Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

I fell asleep early on Saturday and am now awake at three in the morning so I may go back to bed or just soldier on for the day.....




Our office reception in 2004!



Well I have to say that I am in the rare position of having attained and exceeded my wildest fantasies of youth. Certainly the man of the world thing was attained. I am a man of the world in every way I envisioned even including walking up the steps to the UN. Of more interesting consequence is the video I shot of me walking around on the floor of the General Assembly Hall and walking out from there onto the street as I went with some delegates of member states I met, so I am sure it was all legal from UN protocol, but how many times am I going to get that opportunity anyway. I think I made a sequence of it but never converted it or exported it from the editor. But taking the stuff I am pushing like the global vote through cell phones and the human destiny major positive mandate for humanity and citizen journalist rights and freedoms – well that never entered into the fantasies. Look, just a couple as in two years ago, getting consultative status was a pipe dream fantasy and now just another reality.




Our office around 2006 and check out the iMac!



You get used to the new level you reach and just keep running with it. Certainly the NGO I created has far more agility than any other I know of at the UN. We can bring up anything as long as we do an in-depth report on it. And – I have taken a crash course of empowerment to put me in that fearless headspace to make the moves of advocacy that need to be made. Sure I was constantly embarrassed at how my rational mind outstripped my emotional mind to cope with the new environments, but that is just something all animals have to deal with. Like that first trip to the UN – over three months to get over that trip emotionally.




The office around 2009 and now using IBM workstations!



But I have the NGO strategically poised for change at the international level. I fear nothing and in my mind can make those huge plays on behalf of humanity; and finally have the media corporations capable of accessing that mass audience to sell the ideas I bring up on the international stage. That series of documentaries is a great history into people who exited the old world analogue realm into the new digital realm with all the issues that went with it. Sort of like watching people go from the cottage industry lifestyle to the industrial age which lead to so many changes in human culture. The digital age ramps up the changes more than tenfold.




The office around 2012 with laptops and docking stations!



And how we dealt with that change is archived in our series of documentaries. Forget about broadcast, as I love the idea of simply archiving the experience just for the sake of one example of people coping with change during that period. But I think we can do better and broadcast of any kind would be great for us, the advocacy and getting the ideas out there on the world stage and in the hearts and minds of the populous. So back on the editor I go! We are perhaps half way done in general finalization of the timelines. Perhaps even five eights of the way there. Just really Michael’s and Shane’s, and Donald’s show have to be reviewed. The others have been getting reviews. The outsiders are valuable for me to know if there is a major point where we lose the audience and Michael who also nitpicks the technical end. But it is coming along. Three weeks to deadline and I think we may make this one. Slip it into completion and make some sort of overture to the broadcasters and we are still on schedule.


Still on schedule – A schedule into the unknown as I have gone farther than my fantasises. How many can say that? Anyway that is just me looking inward. This is for all and not for me. I am transient but the ideas and concepts we bring forth are forever.....




Goodnight.....





http://fofentertainment.com/Anna_At_FOF_Offices.wmv

[Maurice Ali]

A late one today as I wanted to finish another show for the time being. That makes 4 out of the 8 and I will tackle the fifth later today and tomorrow morning.....


This is getting better and real broadcast of the series is now a possibility. That is a huge journey from the start of the year when I didn’t even have any idea how to meld the SD and HD content. We did that with the HD palette and more spilt screening and moving titles over to the borders on the HD background and such, along with a common background has trained FOF TV series eyes to not be so jarred by the time shifting add size and resolution shifting that goes on here. It’s a thirteen year adventure spanning the analogue to digital age and we found a way to accommodate it all!



A good choice when the new car fever dies down: The normally aspirated V6!


In other news: I still take breaks from the video to look at cars. The outgoing V6 that I bought with the Mustang seems to have had all of its problems worked out years ago so should last a long time with little problems. On the trucks and Mustangs the water pump is located outside the engine so when it leaks you don’t have catastrophic engine failure like on the traverse engine setups. 2016 Mustang V6s all had a throttle body defect that would cut power whenever or wherever and there are some exciting moments for some of those owners. But that has been resolved for me. My 1989 Mustang had a similar problem where the engine just died wherever and whenever because of a fuel pump defect. This always happens in the second year as it takes a few kms to show the fault. So I should be good to go – knock on wood. The only other problems were general Mustang problems like the AC evaporator that was defective and all of them from 2015-2016 had to be replaced, but it seems I may have dodged that bullet also. So buying a car three years after a major redesign gets you a car that has all the bugs worked out. The down side is that the mid-cycle refresh happens less than a year after purchase but since the V6 has been discontinued and since I can’t afford the V8 and the 4 banger is just two years old with all sorts of engine failures, fires in the 2015 year and possible long term problems with direct injection and the turbo – the 2018 refresh means less to me than to the others. The V6 also was the cheapest of all sports cars that carried that name and I had to stretch for it from the Hyundai Elantra. So in the end I did the best anyone could. Decision making under this stress, as I had to make my selection and live with it for maybe 10 years (or more) as my old car died a year before I figured it would, and I had like one day to choose and in the end on reflection – I made the right choice. This has a carryover effect in the way you make decisions in other matters such as your personal life and the orgs. Being able to choose and evaluate with speed, good judgement and decisiveness is a good harbinger for your success in other areas.


