Fortress Of Freedom Board

Maurice Ali · Posted: Wed May 06, 2026 7:51 am Post subject:

Things are getting back to normal.

In fact, today I actually have time to relax a bit. The Meta campaign was planned for but the guitar thing upset that "apple cart". It was a new guitar at half the price of all the other new guitars - and it had the headstock I always liked (mother of pearl Gibson logo like the custom shop ones). I also preferred the smaller pickguard as the large ones always warp after a while, but I digress. It is now on the guitar stand with the others and when I get a few moments I fool around with it. That guitar was a target of opportunity - not planned but I was set to just live the rest of my life with the guitars I had, and then this happened. So a hassle - but I'm pleased I got it in the end.

The actual letter sent to CEO of Meta Platforms Inc., Mark Zuckerberg!

Some have wondered why I did not care about making the handwriting in the Meta envelope more legible or "professional" My response is that it maximizes the chance of a person (as in human) looking at it in the mailroom. Good luck with AI making any sense out of my scribbles on the envelope. Consider that envelope as one big "captcha" to prove the person handling it is human! So many positions have been taken over by AI you have to assume the worst.

Anyway, while all this is sort of exciting, remember that this is unsolicited mail and they can just toss it as they wish. They could read it and steal the ideas they like and toss it in the garbage. Probabilities are against us. Look, someone there could just be checking out my website and take our ideas and use them there at Meta. It's all just this crapshoot of probabilities and luck and happenstance.

The only sure thing is the stuff I did on my own. Like we have a test mule called Humanity Assembly and it all works. Of course I want something that really scales up like you would find in the Metaverse or United Nations - but you can't force things to happen like you see on TV. And keeping ideas hidden so nobody else can steal it means your ideas go nowhere and were never there in the first place. Right now AI is a fad and eventually it will just become a part of life. All this reminds me of HD - High Definition - and then all consumer products had "HD" on their products like a cattle brand. Now those products look dated. For example I have "HD" branded in red on a lens I use to video in 4k - it just looks so tacky after the fad wears off! Same with AI, sure it will have an impact, but right now it's at the level of a fad or fashion. And fashions change and looking back you look ridiculous.

Me at about 29/30!

I'll find a photo of myself being fashionable. Now, the Converse All Stars are actually fashionable still these days, but those glasses - no longer in fashion! In my 20s I wore contacts for a few years so you are spared the dated glasses - but being fashionable can suck. I would also say 1960s fashion stands out as perpetually "in fashion" while much of everything else gets dated. Anyway, you get the idea.....

Me at 25 wearing contacts - not so dated by fashion!

Goodnight.....

Maurice Ali · Posted: Thu May 07, 2026 12:45 am Post subject:

Away from the advocacy we are currently involved with is the advocacy in the music realm. I wouldn't mind having some A listers attached to the FOFSTOCK masthead. The best way forward is to get some that quietly disappeared from the scene and get them back in the game and help revitalize the music scene.

Who?

One that is on my radar is Remy Shand. After his classic Grammy nominated debut album "The Way I feel" he mounted at bid of a comeback a few years ago. I think he is working as an electrical engineer these days, when you transition away from the big time music scene, it is hard to really get a person back into the game - but we could get him into FOFSTOCK and have him and others take a part time "at your own pace" collaboration with other Canadian and non-Canadian artists and see what stirring that musical pot would come out with.

This was also why I was considering turning FOFSTOCK into a charity, with known names in the mix, it is far easier to get backers for events and now with the tax receipts we may be on to something here. And FOFSTOCK is just the name of the association, so we could possibly call the music festival by another name - possibly a bigger name if we took over another major festival as things get so dire opportunities are opening up. That's all I'll say for now.

My life is just crazy these days. You should look at me now. I don't even have time to pretty myself up in the morning. No haircuts and all that, just a quick shave and off I go. I am doing things and firing on all cylinders - just no time. There is a reason for me to get up in the morning! I look at myself and wish I was thirty years younger to fully flesh out my ambitions. But nobody gets that deal - yet - and even though The Fates have given me a few years to get some things resolved, I don't even have the time to preen myself and take advantage of not looking like Methuselah. I should have time this weekend to at least preen myself up a little bit.

