Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

I am back on the grid!


The front yard had to be dug up a bit but it definitely was the guys from Bell or its contractors that caused the problem (laying fibre optic cable); but I finally have power. Thank God I didn't call an electrician or I would be out big bucks. I still lost money replacing those cigar fuses and half a day looking for them. But that is just life. I just finished testing things and plugging things in.

Anyway the weekend was a bust. But I did finish the Real Life show by a major effort to catch up. More later as I am doing this on my phone.

[Maurice Ali]

I’m still trying to recover from the weekend. Just not having real power messes you up.


Anyway as I intimated, the power people came late Saturday night. Just from the description I gave them they figured it was the neutral wire. So off came the house lights and I hung out with them outside as it was pitch black at my place. They checked the wiring in the house and thankfully it was fine. So the problem was outside in the power line to the house. They said that a crew would be called in to dig up the affected area and fix it. In the mean time they would place this L shaped jumper connection to at least provide me with 120 volt power which is everything but heat, hot water, cooking and drying clothing. And that was the best they could do until probably Monday. So the weekend was roughing it without bathing – but I did get one last lukewarm bath before it completely ran out. I am mildly constipated now with all the fast food meals I ate on the weekend. I even went down to that bar near my place and had a beer, so the date with Toronto Hydro and the trip to the bar didn’t help; I was screwed with all I had planned for the weekend.


It all just sucked.


Anyway, I made do. The microwave still worked and the computers came online. But me monkeying around with the fuses and never quite knowing when the crew would actually show up, meant that I kept them offline; and especially the editor. One major screw up hooking up the 240 volt power could fry my editor and that would be an absolute disaster for the series production. So I went dark until they hooked up the real power which turned out to be first thing Monday.



The area where they dug up!


So to make a long story short they dug up the area right where the Bell contractor put their fiber optic box which neither me or my neighbor will use. As you can see in the photos they dug up on both sides of the sidewalk and they told me it would just be another 20 minutes or so before I had full power restored. So I went for a walk and when I came back they were gone and two mounds of dirt were left.



The area fiber optic box that did the damage!


So then began the arduous task of replacing the normal fuses I had in there to test the system before I call them, with the breaker fuses I had used since the 1990s. I did that as those fuses are finicky sometimes but in the end all lights and outlets that worked before now worked with power restored. It was heartwarming to hear the water heater hissing as water finally started to warm up and that first bath with hot water was glorious! Any way things are back to normal and I spent the rest of the time hooking all the power cords to all outlets and then finishing up the Real Life show.


So that was yesterday. With that first world nightmare over, I am now on this home improvement kick and the squirrel is going out the attic door even if I have to call in a pro. Other things like the leaking sink will be fixed. I will see what is happening with the bee hive from last year. All those animals in our neighborhood must had eviscerated that thing for the honey so if they are gone I will just fill up the hole and be done with it. The bee population is on the rise again, but you still can’t kill them, but I was not crazy about spending 600 bucks to have some guy come by and dig up the hive to get them off the property. Then the usual as I need new shoes, dishwashing cleaner and on and on. It is amazing how a little incident like this puts you back in your things to do list.


Anyway all that other stuff starts today and it is raining so the rodent in the attic has a reprieve for one more day. I will probably give the editing a break as this stuff has to be done. So a catch up day…..




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

A late update today as I was on the editor and I hate to take a break and lose concentration…..


I’m working on the AAVRY KNAPP show and tweaking it from the start. So far and so good and the show is a better one even after this morning session. But I have to decide to leave it as is with basically an SD show in the middle of a HD show or inject Dan in snippets as we go along to the different elements of music production. I’m tending to give the injection idea a try by getting Dan all primed up and in front of a proper backdrop and use that backdrop as a background for the SD stuff. So I guess I will have to contact him and give him the heads up…..


So the power is back on but there are TV cables hanging from trees where the Bell fiber optics contractor cut the lines. In fact there is a cable across the front of my house about 8 feet up hanging from two trees. This thing never ends! On my morning walk I came across this and no – I did not do it myself:





That is the mood of folk impacted with digging that happened in front of every house in the neighborhood. Yes every house got dug up and a certain percentage had cable disruptions of all kinds. Then there is the business of that smart home tech that is sure to come with the push to connect the house with the fiber cable supply which they claim will have no data caps – we shall see. But do you want your house constantly listening for your commands and hearing everything else. Can you trust your provider to not turn things on and spy on you whenever it wants? Knowing your every move in your car, on the street, and in your house? Suppose the neighbors complain about your house and the police just turn on every device in the house and have a look and listen?


