Wittenberg

What has Talossa meant to me, to paraphrase the old question?  How has it impacted me?  A recent discussion brought this to mind, and I thought it bore a little more thought.

To me, Talossa is about doing fun and interesting stuff.  It gives me the push I might never have gotten to try new things.  And since I've been a Talossan for half my life, it's been an incredibly enriching experience.  And when I think of what Talossa has given me, I think about the things I've learned along the way... and the opportunities out there for everyone else!

This is obviously going to talk about my own experience and accomplishments, but that's okay -- I am a candidate for seneschal, after all, and so that's not a crazy thing to do!


Law
I probably would have always been interested in the law, even if it weren't for Talossa.  But where else but Talossa am I going to have a chance to actually draft legislation?

I've been working on legal stuff from the start.  Obviously, the world is very different from when I first immigrated, and so my thinking on some things has changed over time.  But thankfully, I've been fairly consistent about my principles.  At times, that put me at odds with people on "my side"...  it's funny to look back in time at things like the secret ballot bill, and see me arguing with people in my own party to get it passed!

Some of my legislation has been hard-won compromises with others, like the law that created the civil service or the law to reform the succession and save the monarchy.  And some have just been pretty much my own show, like when I took dozens of laws and created our modern legal code, el Lexhatx (https://wiki.talossa.com/El_Lexhatx).

If you want to get involved in legislating, then you can just do it!  Not every bill is going to be perfect.  You might run up against some opposition, and you might need to compromise.  Sometimes you're going to fail.  But if you persist, you can create change.

So you should get out there and try it!

• Get seats in the Ziu, so you can sponsor and cosponsor legislation.
• Read bills, and see if they make sense.  Look at the little things -- who is supposed to do what, and how?
• When you notice a problem in a bill, say specifically what's wrong, and suggest changes.
• If there's something in Talossan law that you want to fix, you can just take a shot at writing a bill to fix it.  Listen to the feedback you get!

Media
I had never done short-form video before just this past month!  (And maybe it shows, lol)  But after that language Tiktok went viral, I thought it might be a fun thing to try.  So I just... did it!  Filmed some short clips, and experimented with editing them together, and started up the whole Progressive Alliance account (https://www.tiktok.com/@talossanprogress/).  It's been another crazy thing I never would have tried if it hadn't been for Talossa!

Or to hearken back in time, I never even opened desktop publishing software before I started the newspaper Beric'ht Talossan.  And then I just went ahead and did it with the Scribus software.  In the two years we were publishing, we built the biggest staff of any Talossan organization (bigger than the entire government!) and never missed a deadline.

You're never going to match a professional, but you can become a skilled amateur in so many different flavors of media, if you're interested.  And because Talossa is such a small country, you can be a big voice in the media!

So you should get out there and try it!

• You can start writing a political analysis column right here on Wittenberg, if you'd like, although people might not consider it to be "media."  But you could also start your own blog about Talossa.  Free website makers include Blogger and Wordpress.
• You can start a YouTube or Tiktok account and vlog about Talossa.  Talk about your experience or analyze political developments.
• Social media accounts are free and numerous.  Don't use Twitter, but Bluesky or Instagram are very accessible and let you do things like memes and commentary about Talossa.

Computers
I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about making a website to teach language skills (https://talossan.net/), if it hadn't been for Talossa.  It's not the first website I've made for Talossa, either.  Getting deep into learning how to operate Wordpress software has paid off in my life other times, too, and it was Talossa that nudged me into that skill.

And while I already had some experience with editing wiki pages on Wikipedia, it was Talossa that pushed me into learning how deeper things work, like templates.  When I first set up the early infrastructure for TalossaWiki (https://wiki.talossa.com/index.php?title=Main_Page&type=revision&diff=83&oldid=1) -- crazy to think that there was a time when we didn't have that! -- it took me on a surprisingly long journey.

As a confession, I'll say that my graphic design skills are still not very good.  But they can get the job done, at least, and I only learned GIMP and Inkscape because of Talossa and the Coletx!  You can do that too!

So you should get out there and try it!

• You can edit most of the wiki to add information, context, or new points!  It's pretty easy to figure out with the WYSIWYG editor, but there's also a course on wikicode (https://wiki.talossa.com/Class) that you can do in just an afternoon.
• Starting a simple blog for a media project requires almost no computer knowledge, but to do something fancier you can get deep into learning basic HTML, CSS, or website software.  And there's a ton of beginner guides on YouTube to get you started.
• GIMP and Inkscape are free if you want to design some Talossan images for others to use, and future Talossans can benefit from your work forever!

Of course, Talossa is more than just the things I've learned, the accomplishments I've had, or the opportunities it presents.  It's also about the friends and the community, the ideals and the struggle, the traditions and the culture.  Over time, you can make some close allies and some fun inside jokes.  But when I think about the impact Talossa has had on my life, I can't ignore that so many of my current skills come from my efforts as an enthusiastic Talossan amateur.  If you give it a chance, Talossa can have that impact on you, too.