Everything new - including the case!

I'm going to bed now. Came home and took that Flying V off the rack and marvelled how new this thing was - not a scratch or dent on the pointy ends - Pointy guitars always have damage on the ends, but this one is better than mint, it is new.....

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/yHaMCNI7b5c?si=YTBTaxXlJm2u_Sum

Maurice Ali · Posted: Thu May 07, 2026 6:03 pm Post subject:

You know.....

Finding more possible recruits for FOFSTOCK is like something out of the movies. You track down these music stars that with the downturn in the music industry, now find themselves in some life rut, it's a bad situation and here I come offering to get them back into what they love - and the push back you get.

However, if they do decide to join up - they are happy again - why, because they get to express themselves again! The Positive Mandate at work.....

Nobody wants me as a proper musician. I am most certainly part of the music industry but after 21 years, I'm also part of the music community. Remy Shand was one name, there is another, a guy pushing his book and last chart hitting songs at a bar a few years ago - that one is in the bag! You get the picture. All I have to do is my job setting up the organization properly, we have the musicians to make an impact.....

The actual email reply that started weeks of talk!

Oh and just in case you think FOFSTOCK is just some useless music association, some fantasy hobby - remember that email from Apple Inc? Well, that was just FOFSTOCK and only FOFSTOCK! Yes, that organization is for real.....

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/JAwI5IDVNmM?si=OWDLNHpiz5XLik9o

Maurice Ali · Posted: Fri May 08, 2026 8:27 am Post subject:

I'll add some more even though my last post was last night and the "goodnight" was appropriate.

For anyone new here, realize that I have been doing this for 23 years and trying to make everyone's life better and happier by righting the wrongs that happened to me and should never happen to anyone else! I have made no money from the start to this point of time, it was all paid by me working for each dollar. All our royalties were 100% given to our artists and writers and I paid for the expenses out of my own pocket. Going forward I will try to keep the organizations going by having them bring in money because I am a pragmatist and try to see reality for what it is!

Right now the only thing I own is at More Vision Inc. and that is that. Much of my work has ownership there and now licensed to the other corporations as I never signed a contract with myself like the musicians and writers, actors and other artists have with the FOF corporations. Anyway, my stuff is there when I gave away the corporations I owned to the not for profits. I'm saying all this before we make any changes to continue getting our philosophy and advocacy out there. Everyone at these organizations (including me) has their creative work protected and only used under the conditions of the contracts presently in force. If I get lucky and talked to Meta or took over a large well known music festival and operated it under our present organizations, nothing has really changed, except that we have grown as an organization and our message and philosophy is reaching more people. Plus, I may be at retirement age but many here are not and other opportunities may open up that they never thought of before.

So, going forward remember that I won't sell out and in fact I can't sell out the people that make this organization what it is! However, moving forward we have to make the organizations self-sufficient. It doesn't take a lot of money to keep things as is - but to grow we need more, and even if I am to continue into retirement, I don't want to cripple this place because my personal finances have shrivelled in retirement.

Anyway I thought I would just put this out there before anything happens in the future.....

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/9FifSGYk4YY?si=nEClu5TWLQWkvUrM

Maurice Ali · Posted: Fri May 08, 2026 8:27 pm Post subject:

A short one. I'm getting sleep this weekend.

We are looking at Musical Festivals in Canada and the States. The States is more attractive but you have to get used to the scale. Originally FOFSTOCK 2 was 21,000 to just rent the square (Sankofa Square) while Central Park was 250,000. That scaling was correct as America is ten times the size of Canada. Then Sankofa Square doubled the price for no reason and we got out of that. A musical multi-day festival in America is probably approaching a million and two years ago I would have been pissing my pants just thinking about offering to get into that. But now I'm used to that scale and when you have met some of the people just like you managing events at Central
Park - well if they can do it - so can I!

Central Park!