So the car thing – while probably boring to many of you out there – was a success for me.....




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Another backup and another update.


I just keep burning DVDs and handing them out to strangers of the organization to know when our shows really lose that audience. Like I said before, five of the shows are locked down and we just tweak it from there. The remaining three are still up for changes with the Don Brasseur show the only one where major changes can occur other than the actual 30 minute broadcast. It depends on the age of the viewer for that one. But for the people who make the decisions on our stuff right now, they are about my age and Don – like at TVO – was the only show they wanted to take and broadcast. So that show just gets changes where everyone but Don is involved but Donald “Boots” Brasseur just rocks! The Twenty6Hundred show and Shane's show need the review treatment and work, then the formatting stuff and then all shows get the mood music touches.


We should have all this done for sale or broadcast within three weeks and then the fun begins. Today I look into contacting Anheuser-Busch to get that OK for the Budweiser stuff in Dan’s show or it all gets fuzzed out. Anheuser-Busch gets the big thumbs up from me as they halted beer production to give water to Hurricane Harvey victims, a true class act! So, I am actually curious how that goes as this is the first time I am doing this.



Dan of AAVRY KNAPP at Metalworks Studios!


Should be interesting.....



Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Working on Don’s show now.....





We put out his half hour show on CTV years ago and I want to stay with that mostly. But I always needed an idea on how to wrap the show. My thoughts now are to have the teaser at the start of Don and his harmonicas and then just the standard series intro into Don and how we met him and decided to do the documentary. Mostly I just want to cut down on the redundancy at the start and in his actual show. As much of the HD content in the front and back as possible and the making of the documentary. And as a side note, Don’s girlfriend Rita (a professional dancer) was always wanting to be in the production but I always shied away from girlfriends in shows as if they broke up the main artist would want me to re-edit the show to take her out. So I kept her out, but since this relationship went the distance (and both have passed on) I will get her in there somehow this morning as I see I have some video there to work with. At this stage it is more incremental but I will give it a few hours today.



Don and Rita!



I have to get some other personal things done. As long as I have direction I can ease it back a bit and then take care of the normal everyday stuff. I won’t go into things too much today as I really want to get into Don’s show and button it up for sale and broadcast. Don Brasseur is the show people want and he is so good they only want his stuff and want to toss all the other stuff in the trash. So I don’t have to kill myself on Don’s show. But a show within a show needs some shtick, and I think just making the documentary of a documentary should work.....




A celebration cake at the TV showing after party!




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Well folks – I finally had my first real street race (on a private road in an industrial park..... Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.....). Long story short, this guy comes up beside me on the right curb lane about five feet in front of my bumper with the intention of passing me before he got to the long line of parked cars halfway down the block. Green for go and I hear this screeching of tires (which surprises me cause I realized it was mine) and we are off to the races. BTW: I also have to add the engine noises – especially mine – were really loud and beautiful – two sixes going flat out. But the dude could not gain an inch – literally; and had to hit the brakes and come in behind me – like the bitch he was. Looked like he was driving a Porsche, and to his credit the dude actually came up beside me and gave me my props, we came up to some traffic and I let him get ahead to see what he was really driving: Porsche Carrera 4!



Porsche Carrera 4!


