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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So the weekend is upon us and I have more time and figured I would have a nice long session pouring my heart out to you guys and then I slept in.....


I still have time but having that happen is quite irascible! No mater, I will download the latest phpBB3 version and the conversion files and start working on the huge database. 15 years of stuff! There is more than you see now. Old defunct forums and all that. I never go there and take a look but I want to keep it all intact. So I go through this laborious process of converting and the uploading and testing on one of my gazillion websites and then crippling access points for robots and other unwanted and then replacing the old forums. I will keep them on the servers as another backup but we will soon be rocking with a more modern board.




The original website at the beginning!



The website has remained the same for years but it was not always like this. You had to see the old website and how it worked to appreciate what we have now.



http://fortressoffreedom.com/forums.html



If there is a link above you can take a test drive on the original website at the beginning. If not I haven t found the URL yet.


Here is Dave's song "Fortress of Freedom":

http://fortressoffreedom.com/fortressoffreedom.mp3











What else? I said I finished rust proofing the car but that was underneath. I still have the inside doors and trunk and that is it! Those can wait but I may just throw caution to the wind and do it and forget about all of it for another year. Also Withoutabox.com is closing. That is the website you can apply to film festivals. We were hoping to use that to promote our film festival but it will be gone in September when we want to hold ours. Now there is only Filmfreeway.com but I don t know the requirements for that. If we cannot get typical access online from them then festival is scuttled as I m not going on rooftops screaming about our festival because there is no other way to get the word out there. We should still do it, but now half of the access sites are gone. Just like that: Poof! And owned by Amazon that has tons of money galore.....



Later.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt6DzuL0S20&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I have the future home of these forums and you can check it out here:


http://fortressoffreedom.com/phpBB3


That is just a shell as in there is nothing in the database yet. You can download that and test drive it yourself if you wish. Converting a 15 year old database is going to be a pain so I'm taking my time. But the php used when that board was made is old and when it is dropped on my servers we will be forced to upgrade. PhpBB3 needs php5.4 and so that is what we will upgrade to. This is boring maintenance work but it may as well be now.




The Royal Cinema at night!


In other news my gang is phoning me up getting excited about the movie premiere and all that. I have to admit, it is exciting in a satisfying way. It's actually more advocacy than anything else and we will see where it goes I'm sure. I just hated these dead spots that is all. And then things start happening concurrently and you are running around like a chicken with its head cut off. But I'm used to that now!



The Royal Cinema entrance!


It has warmed up so I will finish rust proofing the car and put a dimmer switch in my dad's bathroom. Now that's exciting. I have to admit Shane's idea of pulling up to that old theater in a limo at night with our stuff on the marquee is super cool, just like an old fashioned movie star entrance. But I will be there hours before so no movie star entrance for me. I probably won t get to watch the whole movie either. But I will steal a moment to sit in one of the aisle seats with a huge coke and huge box of popcorn I will never finish and watch the film like a regular movie patron. That would be cool.....




Later.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well pretty much a wasted weekend. I did think about my possible speech to the 57th Session of the Commission for Social Development. I hit the marks of their topic and the solution, if viewed from a different perspective, can use the same budgets and resources but with massive gains from the current strategy. But the organizational apparatus there probably won't bend for my idea. But it is a good idea and we are just here to disseminate it. Maybe I get to bark it out in Conference Room 4 or wherever they hold it or maybe it gets binned (or filed under G for garbage), but the idea is the idea and the results of The Fortress Experiment are the result and that is what it is.


We will also apply to really go in-depth with a side event on the positive mandate with clips from the movie to show in real life how this works. We shall see what happens there. I also wouldn't mind playing the entire movie for anyone interested at any time and place at the UN. About a third or so of the movie is the UN and UNSECO, and I can t remember a feature length film ever doing that in an entertaining way. But for all of the movie's problems, we have done it! They must be interested. It is inoffensive to all member nations so if vetted it should go through scrutiny just fine. I'll make the subtle offer and see how it is received. All this starts up in a month or so. Should be interesting and fun!


What else?



