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Post by zakklaas on Aug 13, 2006 22:00:04 GMT -6
Hi. I know, what to say after having been gone for a year and a half? Well, I could start by saying "Love what you've done to the place." Natopia is like Supermeganatopia now. What have you all been up to? I see some of the old regulars still hang here - and you have some new faces as well. Nate and Tasneem have to be here, of course, it wouldn't be Natopia without 'em. A little bit about my absence. I've been spending the last year and a half trying to save my marriage, which, as of last month, was officially no longer able to be saved - I have moved out into a new apartment, and my relationship with my now ex-wife is a bit strained, to say the least. This is the hardest on my two kids, I imagine, but it's no cake walk for myself either. Anyway, I'm not planning a big return to micronationalism, but I did want to say hi, and that if you'll have me, I'd love to hang out here again. May I also say that the fact that there have actually been tributes to my previous efforts in micronationalism is quite nice. Klaasiya. Nice touch, there. I've also seen some of the Lavalon pages about the "Klaasist era". The name of Natopia's library is quite an honour as well. Last year during the baseball playoffs, also, I actually did think about what Tasneem must have been doing when the Cardinals almost came back from the abyss to beat the Astros but then bought it when the series returned to St. Louis. Well, I'd best be moseyin' for tonight, but let me just wrap up by saying that it's good to see that, where others have gone belly up, Peace Through Silent Oppression has caused Natopia to rise above all.
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Post by Nathan on Aug 13, 2006 22:15:35 GMT -6
HEY!! its so great to see you again! ;D of course you can stick around here, we'd love to have ya I'm sorry to hear about your marriage though... it's a shame it couldnt be saved, especially when there are kids involved... But it really is amazing to see you again! Welcome back!!!
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Post by zakklaas on Aug 13, 2006 22:22:07 GMT -6
Thanks! Hung around a bit as I saw you logged on there. Hey, what's all this about annexing Lavalon? Is it still existing? It's hard to tell from what I managed to find online. Is Xon still floating about? I see Z and Aldrodria still are doing fine as well. Generally speaking, what's been up with the micronational set these days?
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Post by Nathan on Aug 13, 2006 22:35:52 GMT -6
Well.... Natopia has actually finally annexed Lavalon after it was clear Lavalon was in pretty bad shape... pretty much Z was the only one left... and when it was proposed to annex Lavalon away... Xon returned from his expatriation to vote on the annexation... amazingly voted for it... but for Lavalon to mesh with Natopia's imperial system... Lavalon is gonna be a principality again... but really only in name since their constitution is practically unchanged. Let's see... big micro news.... hmmmmm.... Antica split in two... a new republic was founded while the old dinarchy floundered and eventually was gobbled up by Shireroth... the republic of antica is now prolly the most active nation around. Well... about a year ago Babkha and some other nations combined into a super nation called the Grand Commonwealth and everyone got scared and Shireroth got angry and the world basically polarized around the two sides for months... then both shireroth and the gc basically almost died of inactivity... without anyone noticing. with Natopia... last summer Natopia and Lavalon and New Germany and Faronia all joine the Venerable Union of Aligned States... basically it was a thinly veiled annexation attempt by Natopia to gobble up not only Lavalon but two other countries... it fell thru and in the rubble of the collapse of VUAS Natopia became a kingdom and two months later an Empire.... and then annexed Alrodria and Sullifree to protect them from aggressive GC territory policy. Sullifree left the empire and is hibernating now. uhm... hmm... i dunno what else...
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Post by Nathan on Aug 13, 2006 22:42:20 GMT -6
and oh yeah.... sometime after you left... Lavalon went crazy. Xon was trying to "restore" it to post-coup days... or something... and founded the true successor state to Lavalon... Avalonia... and we were mad at him and stuff.... but he botched diplomacy with the Dinarchy of Antica (which was really militaristic, unlike the republic now) and Antica totally destroyed the Avalonian forums.... twice! everyone else in the world was outraged... but i think its cooled enough now to say that i was estatic about Avalonia's destruction. and yea... xon came back to lavalon... and then there was the usual anti-Natopianism... i mean... only coz the Bagelcraticans controled the state... i mean... pfft no big deal... so after awhile I left.. then Neem left. Then Z joined Natopia too. then Brian came over too. Then a few months ago Tom joined us from england. and we've been awesome ever since! ;D
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Post by zakklaas on Aug 13, 2006 22:42:42 GMT -6
Well, once you get the place fully integrated into Natopia, I'll hang up some pictures of the old days so everyone will feel at home. Gotta go to bed, but it's great to be in the old virtual stomping grounds again.
