I just won the TCAT Vuelta fantasy tournament, am currently unbeaten in my workplaces fantasy football league... I know nothing about Football or cycling...and am somehow sucking at fantasy hockey, a sport I actually know about. (I thought I had a good team. Jack Hughes, Crosby, Ovechkin, Malkin. Why am I losing?)
As a Penguins fan, I'm just happy to see that the Flyers are doing horribly this season so far.

I went with the automatic draft. I haven't been following hockey for a few years, so I'm not even familiar with all the players anymore. But maybe I lucked out, I got Crosby and Ovechkin.

I think we should make it January 19th, her birthday. Dolly Parton entering the world was a better event than her departing it.

Quote from: Glüc on August 19, 2026, 03:32:56 PM

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on August 19, 2026, 03:30:27 PMNaziun Cjovani is back! (We have til Saturday to change our roster, right?)

Yes! Its always possible to make changes to your team up until the deadline.

I consulted with my pal Donnie who is more knowledgeable than I am, and made some roster changes based on his suggestions.
Would non-Talossans be welcome to join the league? Donnie might be interested.

Naziun Cjovani is back! (We have til Saturday to change our roster, right?)

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on August 05, 2026, 12:29:27 PMI've already gotten a few messages about embassies, so let me say right now that this project is in its early stage, and it's not the first time we've done this.  There have been a couple of embassies in the past, and it's been pretty great.

Generally speaking, we'll be looking for places that are:

• open to the public, so people have a chance to see the embassy display
• owned or operated by someone who is either Talossan or has a personal connection with a Talossan
• in keeping with our public image

But wow, already loving the enthusiasm!

There's an embassy display? What would that consist of?
Our Salem, Ohio embassy has thus far been an embassy in name only, sadly. It is a legitimate local business (Nerdy Necessities), owned and operated by a Talossan citizen (Vitxalmour Conductour). There have been plans to install a Talossan flag and leave promotional literature by the cash register, but that has not yet come to fruition. (Give us a break, real life has been stressful for both of us in the last few months.) From what Vitx tells me, a lot of his regular customers would be perfect potential Talossans, but he hasn't had time to properly promote our Kingdom. By now we had hoped to build an entire local community of Ohio Talossans, but it hasn't happened. He runs the store and a website by himself, and I've been working 12 hour shifts in the bathtub factory for the past nine months.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on July 27, 2026, 09:31:46 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on July 25, 2026, 01:22:49 PMI have run across the thread a few times and perhaps there has been movement offline. Has there been any progress on the CoA Knightification request by @Iason Taiwos ?

@Iason Taiwos Checking in on this check-in

I haven't heard anything

Quote from: Barclamïu da Miéletz on July 27, 2026, 04:17:39 PMI forgot about this... thanks for reminding me this exists @Iason Taiwos.

I could have taken a few more pics, but I didn't even think about taking this one until the last minute. (I was returning to my car with bags of laundry from the laundromat. It suddenly popped into my head to get this one pic, since no other cars were parked around mine.) (More pictures would make it look even worse. From this angle, you can't see the sagging muffler.) (Those stains on the door are probably from me spitting out the window, and the wind blowing it back. I've never taken it thru a car wash. That's what rain is for, right?)

https://ibb.co/W46wrHzY
Here's a pic of my "Rustang"

Quote from: xpb on July 24, 2026, 09:23:14 PMFrank Zappa

"Every major industrialized nation has A BEER (you can't be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need A BEER."



1999 (1989 copyright), The Real Frank Zappa Book, by Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso, Section: Introduction, Quote Page 9, A Touchstone Book: Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified on paper in 1999 reprint edition; originally published in 1989 by Poseidon Press, New York) ↩�

Some company decades ago made some beer with Zappa album covers as the labels. I still have the bottle with the Lumpy Gravy album cover on it. Don't recall if the beer was any good. (I'm a huge Zappa fan.)
I was gifted a beer brewing kit by a family member for Christmas one time. It was too complicated for me, so I turned it into a wine making kit. Wine is way easier to make. The wine that I eventually made was actually pretty tasty, but the alcohol content was over the top. After one night of sampling my home made wine, my wife dumped the rest down the toilet, and threatened to leave me if I ever made wine again. I don't remember much about that night. But I imagine I was having a good time.

Count me in.

RZ26: PER
RZ27: PER
RZ28: PER
RZ29: CONTRA
RZ30: PER
RZ31: PER
RZ32: CONTRA
RZ33: PER

Taiwos, Senator for Belacosta

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.
[/quote]
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...