While doing research for a Talossan creative project involving Antarctica generally, and our territory of Pengopäts particularly, I decided to investigate what other micronations claim land in Antarctica. I was aware of Westarctica and Flandrensis already, but I discovered this:
https://amu.lostisland.org/
Pengopäts has been a Talossan territory since March 9th, 1982, predating (as far as I can tell) every other micronation's claims. I can't figure out if any other micronations are claiming Pengopäts area.
When you just Google "Micronations and Antarctica" that Ai thing that comes up first doesn't even mention Talossa. It lists several micronations I have never even heard of.
I'm wondering if Talossa should join the Antarctic Micronational Union, and press our claims.
(I'm wondering if our decades long refusal to interact with other micronations has been to our detriment when it comes to immigration. I remember mentioning Talossa in some Micronation Facebook group, and one of the replies was "Talossa? Is that still around?" I think we should somehow become a regular fixture at these MicroCons. I know we've been represented at one of them. But the guys with the outrageous costumes and all the medals are the ones who get the media attention. Is that what we need, or nah? Cameras flashing, capturing the Kings of Westarctica and Molossia in their get-ups, laughing and tippling champagne, and making "diplomatic relations", while Talossa lurks in the background, thinking "But...we've been around since 1979, we have our own language, we have..."
Look, y'all buy me a snappy Admiral uniform and a bus ticket, and I'll rep Talossa at the next one.)
(The creative project is just some dumb fictional story I'm working on about me leading an expedition to Pengopäts. I hope to release it to widespread indifference in some format.)

If I'm not allowed to post here, not being a member of this committee, then please delete this. (But give me a break. I work in a miserable factory, it was 107 degrees Fahrenheit in there today, my brains are a little fried.)
Talossa is great. I've been a citizen since 2011. Somehow, you all have put up with me even when I've occasionally been a complete jackass. I am pleased to be a part of Talossa, and am proud if I've managed to make any single, meager contribution to it. (yeah, that Cjovani crap.) Talossa has held my interest since 2011. I haven't even held a job at the same place for that long. I've come to believe that this is a community of decent, creative, and genuinely cool people, and I don't think I'd ever renounce my citizenship. The only way I leave Talossa is in a casket.
That being said, the problem is immigration. I've tried to get my own family members to join, without success. The grandkids walk into my house, see my Talossan flag hanging on the wall, and my Guizua prominently displayed, it's just "That's that fake country Poppy is an Admiral in." Efforts to recruit some of the nerds that frequent Vitx's game store have also met with failure.
Then I get online and see shit like Slowjamistan. Maybe that guy has a lot of money. He bought a parcel of land in the desert. You can go there. He has merch you can buy. You can drive to wherever his land is, he has signs up, maybe you can meet him and other Slowjamistanians. Sealand is harder to actually visit, but you shell out some Louis, you can become royalty. Novelty gift, be a Duke or whatever. Get a fancy certificate.
I'm not suggesting Talossa become like that. "Become a Duke in Talossa for $39.95! Get a certificate signed by the King!" But, maybe that kind of marketing may help. People like to get stuff. Citizenship in Talossa may be free, but why can't we charge money for citizenship certificates and ID cards? And flags? The official Talossan website should have a store. Sure, you'll get a bunch of people who join just for the novelty. "I've lived in Milwaukee my whole life and didn't know I was a in an independent nation! I just joined and ordered an ID card!" Out of all the people who do that as a novelty, maybe we'll get some more people who become intrigued by what Talossa is all about, and who will actively take it seriously. If not, we've still managed to get money from them.
As far as I'm concerned, our language is our greatest asset. We should promote the shit out of that. We need more original Talossan language works, or translations, anything. I'm half tempted to try and contact Iusti Canun in prison, who knows? The dude has nothing but spare time, by now he may have translated the entire Lord of the Rings into Talossan.
I'm done now. Work was pretty bad today. I believe I may have heat exhaustion.

61RZ13: Për
61RZ14: Contrâ
61RZ15: Për
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61RZ17: Contrâ
61RZ18: Për
61RZ19: Për

61RZ04 - Për
61RZ05 - Për
61RZ06 - Contra
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61RZ12 - Contra

I've been thinking, we need a new TalossaWare store. As many of you know, t-shirts and other items with Talossan designs on them have been available thru my TeePublic store, https://www.teepublic.com/user/cjovani-nation, but this store mainly consists of dumb stuff Vitxalmour Conductour and I came up with for our own purposes. (Nobody besides me would wear the Taiwos the Barbarian shirt!) Here are some of my thoughts...
Create a new store, devoted to Talossan stuff only.
Use the highest resolution images we can get for the merch. (I'm working from a phone. I've had to use an app to blow up images so they'll be big enough for TeePublic to use, but they become...grainy? the larger you get. Somebody with a real computer could probably make the images look better when enlarged.)
Find a website better than TeePublic? I've ordered a few items from them. Quality is acceptable, but as a customer, shipping costs are ridiculous. They ship everything in a cheap plastic bag, and charge entirely too much for it.
Have a way for earnings from the store to go directly to the Burgermeister, or whoever it is that handles Talossan funds. My store, the money comes to me. I know I said that any funds I made from Talossan merch sales would be given to Talossa; thankfully, none of the Talossan items have ever sold, so I haven't had to figure out how to do that.
Make it legit, so we could promote the store on our official Talossan websites.
I still think we should have things like certificates of citizenship, or advertise the ID cards. Have a source for producing Talossan flags.
Lastly, maybe find a print on demand thing for the Guizua? (With Hool's permission, and the profits going to him.)
Just some thoughts. What are yours?

