Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on July 03, 2026, 04:01:59 PM

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on July 03, 2026, 11:19:07 AMMajor League Cricket has started in the US. They only have a few teams, and the first season started in 2024. I guess I'll be rooting for the Texas Super Kings since I'm from Texas.

Coached by New Zealand batting legend Stephen Fleming! Check out his form in the 2003 World Cup

That's awesome! Guess I picked a good team to root for!
We don't have any Irish Talossans, do we? I discovered hurling last year, and I've actually watched full games of it. I found it immensely enjoyable as a spectator. The rules were instantly easier to grasp, as compared to cricket. (The first time I watched a hurling match, I instantly wondered why it isn't more well known. I felt like that viral video of the black guy seeing a hockey match for the first time and saying "Why have y'all been hiding this from us the whole time? This shit is lit!"

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on July 02, 2026, 03:32:00 PMHey, I didn't know you liked cricket

I've somehow ended up opening batter for my club's 3rd women's team. I'm surprised by that because I always saw myself as a leg-spin bowler, but good coaching has helped me to identify my actual talent

I'm still trying to figure out cricket. Previously, I only knew about it from watching Monty Python, where they called it "ritual idioting".
I found a few cricket magazines people had left behind when I worked at the airport. It piqued my interest. Watched some matches on YouTube. I still don't understand all the rules, but I like it.
The convenience store down the street from me is owned by people from India. Last year (oddly enough, it was the Fourth of July), I went there to get some beer. Behind the store I saw the owner and his family sitting in lawn chairs, watching some little kids playing a game. I took a closer look...they were playing cricket! For some reason I thought that was cool.  The next time I went to the store, I talked to the owner about cricket. He's the one that told me that Major League Cricket has started in the US. They only have a few teams, and the first season started in 2024. I guess I'll be rooting for the Texas Super Kings since I'm from Texas.

For my part, having recently been introduce to the tabletop version of shuffleboard, it's quite fun IMO, more so than bags/cornhole/etc.
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I haven't played shuffleboard in decades. My parents had a shuffleboard table at the bar they owned in Texas, and I got quite good at it when I was a kid.
Cornhole is immensely popular in my area. I guess because a cornhole set is cheap and the skill level required is good for all ages. I never expected to turn on the tv and see "Championship Cornhole", tho.

I can see that Kubb is somewhat similar, but seems more challenging than what I came up with.
I "invented" this dumb game when I was laid off from my job. I was at home alone, bored, was messing with some fishing tackle. I happened to have a cat box that looked like this:

https://ibb.co/Y7gxs7Fq

Out of boredom, I tied one of my lead fishing sinkers to a bit of nylon rope I had, and decided to try and throw it into the holes in the cat box. Maybe it seemed more fun and challenging than it actually was because I was bored, but anyhow, I quickly made up some rules for it. I took the cat box and sink line to an Easter family gathering, and coaxed some family members to try it. The grandkids seemed to have fun. But that was the one and only time the game was ever played. I left the cat box outside, and it started to rot, so I threw it out. But anyway, here are the rules:

The rules of Lencularh/Lancerat
https://ibb.co/MkFNqFBD
Lancerat is a game created by Iason Taiwos in 2010. The object of the game is for players to score points by tossing a line with a weight on the end into a cylindrical shaped box with three holes in it.
Game rules (first revision, April 2010)
In all games of Lancerat, whether played by individuals or teams, a coin toss decides who plays first. A coin toss also determines who plays first in a tie breaker game
Players, standing behind the tossline, have five turns of three tosses to score as many points as possible. In team play, players alternate on each turn. The player or team with the highest score after five turns wins. In case of a tie, a tie breaker round is played.
THE TOSSLINE - Players must toss the plomb from behind the tossline. In basic Lancerat, the tossline is measured 16 ft from the front face of the sinkbox. In the process of tossing, a players arms and/or upper torso may cross the tossline, but their feet must remain behind it. Stepping across the tossline is an illegal move, and any points scored in such a toss are not counted. In Tournament Lancerat, the tossline is measured 20 ft from the front face of the sinkbox.
THE PLOMB AND SINKLINE - The plomb must weigh no more than 5 oz. It may be attached to the sinkline in any fashion the player chooses, provided it is secure and will not fly off during a toss. The sinkline should be an ⅛" polypropylene cord. It may be of any length suitable to the player, provided it is long enough to go into the sinkbox from the tossline.
TIE BREAKING - Should a tie breaking round end in yet another tie, players can simply play another round, or play a tournament round. Here, the tossline is moved back to 20 ft from the front face of the sinkbox. Tournament rounds are played just like a game of basic Lancerat, except that players are allowed only one toss per turn. The first player to score three points in a tiebreaker round wins the game.
ILLEGAL TOSSES - A toss is considered illegal or incomplete if: 1, the players feet crosses the sinkline. 2, an insecure plomb goes flying off the sinkline during the course of a toss. 3, the player loses hold of the sinkline during a toss. Any points scored in an illegal toss are not counted.
LANCERAT 23 - 23 is played the same as basic Lancerat, with two exceptions. 1st, the goal of the game is to score exactly 23 points. The player who scores 23, or closest to 23 without going over, wins the game. Any player scoring over 23 is automatically out of the game. 2nd, players are allowed only one toss per turn.
TOURNAMENT LANCERAT - Tournament Lancerat is played the same as basic Lancerat, except that the distance from the front face of the sinkbox to the tossline is 20 ft. When teams play in a tournament, team members alternate at every turn. In a tie breaker round, players are allowed only one toss per turn, and the first player or team to score three points wins.
JUNIOR LANCERAT - For junior players, the tossline is 12 ft from the front face of the sinkbox. The rules are otherwise the same as basic Lancerat.

