https://docs.google.com/document/d/14SM6D2mMRftOcZtQGNGEHZLEcShTx_cyVcUbmiIhHUE/edit?usp=drivesdk
This issue, a departure from previous issues in that little of it was handmade, features in-depth and mostly fictitious articles on the traditional Cjovani game, Kintoufle.
We would like to request (to whoever is in charge of these things) that Politeia Cjovani be listed as a current but irregular Talossan related publication.

61RZ25, I vote per. The comments made by my fellow Senator GV swayed me to approve this bill.
There is no "spiritual dimension" to this turf war horseshit. There isn't a "spiritual dimension" to anything except in the minds of lunatics. Religion has a large, and massively negative part to play in the entire Israel/Palestine drama. I'm fact, I think it is the major part of this mess. Your suggestion that they all acknowledge Christianity as the real religion is laughable . GV, your tax money funds horrors we can't even contemplate. Let me know when you refuse to pay taxes.
Maybe Hamas takes some of the relief money. But maybe some of it gets to people who need it. Any little bit helps. But innocent children are dying from the actions of religiously deluded adults.
Christian Nationalism is on the rise in our neighbor country (USA), and I will fight it with every last ounce in my body.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronations:_The_Lonely_Planet_Guide_to_Home-Made_Nations
I don't know if it's ever been discussed on Witt before, but I recently got a copy of this. I guess it was originally published in September, 2006. Talossa is mentioned!...but in a section called "Gone, but not forgotten". The text reads:

TALOSSA - GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
The glorious Kingdom of Talossa - inspiration for many micronations throughout the 1980s, '90s and beyond - was founded in the bedroom of a 13-year-old on 26 December 1979. Robert Ben Madison took the throne of his new kingdom, and ruled alone for more than a year. In 1981 he began admitting citizens, and the Kingdom of Talossa was on its way to glory...and ultimate oblivion.
King Robert I, having extended his territorial claim to include a large part of the city of Mil-waukee, Wisconsin, opened up the political process to Talossan citizens, declaring a constitutional monarchy in 1985. The following year saw a crisis in which Robert was deposed, although he was restored to the throne in 1988.
With well-developed, good-natured governmental systems (the national cuisine was Taco Bell) and an active approach to intermicronational affairs, Talossa was - for two decades - one of the great micronational superpowers. With such open policies and an outward-looking philosophy, though, all of the worst excesses of the global micronational movement emerged. King Robert closed his kingdom down in late 2005.
While there are still online groups claiming to be Talossa, Madison says that none of the original Talossan figures are involved. Citing the old adage 'local politics is so vicious because the stakes are so low', Madison says he had to withdraw from his creation because of constant political in-fighting. Isn't micronationalism mostly about fun? Madison says sadly, 'Part of the problem is that different people define "fun" in different ways.

I doubt Lonely Planet will ever make an updated re-issue of this book (but they should, considering how much the Micronational world has exploded since it was published), but it pains me to read their version of Talossa. Someone with a higher position than Admiral (cough...uh, King?) should send them a note saying that, if a future edition is ever planned, then Talossa is not gone, hasn't been gone, and is in fact a thriving community with coins and Talossafests, embassies, and even subcultures. (Shameless plug for the Cjovani.)
(I got it for cheap on eBay from Thriftbooks. A slim little tome that should be of interest to people like us. I enjoyed thumbing thru it.)

I am for sure trying to read it, but my work schedule has slowed down my progress. (I'm currently working ten hours at my job. By the time I eat dinner and bathe, once I settle into bed with the book in front of me, I doze off after reading three sentences...)

Naziun Cjovani returns!

Quote from: Glüc on August 19, 2025, 03:46:46 PMMy own (fairly standard/predictable) suggestions:

- Ska/reggae songs
- Metal songs
- Songs in French

https://youtu.be/pOH5n6UnfO8?si=M7o7NhxfhlnKGGIa
Or...reggae songs in French? 😆

61RZ20: Con
61RZ21: Con
61RZ22: Con
61RZ23: Per
61RZ24: Per

I really like that Dibv deck. (Can I purchase one?)