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on May 23, 2025, 02:02:57 PMI have updated the list to show that many, many moons ago, Consul Taiwos asked to be assigned to Locust.

I do not remember why I chose Locust. Would it be possible for me to pick elsewhere? If so, I would like to be assigned to Garibaldi/Prospect now. (I understand there is a comic book store in that area. 😁)

I'm guessing the name is taken from "The King in Yellow"? (Or Ambrose Bierce, or Lovecraft?)

I vote an enthusiastic Per.

I vote per on this.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on March 29, 2025, 05:22:25 PM

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on March 29, 2025, 02:41:32 PMhttps://youtube.com/shorts/fe0wPLlvGAo?si=cDGv1ElyoZWx6Vp3

Needs more "ping" when you're out of BBs (or would it make more sense when you're out of CO2?)

It takes two C02 cartridges, and they run out in seconds when you fire on full-auto. (Growing up, I had the "Red Ryder" gun of "A Christmas Story" fame. Even after my dad bought me my first real rifle when I was 13 (a Remington 572), I'd still usually plink more with the BB gun. Well, ammo was cheaper, and you can't really fire a real rifle in your backyard, at least where I lived.) This fully automatic BB gun is like a childhood dream come true.
I've thought about American "gun culture", but it's something you don't notice if you've grown up in it. Growing up, I thought everyone had a gun cabinet in the house. It was as normal as having a tv. Luckily, my parents took pains to educate me early on not to mess around with guns until I'd been properly trained on using them. My Dad started me out on shooting when I was pretty young. Him buying me a rifle at 13 was like a rite of passage, he finally saw that I knew how to safely use guns, and bought me my own. Eventually I met people who didn't own guns, and who thought me getting my own rifle at 13 was irresponsible parenting. I dunno. Maybe it's a southern thing. Anyhow, I've never shot anybody (yet).

I recently purchased a couple of firearms, and jokingly asked a couple of Talossans if we should start a "Talossan Rifle Association". (Well, why not?) (The responses weren't positive.)  I'm not really a gun guy, but I bought a cheap 9mm pistol just to have fun with. (And for home defense. I doubt I'll ever need to use it (people would have to be desperate to think I had anything worth doing a home invasion robbery over), but you never know.) But I also bought this,
https://youtube.com/shorts/fe0wPLlvGAo?si=cDGv1ElyoZWx6Vp3
which I will gladly use in efforts to defend Talossa. (I can actually shoot this thing where I live without having the cops called on me, and boy, is it fun. A fully automatic BB gun?! I'm kind of glad they didn't have these things when I was a kid, our youthful BB gun wars could have really ended disastrously.)
Given the current situation going on, I may have to use these items against the fascists in Ohio first. (Believe me, I'd love to unload my BB gun on our local Congressman. Shoot both of his eyes out.)

Quote from: GV on March 15, 2025, 05:45:30 PMIt must be understood Ben Madison never, ever meant for "the Berber Project" to be taken seriously.  It was always a tongue-in-cheek mythos and more of an experiment on Ben's part.

With Ben's wordsmithing, historical knowledge, and propoganda-bent, "The Berber Project" became a masterpiece in historical revisionism so convincing in at least one scholarly work, it has actually been cited as a legitimate source!

Ben pointed out that incident years ago, but I cannot remember where it is.

I apparently read that same "scholarly work", because I remember seeing the Berber Project cited in it. I can't remember what it was in either.

That was an enjoyable video. I would like to have participated, but I had two of my granddaughters visiting that day, and I doubt they would have left me alone long enough to join in. (Well, they might have, but I doubt I would've been able to hear you guys over them chattering in the background.)
The King mentioning his SF trilogy made me wonder if the TalossaWiki Culture section should contain entries on things created by Talossans that may not necessarily be related to Talossa...like the King's books, Miestra's Vostok Lake albums, etc. I mean, these things are the products of Talossans... doesn't that make them Talossan?

Okay, it's getting late, I had a hard day at work today, I'm sleepy, brain isn't working so well (does it ever?), so explain me the extra symbol on the flag and the why perhaps one day. (Give me a break, I'm getting old.)
(Wow, I'm really tired. This post was in reference to the second Belacosta flag.)

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on March 02, 2025, 05:08:07 PM

Quote from: Iason Taiwos on March 02, 2025, 05:02:05 PMBEBOP was "The Benitian Esoteric Brotherhood of Peculiarists", and was just a joke. It is described in our Cjovani lexicon as: "a short lived Talossan secret society that espoused a bizarre peculiarist philosophy that was explained through jazz terminology. Extant records of the society indicate that it consisted of three grades, like the three Masonic Degrees, the highest grade being Exalted Parker."

I got the feeling, though only a feeling due to all the dead image embeds, that BEBOP influenced the aesthetics of the NPW. Would I be close to the mark there?

The other way around, I think.