Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on September 25, 2022, 09:35:56 AMI am required to note by my hometown, Bardstown, that bourbon is made here...Alright that is out of the way.

But I am actually more interested in the box of donut holes in the background. Are those timbits??

Now that one I can answer. It's a yes. Have seen that box and boxes like it far too many times, haha.
I've been through Bardstown, at least. My uncle used to live in E-town, and Radcliff before that.

A bit more back on topic: I notice Dragon's Milk does beer barrel-aged bourbon, and bourbon barrel-aged stout. Seems to be a rather handy cycle when you can keep it going yourself.

I see their Dragon's Milk Reserve is "Bourbon barrel-aged stout with stroopwafel cookies, coffee, caramel, and cinnamon". Now, in some regards, I'm a simple man -- I see stroopwafel, I pay closer attention. But I thought @Bråneu Excelsio might be interested as well, not sure if his love of coffee extends to a love of things that have a bit of coffee taste to them :P

Of course I had a few things keep me from much time at home yesterday, haha.

Anyway -- I suppose I'm a little biased going in, having spent my entire engineering career so far in the automotive industry. When time, weather, and money permit, I do have a few things I enjoy spending any excess cash on:

 
2012 Chevy Sonic (daily driver), also featuring a 1987 VW GTI (not a daily).

   
1982 VW Rabbit Pickup (non-Americans may know it as a Mk1 Caddy), also seen here prior to a replacement of most of the coolant lines

     
1974 VW Karmann Ghia (ok, that's the last of the Volkswagens, I promise), along with a 1980 Honda C70 -- 42 years old and it just hit 3600 miles on Thursday.

 
These two belong to D:na Autófil, at least for now: 1983 Datsun 720 King Cab, and a 1983 Suzuki GS850L.

   
Fledgling license plate collection, featuring (L/R, top/bottom) Finland (pre-1996), Germany (Wiesbaden, expires June 1986), Germany (Wolfsburg, export plate valid until 31 Dec 2021), Pennsylvania (late 1980s), Pennsylvania (Truck, early 1980s), and the plates the DMV gave me with the Ghia, since my custom plate application hadn't gone through yet. The two PA plates are supposed to relate with the two 80s VWs, both of which were manufactured at the Westmoreland Assembly in western PA. Also please enjoy this picture of me getting to sit in my dream car at the auto museum up in Green Bay.

I could go on but it's time to let someone else talk, lmao

I've heard of aging beer in bourbon barrels -- actually the one type of stout I don't care for -- so to see the inverse done is more surprising than I feel like it should be. Looks pretty good, I may have to see if I can get it here across the lake.

Happy Ten Years, Mr. Secretary! (Dr. Secretary?)

Quote from: Dr. Txec dal Nordselvă, GST on September 21, 2022, 08:05:42 PM

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, MC EiP on September 21, 2022, 06:21:04 PMWhat is the purpose of the Royal Data Clerk, and what would they be doing that the Ministry of Technology does not already do?

The Royal Data Clerk is a fancy way of saying "database administrator."

Makes sense -- effectively, since the SoS can hold this position, this allows you to continue maintaining the database as long as you care to do so, but does not force you to resign as SoS in order to transfer the responsibility to someone else. Also more lightens the load that is carried by the SoS (the office I mean, obviously if the same person holds both positions they still get the whole load to carry :P )

What is the purpose of the Royal Data Clerk, and what would they be doing that the Ministry of Technology does not already do?

Noting that between July 22nd (I won't count edits made before reintroduction of the program) and 05:03 on August 10, I made 20 edits to the wiki, I hereby request the Seneschal declare as a Day of Public Observance the Day of the Automobile, in which Talossans who enjoy driving, maintaining, repairing, observing, or doing any other activity with their vehicles (motorcycles and virtual vehicles also welcome) may meet fellow enthusiasts.

If I may, I further request that the Seneschal declare this Day of Observance for September 24, in honor of the 74th anniversary of the foundation of the Honda Motor Company, as well as the 113th birthday of influential automotive designer Virgil Exner, Sr.

Quote from: Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat on August 29, 2022, 09:37:28 AMI also uploaded the Zouavs Achievement, but I wasn't sure what page it should go on.

-TFF

Perhaps it could be placed on the Zouaves' article directly? Not sure we have enough "organizational heraldry" (yet -- cough) to justify its own section, but it would still be appropriate on the relevant organization's page.

- TLF

RZ15: Aus
RZ16: Con
RZ17: Per
RZ18: Per
RZ19: Per

VoC: Uc

At least one of the TNC posters generated got the colors right... :P

Thank you, va Capitán! Admittedly poor timing of extra-Talossan affairs on my part, but it is greatly appreciated. And don't think I didn't notice that insignia usage... ;)

If I were to attempt to explain Talossa to someone, apart from boring them with micronationalism, I would say it's "part model government, part charity, part multimedia art collective, and part worldbuilding exercise". Even this really only covers it to an extent.

Quote from: Audrada Roibeardet on September 01, 2022, 12:47:51 PMOne of my townships will be called Kaldi. This goes back to the apocryphal story of the discovery of coffee. Legend has it that an Arab Ethiopian called Kaldi (or Khalid depending on the story) saw his goats eating berries that made them very excited. Turns out those berries were coffee. That's a summary of the story.

