Fortress Of Freedom Board

[Maurice Ali]

A bit late but I wanted to wait until all the taxes were sent.



So four corporate tax returns are gone. With FOFSTOCK already done and FOF Advocacy not due till next year - I now have only two returns left until it starts up again! Of course I still have the IRS returns but they are done and just have to be sent down south.



I actually was getting a bit antsy with nothing to do yesterday so I just fortified myself to do the taxes and now I'm done with it! I had to call the CRA and get some web access codes which was funny as the guy I talked to was a bit of a character - but I digress. I usually get the tax guys and gals who are musicians and we always marvel that the label is still rock'in. Rock'in even more with the FOFSTOCK advocacy and our work with APPLE Inc. making things better for musicians last year. Music stores closing, music being taken over by AI - but my orgs are still growing and trying to be the definitive voice for positive change in the world.



Anyway, so far so good with the vacation. Our organizations have never seen such a dramatic shift in structural change. I could drop dead right now and all organizations carry on without interuption! The last week was just this power move by me to finally cement the orgs for a future without me. I'm still here and the biggest plays are still with me - but the structure of our freedom of expression movement is finalized and we can concentrate on the other aspects of advocacy without having to think about what it all will look like in the future or if we will have to reinvent ourselves in the future. All that has been decided by now!



Still no progress at the bank.....




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

I actually started in the FOF Entertainment taxes even though they are not due for another three weeks. Having said all that I was happy enough to celebrate getting all of that stuff behind me.



I also reviewed the websites we own. All corporations have top level domain (.com / .org / .net) websites (except for the one I own at More Vision Inc.). I secured all top level domains for the vote and the mandate and the social contract. I still have related domains that just redirect to the main sites - punch in .com instead of .org and it automatically sends you to the .org website. The thing is that you give folks the name of your website and they always put a .com instead of .org. So even though I have .org for Worldwide Vote and Positive Mandate - people will forget about the .org and put in .com which in one case sends you to porn links on the .com site as it waits to be purchased.



What about purchasing Morevision.com as it is for sale through Godaddy, and since I only have morevision.ca I figured I would just ask how much they wanted. I actually got a reply via a phone call. They want 13,000USD which is about 17,000 dollars in Canadian funds - no thank you! So now you see why I was constantly buying up domains with the restructuring lately.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Thursday had me finish FOF Entertainment's taxes. I also had all FOF websites look similar with a white index page and all now sport the blue trademarked FOF logo. This does not include FOF Records which has the black background. It could still have the logo along with FOFSTOCK but I would make them dark for these two corporations. No biggie but we shall see. IAIJ will stay with the same logo penned by the same person who did our trademark (Pet).


I did backups of all forums and made emails for FOF Advocacy. Just so many things to consider setting things up for a new corporation. Friday has me talking to TD Bank again about just starting up a new el'cheapo account anyway and then just see what happens with the original account that was set up badly. It's their fault what happened designating IAIJ as a for profit company but I'm still obligated to ameliorate things at my end and this is one way.



I also updated the copyright year on all index pages which is always a pain every year.....



So all the corporate stuff took a solid week to do. Next up is home reno's.



I did watch movies this past week. I can recommend Weapons and especially Bugonia. I watched Battlefield Earth last night and it wasn't as bad as people made out. Same for James Cameron's Mars fright night B-movie. The funny thing is that there is audio commentary on both "bad" movies and usually if the director hates the movie they won't do commentary in it. Cameron even told the cast during production that this will be his worst movie - I love honesty! Anyway that should be fun for the Travolta movie.



This is vacation for me.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

All the trouble over the switch to the cheaper and soon to be grandfathered TD bank account has been resolved!



With that out of the way I became motivated to send in all my IRS returns and now that is done.



I tweaked the https://fofadvocacy.org index page with summaries on each link.



Halfway through the vacation and now that I have more time - the weather gets crappy. I was productive which always relaxes me - time off and I get panicky. You can try to sleep the time away but you still end up bored.....



However it's home reno and clean up time.....



I'll be honest with you guys - setting up and restructuring all the corps and fixing up that mess to where it is all functional again - was fantastic fun! That was a vacation for one week! Now on to more boring stuff.....


Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Saturday had me deposit three hundred bucks in the FOF Advocacy Inc. bank account and then order some checks that cost close to two hundred dollars. These will last forever.