This isn’t 1984 – it’s – 2017!


People that know my UN activities tell me to go ahead with the AI stuff and I am sure they will press me on this issue also. This is all cool with me as I am the voice of the common man and voice their concerns on the international stage. The worldwide vote and the positive major mandate for humanity as well as the legitimization of citizen journalists and bloggers and protections therein, have already been addressed at the Untied Nations. So my identity has already been made. Worldwide vote is ongoing with the website now at a solid second place in the Google rankings. Humandestiny.org has gone from a sporadic 20th page ranking to somewhere on page 2 now but will settle down eventually. We may not get page 1 but somewhere in 1-3 because human destiny is a big concept and to get this close is a big deal to me anyway.


That’s it for now. But yes people are no longer shocked or pissed off at me and not knowing why. At least most are not working against me at this stage. It is different but it think the urgency of issues they worry about and the fact I have a voice at the UN and UNESCO has grudgingly pushed them to acknowledge that they need to deal with me to get their concerns out there. So at least they are not working against me anymore except for the absolutely rabid Maurice Ali hater. But most are onboard to get the word out through IAIJ and FOF…..





Who would have ever thought?

[Maurice Ali]

[Maurice Ali]

I don’t want to sound like a broken record – but…..


As things putter along I can actually count the major problems I have on my hand. The rat in the attic, filling in the bee hive hole and fixing the leak in the sink. Those are the urgent ones. The ones that keep me up at night. Then there is the car and the longer term aspects of my life with family responsibilities. The easy problems to solve are the destiny for humanity and the new idea of global governance along with a new form of mental paradigm for humanity to keep them relevant as AI puts development into overdrive.


The funny thing about the humanity thing is not coming up with the ideas; it is coming up with the adoption of those ideas that is the hard part. Anyone could come up with new ideas for the human race just riding downtown on the bus; but without access and influence it all means nothing. So that is the ”why” of having humanities’ problems ranking after a squirrel in the attic.


Now to make this even more irrelevant, let throw some reality in here and find out I have some terminal illness. Let’s say I have some minor discomfort. So like a few days ago with the power cut I ate this large greasy chicken meal with all of the fixings and felt really full, really full like my stomach as stretched to the limit. That was an unusual experience for me and I thought about it, like maybe I could have cancer or be in stage 4 of cancer. But things went back to normal which is no physical problems anywhere. But you never know. Prior to the fast food pig out due to the power outage my major physical complaint was my possible thinning of hair on the top of my head which now does not look like a problem but if I cut it shorter and place my head under strong light you can see through the hair to the scalp. For some this is the normal state of affairs but for a guy who had the thickest mane on the planet, that was a concern. Another concern was that I had s few small grey hairs on my wrist. And now may this have grown to 7 or 8 small thin hairs. Really minor stuff about aging but when the light hits it just so you see them and realize time is catching up on you.


All those problems above are laughable to those with real problems. But to do what I am doing you need to be free of real problems or you get mired in them and the global advocacy thing just dies off quickly. Not having a terminal or chronic illness puts you in the 20 or 30 something head space where you can live life as an idealist and push idealist agendas. Chronic or terminal illness takes that away - and the unique situation of idealist youthful vigor to change the world along with the financial and established institutional entitlements to do so - fall by the wayside as you are shocked back to physical and individual reality, and it is all now just about you.


I checked the signs and symptoms of cancer and heart disease and fullness is one of the symptoms but since I hadn’t felt like that in years and it went away I guess I don’t have stage 4 pancreatic cancer – but you never know…..


But what I’m trying to get at is how fragile our little experiment and org is right now. Sure I have the endorsement of a few hundred people around the world. I have a small staff that I can count on. But so far the ideas and push to do things and get places has been on me. Thus, if anything happened to me or distracted me from this altruism, the organization comes to a grinding halt. So I’ve been looking for more creative people to come in and just make sure the infrastructure and access points are in place. Then I just need creativity, and that is very much possible. But it is harder to find than you think. And not just me but for many of those progressive NGOs out there, the organization many times hinge on the founder because the qualities to create the organization and the abilities to run it successfully are so rare. Even if you find the person with the ability and desire, simple life happenstances can scuttle the whole thing quickly.


