers
The average container ship can carry about 4,500 containers. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2010. If each view were a shipping container, your blog would have filled about 4 fully loaded ships.
In 2010, there were 22 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 188 posts. There were 73 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 11mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was January 3rd with 171 views. The most popular post that day was Hashima Island.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, manipura.de, my.yoga-vidya.org, mail.live.com, and ganeshaexercise.blogspot.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for water photography, hashima, hashima island, frogs, and ma jolie.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Hashima Island June 2009
5 comments
High Speed Photography November 2008
Yogic Limiting Adjuncts – Upadhis November 2009
Sivananda Yoga Tradition June 2008
On Time November 2008
Siva Sahasranama Mantra chanting
Fantastic chanting of the Siva Sahasranama Mantra with images of Mount Kailash.
Computers actually existed before the PC…
This is part of a hilarious conversation I had with my daughter today on Skype. She is a freshman Environmental Studies major in the College of Geosciences at Texas A&M University. She was born in 1991 and grew up with the pc. I got my Computer Science degree in 1984.
During this conversation she learns for (apparently) the first time that we did not always have pc’s…
daughter: the academic building is all the language studies and liberal arts
and its like another world
people dress different
no cowboy boots or camo
but scarves and european man bags
and guys with long hair and a guy with a mohawk and kilt.
this is where I need to meet friends ha
me: yeah
liberal arts
that’s my major
daughter: what?
thats weird. I dont think computer science is liberal arts now.
me: my major is bachelor of science in computer science in the college of liberal arts
me: it’s not
after i left it got moved to engineering
daughter: yeah engineering
me: i’m so glad it wasn’t in engineering when i was in it
i would have hated that
i liked liberal arts
daughter: but wouldnt the curriculum be the same?
just in a new college
me: no not at all
it’s more like engineering
daughter: really?
me: all regimented and hard
yeah
it’s a hard degree now
daughter: so the whole degree changed but yours is still called computer science
me: back in the day it was theory
there were no pc’s
not invented yet
yeah
daughter: cool then you have a degree that sounds harder than it is
me: same degree. i just got it while the getting was good
daughter: what? the computer wasnt invented?
me: yeah
basically
good for me
lucked out for once
me: only mainframes were invented
you had to reserve time to log into it to do homework
daughter: I dont get what a computer science degree person would do after they graduated. Invent the computer?
me: no
lol
the computer was invented
pc’s were not
daughter: what?
me: they were mainframes as big as a room
daughter: nevermind.
ha
I dont know what mainframe means
me: then we did computer support stuff and programmed
me: search on
computer mainframe
and then click on images
and you’ll see ictures
pictures
that’s what i did
just like that
daughter: unix?
me: no, dos
do you see the pictures?
daughter: its looking to me like a science lab
but okay
me: yeah well your little laptop is a zillion times more powerful
those huge machines were like 128K
and ridiculously small
had to be shared
not even into gigabytes at all
daughter: what?
me: what what?
daughter: so not even my music would fit into that large thing?
me: no
omg
daughter: its like a new world for you these days
me: hahahha
lol
yes
daughter: I wonder if that will happen to me
if my computer will be obsolete
me: if you move to germany it might, otherwise you will never know because the US is going backwards
hahah
daughter: ha ha ha
me: yes your computer will be obsolete in less than 10 years
Opposite Positive Thoughts – applying yoga to everyday life
Applying Yoga to Daily Life
The Opposite Positive Thought
Most people who practice yoga like to participate in the yoga asanas, or postures. Usually people go to a yoga studio, or a fitness location a few times a week. The benefits of this practice are enormous and many yoga students will gladly tell you about their experiences with reduced stress, better mental health, improved physical health and so on.
What many people are not aware of is that yoga is considered by many to be a holistic lifestyle, and there are many simple practices that can be put into your life on a daily basis that will positively impact not only your own health, but your relationships and interactions with everyone you meet.
With the holiday season upon us, most people experience days of greater stress trying to meet all the obligations of family, school, children, parties, and entertaining on top of their regular activities and packed into that same 24 hour day. It can get difficult to remember that the season is really about love, sharing, and giving.
There is a yogic concept called The Opposite Positive Thought. In sanskrit this is called Pratipaksha Bhavana (pronounced pra-tee-pak-sha bhaa-va-naa). The definition is: “The method of substituting the opposite through imagination; thus fear is overcome by dwelling strongly on its opposite, viz., courage.”
