Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

I’m still improving day by day and the effect on your psych is telling.



During the worst part of my illness you would see people walking down the sidewalk and think: “ Wow - if only I could do that life would be good - how do they do that?” Or even something as benign as curling up in the sofa and watching YouTube videos without pain was only a dream at one point.



That was when you felt the most insignificant - that you couldn’t do things regular people took for granted. Then the pain went away and you could walk upright again and so on. During this period you just felt as one with the others - a speck of sand on the beach of humanity” and then a day or so later as you improve some more you notice people who know you are still impressed with what you can do.







I did come up with a new layer of governance at the global level and with voting via smart phones through a new Global Social Contract, and the “buy in” was the Positive Mandate for Humanity that increase happiness for everyone.” I even sent a written statement to the Commission for Social Development about the Positive Mandate for Humanity on the 6th of this month. I started to grow a bit in size and the earth shrunk a bit. Just a bit as I’m not 100% yet - but I’m actually getting impatient.



https://youtu.be/d1OxmTR-RU8?si=DKUbBudkfHsjNLG_



So that’s where it stands right now.




Goodnight…..




https://youtu.be/p1t0qnNk4Y0?si=WdWL8Ouhdq7WKDyY

[Maurice Ali]

It’s amazing how totally wrecked my guts got fighting that bug! I’m not even going to get into it but that last month I just want to forget!




We continue to move back into those important spheres of influence I have a hand in - and also - those more cool but superficial spheres that seemed so large in my mind just after I got back from General Assembly the United Nations. I will remain true to my plan of not doing anything until I’m completely recovered and back into routine. So I will leave it there, but basically my life going forward is advocacy and music with some video production sprinkled in amongst it all…..



.
There is nothing more bizarre than me on stage with an electric guitar!




And when it comes to music I’m not stuck in time. We need to embrace development in music or else it starts to whither away and die…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/SQNtGoM3FVU?si=_KHC_khHKIDsC6IO

[Maurice Ali]

Running errands and rustproofing the Mustang.







I’m still not 100% but getting there. When I get to rustproofing the Mustang - you know I’m feeling way better than before…..




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Yes, I want to keep that year 65 retirement option open. This has consequences for things like the size of FOFSTOCK 2 - but it also has a plus.



Not retiring means your identity is always connected to the identity the place where you live and has anthropological designated you into. I fought this fight in employment early on and socially with my charter challenges over the years, but still at home I am what my culture wants me to be. The Positive Mandate is the answer, but not yet for the man that advocates for it.




When I retire I become President and CEO - full stop! I become a philosopher - full stop! No more games, no more subterfuge about who I am!



That sliver of time between real retirement and scaling back due to age is the real freedom for most. Many travel the world or complete hobbies and such. For me it’s being unshackled to be all I can be - but also - to be all I can be as perceived!




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Saturday night means a different thing these days.




My life is sort of depressing. I can function now - but that is the only upbeat thing this week. Fall has been a disaster for me. And I’m still trying to recover!



Anyway, bad news and bad luck reside everywhere so I should not act like it’s only me. But it does affect you regardless. I was depressed enough before fall happened and it just got worse.



The only positive thing for Saturday was that I properly rust proofed the Buick Enclave so that is done and I’ll probably look at the Mustang again on Sunday. This was all regular life stuff, so at least I’m catching up on all that. But it’s just this depressing funk.



I’ll probably watch some movies tonight and end Saturday like that. Retirement is sort of like my emergency parachute if it all goes to shit - which is why I want that option.



I have a parachute. It probably won’t happen next year but having that option makes things just a little more bearable.




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Updates and more updates:



FOFSTOCK 2 is starting to languish from lack of interest at the label. First of all most of the artists at the label are in their 40s and 50s and even 60s with a few still in their thirties and maybe one in their 20s. Most of these are artists from the “old school” who yearned for being in a label with a recording contract and all that. Today’s youth don’t see anything compelling there especially if they have to assign ownership to FOF for distribution even though they can now do it themselves.