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on August 15, 2025, 07:25:38 PMI've had some custom playing cards printed as part of personal projects, and it seems like getting an individual standard deck printed costs roughly $20 (economy of scale applies).

However, before we get to doing that I'd really like to make changes to these designs once I have the free time -- I'd like to think that my graphic design skills have improved over the last two years...

I do like your original designs. Don't polish them up too much. They remind me of really old style tarot cards.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 15, 2025, 07:29:10 PM@Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP This might be something for the current version of the Culture Initiative Support Fund. @Iason Taiwos The playing cards would probably garner a lot of attention in the Micronations subreddit channel.

Well, we have at least one physical location where they'd be available for sale (Vitx's store.) Might be an interesting way to advertise Talossa. Someone wanders into Nerdy Necessities (Vitx's store), and sees this unusual deck of cards. If they are anything like me, they'd buy it. (I have a small collection of unusual cards.) Maybe there should be an extra card made to add into each deck, saying something like "This playing card deck was prepared under the authority of King Txec, King of Talossa", and have our website address included.

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on August 16, 2023, 02:13:18 PMVitx is currently working in a game store as a summer job (they sell Dungeons and Dragons stuff, board games, and trading card games)...well, apparently this place has the capabilities of printing custom cards. I'm going to get with him and see if we can print a sample deck using Marcel's designs, just to see how it turns out. I'll keep y'all posted.

So, almost exactly two years later...
Since this post, Vitx has become owner of the store (and it has become a Talossan Embassy in Ohio.)
I was scrolling thru pics on my phone, and saw Marcel's card designs which I had saved. I thought this would still be an awesome idea, to get decks of these manufactured. (So, Vitx can print out cards...he does custom Magic the Gathering cards for some of his customers... but I don't think they are of the professional quality we'd be looking for.) From my meager research into playing card manufacturing, producing a few Talossan decks would be expensive, but not insanely so. The question is...would it be worth it? Could we sell enough to make it worth the time and effort?
Stuff like these playing cards, or our coins and stamps... I don't think we've been proactive enough in trying to sell them. Slap that on eBay... "Kingdom of Talossa Rare Micronational Coin/Stamps". Some people who would never join Talossa still collect stuff like that.

Found my copy and have already begun reading.
https://ebay.us/m/94OIbp
This is the set I have. I think my dad got it for me at Sam's Club sometime in the early eighties. I recall reading most of it as a kid and thinking that Jack London was the greatest writer ever, lol. I've held onto this set since then, but have never gone back and re-read any of it until now. So thanks for suggesting Call of the Wild. (I'll try not to get too far ahead.)

Count me in

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 03, 2025, 10:59:40 AMYes, definitely take another gander. The first two seasons were inconsistent but the threads seem to be coming together very nicely in the third season. In the second season there is a quite stirring use of the Bhagavad Gita.

I was aware they had made a show of the Foundation series, but am hesitant to watch it. I recall reading the original trilogy when I was still pretty young, because I remember being excited when Foundations Edge came out. (My memories have to be faulty. Foundations Edge came out in 1982. I wasn't even ten yet. No way I read the Foundation trilogy before I was ten. Maybe I did, tho, because I do remember when Foundations Edge came out, and remember being excited to read it. It was big news in the SF world.) Regardless, I've read all the Foundation books now (even the ones that continued the saga after Asimov's death.) (Which I recall got me some negative comments from other members of this group. I mentioned once that I had procured volumes of the non-Asimov Foundation books, and asked if anyone else had read them, or something. I remember Ian Anglatzara making some kind of comment that kind of offended me. He said something like "I'm aware these books exist, but I'd read something else instead." Well, good for him, I guess. I'm sure I could make equal statements on a variety of his choices in things. That turned me off this group for a long time. Seemed like snobbery. Whisky snobbery and high brow SF snobbery. "This foolish fellow drinks lowly bourbon and still thinks highly of Asimov. I still shudder when in his low class ignorance, he dare equated his American whiskey with our fine, e-less whisky." Well, I almost thought of starting a beer and space opera group.

It sounds good to me.

I plan to participate. Somewhere I have a faux leather bound box set of Jack London's complete works. I haven't read Call of the Wild in decades. If I can find my boxset, I'm in.