Made it in time! Team Cjovani is in!

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on July 02, 2026, 10:00:19 AMWow! That's super interesting. That would be the second Talossan sport, and it sounds like a pretty good one!

I did come up with another game not long after I became a Talossan, and thankfully no one remembers it. It was called "Lencularh" ("Lancerat" in English.) The gist of it was tossing a rope with a weight on the end into a series of stacked boxes to score points. I actually field tested that one and wrote out several pages of rules. The family members I coaxed into playing it seemed to enjoy it while we played, but it must have been fairly lame, because no one ever mentioned it again. (I know I posted about it on the old Witt.)

Bear with me, this is probably going to be a long post.
The World Cup craze has infected my work place. My coworkers, who previously were only ever interested in American football, are suddenly obsessed with "soccer"; they're following all the matches, memorizing players names, rushing home after work to watch the games on tv, even listening to them during work on their earbuds. I think some of it may have to do with the fact that online betting is legal in Ohio now, and their interest may mostly be due to trying to find what the best bets are. (I admit, I've bet a few bucks here and there, despite knowing nothing about the sport.)
Anyhow, I had the thought that there are some sports I just don't like. Soccer, basketball, American football, volleyball... they hold absolutely no appeal to me. For some reason, I like sports where you hold some sort of stick that you have to whack the ball with. Baseball, cricket, hockey, hurling, golf, even tennis. I don't know why. But there was one glaring exception to this. Bocce. I like bocce.
I was bored at work, and my meandering mind had the sudden thought: why couldn't you play bocce with a stick? Well, bocce balls are pretty heavy. You'd have to have smaller, lighter balls. What kind of stick? Then croquet mallets popped into my head. Yeah. A cross between bocce and croquet! I figured someone else had already had such an idea, but I Googled it, and as far as I can see, there is no such thing as mallet bocce. I thought maybe I had the makings of a brand new game going on.
Bocce is played on a bocce court, and you can only throw the balls from one direction, like as in bowling. What if you could hit the balls from any direction?
As of this writing, I have yet to figure out rules and have acquired no equipment to try and work them out. Vitxalmour Conductour said that a normal croquet set would probably work, just adding in the little ball, the pallino, from bocce.
But then I thought, part of the fun of bocce is being able to bounce your balls off the side and backboards when making a shot. There would be nothing like that for this new game. What about some kind of obstacle? I then came up with this:
https://ibb.co/xt2VgdR9
A series of bumper pegs surrounding the pallino. (Which would mean that the pallino wouldn't just be randomly tossed, but placed within the bumper circle.) That could make it more challenging.
So, how many balls do the players get? How many turns per match? I imagined a larger, outer circle, from behind which you hit the balls. You could hit them from anywhere outside the outer circle. Hell, this is starting to sound like a cross between not only bocce and croquet, but crokinole as well!
That's all I have. I'm presenting this idea to my fellow Talossans, maybe you could come up with more ideas for rules and whatnot. I'm contemplating getting a croquet set, but, given both our current work schedules, it probably won't be anytime soon that Vitx and I would be able to field test such a game. However, when we do, I'd like to have a few variations of possible game rules and play that we could try out. Right now, I'm puzzling about certain things. If the pallino is knocked out of the circle during the game, how is that handled? How is scoring done? Most importantly...does this even sound like a fun game?
https://ibb.co/nqb9QH1t
I used ChatGpT to create this AI slop picture of what a match might look like. I also came up with a name for the game, Poggio. It's Italian for "hillock". (I don't like the Talossan word for hillock, "cantalour".) If we ever field tested this game, it would likely be in Vitx's backyard, which is fairly hilly. I just like the way the word Poggio sounds. I'm welcome to other ideas.
Anyway, this is the dumb crap I come up with to keep my mind occupied during my dreary and monotonous work day. If anyone has any ideas for it, I'm all ears.