So FOFSTOCK 2 could just be an informal get-together with the FOF gang at some park with a roll in stage and just us with some other interested friends drinking and having fun and playing some songs all informal like. Or we could go big and scare away most of the FOF crew as you need practiced acts at a big event. With the exception of a couple at FOF it would mostly be foreign (to FOF) acts getting exposure with me footing the bill!



Anyway, all that will get sorted out moving forward. Dave Getchell always wanted FOFSTOCK to be informal on some farm and he may get his wish in the end. He is also a director at FOFSTOCK - so there you go!



.
Yonge-Dundas Square




However, no regrets getting out of Canada Day at Yonge-Dundas Square - what was I thinking?




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Sad news today: Pitu Zumbovski - Pize - of the rock group AAVRY KNAPP and the heavy rock group THE BRAWLERS has died. FOF Records has two recording contracts with Pize with AAVRY KNAPP and THE BRAWLERS. I personally, and on behalf of all of us at FOF Records, mourn his loss and condolences to his family, friends and musicians and those who work in the music industry - he will be missed by all.




Pize is in the left side of the band AAVRY KNAPP!



We still don’t have all the facts yet and I haven’t been able to contact Dan who was best friends with Pize, but we will make a more formal statement in the coming days on our websites.




Pize is on the left side of the band - THE BRAWLERS!


Pize (his nickname and stage name) was a guitarist with AAVRY KNAPP and the band was popular in the late 1980s to early 1990s touring through out Ontario and a regular at The Gassworks here in Toronto. Lately he started the heavy rock band The Brawlers and released the EP “Fistfight in a Bottle” recently.




More news as it becomes available.




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/zYBzU0Zm4YE?si=OcPR7CoJn2ZPfqEM

[Maurice Ali]

A somber Tuesday.



Just go through the motions. Im still not completely recovered yet. Man, I’m still 14 pounds less than before. I had a severe vitamin D deficiency and all sorts of stuff I didn’t know about. Yet people I know continue to die and you wonder how painful that is? You think about yourself and how difficult it would be to get your house in order if you knew you only had a few days or a few hours to live.



How much time do I have left?



If I knew, I would do many things differently. I’m not dying anytime soon - but stuff could have happened a few weeks ago - but with that behind me it’s back to the long play.



I keep the orgs and companies going. The record label is 18 years old (as a regular company and corporation) and one of the last surviving. We provide a home and appreciation for all our artists, some who need that lifeline to know they have something of value to offer the world. Same with all the other orgs and companies. I will just keep them going.



FOF and in fact this very message board has lasted 20 years as of October. I believe my dad congratulated me on setting it up and wished me well - and that was the only post he ever made here. So many memories - it was worth the time and expense!



IAIJ started in January of 2004 and so that 20 year anniversary is quickly coming up also.




But while sick I actually contemplated my death. At first it was a coward’s way out - but when you recover you see that you did survive and the bad times were easy to forget. Now you slowly start to enable yourself, and instead of forgetting - you do analysis. I’m a newbie but some of our gang are veterans when it comes to this morbid subject. The difference is that I can still function to reach those goals of mine. The fight with the Grim Reaper is the fight to do what I have to do.



Death always wins in the end.




The Fates



If you prefer The Fates, then the one with the shears is the one that ends your life. Your life will end - but - how do you want to go? For me, either surrounded by people with me uttering something prophetic and passing on; or going out all “Tony Montana style” from Scarface: “I’m still standing!” Fight death with death, you will die - but what a way out! The Scarface death is also the realization you are going to die so do whatever you want as dead is dead and nobody is going to punish you for what you do. The prophetic death realizes you have something that carries on after death, so you use your death to promote your life’s worth - the choice is up to you. Personally - I’m going the prophetic way - but you already knew that of course…..




Goodnight…..