Corey Johnson



I finished rust proofing the car to the point I won't freak out if salt is sprayed everywhere on the roads, so there, that is done! When bored I listen to music and hope to hear something out of the ordinary. Still looking for new Canadian talent. The music just drones on like every other, the same thing over and over, but then you hear a voice that just stands out. The band behind the voice is disposable or replaceable - but that voice! I guess a young Mariah Carey is the best example. But there are many also rans and I give them a chance and buy their music. The latest is a Canadian band called "Unleash the Archers" . The song is Test Your Metal and I love it. From 2015; the thing about this song is the vocals. I love it when women really drive their voices to the max as that is life or a declaration you re alive so to speak. Otherwise many just sound like birds in a bird cage. At lower volumes though with a Gospel background some can pull it off and sound really good like our own Tabitha Blair (and Corey Johnson for the men). But for the others going loud and screaming (like a child that discovered its voice for the first time, constantly just screaming/shouting to hear it) works for me. In death metal, women make the guttural sounds a bit more bearable for the mainstream but for regular heavy metal the normal vocals can work well on their own! In that song Brittney Hayes / Brittney Slayes, just lets it rip with no compression! In death metal you have to succumb to the general vibe like in "Eye of Chaos by Once Human". There is only so much a female vocalist can do uttering guttural sounds...hehehehehehe... So that is what I did to relax.




Tabitha Blair






Goodnight ..






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yctXV3uHBs&feature=share


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


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySj8HJl09PE&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

More caretaking jobs around the FOF IAIJ universe. I m the only one doing this. Anyway I m messing about with stuff and none of it is important. When things finalize I'll let you know. Winter is coming and it sucks. I am getting older and it sucks. Time is the enemy more and more. When young you don t think about time but you do when you are older. Time is the one thing you can't change. You can make money or even win the lottery if you get lucky. But there is no way to buy back time! You can t reverse the aging process. You can try to mask it but like a restored car, if you look closely it is still an old car with a new paint job and bondo covering up the rotted out parts. Even if you keep your youth longer than you should, all those that are your contemporaries age and get old. So you just surround yourself with younger folk, or in my case the orgs just naturally attract them because they are relevant. You can almost lie to yourself that you are still young. You fix yourself up in the mirror where you look younger in that single view.



But the others get the full 360 degree view and see a guy who still has hair but it starting to get thin. He looks fit and thin but after a meal there is instant pot belly. And I'm one of the more well preserved examples. Women call you "sir" which means the possibility of thinking of you sexually never even enters their minds; that is what "sir" means. You actually start to stay relevant even in the arts while your contemporaries stay in the past, but this means they look at you as some fossil trying to act young. It s probably not a zero sum game here but a sliding scale somewhere in the middle. Realistically I m looking at years and not decades to finish off what I want to do. That is frightening as things always mover slower than you think it will. And things end before you think they do! So it s crunch time for me, if it isn t over already.



That is how life sneaks up behind you and cheats you. Even if you make it, even if you score at the very last minute; the next day is a new beginning, and for an old guy maybe the beginning of the end. It s depressing but nobody lives forever. Make way for tomorrow.....




But not yet!




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeExa2R2nf0&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Oct 24, 2018 12:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just doing things that are not top of mind and then getting suck in a quagmire of esoteric profundity…..


Take that updating of databases for phpBB. The first time out with a clean install and everything worked and the conversion started. Fine I got the guys to ease up on the restrictions yesterday. But now you can’t continue with the conversion and starting again leads to database connection problems. Fine delete the data base and any tables in there and launch again and still problems. Then clean install again and more niggling problems. I’m not that motivated to simply make another forum at another of my gazillion websites and tinker around with it there. It occupies your mind too much which as a mental exercise is good but as an on-going thing is bad. I’m binning the idea for a few weeks. I’m already in the middle of setting up another board so I will go through the motions and then bin it. Then wash the car and take a walk.

All this if I bin it is a good mental exercise that sharpens the mind. If I were to stay at it and even if I did it successfully I don’t need to be that drained when everything that matters is happening or starting to happen weeks from now. You have to pick you fights and this one has no urgency to it. So it gets binned. Now you know why I didn’t mess with anything at IAIJ.