Dealing with big tech is the same. Even higher scale but it's all just being scaled up. Once you get your head around the numbers it is not as frightening as you would think. You have to push yourself past the initial fear of the unknown and then you can think clearly. What if it fails? Close the corporation, but that shouldn't happen if you have more than two brain cells. Anyway, some prospective festivals are like GameStop trying to purchase Ebay - it's basically the same here - a stretch but not the Twilight Zone either.

I look grey and haggard but surprisingly healthy because the effort is uplifting. I have a chance to eliminate more suffering from humanity than any ordinary person in the world ever has. We are not talking religion or anything like that. Just the real concepts that make people happy and technology has made this play possible. You can put up with all sorts of shit with that "carrot and stick" in front of you.....

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/bKACp7PFI3E?si=WujrDogHoBCAli_i

Maurice Ali · Posted: Sat May 09, 2026 12:56 pm Post subject:

On Friday I did the IAIJ annual return. I also did some banking, but the big news was an honest night's sleep.

The tiring part of the week was finding out the possible Meta scenarios and the FOFSTOCK / charity business.

Meta strategy: There actually is a no money collaboration between us and Meta for the Metaverse, but having Meta agree to using the Metaverse as a non-profit entity like other places like the United Nations is actually pure fantasy. The real world relationship would be as a consultant to help Meta populate the Metaverse and have them monetize some aspects to pay for the entity and get a return to keep it running and pay dividends to shareholders.

To do that means we take in money and work for Meta in a way. That won't be done by the not for profits. That will be all on me and More Vision Inc. which is an advertising company I own that holds all the intellectual property for everything Meta needs to attract people to the Metaverse. This intellectual property is licensed out to the other parts of the IAIJ-FOF Group (an actual company I run) but I digress. So work with Meta as a consultant paid from Facebook Canada to More Vision Inc. (to save on taxes) which works for both organizations.

We have members wanting to work at our organization and fees collected from Meta could be used for that as well as music festivals and all sorts of other things. So while those NGOs at the UN may consider me a "douchbag" for doing this - the UN does not even want to hear about this at all - so what other options are there?

Anyway, this will take a while to see if there is any interest - we shall see.

FOFSTOCK AS A CHARITY?

FOFSTOCK as a not for profit can accept donations but can't issue tax receipts for tax reduction. As a music festival, not giving tax receipts for large donations is not attractive for large business companies. Turning FOFSTOCK into a charity could work!

Now a charity could own a for profit corporation that produces money for the charity - but not the other way around. Since the record label can't really survive without some money from the outside - it can't be owed by a charity with people donating because they think it's going to a music festival - the record label had to go! So it went to FOF Advocacy Inc. in the end. Maybe there could be a way to have it connected to FOF Records Inc., but for now applying for charity status while owning FOF Records Inc. is a no go.....

So that's what gave me grey hair during the week!

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/9FifSGYk4YY?si=nEClu5TWLQWkvUrM

Maurice Ali · Posted: Sun May 10, 2026 5:31 pm Post subject:

I am close to starting the process to turn FOFSTOCK into a charity, like - for example - the Fring Festivals (they operate as charities in several cities). This seems to have only upsides and no downside for FOFSROCK especially since the advocacy restrictions were removed in 2018. So it would seem there are no restrictions on how we have been operating now and possibly now as a charity - except that now we could get meaningful donations because we would offer the tax receipts! I'm going through the directors at the moment, but we already have a majority.

The way this works is that you become a not for profit first, so you incorporate as a not for profit with the laws and governance of a not for profit. After that happens you apply to the CRA for charity status. This can be time consuming but it's worth it in the end if you get it. Plus, our consultative status application with the United Nations is on hold until 2027 anyway so we may as well do this before they start asking questions.

Anna at FOFSTOCK!

In other news.....

I'll wait another week and then start crafting a second letter or email to Meta and keep at it. Unlike the FOFSTOCK charity application, the Meta stuff is just one "hail mary" pass after another. Don't expect anything, but if something does turn up - then you deal with it, but it doesn't hurt to have a plan if they do and we have a plan.

Aside from that I did yard work at my place and my dad's place and took the family shopping on Sunday.

I'll end the weekend looking at some new movies I bought. Right now I'm watching "The Crow". I finally have time to sleep, you can live on coffee for only so long. I'm back to normal now and the future is open - even at my age.....

