The First Slabovian Crown Jewel?

Long time readers of this blog might recall that 2024 was a double jubilee year for Slabovia, marking both its 40th year of existence and my 25th year as its ruler. To mark the occasion, during that year I acquired this ring which symbolizes both my own 25th jubilee (via the silver making up the ring itself, since silver is a traditional 25th anniversary gift) and Slabovia's 40th jubilee (by way of the ruby, which is traditionally the material that marks a 40th anniversary).

Excuse the cat hair - the royal mouser sheds EVERYWHERE

We are still planning other official crown jewels, including a crown, a scepter, and an orb, but this piece marks the start of the collection!

Five Reasons NOT to Start Your Own Micronation

 I previously posted "Ten Reasons You Should Start Your Own Micronation". So, to be fair, here are five reasons you should not start your own micronation:

5. You're happy with things the way they are. You think the government is doing a fine job, and have no reason to wish things were run better or differently.

4. You think it's silly, dumb, or immature. But maybe you could ask questions before judging?

3. You have absolutely zero free time or money, ever. That's actually very sad.

2. You don't want to make new friends. That's also very sad, in a different way.

1. You're a very boring person with zero creativity. Speaking of sad, that might be the saddest of all... 

Picture for the Algorithm

Ten Reasons You Should Start Your Own Micronation

 From the home office, here are ten reasons you should start your own micronation!

10. You have a lot of creative ideas. Micronations offer many opportunities for creativity!

9. You want to make new friends. The micronational community is large and very friendly!

8. You're a "political science geek". Micronations allow you to simulate various forms of government to "see what would happen".

7. You need a conversation-starter. There's nothing like "Well, actually, I'm a king/prince/duke" to get people's attention!

6. It's good practice for the seemingly-inevitable "balkanization" of society. (I wish I was kidding...)

5. You feel the need for more pageantry in your life. A little pomp and circumstance, so to speak. (But also see my series on "Making your life more royal")

4. You're quite sure you know how to run things better than those idiots in [insert name of capital city here]. So prove it!

3. You have too much money. Seriously, this can get rather expensive!

2. It can be a lot of fun! (Although there's also way too much drama sometimes...)

1. Because you want to. And in a modern society, that might just be the best reason of all!

EDIT: Bonus reason! Because as a ruler you're a fons honorum which means you can bestow royal titles on your friends and family!

Picture "for the algorithm"

Happy Declaration Day to Obscurium!

 I first met Zar Antonov, the President of Obscurium, in 2019 at MicroCon (yes, the one we hosted in Hamilton). He's a very interesting sort of person, and some of his ideas have inspired some of my own ideas, as often happens in the micronational community. And so, it is with the utmost respect and pride that I congratulate both Obscurium and President Antonov on their eight "Declaration Day", and I wish them many more to follow!

The flag of Obscurium
(Source: MicroWiki)

I'm here!

 First, a brief apology - between recent work travel (two days in Tijuana, teaching) and switching systems from my old desktop to a laptop, some things (including my social medial presence) have fallen a bit behind. I'm slowly getting back on track though! I'll have to do a better job of pre-queuing posts next time (although my planned return trip to Tijuana has been cancelled due to recent events down there, unfortunately).

Now, on to something a bit more fun! Wednesday this past week was my birthday, and I'm rather tickled by this, which was posted in the MicroCon 2027 Facebook group by the organizers of that event:

And yes, I am very much planning to be at MicroCon in San Diego next year! I'm already working on a presentation!

Well, it certainly makes a statement!

 I'd previously blogged about my search for a throne... Last week I spotted this one on the Merchoid website. Given the state of the royal coffers right now, I might need to crowd-fund it...

Does it look comfortable? Not sure...

Administration - What am I working on this week?

 "And I discovered that my castles stand upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand" (Coldplay, Viva la Vida)

Although, in this case, you can substitute "plans" for "castles"...

So I don't think I'll be able to do the Great Lakes Regional Micro-Summit this year. Between a lack of action on the part of someone who was supposed to get back to me, and my own life "stuff", it's just not going to come together in time.

But I've already got two new ideas to replace it that I'm working on! (Neither of which, sadly, is any sort of event, in-person or otherwise.)

First up, Slabovian Geographic: I'd mocked up a cover a few years ago (see picture), and I used Slabovian Geographic as a "backstory" for my expedition at the end of last year. Now, I think I want to figure out how to make a "zine" using Slabovian Geographic as the theme/title. If nothing else, it might make an interesting giveaway at the next MicroCon-type event. Although, to do it "right", I'd want glossy printing, which would be expensive. Sigh. Big ideas, small treasury, as usual. 😖

The Slabovian Geographic cover I mocked up

The other idea I had sort of harkens back to my childhood. I was growing up when the "Choose Your Own Adventure" (CYOA) books became popular, and today I came up with the idea of doing a MicroCon-themed CYOA. The idea would be that you're attending your first MicroCon, and you are presented with various choices about who to talk to and what to do, and based on those choices you end up with a good or bad experience at MicroCon. I'm still workshopping the idea a bit, but I think it's got potential. I might even do it as an online experience using Twine, "an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories" which would hopefully allow me to embed pictures from previous MicroCon events as part of the story.