You could go to a software person but they are expensive in Canada for what you get. You can go to India and I constantly get bothered by these people, that would be cheap and the work probably better. It’s an option but I would only do it by referral from someone in Canada. As for having the script kiddies that do this as a hobby – well they will do it. It will cost a bit as this is not a one hour job and I have modifications so they will have to deal with that crap as I am not returning the board to basic state for conversion. The problem here is that developers can sort of make this a strung along hobby horse making you go to them to fix niggling things that should not have occurred in the first place. And I’ll leave it at that. What I probably will do is continue with the offline conversion which is setting up a devserver and databases and running both boards on your computer and converting it that way. I’m sort of there anyway but no urgency there. So the phpBB3 board goes off the air for the time being. I actually feel sharper for the experience so it has some merit, but brings back some old memories not worth reliving – if you know what I mean…..



Goodnight…..





EDIT: Crap! Now this board is getting messed up and I didn’t touch it.

Crap!!!!
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 7:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Testing: haven't haven't... ""



----------------------------------------------------



The above was posted in the reply box as is. The reason you are seeing a black diamond with a "?" in - all over the place - is because I copy and paste from Word and the character set or "charset" for Windows-1252 has like 16 extra characters that the usual UTF-8 charset does not have. When a browser can't read those special Microsoft word characters you get the ? symbol. The reason you see it in the templates is because the style designer used characters that are not being recognized. If I default to the standard template you don't see any unknown characters and it is all good. So what to do?


Well I will do nothing for the moment. It's annoying but not dangerous. This may spark me to move quicker with the phpBB3 site which is back up again. I had problems converting on the old board so I wiped the slate clean and started converting again. This time a whole 2.4mb converted which was less than the previous board. So now you only see "My Domain" and not even the name of this board like the old one had.

So I will mess with stuff and then revert back until something works. The php site version was changed to 5.6 and I changed it back to 4, and nothing. I changed header info for charset to Windows-1252 which should display everything, but no change, but I might be doing something stupid there; but that should work as the down and dirty fix. But whatever - you can still read the updates. I thought about changing the style of the board but I'll keep it corrupted and familiar.



In other news yesterday just sucked. All the way through from beginning to end. It is amazing how nothing can go your way for an entire day. Just sucked with a capital S - and that was my day. Nothing really bad happened - just the stuff that when you told someone about your day they would say "Well, that sucked!" and you get the idea. I learned a long time ago to just go to bed and start anew the next day as any fixes on the day you are jinxed will just add to the disaster. So today is hopefully a better day. I hate not being able to type this out in Microsoft Word. But at least I know what is going on here.....



Later.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkei8SYU0bc&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Oct 26, 2018 9:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m actually sort of glad nothing is happening around here now.


Glad because it lets me fix and update things around here. I hope you are enjoying the black diamond with a “?” in them in all the templates. I could get rid of them with a few clicks and another theme but the theme author has the same one for the phpBB3 board upgrade so we stay with the familiar style. I’ll probably contact a pro for phpBB2 board conversion (and there are such people) and see what the options are. I have a back-up less than a week old that has none of the charset problems if it is a database screw-up, and I have a couple of the recent databases. They may want it changed back to the original look for the conversion also. So all that has to be figured out and then I just send them the file and back it comes. I’ll do that as long as the cost is not prohibitive as things have a habit of screwing up along the way……





The slightly compromised board.



Anyway this is no emergency, but I hate seeing an improperly displayed web page! But if we upgrade properly here then we move to IAIJ and do the same there. And that is the plan. I also would not mind another DCP of the short "Real Life: Real Lives" with just three channels – just in case.


The days are better and I’m starting to get itchy fingers regarding time now.


It has started…..



Goodnight…..
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2018 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sorry for the delay in posting but I spent part of the morning helping this guy choose a Corvette. I also told him to check out Tesla at their Toronto dealership but that probably fell on deaf ears. If you are a car guy like me, helping someone else buy a Corvette is a bit masochistic but there it is. It was fun regardless.....


The main thing on my mind is the movie and the UN stuff now. You may know they are showcasing social inequality this year at the 57th Session of the Commission for Social Development. If allowed I will give them a solution, an answer they can jump start change for the better with nothing more than a change in perspective. That is what I will be there to talk about. My whole life is about social inequality and this is near and dear to my heart. Global betterment by a change in perspective at those venues that matter, and via our little experiment in social engineering, and The Fortress Experiment gives us an answer to social inequality. So that is coming up and all I can do now is think about it. The website stuff is actually a blessing in disguise at it takes my mind off that other, more emotional stuff. It would be the height of irony if I did not get to speak and disseminate my idea there based on the usual negative subjective judgement that has always been the bane of my life. I would probably burst out laughing if that happened. So, some drama coming up in the next few months. Basically my life is being played out as we speak and it could all be over by spring in its dynamic sense – or another new beginning.....