(NSFW)
https://youtu.be/0O6v5Nm7kck?si=7G1feHV1-0KQryHZ

[Maurice Ali]

I’ve registered for the Summit of the Future.







This is a United Nations undertaking to improve many aspects of UN undertakings like the Sustainable Development Goals. The last meeting was at the UN in New York and the next is in Nairobi, Kenia. For us it is to try to submit a written statement about the Positive Mandate and that new Global Social Contract. I have registered and we shall see if we get the invite to submit the written statement, but nothing is guaranteed.



I weighed myself on an industrial scale and it says I’m 163 with all my clothing and shoes on. That is probably 150 pounds which is 12 pound under what I usually weigh. Most of it came from my ass but my overall fat layer especially in the face has thinned ever so slightly. I did gain 4 pound really quick but it now seems stuck there. I just checked and i’m now in the ideal zone with five pound to spare - so I guess I’ll just live with it.



I also deleted some more websites. I’ll also give up on a pile of domains as we make the orgs more lean and mean and cut down fixed costs.




Goodnight…..



https://youtu.be/B9cC2_V7JwE?si=k3zJz-bSI5lKk3xz

[Maurice Ali]

So I say goodbye to one of our artists. I’m supposedly the business man so I’ll wear a black suit with a black tie and all that. I’ll look the part though in this musical crowd I’ll probably stand out. We decided not to have any old CDs at the viewing, but i’ll take a small box just in case or if some may want some at the get together after the funeral.







Pize was about five years younger than me and this is the age when those with compromised medical conditions have things finally flare up. Then you wait another 20 years for the others and 30 plus for the really healthy.



Anyway, it is what it is. This is the time you see what kind of crowd your life produced. Mine will be very small. Then you just disappear into nothingness. That is all our destiny - your life and your impact in the world is nothingness. Even the history books can’t be relied upon to tell the truth, in the end your life is sort of meaningless. I’m not being a downer - just my personal observation. My best friend of 40 years died and all I have left of his existence is maybe a tennis racquet and racket ball or a squash ball racquet he would give me. No goodbyes, just a corpse at the funeral home and me at the head of the pall-bearers trying not to slip with those dress shoes as we place the casket above the grave.



In other news:



The UN have a new Division for Inclusive Social Development and I’m adding this to the list of places to advocate. This is how we do it - the genesis of the Positive Mandate and Global Social Contract has now been introduced and now we build on that!



I finally got my 4K version of Oppenheimer just left by Amazon to blow away from my front porch of my house. Anyway, I’ll get to watch this probably Saturday night!




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/0Bpxf7h10zQ?si=vsg6NFlMa7GvQNmm

[Maurice Ali]

So Pize has passed, he had signed two recording contracts with FOF Records and they just carry on with royalty splits to the remaining artists in the bands AAVRY NNAPP and THE BRAWLERS.



I was going to do the obituary with Dan on Saturday but will probably do it myself and just run it pass Dan for fact checking on Sunday. There I was in a black suit and black tie and this full length black camel hair overcoat looking like someone that mattered - I guess I stood out there. You could tell the musicians from the family members, and then there was me and this other guy in a suit…..



I suppose it was good that they saw the record label guy as prosperous as I'm not poor, but not rich from the music. Music was Pize's identity so I guess my appearance there nailed down that lifelong identity. So I start the obit some time today and post it on the FOF and FOF Records websites along with the AAVRY KNAPP and THE BRAWLERS websites.



I've moved into my master bedroom from the corner room with a computer and all the guitars - why - because it has a proper bed! I have to sort out that room as half the bed has a pile of clothing on it. I have to work on sleeping better. They are saying you can prevent dementia maybe just by wearing an eye shade as you sleep…..