I couldn’t believe it. I had just dropped off some DVDs to one of my gang (Jessica, who came up to me on a skate board at about 1:30am in downtown Toronto from work so I drove her home) and then this! I texted her about it and she gave me the usual “Nic3”, but girls just don’t get turned on by this stuff like guys. I got home and checked out the stats on his car – 370 horsepower vs. mine at 314 and 331lb of torque vs. 287lb for me and top speeds of 181 vs. 157mph (my engine output figures are the actual “conservative” numbers for what I had, Ford figures are less and the small print says: “at least” – the jerks..... / Also I did some pocking around and the 2014 Carerra 4 had 350 horse power and 287lb feet of torque the same as mine, so that is probably why it was neck and neck in the end). It wasn’t going to be a blowout between these two sixes, the Mustang Coyote engine is more powerful at like 435 horsepower and I’m not beating him and everyone knows it, but this was closer and inside an 1/8 of a mile anything can happen and this is what happened tonight.....




Laura in the Mustang with "Blob Man" somewhere in there!



So the car came through for me, made a believer out of me. Don’t believe the hype or anti-hype in the case of my car through Ford. The funniest part is that I had just filled it up with 87 octane gas as gas spiked the last week due to flooding in Texas and I still did this to that other car. Too F**king funny! But the biggest surprise was my launch which sounded like I really laid down a “mean patch” but the reality was that I was driving the smallest skinniest wheels and tires on the Mustang. All-season radials with a tread wear of 700 – and that is the real reason the tires broke loose. But it was fun! I can’t even sleep right now and it’s like 3:00am in the morning. He really tried (and that makes all the difference) and couldn’t close the deal, that just makes you feel awesome!



German engineering? Meh.....




Goodnight.....






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px6KtQ8iKmo&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

Look what I came across last night.....



The Batmobile!


Yes it’s a Batmobile! It was about 8:10pm in an industrial area up in Markham a few blocks away from our offices on Allstate Parkway. So I’m driving up this industrial street that connects to this major thoroughfare (Woodbine Avenue for those that live there) and in front of me is this bizarre car stopped in the middle of the street. You have to see it to believe it – trust me. The car starts to take off with me along for the ride behind. It went south on Woobine and at the first traffic light I got a chance to shoot some video and take some pictures as best as I could with that iPhone of mine. One guy that looked at the photos wanted to know if he had plates on the thing and he may have one the back of the cockpit but it is not clear so I’m not sure if it is street legal. He was not sticking around but did deliberately stop at the intersection long enough for me to take a few snapshots and video and then he was gone.....



Batmobile rearview!


What else.....



So after that street race with the Porsche, it got me thinking. I always loved driving this car and would find an excuse to go somewhere, anywhere, with the thing cause it drove so beautifully. But that race with the squealing tires (and not some chirp but a real peal out) and that engine roar and the win made me truly decide that this was my ride. No more second guessing about the purchase as I got the one car for me. Me and this car have karma. All those guys who drive Porsches have that “nose up in the air” attitude, that superior aloofness to all the other sports car troglodytes as they would see it. But for this car to trap that Porsche in his lane and force him to brake hard and hard enough he could not stop in time but had to get in to my lane behind me and literally kiss my ass – was just a perfect storm and a perfect moment for everyone who had to take the shit these guys would deal out. He came in with that smug attitude they all have and we embarrassed him, made him some humble pie, and handed it back to him on a platter! And the best part was in front of all those people leaving the bars and clubs in that area. I still get misty eyed thinking about it.....

One more week of production and the 2017s and the last of the V6s are made at the Flat Rock plant where they manufacture the Mustang. I think they still sell the police intercepters with that very same V6 engine in my car, but for the rest of us it is basically a thing of the past. My old Roadmaster had the last of the V8 police interceptors. The exact same LT1 Corvette engine but with iron heads, another piece of history.

So me and the car have a good thing going. And only a fool would mess with that. I broke the car in properly and nothing is amiss. I was going to leave it at that but this car makes me feel so good I may actually spring the six grand for a Procharger and fulfil another life long dream of a major mod to a Stang. You can go all the way up to 1,200 horse power with these units but I just want the simple bolt on with no mods to the engine at all. Just the supercharger and the tune (along with taking the speed governor off the car and the addition of line lock). That will give me the same power as the 5.0s (at one third the cost), but down low in the rpms where you can use it! If I do this I will do it right and keep the boost low like 5psi or under. And I will live with it. Everything else is kept stock and stealthy. No boy-racer tack-ons. My car has none and I like it that way. No hood scoops, no spoilers, and not even that cheesy flat stick-on spoiler everyone gets – with the performance pack they delete it automatically anyway, because it is just a joke. No, just this simple no nonsense car, black on black the way I like it. So that is a change as I am now seriously thinking about it.....


As for the TV shows I have maybe one more to go and we hit the streets! I have the next two weeks off so things should be in full swing by the changeover to fall. I sneaked it in that way. But the TV stuff is going down and all we can do is put out the best product we can and see if there are any takers.....




