So, I was thinking...

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Copyrights, Prayer, and 10K ​

Sleep ​

My new sleep technique worked well last night. Although I cut it pretty close, I was in bed around 8:45pm and had my white noise app running with lights out at 9pm. Per Apple Health, I was asleep by 9:14pm and woke up at 5:02am. Apple Health logged a total of 7 hours 41 minutes of sleep as it also logged that I was awake a few times throughout the night. I do recall waking for a few moments. I've been tracking my sleep for a few years now and Apple Health appears to be quite accurate.

You might be asking yourself, "Why would he want to get up so early on a Saturday!?" The simple truth is, I have found that sleeping in is bad for my health. If I go to sleep and wake up at approximately the same time each day, regardless of what day of the week it is or what I need to do for the day, it helps set my body and mind's natural circadian rhythm. Having been doing so for the last few years, while also tracking my sleep, has proven to be the best for me. In the last 6 months alone, I averaged 8 hours and 51 minutes of sleep per night.

This healthy approach to my sleep schedule has afforded me the ability to have those few times every once in a while where I either don't sleep well, or I'm unable to get a full night's sleep due to some sort of planned activity. On such nights, I can sleep as little as a few hours and still completely function throughout the following day. Case in point, the night before my runDisney event last November was a night I really did not sleep. I had to be up around 2am but didn't go to sleep until 9:39pm the night before. Apple Health registered 3 hours of sleep as I tossed and turned on a pull out couch bed in a hotel room. Nevertheless, I managed to run a 5K event, spend most of the day at EPCOT, take some folks to the airport that afternoon, and still drive 2 hours back home without so much as a yawn all day.

Wow! That sounds incredible! In fact, it is. Prior to the last quarter of 2021, I never slept like I do now. I didn't track my sleep most of my life. But I can tell you I rarely slept well. For approximately 43 years of my life, I did not rest. Sleep often eluded me even in the calmest of times. I even recall a time when I was awake for 72 straight hours working on a project. Back in those days, you wouldn't find me without a Mountain Dew in my hand...hehehe Sleep wasn't possible and caffeine fueled me. Since I was young, it didn't seem like that was a problem. As I grew older, my body just couldn't handle that anymore. Although I eventually stopped drinking Mountain Dew regularly, sleep eluded me until the end of 2021. What happened to me at the time to cause this shift in sleep-ability is a story for another time...

The topic of copyrights has been trending as of late. I believe the main reason is due to the fact that "Steamboat Willie," Mickey Mouse's first cartoon short, fell into the Public Domain this month. I looked up Disney's other infamous first character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and it turns out he and his early cartoon shorts fell into the Public Domain a year ago. But no one seemed to talk about that. In Oswald's case, it appears both the earliest cartoons and the character himself fell into Public Domain.

However, the even more famous Mickey Mouse is an incredibly grey area. My quick research this morning revealed that, although "Steamboat Willie" is now in the Public Domain, Mickey Mouse himself is a trademarked character. The Disney brand is tightly intertwined with this beloved cartoon character. In fact, he is the very logo the company as been using since almost the beginning. So, if "Mickey Mouse" fell into the Public Domain, that has the potential of disrupting the very essence of The Disney Company.

As Mickey Mouse is trademarked, he isn't technically in the Public Domain. A trademark remains so long as the company who trademarks it continues to use said trademark for its commercial purposes. I'm no expert on the matter. But I will not be one to test the waters with Disney on this one! Sure, I could recreate the "Steamboat Willie" cartoon frame by frame and be completely free to do so. But that's it. I doubt I could even label it, "Staring Mickey Mouse!" because Mickey is well protected by law.

Speaking of Disney and their copyrights, I've actually received a cease and desist letter from the company. It was one of two such letters I received when I previously ran a 3D printing business. In Disney's case, I was dinged for using the trademark "Star Wars." At the time, the first episode of "The Mandalorian" had just been released on Disney+. Due to the ever so secret "Baby Yoda," they did not release any merchandise before, or even shortly after, the show first aired. My "business partner" and I immediately jumped on the opportunity to create our own line of merchandise to capitalize on the characters and situation of Disney having not released any merch.

Our "Mickey" and "Minnie" ears were quite popular. In one ear was Grogu (Baby Yoda), and the other ear was The Mandalorian. They were super cute caricatures of both characters as to not deliberately infringe on the copyrights of Disney or Lucas Films. In our marketing, however, we used "The Mandalorian" and "Star Wars" to catch the attention of the search engines. And it worked! We were the top search result for Google for a few weeks. But, it worked all too well.

After a few weeks of sales, we received the notice from Disney/Lucas Films. Although we didn't personally make the news, the fact that Disney was sending out notices to folks like us did make the news. They blanketed the market just to show how serious they were about ended the infringements. And although our products themselves weren't targeted, the use of their trademarked names were immediately red flagged. Had we not ceased production, I'm sure we would have lost any legal battle that would have ensued, included the use of the likeness of Grogu and The Mandalorian even in caricature form.