I also bought a binder for close to forty bucks for the cheques. These looked really cheap so I bought the old better style with a premium body and metal reinforcement on the corners from Amazon. When that arrives I will return the cheap binder. I may also look for an embosser for FOFSTOCK and FOF Advocacy Inc. - this was mandatory back in the letters patent days but not so now. I'll check but will only buy if they have the old style embosser - no cheap plastic for me.




I went to Home Hardware and got some hardware for the home renos.




Wiped, soaked in Coke-a-Cola - plugged in to short and smashed with a hammer - job done!



Back at the house I decided it was time to cull the herd of my cellphones. Blackberry devices on OS 10 and earlier can't even go on the crackberry website anymore. The Blackberry security services I had for free - BBM - finally died years after consumer BBM died. So I wiped the devices (Passport, Playbook and an old Curve) and that's that! Without Blackberry servers they will never work again. Bye Bye Blackberry.



Then an old iPhone 6S Plus and Samsung Note 3 got the treatment. All phones wiped then endured a torture test of bad liquids like a Cocoa Cola bath and shut down for good. Then I plugged them in to short things out and smashed the screens with a ball peen hammer They are all dead now and I can move on. Now I only have four cell phones left.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

On Monday I actually fixed a plumbing issue I was sure I would have to call a plumber to fix! That in and of itself saved me at least 500 dollars. Plumbers are like the mafia, they shake down people who have no alternatives. But actually a lot of professions are like that - give it a chance and things always de-evolve to the basic human instincts.



I with my concepts, acknowledge this, but try to bring out the better natures of all as we disseminate our ideas to them. Left to their own, humans are horrible creatures. With society things become more bearable to all. While we presently criticize and castigate other societies for what is going on there, in reality it is always better than a totally lawless state where the jungle mentality rules. While some of us talk big and promote base attitudes for society - even they will admit the present culture is better than no culture at all.....



And so why was I so "giddy" about all the structural changes at our overall organization? I was giddy because we made a very successful advocacy jump in evolution last year and our corporations needed to catch up to it.







IAIJ is fine with the other IAIJ in tow. Fofstock and FOF Records Inc. is set to advocate for traditional musicians who face a world where a lay person in music can open an account on a music AI website and "produce" music that rivals successful traditional bands. Actually - it sounds like traditional bands which I consider theft a- but that is another battle. Then we come to FOF and the Worldwide Vote and the Positive Mandate for Humanity and that new Global Social Contract! These all stemmed from Fortress of Freedom Inc. and the Fortress Experiment which was always a commercial concern and corporation. They needed to be a for profit bunch of corporations to do that they did during the Fortress Experiment - But now their function is more advocacy than commerce - so a change was needed to reflect this new reality. So what was a commercial concern now has turned into a civil society advocacy concern. Our patented FOF Logo now stands for some truly great humanitarian initiatives and advocacy!








So that's where the happiness comes from. I am now - more than ever - strategically placed to make things happen globally for our organizations......




This vacation delivered in mega-tons and it's not over yet!




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Tuesday had me going to a funeral in the moving for the death of a family friend.



After that's home reno. I had a toilet issue that got fixed right on Sunday better than I imagined. Next is a plugged up kitchen sink. This one actually could wait but since I have the time.....



Monday also had me finally finished distribution of royalties for our music acts. One by one things are getting done.



Just keep at it and keep going. However, Wednesday has a snowstorm coming so I plan to just stay home and wait it out. We shall see - but hopefully make some progress of the plugged kitchen seat. The checks should arrive for FOF Advocacy and the better check book should also arrive before the end of the week.



So far so good but nothing is all rainbows and unicorns - negative stuff is sure to follow.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

The home reno's are mostly done.



The kitchen sink had a small snake pulled through and then I just looked at the old crappy plumbing and decided to do a hack job that should last several years. Seriously, the plumbing needs to be cut off near the wall and redone with a new sink instead of that old original 54 year old stainless steel sink. If I'm doing that replacement, I may as well replace the counters also. So the best hack job I could do and we go from here.....




So with that out of the way I just start cleaning up the house for the balance of the vacation. We just keep at things taking advantage of the extra time I have. I'll check and see if the cheques for FOF Advocacy Inc. was taken out - if not we will do the order again and wait again.....