Goodnight.....





http://fortressoffreedom.com/Batmobile.MOV


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oawspa5EVzs&feature=shar

[Maurice Ali]

Well what should have been me relaxing and going on vacation is now this Kamikaze attempt to finish the shows. The lockdown on the timeline should be quick and then the mood music. This can really make a show and just play a movie and see what the lack of a mood music sound track is like with it and without it. As I was talking about the police interceptor engines yesterday I looked at a few Mad Max clips and the original movie, even with just the dialogue, looks more like a college project than the redone and dubbed version that made it out of Australia. It does up the quality of the show. Some bitch about the technical quality, but for me the dialogue is better - opinions vary..... So this is what we are up against now. I will get together some “go-to” mood clips and start adding the third audio track in there. Some of the others said they are in with me on this but at the end of the day the buck stops with me. So, that is next. All this stuff can go on past this two week deadline but I want something to give a broadcaster by the end of the next two weeks.


I also need to do other things. Like the corporate taxes I was supposed to do last month. A few other things, but done as breaks during work on the shows.



My car before the supercharger!


Also, trips with the car as I love driving the thing. That supercharger is now a more serious thing and I am watching installation videos and articles to see exactly what is being changed with these installations. I just want the simplest as the ones with the intercooler and replacing the fuel injectors look like trouble to me. But the simplest bolt on should do. Below is what it looks like installed. Under the hood and discreet, the way I like it.



My car after the supercharger!


My mood at the moment is depressed. Mostly because I am thinking about the shows. They are getting there but you still have trepidation as they get better and deadlines emerge. Just the feeling and feelings change. Whatever.....


Goodnight.....




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

[Maurice Ali]

The last show should be done by tonight and then it is mood music and then final DVD production. Simple as that and that is all there is to say. Then update the series bible, select our first target from our short list and be done with it.....



An actual black V6 Stang like mine (sans fog lights) at the Flat Rock Plant!


One more week and then my car becomes yesterday’s news so I am enjoying it while I can. That is when production ends and my car is relegated to the “option not found” status on the Ford websites. Instant aging in a way. Even the V6 I got is not the ones usually made. These up here in Canada had the 050 option which gave you the fog lights and such but not the bigger wheels and the cheesy spoiler. That is my kind of option as I am not into showing off at my age. But with the car becoming just another car and not the darling of the moment - well – it is time to figure what you will do with it. I could keep it stock and let the warrantee run out and just drive it as any other car. But near and dear to my heart was always doing a decent mod to a sports car and that is why I was looking at the supercharger, but that is expensive. Still you only live once and at my age that is not just some idle talk. With the supercharger set up you are back up there with the big boys and can go to car shows and pop the hood and sit in a lawn chair beside it. You can also give it a name as it is rather unique. The other option is just for peace of mind and that is a nitrous kit installed that I will never use. You can do that for under a grand and that will give you all the power a 5.0 will ever have. With nitrous you have to be careful or you can wreck the engine with a bad air to fuel ratio. These days a lot of guys are using Meth - but hey - I'm old school that way. Besides Meth and water is a turbo thing anyway, not for me. But I would never use it, just there for street cred so to speak. Or maybe just test it out a very low levels to make sure it works and then – just for emergency (ego) use only.....


The current Mustang platform is not shared with any other car. It is one rare breed to have this as even the Corvette shared a few years ago. My V6 shares the same transmission as the V8 even down to the axle ratios, the differential gears and so on. Those parts can handle up to about 575 horsepower before stuff starts breaking. With Nos I can get 200 extra horse power without changing the engine which brings me up to about 514 horsepower and maybe a smidgen more with cold intake. That is on the ragged edge for both the engine and components but you are there at the limit. The V6 is really just 75 percent of the current V8 and the weak point on both cars is the cast aluminum pistons and not the bottom end as it is a 6 bolt main. Don’t expect Ford to change as forged pistons mean more piston slap and with the thin plasma coatings on the 2018 model instead of iron cylinder liners, that could spell disaster, but that is the Achilles heel of those two cars. The 5.0 can handle 700 horsepower but the transmission - driveshaft and differential will start to break at 575, so the limits for the two cars are remarkably similar.


