I have updated the wiki with the new honours.  Congratulations to the new additions to l'Urderi per la Naziun.  There are now eighteen active citizens who have been elevated in recognition of extraordinary service to the Talossan nation or culture.

Welcome back!

When I was elected as the party leader and Seneschal candidate of the Progressive Alliance, I felt a little nervous.  It's been a very long time since I was at the top of the ballot, and I often feel more comfortable as a workhorse: building things like Infoteca or the basics of TalossaWiki.  þerxh started a tiny new party and made it a powerhouse -- could I rise to the occasion and continue that?

We're in the final week of the election, and we don't know the results right now.  But I want to say that I think we're going to do well, and that ultimately it won't be because of me.  It will be because of our amazing team.  And whatever happens, I want to take a moment to thank them directly and publicly.  Win or lose, they deserve nothing but praise and respect.

@þerxh Sant-Enogat ,  @xpb , @Tric'hard Lenxheir , @Françal I. Lux , @mximo , and @Baroness Litz Cjantscheir, UrN-GC ... thank you so much.  Some of you come from very different political traditions, but all of you have contributed in some way to this election.  Thank you to those who have been campaigning for us and our vision of Talossa.  Thank you for your courage -- it's not easy to be part of the crew that refuses to "hit back!"  And thank you for your trust.

For a long time, I was one of the most progressive members of the most conservative party, which was always a weird place to be.  But it turns out to be perfect for the Progressive Alliance.  We're demanding important reforms to change the status quo, but we refuse to pave the way with the corpses of our institutions.  It turns out that both things are important.  And of course, our party culture is vital: volunteerism and positivity.  These are the things with which we will build Talossa's future.

And all of that comes from our extraordinary founder and our extraordinary member-leaders.  It comes from you guys.

Thank you, Progressives.  And let's move Talossa forward, together!

Nifty!  Thanks!

I'm not sure if you're going to get your battle -- as I said, I find it distasteful for the democratic vote to be overturned by the rules of politicians, but it hasn't actually happened.  We have a lot bigger fish to fry!

I will say, Most Honourable Seneschal, I'm afraid that you're just about at the top of any oligarchy, lol.  You've been Seneschal for way longer than anyone else in Talossan history, and it's not even close.  You're the only Talossan to break a thousand days in office in the last 25 years!

I'll be interested in seeing any proposed legislation that you write, though, and I hope that -- no matter what happens with the election -- that you'll remain an active and passionate Talossan.  Your vigor and ideas will always be an asset to our little country.

But any Progressive government would have different priorities.  We have a ton of plans, as you know, and we intend to follow through on our campaign promises to the people.  If we are fortunate enough to win the confidence of our citizens, we're going to focus on reforms aimed at transparency, good government, and moving Talossa forward into the modern age.

I'd be happy to discuss any of these things in more detail, or answer any other questions you might want to ask.

One thing that's hard for a lot of us who immigrated later (I immigrated 19 years ago, shortly after all of this happened) is that former king Robert I lied a fairly significant amount about conflicts, later.  I think he would bend the truth with such vigor that he'd eventually convince even himself.

For example, he used to tell people for years that the new citizens of 2005 who joined the CLP were illegal immigrants, saying that at the time it was the law that you were only allowed to immigrate if you were approved by the Seneschal and Opposition Leader.  That just wasn't true -- the law just said that they had to be consulted, and they were always notified.  The Cort decided as such after a lawsuit.  But that kind of got elided over time, until eventually by 2008, Ben was just flatly asserting the contrary.

There's nothing official to say, I don't think. In my experience, people usually switch to TDT at that time, even if they still call it TST, because it's more convenient.

Also I vaguely recall that someone had some personal animus against daylight savings time?

I don't think they need to be abolished, but I do think the restrictions on people holding seats and party lists are perhaps too strenuous.  If the Progressive Alliance had gotten a larger vote share or had more people in the Senats last term, we'd maybe have not been able to hold our seats.  I am skeptical of rules that over-rule the will of the people when it comes to new or smaller parties.  However, it's near the end of my priority list, and I'm more in the "let's take a close look at this" phase.  At a certain point it makes sense to note that it's never actually subverted the democratic vote of the people, even if it threatened to do so in the past.