I'm watching more movies. This time it's the 10th Victim with Ursula Andreas and Marcello Masteiani. Even though it was shot in the sixties this movie is so stylish and cool - it's timeless!




Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/k6S_EhnkLx8?si=-9mR2v91B5GD-A2_

[Maurice Ali]

Everything I wanted to accomplish during this vacation has been accomplished including the home renovations.....


I can now coast through Friday to Monday morning - so some will think this is the real vacation. Maybe – but I really just want to clean up the house and all that. Friday had me taking care of personal stuff you all do when you have nowhere to go during a vacation. I checked FOF Advocacy’s balance and no money had been taken out yet for those cheques. The teller says they take it out when they ship it – but I suspect they may have forgotten to send it. Anyway, it is sent now. AI data centers are buying up all the RAM and hard drives, so I bought a 10tb drive just in case those get obscenely expensive. Let see the price of a 2tb iPhone next year! All the changes and additions to our organizations have been made and sorted out. All those corporate taxes have been done! But I am now used to sending the taxes through approved software – so there is that Then the re-organization of the websites and paying off all the musicians at the label and it just goes on and on. We had some good luck and some bad luck to balance it out. If you don’t get some bad luck with the good luck, something really bad is going to happen. For example, one of our gang had heart surgery lately – I don’t need that in my life right now – just give me the more manageable bad luck and lots of it.....



Then the home renovations got completed. The plumbing was the most important and now it’s just cleaning up the place. The next vacation probably has me doing brake work on the Mustang. Stuff like that.



Things may seem to be getting boring but nothing can be further from the truth. I’m just not telling everything online like a fool – that is all.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

Well all that angst is over!



Ran some errands and soaking in the rain on my return was my cheques for FOF Advocacy Inc. - it still bothers me how the post office could have put this between the doors out of the rain or in that oversized mailbox I bought for this scenario - but did not. Nope, on the porch getting soaked. Maybe there for thirty minutes to an hour. I picked it up and quickly dried it off. Just a naked brown cardboard box. I figured they would have the expensive cheques in plastic inside - no - just the paper cheques inside a box getting soaked. There was no damage, so into that cheque binder it goes and that's that!


So the vacation solved all my issues including that final delivery of the cheques. Now I can turn the page on all that and carry on with other things.....




So the set up of the new corporation is complete. All corporation bank accounts and fees have been rejigged to a lower cost point. All websites have been re-thought and implemented. All due taxes have been sent. All that is now behind me - strange that all this literally happened only in two weeks - it seems like months.....



Now I just take it easy. The reno's are done and I just soak in the tub, clean up around the house, watch movies and visit the malls sucking on a mocha.




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

I'm making a short list of female DJs to approach with some of our advocacy ideas for FOFSTOCK. The best like Charlotte de Witte or Nina Kraviz may be approachable but some up and comers like SuperGloss would be easy and I just happen to like her music! Annie Mac is multifaceted, experienced and probably more open to these overtures than the others - we shall see.....




SuperGloss!



BTW: I'm not shuttering out men - I just have more luck with the women. But Deadmau5 is still a possibility and just down the street!




Deadmau5!



The big reason for putting IAIJ (Archiving), FOF Records, FOF and FOF Entertainment under the umbrellas of not for profit associations is because it makes it easier to contact and talk to big names in the areas we advocate. It is easier for me to approach a musician to endorse our advocacy as a not for profit than as a for profit corporation that does some advocacy on the side. As a for profit you will be lumped in with all the others and be locked out by the artist's current management. But as a not for profit you are outside that universe. You are no threat, so this can work!




FOFSTOCK is three years old and that is old enough. FOF Advocacy is just starting but the writers/authors and poets are an easier reach and those in the media like directors and even popular content creators and podcasters are easier to contact and interact with as a not for profit association.




So in essence, everything we have created and cultivated at these organizations is now strategically positioned for advocacy in the general public. This is as opposed to the more structured advocacy at the United Nations for example.



So this vacation with all its hassles, was extremely productive in furthering our goals! I had good luck so I prepared for an avalanche of bad luck to pay for it - it is what it is.....




Goodnight.....





https://www.youtube.com/live/QoaIhHIYWA4?si=SSmYwYiAAw-j7KVV



https://www.youtube.com/live/PuD4GeAw4ps?si=EFBUf3G6JmiduXzH

[Maurice Ali]

I figured three days was enough for the aquarium silicon to set and turned on the taps at my formerly plugged kitchen sink.....