So for the time being we are good to go and keep doing what we are doing. The only question is how much time I have…..




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Back on the editor for the weekend…..


It is hard for me to relay the years of effort, videotaping, editing and the actual productions of the shows and the money and time involved. And it all comes down to this, the final edits and shopping of the series. After all that time it is “harrowing” to take it on the road and get critiqued and rejected – over and over again. You have to do this but you can understand why I yearn to just be done with it with some form of broadcast to fulfill my obligation to all involved.


But anyway…..


In other news the bee hive was found to be dead or abandoned by the queen and everyone swarmed or bugged out. So I filled the hole before anything else got any ideas about taking the grotto over. So that one is crossed off my “things to do” list. The next is the squirrel in the attic which has been strangely quiet. I might just seal up the hole right now and just spray some bleach or something to keep them away from chewing another hole in the roof. We shall see.


But I want the AAVRY KNAPP show done this weekend. If we do the video again with Dan it really just replaces the stuff shot in February so finishing up the show now is still productive. Then finishing up the others with a dedicated background for all SD based shows which will be light blue as in FOF blue and that should be it. Just finish up the Epilogue show and we are good to go!




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Well Saturday turned out more productive than I thought…..


Not in the IAIJ/FOF way but in terms of getting those side issues taken care of. Like I said before, the bee hive issue is over. The bugs are gone and the holes are filled in. Next up was the squirrels in the attic. I got my ladders out and looked around the soffits – nothing! The only way they could get in was by pushing up the shingles at this one part of the roof and a smaller access point where the roofers left this little triangle gap open. Those were the only points I could see for ingress. So I bought this foam expand filler and had at it. Sealing up the first part was easy but the triangle gap was at the front of the house two stories high. I’m not crazy about risking my life on account of some furry tailed rat, but I gambled and was able to get that hole filled with the foam. That is as far as I will go. If the varmints get in again I call a pro and pay through the nose. Was weekend was the last straw. Thinking the rats ate through the wires did it! Now from previous experience it will take a few days for them to find another way in but I may get lucky this time. I have a sneaky suspicion that they found a new home in some guy’s place that has central air. Attics can get to 150 to 160 degrees in warm climates. I figure about 110 - 120 and probably over 100 now. So a nesting squirrel would probably high tail it to the air conditioned house rather than mine. So sealing the last of the holes may do it. Time will tell and I have been here so many times before I am not going to say success until years past. But that is the sitrep as of now.



The remainder of the day will be shooting backgrounds. Black is in the studio now so I will shoot some with low light, then lighted and then roll down the light blue or grey and try several different lighting variations of that for about 5 minutes each and that should be it. I will also add some motion to those waving my hands around the lights and all. Just videotape it once and be done with it. Then I add the back grounds to the show are we are another step closer to shopping the thing.


Saturday night I was out and about with my sister having a dinner and birthday party and my cousin flying up from Chicago. So I actually did something again on Saturday. No date but whatever…..




Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pnoQ9w4HNY&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

Another backup and another update for you…..


I had family over this weekend and a birthday so not much got done. But between Sunday night and Monday morning the AAVRY KNAPP show is almost done its latest refresh. I constantly wonder whatever made me get involved in this mess but too late now.







I shot this on the weekend. Background video in grey and black. You can see the black rolled up on the top of the hanger apparatus.



I did watch the movie “Blackhat” which was a Michael Mann bomb at the box office. I actually like it but the major criticisms were that the characters were flat and uneven production and so on. The flat characters were obvious and was one reason why I added more human interest insight to the main people like Michael’s kidney problems and Shane’s revolving door of prison. I even added my own rush to my dying mother after a big speech at the United Nations; all in an attempt to portray us as we are – human beings…..


The other problem with the Blackhat movie was an international cast of Black and Chinese actors. This is an unspoken problem when you are in North America. North Americans like to see White North Americans and that is that. Call it what you want but when it comes to entertainment they will watch what they want and you can’t force them to be more diverse. Our series is almost all white except for me, a main character, and that is a problem right there. But it is what it is and some you can fix and others you can’t.


Anyway the background work should be done on the show by early afternoon and then we move on to the Epilogue show. The shows are definitely improving and so we just keep going.


Once again I sound like a broken record but that is the way it is…..