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/YyeEGCQ_cDk?si=R2-Y6zzEFk8cVvty

Maurice Ali · Posted: Tue May 12, 2026 8:31 am Post subject:

I checked and we have a path to charitable status for FOFSTOCK but it's no guarantee - but we have a path. This has gone from trepidation, to maybe with a lawyer and now "I can do this myself". No rush but I will give it a go. Looks like I need the CRA app on my phone (even if it's just the authenticated app). A tax man app on my phone to apply - what could possibly go wrong there? You fill in the rest as the CRA may come here.....

I got nervous about that aluminum lens / plateau protector on my 17 Pro Max for the last five months. Was it stuck on permanently? So I put the hairdryer on it with some isopropyl alcohol in the crack and it slowly came off. And no damage underneath! But now that it's off it can't go on again. So it was off to the mall to buy another and I got luck getting he same model - so good to go for another half a year since the plateau protector did get some scratches in it. Actually one large scratch that I could not unsee - so things worked out on that front - for you folk using or thinking of buying an iPhone Pro or Pro Max model - you can use those aluminum lens / plateau protectors as long as you pop the glass lenses off. Those are useless and can make the image worse - but those raised aluminium barrels around each lens give the best protection for the actual camera lens with no degradation of image.

The plateau protector on my Pro Max!

oh - and I was going to mow my backyard his morning but I'll go and try to get some more N95 masks. After two SARs outbreaks I drilled it into friends and family that as soon as you hear this viral outbreak stuff you stock up on PPE - no exceptions. Better safe than sorry. So here we go again with a far more virulent virus. Hopefully it is like ebola and containable. As for people "self-isolating" for weeks and weeks, I can tell you with 100 percent certainty they will break self- isolation.

You can't help it but break isolation on your own! I was quarantined in the first SARs outbreak (and at the start) and that was only for ten days. After a week I figured I was in the clear and climbing the walls just to get out of that house! Being responsible I planned to just get in my car and drive around and back home - totally isolated and contained. So, I'm driving downtown minding my own business, and this kid comes up to my car at the traffic light and starts cleaning the windshield even though I waved him off! Then he stands in front of the car until I give him some change! So I dropped the window and threw some change at him almost telling him " Welcome to SARS"! So I hope you see how this happens no matter what you do and this new virus has isolations into weeks and weeks. I guarantee you we will get more cases from these people if infected. The experts quietly agree there will be more cases - pandemic probably not, outbreaks is a possibility. Great!

So I'm off to see if they are sold out of N95 masks even at this early stage of what may be much to do about nothing. i believe we nave had a case of this latest virus in Ontario - but one person is self-isolating in Peel which is basically west Toronto Anyway, this has happened twice before - better safe than sorry.....

More fun and games await!

Goodnight.....

https://youtu.be/KpjJ21r3jPE?si=9ulskvVtpcmAYw-z

Maurice Ali · Posted: Wed May 13, 2026 11:04 am Post subject:

I actually slept in - so a good night's sleep!

I have started the procedure for charity status for FOFSTOCK! I now have the list of forms needed to apply. Now I just prepare each form.

Here I am at the Pandemic and TB conferences.

This was the TV feed with me on the left.

I got some masks to the point that I'm ready for any eventuality. Remember, I'm a veteran of two SARs outbreaks. I published countless articles on it at IAIJ & FOF. I have also attended big conferences during General Assembly in 2023 along with the former Federal Health Minister of Canada Teresa Tam at two events in 2023 and ran into her at one of them. She was probably going to the bathroom and ran right into me! She was famous for laughing at the idea of wearing a mask at the start of the pandemic and then changing it to you must wear a mask when hospitals were able to secure enough POE for themselves - but I digress.

Tam is wearing a mask in both photos but was not before or after the shots were taken.

Actually I don't recall anyone there wearing a mask?

Bottom line is, if any viral emergency happens it's friends and family that will be hitting me up for PPE - and I better have supplies. If not - then I'm another nominee for "Douchbag of the Year".

Later.....

https://youtu.be/9FifSGYk4YY?si=nEClu5TWLQWkvUrM