So for a grand I have me a poor man's 5.0. All you turbo 4 people are out in the dog house as that engine was almost maxed out when bought and can’t get to where I am headed. It is telling that the 4 bangers always fail with engine breakage. Nothing else fails on the platform as it is meant to handle that 575 horsepower limit. It is always the engine, that 4 cylinder motor can’t take it. Mine can but gets no respect. But I don’t care. I got my car and still have all the options available to me. One way or another I will figure out what I will do but it will be fun to mod up the car and run around with a lap top checking logs and such. Then a few passes at the track and you just keep it there for occasional kicks and giggles.


You only live once folks.....




Goodnight, but really for today it is later.....



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRftZx2tAo&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

Well the shows are done!


There may be some more tweaks along the way but we seem good to go for now. I have already downloaded mood music royalty free and I have set up how I am going to tackle this as this is the first time I am working with mood music. So I will listen to the clips I have and divide them into various emotions. Mainly one for each emotion and slot them into the timeline when needed. Then I will go back and tweak the mood music for that segment with others that may be a bit more appropriate for the moment from the catalogue of music I have in the editor. And that is how I will go about it for the time being. Because I have never done this before I have no idea how it will go – another new experience. So be gentle with your opinions of my ability if it all goes horribly wrong. But we are on track, on time, on schedule for our series sale for airing of The Fortress Experiment!


Check out this photo of a guy behind me at the Starbucks drive through on Sunday:





I just noticed it after I blew up the image of the guy and his ride - that he gave me the thumbs up - too funny!


Look, guys and cars are like women and clothes; they are an extension of their personality. You can tell a lot about a guy by the car he drives. If the car is too far from his self-image he sells it or trades it in and gets another. I am a minority and was always denied life options – just because – for no particular reason while those options were available to others for the asking. That car of mine was belittled in terms of its desirability, performance by the marketing folk at Ford because the four bangers makes a bigger profit for them and is cleaner in emissions and nothing more. Degraded performance figures even though the car actually had better, denied options as the car had the smallest thinnest wheels and denied all the other goodies the four bangers and V8 had. And yet the car would beat the turbo four on crappy 87 octane gas while the other ran 93. It runs with or beats cars it should have no right to beat if you look at how the automotive society treats it, but the reality is something else. Sort of how I have to live my life. And that is why I ended up bonding with this inanimate object. It is farcical how there are mods galore for the four banger because it has its OK from Ford to be their darling, but I am not supposed to do any mods to the V6 – Why? – because society does not approve? It’s not about the car itself, but the attitude of it in in the automotive world that mimics my experience in the real world that can tie you to a machine like this.


That is how guys can form a love affair with a car. It’s the people and their reaction to your car – like their reaction to you – based not on reality, but on marketing/society approval or disapproval (i.e. prejudice) that is going on here and it just hits a sore spot with me from my own personal experience. Bottom line: This car is fearless! Or maybe it just brings that out in me, but me and this car have karma, me and this car get along. As far as I can see; with some minor modifications this car can be as fast as anything out there. So if I can give it some TLC in the performance department and help it get there – then so be it! So what if with the mods it blows a head gasket racing a Bugatti and the Bugatti simply could not just drive away from it. That is the real story (that it ran with the Bugatti) and not that my car blew a head gasket. It raced a frigging Bugatti! The head gasket only costs me a few hundred dollars.....




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd9_2TRib3k&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

We are off and running with the mood music!



I started the mood music thing by selecting some chase music and added that into the Free Press show where I make my epic race from New York to Toronto to meet my dying mother after my speech at the United Nations. Surprisingly it actually worked very well. Emboldened, I then spent the night imputing all sorts of mood music into my editor and by about 8:00am I had much of it in there and ready to use. So I will take care of a few personal matters and then get back to editing. I’ll keep at it with the Free Press show and then also get at Don’s show as that one also hurts the most for background music and effects. So that is my two weeks right there. This is going to take some time but we have direction.....


In other matters our major positive mandate idea is solidly on page one of Google rankings and sometimes the second rank when you Google human destiny. This is great because the idea is simple and makes sense. Fullest expression of our physical and mental abilities, because it makes us happy. And the results speak for themselves.