So don't steal that name, Bråneu. I'm watching you. ;D

Your friendly neighborhood non-Fiovan checking in again. Not a name I expected to see here, but I actually have a motorcycle named Kaldi. 1983 Suzuki GS850 in a good rich brown color (hence the name). Had to trek it halfway across Wisconsin in the back of one of those U-Haul Ford Transit vans. It's a heavy bike, getting it into the van sucked.

Apologies for the interruption, this thread checks all my "map nerd" and "100% completionist" boxes, so I keep an eye on it.  ;D

I thank the Senator for this question, as would like to repeat my gratitude for his understanding regarding my absence. While the official Ziu channels are not the place to air personal news, I may post elsewhere when comfortable doing so -- in part because sometimes it helps to actually talk to people about things, and in part because I never want to be anything but transparent with the Talossan public.

I will admit that this absence has prevented many recent efforts on my part to advance Government objectives, but I can say that in addition to the Foreign Ministry update -- the length of which, I admit, was satisfying to see when complete -- I can provide the following:

• I have a few quotes on potential flag prices. The manufacturers I've heard back from so far would charge anywhere in the mid- to upper-20s range (USD) per unit, plus whatever income the government seeks to make on each unit. This depends on quantity ordered, though if it seems high I should note that most of these flags are either 3' x 5' or 2.5' x 4', both of which are well-suited for outdoor display -- they're not little desktop flags, when it comes to vexillology I go all in (as I'm sure you could guess!)
• Letters patent are getting a redo, after stepping away for a few weeks I was able to look at my concepts with fresh eyes and had an idea to overhaul them using our national symbols more prominently (which, I should note since there was discussion on it a few weeks ago, would not include depiction of Taco Bell...)
• IDs are resuming production, I will admit they have been a bit of a lower priority simply because we currently have three cards waiting to go to the printer, only a third of a full load. I would take this opportunity to again encourage everyone to take the Civics Test offered by the Ministry of STUFF to get an ID card! Give me more to do in the evenings (suffice it to say distractions of a Talossan nature are more welcome now than ever before).
• I look forward to assisting the new Defence Minister as his Deputy, wherever he may need me.

I thank the Senator for this question, as well as for his understanding regarding my unexpected absence.

I can confirm that I had a very productive discussion with Ladonian Foreign Minister Yvan Bertjens on August 14. This discussion ended up going well beyond the allotted time, which I view as a positive indicator that the two of us are off to a good start in terms of building relations between our two nations. Some topics of discussion include:

• His impressions of MicroCon 2022, as formed from his third-party information (he's in Belgium, making it even harder to get to Las Vegas than it is from Wisconsin).
• As MicroCon is returning to its schedule of every odd-numbered year starting next year, MicroCon 2023 will be hosted by Ladonia itself, in Queen Caroline's home city of Chicago. Being that Chicago is, for me, an hour's drive to Milwaukee followed by an hour's train ride to Union Station, I can say that no matter who is in charge of the Foreign Ministry at this time next year, I would gladly attend as part of the Talossan delegation.
• Ladonian efforts to achieve some form of recognition as an NGO by the Swedish government are beginning to gain steam, making them among the closest micronations to achieving any sort of official recognition (even if not a recognition of sovereignty, sadly).
• Basic information and comparison on the constitutional structures of our respective nations. Ladonia is for example more of a direct democracy -- effectively, anyone is allowed to apply for a "Ministry" of their choosing and creation, and all "Ministers" form the legislature (which elects the "actual" Ministers, if you will). One could think of this as analogous to the Maricopan Cabana. He was actually surprised that our government terms are really only eight or nine months, and that's if an election isn't called early; he was surprised we were able to get anything done with such turnaround.
• He did ask for a brief explanation on why Talossa is beginning to reverse course on self-identification as a micronation, which I told him in my estimation was largely due to the departure of some of the older-growth Talossans -- as we opened to the Internet in the 1990s, the term was largely adopted by many "micronations of one" and this likely made those in power at the time feel that such a classification was beneath our station (having already had over 15 years of growth at that time). Now that many of the current generation of Talossan leaders are more used to other micronations that even outpace Talossa in terms of population, we can reassess our position and come to a more frank self-evaluation.
• Any interesting projects in Talossa at the moment? For his part, he was happy to share information about ongoing maintenance/repair/expansion of Nis, the driftwood sculpture at the heart of Ladonia. I in turn displayed our sample ID card -- it was rather neat to be able to show it off!

Unfortunately I cannot provide any news of additional progress with other micronations, though as I understand it Duke Bertjens has put in a good word to our Flandrensian counterpart, with whom he is a good friend (and a fellow Belgian), so I may pivot to focusing more of my efforts there as a "path of least resistance" in terms of response time.

With respect to BHAID, as previous efforts to solicit recommendations for sourcing from the public (namely, as part of the Town Hall / Trivia Night that was ultimately attended only by myself and the Seneschal) have born little fruit, within the coming days I will be creating a thread for public feedback/input. I'm happy to direct our efforts, but I'm also interested in hearing what sort of efforts the community would prefer there.