I don’t have crystal ball, anything can happen. But I am alive and very relevant to the times I am in right now. Everything I have ever done has lead me to this moment. No mistakes! So just make the play.....



Later.....
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I am making headway with the forums. Now I have the two forums up and running and I am trying to get the huge FOF database into the old forums. Stuff like “Bigdump” get hung up but I finally got that to work only for it not to. So I do it through “phpmyadmin”, but we need bigdump at the end or else I have the folks at the server put it in.


To do this work I have to go into the Devserver script and increase timeouts and file sizes and all the rest to ridiculous limits, and even then white screens! So I am trying again. Eventually you move along to the next hang up. Is it worth it? Probably not but it keeps your mind active. Anyone can do this. It may seem daunting to some but when you get into it you learn. You never look at any articles from Microsoft, and I wonder if anyone solved a problem reading Microsoft articles. They are not written for lay people that just want to solve a problem. The answers people need are not in technical terms but in more graphic and simple terms like:

“Click on the gear at the top right of the screen and when the pop up appears, hit configure and then change the number in the blue box to 40.”

That is what they want and those people at Microsoft should write things with a test team of ordinary people trying to solve it on computer there and then. I shudder to think what those Microsoft techs would come up with if you asked them to make instructions on how to take a shit! But I digress (but secretly I think it would be hilarious).

What I am good at is not that computer stuff. Anyone can be trained to do that. But my experience is different. Think of human culture being a mental wall (or bubble) where things like justice, good and bad and religion and society and such are created apart from nature. You are born into this and if you feel accepted you never question it in your little universe. If you are not accepted you see then and there that it is “their” world, their universe because you are not really a part of it. You then find there are all sorts of other disenfranchised people living by their own codes and all the rest. I took it further to find out what went wrong with me and society and that was the reason for the philosophy and my interest that took me to the UN. Standing outside of it all and having thought it all out from base metaphysics and epistemology puts you in a position to pitch ideas on improving that little bubble we all live in. Maybe I have fresh eyes and insight into things others take for granted and never thought about. So that in a nut shell brought me to the UN under the journalist banner and what I am trying to do now. All the dots line up and connect for what I am planning to do. There is an intelligence behind it all, and it is all for the betterment of humanity.


I need to get out and clear my mind. The weather is crap and it actually snowed last night. It has an effect on you. So get out and take a walk around the mall. Sip on the tall mocha from Starbucks you still frequent. Then back to work. I will watch some TV tonight to stay balanced. Yes, watching TV to stay balanced, now that is funny!



Later…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3P618MgPNQ&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2018 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m calling it quits on going to phpBB3 right now…..


Everything was setup and ready to go. I didn’t need an internet connection, all I had to do was put the sql files into the databases and start the conversion. And there everything got hung up. The processes worked fine. I altered max file sizes from 2 to 500mb for example. I lengthened timeouts and increased memory on machines that had 8-16 gigs of memory. In the end it didn’t seem to matter. I was about to go into that apache server and start changing stuff there but the problem now was not the settings but the databases which would always hang up during the upload due to some error or corruption.


This is where I decided to call it quits for the time being. No way am I spending more time on something like this. Fix the database then problems converting. Fix the converted database and problems uploading. And in the end you get a forum that sort of looks like the one you had before! These forums can take up to php5.6 with the exception that MS rich text messes up for some reason. That is what happened with the black diamonds in the questions marks. The folks that run one of my servers (I have two in a different part of the country just to be safe) were asked by me to extend timeouts but then I got an email asking me if I wanted to increase the php for the new forum and I said yes. What they did was increase it for all websites on the server including the old board and that is when the character problems happened. Going back down (to php4.6) did not correct the problem. Rummaging around the net I see I am not the only one. And there are quick fixes available, but those posts of mine were created on three different word programs. Currently I have about a four year window where some characters would not display. It is manageable right now to physically change things as is without messing about with the database and then the problems should never appear again on a forced upgrade of php. But any blanket change involving script across the database may cause even more problems in the legacy texts I used back in the day. I don’t need 15 years of editing! These forums are much larger than you know; take a look as some are hidden from view:




Expanded FOF forums.