I just realized that today is the fifteenth anniversary of my gaining citizenship in our glorious Kingdom. https://ibb.co/Cs3tV900
And I think I'm the only person with three IDs...

I've been to England, Scotland, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and actually resided in Libya during the Qaddafi era. (My dad worked for Esso over there.)
Within the United States, I've lived (actually resided) in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, and Tennessee, and have visited more states than I care to write down here. (I'd guesstimate maybe 35 out of all 50 states.)

I got the email and would like one as well. (Does it matter if the person you got into Talossa is a half-assed citizen who is seldom active on Witt?)

62RZ25: I vote PER

Quote from: Moinul Moin on June 16, 2026, 04:24:59 AMS:reu @Iason Taiwos Please can you show the photo of your nominated car? I think(according to your speech) the car is absolutely wonderful!!

(I am very eager to see the photo of the car)

I'll try to get a pic of it. (Yes, I have never even bothered to take a picture of it.)

I'd like to nominate my car as "Used Talossan Car of the Year".
I drive a 2007 Ford Mustang. It previously belonged to my stepdaughter, who passed away from cancer. Look, I'm not a car guy, never have been. I want something to get me from point a to point b reliably, and that's it. I don't care what it looks like as long as it runs and won't cost a lot of money for repairs. Preferably something I can repair myself. (Okay, there was one car I owned I actually loved...a 1979 Jeep CJ5. Had an inline six engine. Learned to drive stick on it, and I could fix it myself. I'm not naturally mechanically inclined, but I replaced the carburetor, U-joints and a bunch of other stuff all by myself, using just a Haynes manual as a guide. I was proud of myself for that. Plus, it was fun to drive.)
Anyhow, this Mustang. I don't get the appeal. I can't tell you how many times people have complimented me on it. "Wow, nice Mustang, man!" How are you supposed to reply to that? "Thanks, but I just drive it. I had no part of its design or production." I usually just say "Thanks" and leave it at that.
I'm 52 now, and some people probably think my owning this sports car is some kind of mid-life crisis thing, when it was just a vehicle I got because my stepdaughter died, and no one else wanted it. It runs okay, that's all I'm concerned about.
The speedometer hasn't worked since I've had it (maybe five years now), so I've been driving it around the whole time without actually knowing how fast I'm going. I guess it's a testament to my driving skills that I haven't been pulled over by the cops. (I've only ever had one speeding ticket in my life.) My wife once pulled up an app that tells you how fast you are driving, and kept her eye on it when we drove out of town. "I'll let you know when you're speeding," she said. She never mentioned it again until we got back home, and said "That actually impressed me. You pretty much drove the exact speed limit the whole time."
The Mustang has body rust, the muffler is falling off. Sometimes in the morning the button on the gear shifter doesn't want to work. The gas gauge also occasionally quits working. But it gets me to work and back, eventually. It's mostly reliable. My brakes are still good, they saved me from plowing into a couple of deer crossing the road the other day.
(Since we're talking about cars, one of my coworkers recently got a 1962 Rambler. You know all those stories about the old lady keeping her dead husband's antique car in the garage for decades, and it's in pristine condition? This was one of those stories. My coworker grew up next to the old lady, and would mow her lawn for her. She finally died, and the family wanted to clean out her stuff. They offered the car to my work pal, since he had mowed her lawn for years without accepting any pay. They wanted $3000 for it, and threw in an old Cadillac as well. Well, luckily he had the money, and snapped it up. The Caddilac wasn't in that great a shape, but the Rambler looked like it had just rolled out of the factory. Pristine. My pal had to use dry gas to start it, but it drove fine. He went and got historic plates for it. All this happened right in time for the "Super Cruise", which is an annual car show they have here in my town.

Years ago, after the debacle with ESB and his fake Talossan citizens, Vitxalmour Conductour and I came up with an idea that was basically a parody of the Kentucky Colonels thing... the Noble Order of the Corncob. (One of Eiric's fake citizens was a character named Benedict (can't for the life of me recall the last name) who's CoA had a corncob on it. For some reason, that inspired this dumb idea.)) The Order would exist to honor citizens of (then) Benito who had contributed significantly to the province.
Well, I've decided to revive this idea, and would like to announce that we've selected a few Belacostans to be honored as "Kernels" in this society. They are free to reject the honor, and I wouldn't blame them.
Firstly, Istefan Pertgonest. Once my rival (during a Senate campaign), never really a friend (just never got to know him very well), but a Benitian/Belacostan worthy of every honor possible for his contributions to our province. He isn't very active on Witt anymore, but he is still around, and anytime he shows up, it feels like a big piece of our province has returned.
Secondly, Sir Lüc. Lüc has been the most prominent representative of Belacosta for a long time. He has done a fine job. He also spurred the creation of the Cjovani subculture. (Which he may possibly regret.) (Da Schir Day is a holiday in our calendar.) Nothing further needs to be said about Lüc, everyone knows how cool he is.
Third, and lastly, Mic'haglh Autófil. A newer member of Belacosta, he's done more than enough to earn membership in this elite society. His contributions to both Belacosta and Talossa in general makes me ashamed at how lame my own contributions have been.
We welcome these fine gentlemen to the Noble Order of the Corncob. They may now add "NOC" at the end of their names. (That's "Noble Order Corncob".)
There is a logo and a full constitution for this Order available to members, if they desire to look at it. There are no obligations or weird things you have to do as a member. It is honorary, and you are free to accept it or reject it as you will.

