Probably at least two of the five I didn't vote for...

A week (and 5 hours) left to vote. I have just sent a first voting reminder to all 84 eligible voters who haven't cast a ballot yet; two more votes have been cast already, which pushed turnout over 40%. Atatürk was the first province to reach 50% turnout, but M-M has now overtaken it.

All six voters affected by the Google ballot tampering have re-cast their ballots now, and the countermeasures I implemented seem to be working, as I haven't spotted any further suspicious log entries ever since.

I'm also happy to report that I received an email vote over the weekend (that is, someone returned a compiled PDF ballot by email), meaning all four legal ways to cast a ballot have been used by at least one voter each.

10 votes in with 5 hours to go.

The current standings are:

To final
? - 45
? - 38
? - 38
? - 33
? - 29

TMT 20 16-20
? - 26
? - 26
? - 26
? - 22
? - 22

Eliminated:
? - 21
? - 18
? - 17
? - 15
? - 14

Anyone feel like making a prediction for which 5 songs will make it to the final?

The event did take place in the sense that I was available to answer questions, but no other citizens arrived to ask them, so after a while I took the opportunity to do a little stumping, maybe offer a bit of clarity to people who haven't voted yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK6vpW_BACI

My mic was weirdly quiet on the YT upload, it sounded fine when recording, so you may need to turn up your volume

8 voters so far. Only 18,5 hours left to vote!

Stage 3   »   Gruissan - Aude  ›  Font Romeu (Cancelled)


The peloton was surprised by the weather today as they face heavy rain and hail on the final climb. The conditions were bad enough that the riders decided collectively not to continue and the stage was cancelled as a result. We therefore only get classification points today (and a few breakaway/kom/sprint points collected on the way). This does give us a nice insight into who is collecting the most classification points at the moment. Turns out its...

The Menceis.

Similar to last edition they are raking in a whole bunch of assist points from picking Pogacar teammates. This time it gets them the stagewin, although without stagepoints today was too low scoring to affect the standings much.


Standings after stage 3:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1220	+121
2nd	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1162	+119
3rd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1096	+123
4th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	1037	+99
5th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	985	+164
6th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	768	+79
7th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	696	+95
8th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	666	+65
9th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	600	+52
10th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	539	+85
11th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	314	+51

Tomorrow we get a proper Pyrenean mountain stage around another micronation (Andorra). Even though the stage ends with a long downhill (interrupted by a short category 3 climb) this still looks like one for the climbers and GC favourites.

Edit: Just realised its really short as well (100km) so might be pretty explosive.

Quote from: xpb on August 24, 2026, 12:50:21 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 23, 2026, 08:25:40 PM

Quote from: xpb on May 02, 2025, 08:23:04 AM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on April 29, 2025, 04:01:19 PM

Quote from: xpb on January 30, 2025, 06:06:43 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on January 27, 2025, 07:29:47 PM@xpb Connected to the first novel, have you had a chance to read the first novella in the series, Livesuit? I thought this was just as good.

I didn't know about that will have to look it up...

@xpb Did you ever end up reading Livesuit, the novella set in the Captive War universe?

Alas not yet, perhaps after my final exam on Monday...

A very good read which provides some context for the first book.

---

@xpb Did you ever get to check out The Captive War series from the authors of The Expanse? Amazon has decided to bring the series to TV.

I read the first on awhile back - will try to read Livesuit which appears to be a volume 1½ prior to vol 2 Faith of Beasts.  They had several of these novellas in The Expanse series.

I still think the novella is the best entry in the series so far.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 23, 2026, 08:25:40 PM

Quote from: xpb on May 02, 2025, 08:23:04 AM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on April 29, 2025, 04:01:19 PM

Quote from: xpb on January 30, 2025, 06:06:43 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on January 27, 2025, 07:29:47 PM@xpb Connected to the first novel, have you had a chance to read the first novella in the series, Livesuit? I thought this was just as good.

I didn't know about that will have to look it up...

@xpb Did you ever end up reading Livesuit, the novella set in the Captive War universe?

Alas not yet, perhaps after my final exam on Monday...

A very good read which provides some context for the first book.

---

@xpb Did you ever get to check out The Captive War series from the authors of The Expanse? Amazon has decided to bring the series to TV.

I read the first on awhile back - will try to read Livesuit which appears to be a volume 1½ prior to vol 2 Faith of Beasts.  They had several of these novellas in The Expanse series.

Activity with https://www.sos.state.co.us
Name:    The Kingdom of Talossa
Master ID:    20241820791
Item:    Renewal Of Trade Name        $5.00
valid until 01SEP2027

This activity is related to maintenance of the bank account at Wells Fargo N.A. which has both the King and Burgermeister as signatories.
The Burgermeister maintains other accounts at Wells Fargo such that there are no fees incurred for the accounts of the Kingdom.

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on August 22, 2026, 03:33:18 PMAzul cüncitixhiens!

The Union of Free Reformists is pleased to announce that tomorrow afternoon, URL President and Seneschal candidate Mic'haglh Autófil will be hosting a Town Hall meeting to take questions regarding our electoral platform and our plans to return a little positivity, transparency, and accountability to the next Government.

We anticipate the event lasting between 30-45 minutes, depending on attendance. A recording will be taken for those who miss it!

What: URL Town Hall meeting

When: Sunday, 23 August, 3:00 p.m. TDT

Where: "Unofficial Official Talossa" Discord server

@Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be Did this happen? Would love to see the recording.