This database is huge and I don’t want to F**K with it – if you know what I mean…..


I gave up on converting the FOF forums but figured the IAIJ forms were good to go with no upgraded php and no text corruptions and that had the same problems uploading as the FOF databases. So I am leaving things as they are and when I have time to correct the failure to display characters. The corporate announcements and such will go fast. These blogs will go slower as it is a daily thing. While I am at it I have the option to strip those youtube links. No decision on that. I could just keep them up there for a few weeks and then strip them or just keep the wonky text link that sooner or later will go nowhere. I fixed posts on this page so I don’t have to see it. The old style for the board was reloaded from the original website and the black diamond problem will not go away so I nixed the style and am looking at others. The current grayish one is the best for the moment. Boring but more readable than the dark themes around. We shall see what eventually the norm becomes but the old style was really damaged in display by that hiccup at the server.


Anyway it has to be this way. Having meta-tags pointing the browser to a character set that would display is not a solution as the browsers used to give you options on charsets but don’t anymore and it will just be the standard UTF-8 set and that will be it. So the problem will persist for me if I don’t just take care of this the old fashioned way. Text is doable but templates are not.


So there you are.


I have to do other things than that. As an exercise, a mental exercise it is perfect as when you solve a problem, another comes up and on and on. Great as an exercise but you have to call it quits after a fashion or it does more damage than good. So it gets put on hold as of now. I will be out of time in a few weeks so it goes from here to a pro and they can deal with it. This reminds me of those army boot camp exercises like holding up buckets of sand. Just another metal exercise. Pointless until you need that mental stamina during an emergency. That is sort of the utility there. Messing with your mind and keeping it strong and nothing more.




Goodnight…..




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzwzdIgQyuA&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2018 6:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well the nightmare of correcting all that corruption has begun.....


All the areas except this social blog of mine are done! But this rambling blog is the hardest and worst. All that punctuation I use has come back to haunt me! Anyway I went back two pages and will correct things as I go along, but what a disaster. Pasting back into word does not reveal the missing characters. Here are the characters that show black diamonds:


..... (dots missing)
-

:



To make matters worse there does not seem to be anyway to discriminate between one and the other. You can’t do a replace this symbol with that symbol as it could be any of the five. Also doing that in the database would corrupt the coding in the script so I don’t want to try any quick fixes. It’s just this mess that started with me using MS Word. If the characters are still visible you can paste and convert but once they get the generic diamond it seems you are sunk..... Anyway, all our announcements and such are done. I am two pages back and working on it. Not urgent but a job that will take a while. What a bother! But that will sort self out soon enough


I’m still punching this stuff out on Word, but will have to reset permissions or transfer into Note Pad to convert and that will be a pain. So you grammar Nazis have your revenge! This took me by surprise. Its’ sort of like finding you have cancer or something like that. It just pops up out of nowhere and you have to deal with it. So I have that going on.


I just have to remember that I am healthy and still looking forward and doing things. But this idea of upgrading phpBB2 – phpBB3 has been nothing but a never ending nightmare. Sure it is a great mental exercise but the language corruption was the worst.


In other things phpBB – I am looking at the cut and paste method to get my database into the forum databases without the error issues transferring from within. They say it works with the correct script to set it up properly. Sort of like the programs that chop up the database but the first part contains information on how to stitch it up together. So you paste it first and execute when in place and see what happens – I see disaster, nothing but disaster. But it is on the devserver and not real life, so..... I have a couple of ways to do this but it will be trial and error. But man – this computer stuff can be a bugger. I was better off two weeks ago in blissful ignorance. Computers!!!!!!



Goodnight.....






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk2Nhzvtdac&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I’m turning my attention to other things now.



The board as of October 31, 2018.


I will admit that I find the layout of the new message board skin to be a bit dull. Maybe I will add the FOF/IAIJ logs and equalizer in the corner. I thought about changing the colors back to the usual so we shall see. But I’m taking a break for a day or two and then slowly correcting the rest of text in this on-going adventure of ours.