I have decided to choose the following as my motto:
Animus ferus numquam vincitur

I missed the deadline too. (I've been working so much lately, half the time I don't even know what day of the week it is.)

Talossa's Embassy in Ohio, formerly located at 508 East State Street, in Salem, Ohio, has moved! (To be honest, it wasn't much of an embassy, we never even got a Talossan flag installed. We promise to do better in the new location.) Nerdy Necessities, the game store that also operates as the embassy, has just moved down the street a few blocks. New address is 420 East State Street. If you happen to be in the area, you are welcome to visit (and hopefully not leave without buying something.) The new location sits above a place called "Kast Iron Soda Works", a soda pop saloon that makes many of its own products, and is across the street from an awesome record store (State Street Records). There's also a popular tattoo parlour next to the record store. And if you want something stronger than soda pop, there are several establishments offering a variety of alcoholic beverages just a short walk away. (Ricky's English Pub is my favorite. They have Guinness on tap and the food is generally pretty good.) Stop by sometime.
(And if you can't, you can still support a Talossan owned business! Nerdy Necessities has a website you can order stuff from.)

62RZ22: Con
62RZ23: Aus
62RZ24: Aus
Taiwos, Senator for Belacosta

Someone explain Brenier's crime to me like I was ten years old. He said he thought Lüc was cute? Is there more that I happened to miss?

XPB, we Belacostan Cjovani adopted bocce as our "official" subcultural sport...because a lot of prominent Belacostans are Italian, and also because bocce ball sets are easier to come by, and there are several local bocce courts we can play in. (Vitxalmour Conductour and I once visited a local park, with the intention of hiking thru the woods, enjoying nature...we found there was a bocce court on the premises! Luckily, I had my bocce ball set in the trunk of my car, so we played our first ever game on a proper bocce court.) (I won, lol.)
I've looked into pétanque because the balls are smaller and more portable. My bocce set is heavy and a pain in the butt to haul around.
Anyhow, we came up with some Talossan terminology for our bocce games. Here they are:
Baiça Françal - "French Kiss". Buci term. "Kissing the fanny", a bocce tradition believed to have originated in France's Savoy region, requires losing teams (who have failed to score a single point) to kiss an image of a woman's bare buttocks
Balineu  -  the pallino, the small ball in bocce
Bola da Buci  -  bocce ball 
Buci  -  bocce. Bocce was introduced to Cjováni culture by Taiwos, who once bought a set of bocce balls to try to find an outdoor activity to keep his grandkids occupied. The kids didn't care for it, so Taiwos lugged the set up to Conductour's house one day. After a few games, Taiwos and Conductour were hooked. Initially, they called the way they played bocce "bolextrema", or extreme bocce, for, unlike the well manicured outdoor bocce courts they had seen, they played in Conductour's hilly and overgrown backyard. They quickly formed A.B.B.A., which, as far as we know, is Talossas only regularly active sports league. Eventually, Taiwos acquired a book about bocce, which  lead him to scrap the term 'bolextrema'. "According to the book", Taiwos said, "what we'd been playing was not particularly extreme in the bocce world." 
Iral da buci  - bocce court.
L' cäps d'Umberto Granaglia  -  Awarded by ABBA to the winner of their annual Tournament of Waterloo, L'Cäps d'Umberto Granaglia is a collectible sports card bearing the likeness of Umberto Granaglia, who is widely considered to be the greatest buci player in that sport's history.
Rafà - buci term. A fast rolling shot intending to knock an opponent's bola away or to direct the balineu to a new position.
Reverse Hooligan  -  buci term. Falling on ones back when tossing a buci ball.
Triple Miestra  -  buci term. When one has three of their balls closest to the balineu.
These are all the terms related to bocce from our Cjovani lexicon. I doubt they will be helpful to you, but may encourage you.
Ignore the crickets. Go ahead and make pétanque the official leisure sport of Cezembre. In doing so, you will forge an alliance with the Belacostan Cjovani, who enjoy a similar sport.
In Talossa, it seems easier to just make something official by actually doing it regularly, than to make laws around it.