[Maurice Ali]

I put aside the AAVRY KNAPP show for the time being and will contact Dan to see if he is up for another session of taping. Tuesday I concentrate on the Twenty6Hundred show. That show was reinvented a few weeks ago but needs the background track that the other shows are getting for the SD stuff. Right now the SD material in their show is just the standard black bars, but to change them to color and have some moving shadows in them and such now needs to add a dedicated track and put the video that will be the bars after you put the small SD image over the background HD image. So when you look at that photo from yesterday, imagine me slowly waving my hand in front of the lights lighting the backdrops and making some barely discernible shadow movements animating the back ground – just too funny if you see this thing in production! I also had minutes of static shots. Once I add in the dedicated track we can literally replace the background in seconds to anything else. So the effort is worth it and now I have to do it to the “Free with Purchase” or Twenty6Hundred” show.


As an aside the nightmarish part of this is the more you work on the shows, the more you see what has to be done! This can drown you in despair except for the fact that the shows are getting better and some of the shows get better in leaps and bounds. Otherwise I would be despondent….. But the background work here is just work, but it has to be done. I had thought this would be more exciting, more action and a hot babe on the side – Oh well…..


Apart from that it is back to working on the gut I grew pigging out on food during the weekend. A 45 minute walk later in the morning will help after I have started work in earnest. The bee hive is history. The squirrels have gone but that is probably the hot weather and they will be back. But now I will concentrate on the kitchen sink and tighten up the plumbing underneath.


Always something to do…..

[Maurice Ali]

Another backup and another update…..


It’s getting repetitive, but, the Twenty6Hundred show is basically done. The background video is in there and I corrected some continuity errors. I also went back to the original ending to the Indie Band video. That music video ends with me following Jim and Randy down Queen Street West from a gig with their equipment walking back to their cars, and unexpected (to all of us) this babe crosses the street in front of me and passes by playing to the camera. So I turned and followed her face and she blew a kiss and waved goodbye all in one motion. That was the ending for the video and it worked and was not staged! But I thought the video was a bit grainy and replaced much of it just keeping the woman blowing the kiss and walking away as the close-ups are always good video. But it bugged me that the great ending was compromised for the sake of grainy video (and not very grainy at that). So I brought back in the original ending and it works and my preoccupation with video quality succumbed to the great ending. That is the way God intended. The funny thing is that back in the day grain was the mark of bad video or cheap equipment. You avoided it at all costs. But the video is so good these days that gain – or grain –is a thing of the past even in the dark so now grain is added for visual effect. It isn’t the bugaboo as it was years ago. So the ending rocks again!


I’ll also tweak Dan's Nawlins video as I made continuity changes that should have been made years ago. Then I will take a break and get some exercise. I put the exercise on hold because I was making real progress with the editing but I need to trim down now! Anyway, that is you update.


Same old, but we are getting there and then the rejection fun begins! Where is the glamour, where is the fun? Not what I thought it would be…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ6yeHn9WEw&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

These midday updates are becoming the norm lately…..


Taking a break as I convert some odd footage of me and Dan back in 2006 shooting a music video called Nawlins. That is the music video in the AAVRY KNAPP show and the funny thing about that video is how it got made. We only had a rough Idea – no story boarding – but figured it would be a nice backdrop to shoot it on the helipad at this place called “The Docks” which is off-shore from downtown Toronto presenting a great skyline. So we setup and Dan got ready on his spot and I played the boom box of the song to him to keep in synch to help with dubbing and – guess what – the batteries die. Brand new batteries that probably sat too long before being sold. We were both pissed and I had to drive out of there and find some new batteries. So as that happened one of the island ferries started to pass by blaring its horn with loud Calypso music to boot. Dan wanted to sit down and have a drink; but I told him to play the song out and at least we would have a few shots of him singing as this poor excuse for a paddle boat chugged on by.


We got lucky and the boat stayed within frame for the whole song and I got lucky again as Dan finished with outstretched arms and following his right arm through the tips ended you up at that ferry boat as you zoomed in! So the ferry boat would be a principle part of the video. The captain wanted to be a part of the video blaring the horn and passing right by – so be it! Dan also took a trip to New Orleans earlier that year and had some shots of real Mississippi river boats which would tie in with his song reminiscing about Nawlin’s in Toronto! So we quickly set up again and took close-up shots of Dan singing to intercut with the long shots of Dan and the ferry. I could not take the chance of looking for batteries and coming back as the lighting (i.e. sunny vs overcast or even rain) and such at that moment had to be duplicated or the cuts would look like they were shot at different times. So poor Dan had to run through the song twice with no help from the boom box but he was surprisingly accurate. Then just a few accent shots of guitar playing and more shots of Dan against the lake like he would be against the Mississippi River and that was a wrap. The cheapest production you could have for a music video below 26 bucks (the cost of one mini DV tape)!