I'm no dummy. I knew what we did. And I definitely ceased immediately. I'll never go up against Disney, or any other company, in such a situation. It was not my proudest moment. To be able to say, "I received a cease and desist letter from Disney" really isn't a badge of honor for me and I'm certainly not proud of any of it. But it did teach me a lesson. I should never take advantage of anything or anyone for the sake of personal gain. They had a very could reason to delay their own line of merchandise. They knew what they had in the Grogu character. If it had been my character creation, I would have likely kept it a secret as well!

Prayer Service ​

Today was the first prayer service Saturday for this year's 21 days of prayer and fasting. I went to them last year because I felt God calling me to them. And I can see why He did! It is basically a worship service with a lot of time for prayer. The prayer is both corporate (everyone together) and intercessory (individually praying for other people). With it being at the church, it is so much easier to focus on the prayer time. And the worship time is a nice added bonus.

One of the songs we sang today was "Battle Belongs" by Brian Johnson and Phil Wickham. I absolutely love this song! The chorus begins with "So when I fight, I'll fight on my knees...With my hands lifted high." One of the times we sang that chorus, I literally fell to my knees and lifted my hands to Heaven. As the chorus continued, I jumped back to my feet. Just imagine, a year ago I wasn't able to anything like that! In fact, I wasn't even able to dance while we sang. Now, I sing and dance so hard that my Apple Watch registers my worship as exercise...LOL My knees handled this like a champ and I felt no issues having dropped to my knees and hopping back to my feet moments later. Fingers crossed, I hope to wake up tomorrow without feeling issues in my knees still...hehehe After all, tomorrow is Sunday and another day of worship at church!

After prayer service, I decided to give Rulu Coffee a try. It's the nice little coffee shop at the church in the foyer. I had heard great things about it and just had never tried it in the 16 months I have been attending the church...LOL My friend John was at the pickup area waiting for his coffee and mentioned that one of the gals working was his daughter. I ordered a simple pastry and a regular black coffee. Both were very mid. I'm used to Joffrey's Coffee...HAHAHA I personally feel Joffrey's is the best ever coffee in the history of ever! However, if I were to skip the comparison with the best coffee I have personally ever had, and simply compare Rulu to ever other coffee, it is actually pretty good. As for the pastry, I would assume it was something made in a factory somewhere and just tossed in the display case. It can't possible be homemade...hehehe Regardless of my mid opinion of the coffee and food, I definitely see myself working from this little shop from time to time. Working from home is nice. But it is also nice to get out and enjoy the world a little as I work.

First 10K Walk ​

Exactly one year ago to the date, I officially began my health journey. Early that week is when I decided to start walking. But Jan 13, 2023 was the day I started looking at it as exercise and began recording it as such. A few simple stats from that first exercise include walking 7 tenths of a mile (0.70 miles) for 13 minutes at a pace of 18 minutes, 33 seconds per mile. I burned 71 active calories with a total of 100 calories burned with an average heart rate of 106 beats per minute (BPM). I'll never forget how that felt. It felt horrible...HA! I recall feeling as if I was going to pass out. Honestly, I probably wasn't in any danger of that. But it really felt rough. A few days later, I walked a full mile in 19 minutes with an average heart rate of 126 BPM. Again, I felt like I was dying! I continued walking like this every other day or so to kick off that journey.

Today, Jan 13, 2024, I achieved my first ever 10K walk! Woohoo!!! To compare the above stats, I walked an exercise walk pace for 6.2 miles (12 times farther than a year ago) in 1 hour, 43 minutes, 39 seconds (8 times longer than last year). The pace was an average of 16 minutes, 42 seconds while increasing the pace each mile. I burned 643 active calories with a total of 815 calories at an average heart rate of 117 BPM. Bearing in mind this wasn't a 10K run, I'm incredibly happy with these stats! Especially considering I felt like I was dying a year ago at 1 mile and now I'm able to go more than 6 with hardly a sweat. I did sweat a little because I was wearing a jacket and wool hat. It was a bit cold today. But you get the idea. It wasn't much work walking this time and I felt fantastic!

I'm far from being able to run a 10K. But that's only because I haven't been training for one. This milestone today means that I'm well on my way, though. I'm confident with my ever improving health and renewed confidence that I'll be running 10K in no time. Between my diet and exercise, I am feeling so good now. That was the goal. It was to simply start feeling good again. I had no idea God was going to take me way beyond that goal. Now I have so many new health goals! These health improvements are also the sign of even more improvements! My mental and spiritual health is equally as good. The physical health is just the outward appearance of the combination of all aspects of my improved health. Praise the Lord for that!

Ending Another Day ​

I'm ending this day a little earlier than yesterday. That's because I didn't break my TV fast today...hehehe I've been listening to music this evening and had dinner. I won't be going to bed just yet. But I will soon. It has been another great day with God. I look forward to this coming week with Him. It is the second week of the 21 days of prayer and fasting. I continue to feel the calling to write. So I'll keep at it!