More generally, what that means is, anytime you have a negative thought you should immediately try to replace it with a more positive thought. Thoughts of stress are replaced with thoughts of calm. Thoughts of anger are replaced with thoughts of love. Thoughts of impatience are replaced with thoughts of patience.
Any negative thought you have at any time, and about anything or anyone, should be replaced with the opposite positive thought.
Trying out this concept will not only make you feel better and help keep you on a more even keel, it will help create around you a more positive aura, so that your family and friends and all the people you meet will feel enriched and uplifted by your presence. Even if you only remember to do this part of the time, it will still go a long way. It seems like such a simple concept, but it really can help a lot towards making the holidays for you and your loved ones go more smoothly.
“The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.” ~Ben Franklin
Happy Holidays!
What NOT To Eat if you’re a yogi
Recently my daughter discovered a truly unique website. Called This is why you’re fat, the website is nothing but picture after picture of unbelievably gluttonous, and mostly meat and cheese concoctions, some of which are (I have to admit) hilarious. Too horrible to look away, I found myself laughing out loud more than once.
Here are a few pictures of some of the ones I feel compelled to share:
The Bacon Mug -
A giant mug made out of bacon filled with cheddar cheese.
Bacon Wrapped French Toast Sticks Stonehenge
Inside-Out Spaghetti & Meatballs -
A giant meatball stuffed with spaghetti, marinara sauce and ricotta cheese.
Meat (in) loaf
The Meat-Up -
Ground Beef, topped with 2 pepperoni logs, stuffed with Cheez Whiz,
topped with a layer of bacon, topped with a layer of mozzarella cheese slices,
topped with more bacon, topped with meatballs,
and served with brown gravy.
The 30,000 Calorie Sandwich -
Sandwich filled with ground beef, bacon, corn dogs,
ham, pastrami, roast beef, bratwurst, braunschweiger and turkey,
topped with fried mushrooms, onion rings, swiss/provolone/cheddar/feta/parmesan cheeses,
lettuce and butter on a loaf of white bread.
The Widowmaker -
1.5 lbs of ground beef, 1 package of bacon, 1 package of italian sausage,
1 box of hot pockets, 1/2 package of fried onion strips between 2 Tombstone Pepperoni Pizzas
topped with Velveta Cheese and Marinara Sauce.
Pork Brains in Milk Gravy (didn’t know this was possible)
Austerity of Speech
One of the yogic ideals is the practice of austerity of speech. This means speaking words that are truthful, pleasing, beneficial, and not agitating to others. This is a lot easier said than done and a lot of questions of morality can be discussed in trying to determine what exactly makes up austerity of speech. Remembering the importance of not speaking words that might be agitating to someone else goes a long way towards understanding life from someone else’s point of view and in being compassionate.
There is a website called Speak Kind Words www.speakkindwords.com that is trying to spread this message. They say:
“We live in a verbally abusive society. Our minds are bombarded with cursing and angry tones, with sarcasm and profanity. Often the people whom we love the most are the ones who must bear the brunt of our anger and frustration. Our words are powerful and they have a profound effect on those upon whom they fall. We have the power to tear someone down in an instant with our tongue, and we do it every day without thinking about the consequences.”
The first quote on their page is from Mother Teresa and it says “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
Thanks to the people of this site for spreading this wonderful message.
Be in the Moment
Here is a translation from the Katha Upanishad that was sent to me from Ajith and I thought it was really nice:
Be in the moment
When the content of our consciousness is emptied, when we have accepted every minuscule bit of ourselves, when we have freed ourselves of all conditioning, when the past and the future are closed chapters, then the present unfolds like an endless song. Still as a lake, our mind is poised in the moment, alert, joyous and free. With no identity to fetter us, no needs to tie us down, we surrender ourselves fully to life, experiencing, enjoying and letting go. We are home, free.
When all desires that surge in the heart
Are renounced, the mortal becomes immortal.
When all knots that strangle the heart
Are loosened, the mortal becomes immortal.
This sums up the teachings of the scriptures.
—Katha Upanishads
Swami Vishnu-devananda Book from 1957
Just come available for free on Scribd is a rare book published by Swami Vishnu-devananda in 1957 in Hong Kong. This would have been written and published on his way to America from India.
To get a copy click on Download and select the pdf version.
Many thanks to Gopal (Greg Hill) for copying each page and making this available to us.
Swami Vishnu