Speaking for myself, here's what I think:

Our first priority should be passing the new Public Process Act, since it's really important as a question of civil liberties.  We should not permit the government to have a secret veto over who even gets to apply to immigrate.  I think we'll get broad support for it this time, including significant support from the URL and from other parties.

Our second priority should be issues of good governance.  We'd like to fix the merchandise store so people can buy Talossa-themed goods again, fix the broken links on the website and give it a refresh, and work on some basic infrastructure things.  Some of these tasks will take a short time -- a half hour or so -- and others will be a significant task.

Our third priority should be looking at the immigration process and how we can optimize it.  What should our targets be for a monthly average, or do we think it's inevitably stochastic and we need to rethink it?  How can we meet people where they are with the short-form videos that have been such unexpected boons?  I expect to take a personal hand in this.

Other things that we can reasonably get done in a term include investigating past applications, giving positive regular speeches so that the government doesn't end up seeming like a joyless scold, exploring some new sources of funding, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.  And we should look at how our effort is expended.  How many people read L'Chronica, for example, if we total up pageviews on the site and email readers?  Something to think about.

Realistically, other things are likely to crop up.  But with strong and inspirational leadership, I expect we can rise to meet the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Right, but it says Central Standard Time.  Which is not incorrect, since that's the same as TST.  I just thought it would be neat if it referred to TST instead.

If it's a hassle or it doesn't look right, then don't worry about it.  It's truly not at all a big deal, but just something I thought might be cool.

I wonder if the database could give the time in TST, and then clarify with GMT and our detected time zones?  Is that a bad idea?

Well, when I set up the merchandise, I found that we could basically just order based off the design of the Sac and Fox Nation flag.  So you could just buy one of those.

We have a store for merchandise - we get a percentage when it's used. Unfortunately, I'm not sure any of the products are still available.

https://talossaware.printify.me/

You can probably find a similar flag somewhere else.

PROG 99
URL 65
IDT 12
GREEN 12
IND GREEN 12

I claim a seat.

Our law states, "If the Maximally Magnificent Majordomo does not issue the Assembly Call by the national Balloting Day, any citizen of Maritiimi-Maxhestic may issue it."

Consider it hereby issued: please claim a seat in the Assembly, if you wish one.

Let's see if it works for Mic'halgh, too -- maybe one day or the other is better for him.  I'm pretty free and clear.

Okay, so my wife's big event (and some disagreements) derailed us a bit.  But this weekend, I'm pretty free and clear.  Would that work for people to do a more casual chat, generally?

Great work!  Thank you!

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.

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.  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, 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 -- 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 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.

We're not pledging that we feel honor-bound to work with literally everyone about literally everything, but obviously no one really thought we were, lol.  An election is a heck of a thing, I guess. 

I guess this is the part where I'm supposed to get into an angry fight or whatever.  I'm not going to, sorry.  It doesn't sound fun or interesting, and I don't think it's what the people want.  A big part of our campaign is that we don't want these angry speeches or the attempts to start a fight.  We don't think anyone does, really.  And while I understand that they're part of the URL brand, we're just not interested.

To me, Talossa is about doing fun and interesting stuff.  It gives me the push I might never have gotten to try new things.  In just the last year, I've had that experience so many times!

• 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.  It's been another crazy thing I never would have tried, I think!
• I'm not sure I would have ever even thought about making a website to teach language skills, if it hadn't been for Talossa.  And Tafi, of course, who made it possible at all.  And even aside from the lessons themselves, I learned some new things about HTML.  It's amazing!
• Or to hearken back to an old one, I never even opened desktop publishing software before I started Beric'ht Talossan.  And then I just went ahead and did it, and it ran for two years.

Talossa gives you a chance and an excuse to do things you might never try.  And I can't wait to share that with more people.