It worked! It worked! And the water just raced down the pipes. Then I switched to the hot side - it works! And no leakage at all! Wow, a professional job! Well not quite, a pro would have cut the PVC drain pipe and plumbed new piping to the sink. Which means a new sink with a new faucet even though the faucet I have there now is new! I figure about 5 grand for that if I had to do it! But my jack job actually works as well as a proper job. This could last for years and years the way I did it as there are no weak spots in the repair. But renovate with a new sink and it all goes all the way. A new sink also means new counters - see how this all adds up?




So I was very happy with that outcome and celebrations for a Saturday night! I also cleaned up my personal bedroom. You will recall that I tossed all my old cellphones that lived in the bed. Well, now I transferred all the data from like six jump drives on the bed and tossed them in the office down stairs. The big deal was vacuuming up all the dust on that bed - just used like a table actually. I also had bookshelves with dusty books, and underneath the bed was my snooker cues and cases with layers of dust on it all. I spent an afternoon sucking up the dust into the vacuum. I even had to wear a N95 mask as the dust was everywhere. I wiped everything down as I aired the room of dust many times. Now it is clean and dust free!




I'll keep cleaning the rest of the house including the reception and studio for the interviews. I saved so much money I figured I would have to pay a plumber to fix the toilet and kitchen sink and it just goes up from there. And - it was all done proper. I marveled at how clean the toilet was from the underside - real horror shows there for others. Fixed that before it become a problem. Even the kitchen sink "hack job" looked good. The money I saved basically paid to get FOF Advocacy up and running. In this case - money well spent.



But like I said before, all that good luck has a price and soon I will have to deal with it all.....




Goodnight.....

[Maurice Ali]

So back to work after a pretty successful vacation. All I want to do is make it to the end of the week and start March. This winter sucks the big one.







I got an email from The Farm Nomad - our office in New York on Broadway just two blacks from the Ed Sullivan Theater. Anyway they are closed tomorrow as they are getting close to 25cm of snow! Why is all this happening? It's happening because the Trade Winds have weekend due to Global Warming and the Polar Vortex has crept down south further than before. The Summer will also get hotter for the same reason. We should have at least three days of snow this week. Anyway - enough of his.




Just get back into routine and make it to March.



Aside from that I'm watching movies and buying movies. Rewatching Divergent - a rather miserable series for the teenage crowd back in the day. The only part I watch is the protagonist selecting what faction of her society she wants to be in. I find that fascinating as that was something not available to me. In my society I am considered a "zero". Nothing I accomplish will be acknowledged in Canada and I have 66 years of proof. All the search engines have all kinds of things to say about me but here in racist Canada they have nothing to say or acknowledge . I would say more, but what's the point?



Anyway, what's done is done - but I can still fantasize in the movies.....




Goodnight.....





https://youtu.be/2jyyGe1jBPE?si=9UHHIdxX6qlagQEQ


https://youtu.be/YpMPOYTV2l8?si=rFawtKmxJmKnhxod

[Maurice Ali]

I'll just add this here.....








How on earth did we get 4414 people at IAIJ all at the same time? What triggered that kind of interest! One of our directors told me about some "rumblings" she heard two weeks ago.....



At FOF, the Social Club of One crossed 7 million views but I never archived it - so here it is:







Also, the NGO Committee met from January 26 - February 20. Usually you get an email asking questions - but we got nothing? What up with that!




Later.....

[Maurice Ali]

Snow in Toronto!



Wow - New York got hammered with some snow! In Long Island some are measuring 30 inches of snow in non-drift areas. Me thinks our office in Broadway will be closed today as well.....





Snow in Toronto!



Here at home I have a chance to get rid of some books to those book recycler places. I have tubs of books I bought at book liquidation sales 35 years ago when I thought it was cool to have a library. Now they just take up space for my growing collection of movies - Ha. I'll sort them out and send them to be repurposed. I'll probably keep 30 percent of all that. So you book lovers do not come after me. It's a good mix that can actually be useful. In the end this is also part of cleaning up the house.





Snow in Toronto!



Things just go on and on - but what happened in NYC is epic - snow at a place that used to not get much. This just weeks after the Generational storm a couple weeks ago. Get used to this.




Snow in Toronto!



Apart from that I'm getting back into routine again.




Goodnight.....