For a non-existent budget music production it looks surprisingly slick! If we planned the ferry boat pass we would need permits and money paid to the ferry captains to pass close by and all the rest. But like so many of our other productions, you just run with the moment and take advantage of any opportunities. Real gorilla filmmaking!


Anyway, I will have a link of the actual music video (the earlier version and not the tweaked one I just did). Hard to believe it came out that good in the end…..



Here are some screen captures of Dan Strudwick performing on The Docks as we shot his music video based on his up song: Nawlins (The Big Easy) which is part of the AAVRY KNAPP album: Daze In My life. This footage will be used with video of Dan holidaying in New Orleans prior to the disaster in the city.






















http://www.iaij.com/nawlins83.wmv

[Maurice Ali]

Well it took five hours but the first show is formatted for our default background and it looks good.


I actually like how the show now captures your interest with a purpose and method to the whole thing. If we nail the conclusions on the last show then we really have a series to be reconed with! There is now light a the end of he tunnel! I only have a short list of things to address and then we just check the sound levels and burn the DVDs.


Finally I can actually see his thing finishing. Then you sell your soul for broadcast and move on to the other things. Sounds simple but it won't be. But for now I feel I have accomplished something.



Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

A totally messed up day....


But the first show now has a proper explanation of the experiment and controls. I will finish that up tonight which should finish that show and then make sure those points are answered in the last. Then it's just mix and match segments on the last show. So with Dan's video added next week, all shows should be ready for DVD burning and we are done.


More later....

[Maurice Ali]

This time it looks like the end of the road for that Buick Roadmaster station wagon!


The thing just up and died on me going to my Dad’s place for Father’s Day dinner (we were doing it one day early). Just died on me turning on to this major street. It couldn’t have died on me before I got on the major street; it dies on the major one with all the traffic. No warning, it just died and would not start. Plenty of electricity and a new starter but no catch at all.


DOA…..



The last tow to the garage!


It took almost five hours to get a tow truck and tow it to a garage. I will leave for my Dad’s place and grab his car and tell the garage what to do in a moment, but my mind is pretty much already made up. Time to say goodbye.....


I actually would not have minded a few more months but the world does not operate on my timetable. Anyway, we tried everything with extra gas just in case the gauge was broken and not luck. The thing was dead. So I took my sister’s car down the road to this restaurant and took a piss and went back and settled in for the long wait for a tow truck on a Saturday night. This took forever and all I did was watch one car after another try to avoid rear-ending me. The cops even went by to see if everything was alright, but just waiting for the tow. Finally a guy arrives with a tow truck and one of those where they put the car on a bed – never did that with my car before. But he got it up there and off to the garage we went.


So now what?


Well I think I may be getting another car. It may be a new one but if it is we are talking economy car because I don’t’ want to tie my money up in a car; it has to go to the orgs! So maybe a Hyundai Elantra like my sister's car, they had no problems with that car. The other option is another Mustang but not a V8 anymore but a V6 and used at that. That would be around the same price. I know those cars inside out and they are made the old-fashioned way with thick panels and rear wheel drive. But we shall see. I just want to narrow done the field and then concentrate on pricing and finance. I put the editing on hold for now and just worry about the car business. It would be nice to drive a car that actually runs like a car should. Maybe even with air conditioning. Strange to think the time has come. It’s been a long time – since 1989 – when I had to buy a car last. And the time has come. I don’t even care if the garage takes their time fixing the thing; it just gives me more time to get the new car.


The best car to get is the car that turns your crank, that you identify with and gets your heart pumping. A car that picks you up as you walk to it in the parking lot. That was my mantra before FOF-IAIJ. Now that is the priority, so if I go economy it is a sacrifice I make for the cause. If I do it right it won’t be much more than what I pay in car costs right now with the gas guzzling and repairs. But we shall see. I have to get to that garage now. Man, when I got home last night I hated everything. Hated the car and everything I was doing; all I wanted was a normal life. But that feeling has past and now it is just to fix the situation and back to the editing and all of that.....




Later…..

[Maurice Ali]

Bought a new car!

Already sold the Roadmaster to the mechanic who was supposed to work on it!


Done!



More later.....