What else? In car news I have given up looking for lighter wheels for my car. Those small 17”/ 7.5” wide wheels seem to be the smallest you can get and I got it standard on the stripper V6. The tiny wheels may not look as good as the 19” or 20” ones – but trust me – they make the car much faster! Like 2-3 percent faster in acceleration – because they are much lighter. All these guys adding mods to improve engine performance and then losing it from the crank to the wheels is like going up the down escalator. First thing should be the lightest wheels you can find. The only way for me to go lighter is manganese or manganese alloy and those get pricy. Lighter wheels are the most instant and effective bolt on – for those car aficionados in the know. With four heavy wheels you basically have like four rotating gyroscopes at each corner only wanting to go in one direction – and that is after you laboriously got them going in the first place. Who wants’ that? So you go with the smallest lightest wheels that can fit over the callipers. Then you look at the engine. I just laugh at guys that get a car and the first thing they do is bolt on the largest wheels they can fit at the lowest price they can get and that means literally bolting on “barbells” to the axels and can’t figure out why the performance isn’t there like F1 race cars..... Then they hit a pot hole and spend more money – hehehehehhe..... Anyway I got the fastest V6 Mustang and mainly because of the lack of options and those small rims – go figure.


Also the Euro spec Mustangs have been announced and the 5.0 gets a 30 point bump up in power while the 4 banger looses around 27 horsepower? Ford says because of a particulate filter, Right..... More telling is that shady 10 second boost double tap to be able to use the higher engine performance numbers. But Ford is keeping the US spec car at 310 horsepower and upping the torque to 350 in promotion. Big jump in torque but not in horsepower – what gives? Reason: Now that the V6 is gone those originally inflated hp numbers have to come back to reality. So with the 10 second over boost you get 310 horsepower as opposed to around 286 or so. As stated before, I consider these horsepower shenanigans to be borderline fraudulent bait and switch techniques to get people to buy an inferior car (and for more money) over another. Moot now that the six is gone – but whatever.....


Class dismissed.....

[Maurice Ali]

Well the mood music for my first show (The Free Press) is done.....



It went faster than I thought which is a relief. Inputting all those audio files gives you a true library of material to access and use. It was suggested that I use music over some of the reported events we sprinkled throughout the show; but I have kept them un-messed with as adding a backtrack could be construed as messing with the presentation of the actual event, or in other words leading the viewer to an opinion of the issue that did not exist in the original video. But the other parts where I am doing the narrative got mood music since that narrative is my take on things, and I can color the audio background as I wish. I am in effect, taking the audience through my experiences and various moods – another new experience! It also has a secondary effect of taking the monotone out of my narrative and making it a bit more palatable for the viewer – which is a God send.....


So in a way I created the rules for using the mood music during that show. My race to my mom, the sentiments with video from the funeral, and the more upbeat tone when I went back to the UN in December for adoption of the WSI+10 recommendations was all my narrative so I can take people through different emotions without losing journalistic integrity.


So on to Donald Brasseur’s show. I need to get background sounds for the WW2 segments and would like to really nail the material for authenticity. Like we have an MG42 firing and I would like to have the sound of a real MG42 blasting away and like that. I want to get the basics nailed down today and then work on the accuracy part-time. So we get the basic background sound in there and just overwrite it later with more appropriate sound as we find them. This does not disturb the painstaking transitions I made when originally placing the music in there, so it just gets better as you go along.




The Series Bible!



I will also start looking at the series bible this week and prepare for first contact with broadcasters. I think this will be a long process so expect nothing but rejection for awhile. Just don’t get your hopes up too high.....


This is real grunt work in a way. I take breaks and go look at cars or visit my sister and dad, the car thing has to work its way out of my system so please be patient. I still love the look of the car though, but that is always a passing fad - just look at cars through the ages. If it get really tedious I can always go somewhere and play “hogs of the road” with the other shadows of the night; but I am getting a little long in the tooth for that at my age. It's a mixed bag of creativity and arduous work. What more can I say?



Goodnight.....




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

[Maurice Ali]

Well it looks like we are almost half way there.....


FOFSTOCK is basically finished and with the first show definitely being finished today we are basically half way there. I want the audio work done by the start of next week so I can just focus on the DVD production for best results and then the packaging and first contact before the end of the summer which means first contact starting Friday!

Man – this sure looks like this going down as planned! It’s actually starting to get fun. Strangely it’s starting to get fun in the way I had originally envisioned as some of the optics are there. Having that new car really picks up my spirits I have to say. For those reading this for awhile you know this for a fact. Sure, it’s just a V6 Mustang as in soon to be discontinued as of the end of shift tomorrow at the Flat Rock plant in Michigan. But I had to get a car and that Hyundai Elantra was just too depressing. So I bought the cheapest sports car you can get which is that V6 Mustang and having driven 5.0 Mustangs for 18 years this worked out perfectly. Sure a guy like me would have preferred the V8 (and you do get some heat for not going V8 again) but I was stretching for the V6 and given the circumstances (the money goes to the orgs and causes – not to my ego!) I know every gear head out there could have done what I did! So that part of the fantasy came through – I have a nice fast car. The mood is decidedly more upbeat and we now have lots of people interested in what happens next. So it is not as bad as I had panned. I am having some fun. Even the scenery is upbeat as it is still summer! The shows are definitely getting better but whether better enough to get a commitment from a broadcaster, is another matter.