I'll talk more about realizing I would take euthanasia if such and such happened while I was sick. I has put me in this weird funk about life and death and priorities going forward. I actually can say that I have "been to the edge and back!" Man, that was weeks of torture! I was talking to an Rn (registered nurse) who told me to stick it out until the end and call her back if I felt I couldn’t take it anymore - and I did finish it, but it totally wrecked my body. I’m still recovering…..



Oh - it looks like my passport has arrived and all I have to do is pick it up at the post office.



I will screen Oppenheimer tonight with maybe a chicken dinner and some wine. I’m not close to 100%, but I’m functional with two weeks under my belt. I guess that can be celebrated. I’m still alive…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/Czc7TUYnw68?si=TnloX_u94e_JkoGB

[Maurice Ali]

Here is the announcement of the death of Pize Zumbovski (Pitu Zumbovski):

[Maurice Ali]

An early one today.



This weekend was productive but I need to get some sleep tonight. I did get my Passport (good for another 10 years) but since I got the passport photo three weeks ago I have disheveled hair and a sullen haggard look to me - legal but not the best look for me.



I updated all the laptops and wrote the Pize obituary. I ran a bunch of errands and took the folks out. I actually had a Swiss Chalet dinner with a salad on Saturday night watching the Oppenheimer movie - just like the old days - as a sort of celebration as to how far I have recovered.



And there it stands, how much further will I recover? Hopefully I get it all back and become a man seven years younger than his age. That illness took all of those seven years and then some! Life just kept hitting me with the “old man stick” and just never stopped.



Last week I finally got my voice back. Not to get gross but I finally had predictable and regular bowel movements as I didn’t have any for a few weeks. I just got mentally and physically walloped by that illness. Mentally I am functioning but depressed and in that funk. But things will play out as they play out and all I can do is cross my fingers and see if I get it all back…..




Goodnight…..

[Maurice Ali]

Days are starting to move faster.


Physically I’m improving but the pace is slowing down.



I’m now on top of things. Leafs are raked and out to be collected. The garbage is put out. I washed the dishes. On and on - basically you are just waiting to get back to 100% if that’s possible.



The “big-ass” version of FOFSTOCK just seems to have crashed and burned. I dare not go into debt with that amount of money and relatively high interest rates and possible retirement in as little as 10 months! That probably won’t happen but you get the idea. Plus the bands and acts at the label is no sure thing. The whole thing seems to have crashed and burned in the space of two months.



Basically I got out of short term debt just as the interest rates went sky high. So that does not affect me now. Get into that debt to hold a large concert on Canada Day - it just does not make any sense anymore. Prior to the rate hikes it was easy to get zero percent financing and pay stuff off by shuffling money around. No that isn’t possible - plus the event could be rained out! We got lucky with the original FOFSTOCK!







With the illness I no longer feel like a Superman. That is the truth - so this bright horizon to do things no longer exists. People I now know die on a regular basis. The money spent on the concert is better spent on a car for retirement instead.



I’m now deliberately cutting back on fixed costs at the orgs. I don’t look to future with hope - but with a bit of fear. Things get prioritized. The UN stuff and advocacy are most important. The FOFSTOCK concert - not so much.



Things are just in this negative down-beat mode. Getting back to completely normal will put me in a better mood - but I’m not there yet…..




Goodnight…..





https://youtu.be/uqXIc3W7w5Y?si=hrOBuRpsaX6Jm7tr

[Maurice Ali]

I now have to push myself to get more involved with the orgs.


I guess I should visit the office and pick up my mail from the IRS.


I also have to delete abandoned websites from our servers. Websites like:


http://humandestiny.org


Here I thought it was such a cool domain to have - now gone! And they don’t just come up for sale like before, nope they are parked by some vendor wanting thousands to get it back!







I also have to realize that life throws stuff at you and it has nothing to do with merit or fairness, it just does. So here you are minding your own business and the next minute your body is a complete wreck. It just is.



That is not philosophy - that is just reality…..




Goodnight…..




https://youtu.be/405wuDhww9U?si=I4cvwMLDS5uNjJAO