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Post by Nathan on Aug 13, 2006 22:45:09 GMT -6
yay! see ya later
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Post by FCM on Aug 14, 2006 11:59:34 GMT -6
hey welcome back
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Post by Tasneem on Aug 14, 2006 22:49:53 GMT -6
No way.
WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm totally super excited now! I missed you! We had that awesome triumverate going on. I hope things start going better for you.
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Post by zakklaas on Aug 15, 2006 18:40:55 GMT -6
Wow, a triumvirate - that's so ancient Roman. I suppose Nathan must be Caesar, but am I Pompey or Crassus? (I'm sure I could be appropriately pompous or crass.) Anyway, I'll do what I can to live up to that triumvirate stuff. Just as long as I don't have to invade Gaul or anything - Asterix and Obelix would kick my keester. As for the part about how things are going - it's one of those try-and-get-through-the-next-day kind of things. I just managed to get my new apartment all cabled, internetted and phoned up, and I have some rudimentary groceries in the place now and laundry detergent (and a mess of groups of 1.75$ in change for when I go down to do the laundry). Work blows, then I come home, etc., five days a week. Still working on getting my bank account set up and various other extracurricular responsibilities. The above is the polite version of how things are going. I'm mostly leaving out the part about how things are going with my family, which is not well. Still, I probably don't want to let the whole internet know about the particulars of that, so I'll wrap it up here. What is everyone else up to, in either the real or virtual worlds, these days?
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Post by Nathan on Aug 15, 2006 18:50:26 GMT -6
Well... i graduated high school and im off to Cornell College in Iowa in about two weeks... and i dont know if im excited or nervous. i havent really started packing or anything like that... haha.
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Post by Tasneem on Aug 15, 2006 21:16:26 GMT -6
Yeah, same here. I'm off to University of Michigan in Ann Arbor after Labor Day. I'm not terribly excited cause I'm considered out of state even though we've lived in Grand Rapids for over a year so they're not only charging me triple tuition, but they're also taking away any money that the state is giving me. So... yeah... I'm pretty deep in debt... I had to take out a $10,000 loan and that still doesn't cover half of it.
Other than that, I'm pretty good and happy.
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Post by zakklaas on Aug 15, 2006 21:51:19 GMT -6
Nathan: You're at Cornell? Now you're a cornfed Iowegian? That's too cool. My parents still live in Ames, and my sister and her family live in Des Moines. Nowhere near you, granted, but lurking in your adopted state nevertheless. Cornell's a good school, though - good to hear you're movin' up in the world. Tasneem: Well, at least you're not messin' around at Ann Arbor. That's a very good school (especially in political science, which I used to dabble in once upon a time). Hmm, just realised it sounded like I'm dissing Nathan's Cornell by comparison, which I'm not, it's also quite good (albeit in a small liberal artsy college sort of way, but that's as legitimate as anything else...oh, please stop me if my foot is already ensconced in my mouth.) The financial aid system is what it was when I lived in the US, ludicrous. Sorry to hear it's wreaking its wrath upon you. You know, when I got loans to go to school up here in Canada from the U.S. federal government, I had to apply through the state of Louisiana (my last US domicile state) despite the fact that I was asking the state of Louisiana for exactly no money (the loans were all federal.) Does that make sense? No, and this made for umpteen different confused calls to Baton Rouge and guys with Southern accents saying "You're going to school whur?"
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Post by zakklaas on Aug 15, 2006 21:59:15 GMT -6
Incidentally, who's biffo? Thanks for the welcome, though. (*waves*)
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Post by Tasneem on Aug 15, 2006 22:39:10 GMT -6
Hah, yes, financial aid makes my head hurt! Everyone once in a while, they're realize I'm not 18 and then refuse to talk to me. Not cool. So where did you go to school and what did you major in?
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