We just have to knock on doors and find out. That will be my job as the others can’t handle criticism and rejection. Being a former (award winning) salesman back in the 80s helps here. Being an advertising and marketing man should help sell the project but I made the fatal mistake in being intimately involved in the manufacturing of the product. If you are not intimately involved – as a marketing man – you can see objectively where this product would sell and take it there. My fantasies and all of that are tied into this project. So I am probably pitching to the venues I would like to pitch to but really would not be interested because they expect more in their shows. But you do what you have to do.....




Later.....





http://fortressoffreedom.com/Salesman_Of_The_Month.wmv

[Maurice Ali]

A late, late one today but when you have momentum – I just hate to break it.....


So I’m on the seventh show right now and might, just might, have them all done by tonight or early tomorrow! Then I just check for audio levels, one last look at video and correct any horrendous problems and then DVD authoring and we are ready to go!


When the editor has to back things up, I take a break and look at cars or go to the mall. This morning, for example, I went to a Ford dealership and had one of the guys start up and rev one of the Ford Mustang GT350s so I could record the exhaust note. I screwed up the recording but whatever. Then on to BMW to check out one of their i8 cars, and finally one in understated colors as I keep seeing them in truly garish paint jobs, and for once the interior was tastefully optioned out. I also saw what had to be the ugliest wheels ever on this factory Volkswagen GTI (and apparently I'm not the only one). Then when you looked inside there was this weird tartan upholstery on the seats. This car should come with instructions that only a buyer that can authenticate their lineage to Scotland can buy this car. For anyone else the reaction will be: Really? For a Scotsman I get it, it’s your past, your heritage, but this upholstery screams it so everyone is going to automatically think a Scotsman drives the car and that is that.....




I had another listen to the GT350 exhaust note today!



Yes, cars and cars and more cars. Having to buy that new car awoke something inside me and got me back into the car hobby. It was mostly turned off when I drove that hearse called a Buick Roadmaster. But like giving a locked up Hannibal Lector a pin, he will use that sliver of a tool and go to town with it! Most people need to buy a car that does whatever they want it to do. For me I just need the bare bones with the necessary parts that can take me there, and I am good to go! This is one sick puppy that is back. For example, I was passing a Porsche 944 back in the 1980s when it came out and they had one on display ramped up by the side of the road. Two minutes later I am on my back underneath the ramp looking at the new suspension geometry for the new front drive Porsches. Like that, I understand cars right down to the tire’s coefficients of friction as it interacts with the road. On a sports car you are always fighting against the laws of physics.....


But that is the sit-rep right now. We are on track to finish this thing as expected. I also took care of some personal stuff on Thursday, finally, but this will still take weeks to sort out. But we are at least moving things along now.




Later.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3nIw30hn4U&feature=share


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWSnIFVN21M&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

Progress.....



Johnny's Burgers!


The mood music is done! I finished the last of it last night and celebrated (by myself) at Johnny’s Burgers as usual. Then I watched “Fear the Walking Dead” mid-season premiere as I missed it last weekend, and that was Friday. Saturday will see me start to check out the audio and look to catch any video stuff that needs tweaking but the emphasis is on the audio. Then comes the long arduous thing called DVD authoring. I had a quickie method to hand out to people but I want to get the most oomph out of this one so that may take a day or two of experimentation. All told next week will be all about the making of the DVDs and updating the series bible. Friday I make the first call. Maybe nobody even answers but that will be the day of first contact. Summer ends that weekend, so to keep to my schedule Friday is the day.....