More and more I see things coming to a head and then – and then what? And then we keep doing what we do. But the Fortress Experiment is mostly over. The big ones are the positive mandate and AI and any other issues brought up by those in the membership. What I loathe is the fact that my entire life seems to have been purposely made for this without the private life to go with it. If successful I guess you can say that in a sea of humanity 7.4 billion strong, that one life doing this is fine and justified. But for me personally I wanted more. Wanted what everyone expects to get, and I “get it” that the fact I was denied it is the reason I can do what I am doing now. I get it, but it just doesn’t’ mean I like it. You can’t have it all and that is the bitter pill to swallow. All this toil since 2003 can come to very little if we don’t get the word out on the world’s stage. That part is coming up shortly (and the reason I have to start thinking about that instead). Taking some time off keeps you fresh and not stale about the whole thing. For me, everything I have ever done – actually has – lead me to this moment. The way I was brought up to the scholastic choices I made (long story there as I had to fight for it) and getting to this point with all the obstacles put in front of me - But I am there. Unfortunately as in sports, there are no guarantees. But we are close, so failure at this moment is going to be hard. But things can also keep developing. You just have to stay focused and make the play.


Things are quiet right now but everyone is still on board. I started doing things other than staring at a computer monitor. I checked the tightness of the bolts holding my car’s jacking rails and we are good to go there, a bit expensive but done and now forgotten. I also trimmed my hair, but now that I’m getting older I still love the fact I can grow it out and have that bush be a bush like the younger guys. It keeps you youthful – stuff like that – and you have to have that outlook as getting older can be a drag. And that is how it is right now in my head.



Goodnight…..






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4nHLHDtyVA&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Thu Nov 01, 2018 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have you ever wondered why I really don’t do youtube, facebook, Instagram, twitter, etc.?


The answer is simple, as those websites eventually corrupt or hijack your original motivations. If successful you start to play for followers, likes, or subscribers and change what you do to be popular to the masses and thus you are working for the websites and not for your own ambitions. I would probably have a much larger audience if I was on the popular websites instead of just prattling on this small site. But then I would have to change my looks and try to be cool and in fashion as that by itself gets you popular. Don’t say anything that may piss people off and on and on. So the bottom line is that I may have placeholder accounts to protect my name but I don’t’ use them and I’m not beholden to them.




Poppy



So with that I want to talk about Poppy, the 23 year old “internet sensation”. Her second studio album dropped on the 31 of October, 2018. With the music industry in the dark ages everyone was looking for new ideas to reinvent music. My idea was reality TV based on musicians but that wasn’t the only idea. So enter Poppy and a bunch of weird youtube promotional videos. This caught on and she became popular with a huge following today. But back then it was the videos on youtube.com. She signed with Island Records and got help with a director to make the first videos. She got popular and signed deals with retailers and a brand was born. So she is now a singer and released a couple of albums already. For me the only music I regularly troll for is the heavy metal and jazz stuff and anything new and interesting. But much of the new is massively filtered vocals and all the usual with lyrics that should be in a nursery school book. But I digress; so I’m not a Poppy fan but took an interest out of how she approached a career in music. And who am I to criticize as she made it in her own interesting way. Of course she didn’t do it herself but the way it happened was interesting and rather novel. So congratulations Poppy! I listened to a Poppy song from her latest album “Am I a Girl?” (Play Destroy) a collaboration with Canadian singer/producer Grimes (who dates Elon Musk) which is Poppy singing to heavy metal music which is cutesy in music I can listen to and not end up tearing my remaining hair out. Full disclosure I also bought Marty Muke’s song “Am I going to be Ok?” from “I’m Poppy” which has computer synthesized voices for those into the AI threat, but Poppy used this in a youtube video that has like 8 million views. Anyway, you can steal the songs from her album on Youtube right now to listen to. I pay because I believe music has value on its own and all the rest. That I won’t get into now. Artists are simply tickled pink when you buy their music even if they don’t need the money. They are human beings that need the endorsement that their creativity has real value especially these days when the push is to devalue things. You can see it in their face when real career artists are told that you bought their music and show them on your phone. Their expression is very real!