DVD encoding is arduous, so while that happens I will be doing the corporate taxes – finally! I will also tackle many of the small jobs that have to be done around the house. Slowly but surely things are getting back to normal. Even the car stuff has started to die down with the production of the V6 Mustang ending last night. Now it is just another car. The Flat Rock plant will be idle for the next two weeks as they tool up for Mustang 2018 production. Those first cars should start to show up in November for those who ordered them and my car instantly ages a bit. The engines get the elcheapo treatment now with plasma coatings replacing iron cylinder liners and plastic oil pans – they call it composite but it is a plastic oil pan (good luck with a fragile part like that – what could possibly go wrong). This is a mid-season refresh so for many the changes are hardly noticeable but for car enthusiasts they will know. Oddly though – since the V6 is gone, it actually does not bother me as much as it would if the model was still in production. The car is no more and now you have something rather unique. Like the Hyundai Genesis owners I run into. That car got nixed last year and does not exist anymore. Same as the V6 Honda Accord coupe as 2017 was the last year. Slowly but surely V6 normally aspirated cars are disappearing from the model lines. Mid-sized cars now sport 2 litre engines – for an old guy like me that is simply unfathomable. Cars costing 50,000.00 now have a four banger for an engine – Urgh..... But whatever, I couldn’t get the eight (20 grand more) but got the V6 before they pulled the plug. Now the Mustang V8 cost 3,000.00 more in Canada while the four banger is 1,000.00 less – and so just what was the 4 cylinder crowd paying for last year anyway..... One born every minute. At least in Europe they get the price drop with a major drop in horse power and torque (both down about 30 points). So the power gap between the four and eight cylinder cars is now a massive 160 horsepower and no amount of simple tuning is going to close that gap which may be the reason – as many cynically vocalized. But none of this matters to me as my car is now history. I am free! At least I won’t bore you with the constant prattle about the car from now on. Oh I will still occasionally talk about it but the “gee whiz” I got a new car thing will really die down now.


Back to the TV stuff and the UN stuff and I am already turning my attention in that direction. Time is always running out and when I look in the mirror I now see an old man. Nobody lives forever. You run those plays in your life and just hope for the best and that is how life works. No second chances and no starting over for me anymore. And on that morose note – Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHgRGn18FsU&feature=share

[Maurice Ali]

Evening out audio can get monotonous – but we are getting there.....



When I can’t take it anymore I hop in the car and take a drive. Early Sunday morning I took it for a decent spin up north with nothing much happening but you do run into others of your breed doing the same thing. Other than that it is off to the mall. Editing can put pounds on you so I like walking around when I do the mall thing. Most women dress up for shopping around here so you do have nice scenery apart from the mind numbing AVID audio tool and monitors I sized to go beside it. I am on the fourth show so far so that will definitely be done by today and maybe working on the fifth.


I am talking to my gang again and so far everyone is up to date. It was getting lonely going into Saturday night. Just working on this stuff by yourself gets lonely so the lack of the female companionship is still not really there but the car now is (as per my original fantasy about getting a TV show/series on the air). It does make you wonder. All those years and money and sacrifice – Was it worth it? I got further than most so for me to say no makes their situations even more futile so it is in a sense. It is altruism so you don’t get a gold throne to sit on. You don’t get young women lying naked on your bed if you get the urge to have sex. A nice car but no Ferrari or Lambo, anyone can have my ride. I am still a relative unknown, nobody stopping me on the street and shaking my hand. So what is the payback for all of this? Even if you do make it to the end and reprogram all 7.4 billion hard drives in humanity’s worldwide flock – then what. Well if that were to happen it was a good idea that got adopted. Not much to do with the avatar to that idea. And was the idea even mine? If we make the play and it hits, maybe, just maybe I might get back a little bit of what I lost before I hit the grave. Maybe some woman who felt sorry for me will find something there worthwhile to bother with. Then I quickly age and die and all that is left is the legacy of what happened. Not the worst life but not the best either.....



You can score in so many ways, one after another and you still end up alone in your home, bored and clinging on to some hobby to keep life interesting. Right now it is the car business. A whole bunch of us there. Ordinary 9-5 guys who slink out of the house early on the weekend unannounced to the family, and what do they do; where do they go? Well some of them have some fun with their cars on some back road or empty freeway. Things have changed since I was into that. But at least these guys do it fairly safe and out of town so no innocent bystanders can get involved. I know in Toronto there was talk of using city property for local drag strip usage to get street racing off the streets but that panned out. No, it seems the more sensible move is to take it out of town and the municipalities so legally their hands are clean. Even the cops seem – while not endorsing the activity – will at most give the guys a verbal butt spanking but no ticket if they did their thing out in the boondocks by themselves. These races are all over Youtube.com for example. Mostly they go somewhere and race after beeping their horn three times. But if the cops get wise to the horn beeps they just drop their windows and yell the three count. People living boring lives just yearning for some fun. Let's face it, who among us never had a street race from some traffic lights? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. So that is where street racing went while I wondered what happened to it a few months ago.


Anyway, I see I still talked about the car stuff even thought I said I would not – Urgh.....




Later.....





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z_7l3UzR_c&feature=share