But all this is not for me. I am on a mission and I can’t have that mission to improve the lot of humanity perverted by letting the corrupting influences of big business turn me into one of their prostitutes. So I wallow in my “Fortress of Solitude” and try to change things. My whole story could go down like some sad Greek tragedy – but at least I will be able to look at myself in the mirror when all is said and done. Man, uncertainty can be fun and distressing all at the same time…..




Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqsntljX0jg&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Fri Nov 02, 2018 8:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I have started writing that speech to the 57 Commission for Social Development. I have spoken three times at the UN so far.




My first NGO Committee session!



One was to member nations of the NGO Committee during their interactive session and then fielded questions. Interesting, this was the most repartee I have received from nations of the world. They couldn’t get enough of me and the Chairman had to cut short the questioning due to time. It was harrowing for me but they were just being who they were. But I actually did speak directly to member nations of the UN about journalist rights and freedoms.



General Assembly speech!


Next was in actual General Assembly which does not actually mean in the “General Assembly Hall”. But General assembly is General Assembly and on I went talking about citizen journalism. I couldn’t bask in that life accomplishment as my mother was dying back home. It’s like you get what you want but not the way you want it. Always…..





On the General Assembly Hal!



Anyway at the adoption of the WSIS+10 outcome I was allowed on the basis of my past activity to actually be on the floor of the General Assembly Hall for two days even though I didn’t have consultative status yet. I stayed behind the State of Palestine which at the time was the latest entrant to the UN. I also spent time behind The World Bank and UNESCO. Anyway those attending could actually apply to speak at the at famous green marble lectern where all sorts of world leaders have spoken! I applied and didn’t make it, but many did and congratulations to them! I didn’t make it, but still, how many people get that “chance” at that opportunity? But I was on the floor for two full days as nation after nation gave speeches. I had my printed speech with me so while in session during a quiet moment when nobody was near me I just read my speech aloud right there at the back of the General Assembly Hall. Nobody heard me but it is there for posterity if someone says “yes you spoke in General Assembly but it was still not on the floor of the General Assembly Hall” So I can give them that cheesy retort for a cheesy accusation!





Side event at the 55th Session of the Commmission for Social Development!




The third time was my 40 minute presentation as a side event at the UN. I disseminated important ideas but the big scores were at the beginning…..


So I have a speech to show social inequality in a different perspective, and a perspective that offers a solution that can be a blanket solution to all inequality! We shall see if I get to address them face to face. I should acknowledge that I am appreciative of all the opportunities give to our organization and to me personally. But I may have something of merit to offer humanity and that idea should be allowed to be expressed in the most direct way possible. Anyway we shall see how that all unfolds. Real life is not like a TV show. You never know what is going to happen…..


Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Xf2Efb6_w&feature=share
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Maurice Ali



Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 7655
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

PostPosted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 10:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well my gang is now officially getting interested in things coming up.




Both CRU movie drives ready to go!



Shane wants us to slowly start to promote the movie premiere and really ramp it up in the last few weeks. Fair enough, though for me it is used to promote the advocacy for humanity that is the big deal in the end. Then a call from Tyrone who is interested in it all but might help out at the UN if things get busy there. So I may actually have a crew at the United Nations for the first time. Time will tell. I just wish I was younger and had more time on my hands. But I have worked it all out ad nausea. If you never even bothered to marry and such you may have shaved five years off things. So 54 right now; and not that much of a difference and I can live with myself a bit better knowing I tried the marriage thing and having that fail, so the single life is not so much an unknown set of “sour grapes” as opposed to married. The only big regret in that vein is no kids but that one would have scuttled everything so a blessing in disguise.


You just carry through and make the play. You did the experiment and you found out what matters in humanity’s existence and now you get the word out. You cut down the series of eight documentaries into one movie that encapsulates it all. And now you have a chance to seriously advocate the whole thing and that is coming up. You face this with trepidation as this is your moment. But the AI thingy may also be your moment.


There is no one looking over you. Only weirdos like me that had to rationalized a reason for helping humanity - That’s all you get. Is it enough, better be, because that is all you get. I keep waiting for that superhuman savior to make me pack up the organization and finally live for myself because I know humanity is in better hands than mine. Hasn’t happened yet…..


One last shot at Poppy: Rolling Stone concentrated on “Play Destroy” so my media instincts are still in tune. We’ll see what happens with that song.




Goodnight…..





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuw6_VDR5zk&feature=share
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