WEBVTT

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Welcome to Community & Code,

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a show where we talk to the

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humans behind the commits.

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I'm here today with a very special guest,

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a first for this show,

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a first for me personally.

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Welcome to the show, Her Majesty,

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the Queen of Ledonia.

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Welcome to the show, Your Majesty.

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Thank you.

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I'm happy to be here.

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So I'm going to tell the

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story of how this

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conversation came to be.

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And then for myself and

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anyone watching or listening,

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I will ask you to give sort

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of the elevator pitch of

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your journey to Ladonia and

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what your sort of elevator pitch is.

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So I...

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was looking at the attendees

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list for WordCamp US,

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like you do when you work

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at a company who

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particularly is interested in, like,

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making technical

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partnerships and relationship, like,

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build relationships with

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agencies and things,

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and I happened to notice

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somebody in the attendees list,

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Queen Carolyn of Ladonia, and I was like,

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that's weird.

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Is there a queen coming to WordCamp US?

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And it has you in your crown.

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And I was like, okay, what is this link?

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And I went to ladonia.org

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and that sent me down a

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very long rabbit hole of...

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there was a period of

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reading through things

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where I thought that, like,

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I was in an alternate reality, like,

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I wasn't sure what was happening,

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and I had to go to ChatGBT

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and sort of contextualize it for me, like,

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what am I looking at?

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And then ChatGBT told me that you, in fact,

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work at Yoast.

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And I was like, well, actually,

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it didn't actually say that

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you worked at Yoast.

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I found that out later when

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I did a search.

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because it said that you

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were an SEO expert, and I'm like, oh,

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that kind of makes sense,

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but also now I have even more questions.

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So, first of all,

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for those of us who may not

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know that Ladonia exists,

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what is a Ladonia,

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and how did you come to be its queen?

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So many, so many questions there.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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So Ledonia is a micronation.

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A micronation is the

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official definition is a self-declared,

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self-declared sovereign entity that, well,

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an entity that claims sovereignty.

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So basically it's like a country,

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but it's very tiny and none

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of the big real countries exist.

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Acknowledge that we exist kind of thing.

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So if you've heard of Sealand,

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which is on a abandoned Air

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Force sea platform off the

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coast of England, they are a micronation.

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I've met Prince Michael.

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Nice guy.

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Melosia is in Nevada in the U.S.,

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another micronation that

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you may or may not have heard of.

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Where is that located?

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Outside of Reno.

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I must have driven by it.

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I mean, I've made that trek.

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I don't know.

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I don't know if you've driven by it.

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I feel like it's a four-hour

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drive away from Reno.

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So very far outside of Reno.

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Yeah, it's not close.

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There's a new micronation in the U.S.

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that a lot of people have

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heard of called Slojamistan,

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which is named exactly for

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the reasons that you think it was.

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Then there's hundreds all over the place,

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but there's a few that are

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larger than others.

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Ladonia is one of the larger ones.

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It declared independence

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from Sweden in nineteen

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ninety-six after fifteen,

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sixteen years of court

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battles over these

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sculptures that an artist

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was making on the beach.

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After a decade and a half of

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fighting back and forth and

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going all the way up to the

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Swedish Supreme Court,

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What eventually happened was

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Sweden was unable to force

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him to tear down or to

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effectuate the tearing down

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of the sculptures.

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They're still there, by the way.

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And he had started building

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those in nineteen eighty.

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So he and his lawyers and a

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group of interested parties

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got together and said, you know what?

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If if Sweden can't implement

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and enforce their laws on this land,

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I don't think it's actually their land.

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So they declared the land on

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which these artworks sat an

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independent country and

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thus began Ladonia.

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Because it was like

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logistically difficult to

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send a team or expensive to

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send a team out there to tear stuff down?

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No, no.

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So they could.

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They just didn't.

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They just they just didn't

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because he kept fighting.

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He kept fighting the orders in court.

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So one of the first I think I think the

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one of the foundational

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concepts we need to

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understand as Americans is

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that they don't have the

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same kind of private

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property laws in Sweden

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that they have in the U S so on open land,

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like nature reserve type stuff, you can't,

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you can't tell people they

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can't walk on it.

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You can't,

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you can't shoot people off of it.

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You certainly can't shoot

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them if they're on your land.

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Um, like that stuff's not a thing.

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So he was, um,

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he was building these sculptures,

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the first thing that the

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landowners tried to do was

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say that it was an

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illegally or improperly permitted house.

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Clearly, it's not a house,

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so that argument fell flat.

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Then they tried to fine him

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for obstructing the public way.

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Also,

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It's really hard to get to.

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It's not impossible to get to.

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We get like forty thousand

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hikers every year,

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probably more than actually.

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So it's not an impossible hike,

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but it is you have to go

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there on purpose.

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There's no such thing as

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obstructing the public way.

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You're going there.

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You're going there on purpose.

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And that's.

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So that also fell flat.

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I forget what they actually

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successfully fined him for,

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but it was a civil complaint.

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It wasn't a criminal complaint.

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He was acquitted of all the

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criminal charges.

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The fine he ended up getting

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was basically like a thousand US dollars.

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which is kind of a slap on the wrist,

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right?

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At one point they did send a

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wrecker via water to steal

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one of the sculptures.

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There was a smaller

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sculpture that was capable

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of being extracted.

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It was like a cement.

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It was supposed to be the

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navel of the world, Amphalos.

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they were going to take it

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and put it in a museum but

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they they broke it in the

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process but they sent a

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wrecker out and they tried

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to steal it and it's been

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set on fire before like and

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they've and they've sent

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out firefighters to put out

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the fire which is baffling

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um so it's not impossible

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to get their people go out

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there all the time they

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could have they could have

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torn it down if they wanted

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to but they didn't so

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Um, anyway, that's how,

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that's how that was the, the, the,

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the foundation effectively of Latonia.

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It started out.

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So in, there wasn't a lot of internet, um,

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within the first year they

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had a little over a thousand.

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people in the area that

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wanted to be citizens.

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So at that point,

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they proposed and ratified

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a constitution.

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They elected a queen.

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The form of government they

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decided on was a constitutional monarchy.

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So we had a queen and we had

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a president at the time.

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I was not the first queen.

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I'm actually the second queen.

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And shortly thereafter,

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They had a minister who was

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very good with internet stuff.

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That was how the internet

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presence started.

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Once the internet presence was established,

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though,

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interest and awareness of it

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really kind of took off.

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We started getting tons and

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tons of applications from all over.

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There was a big scandal

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where there were like six

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thousand Pakistanis that

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wanted to want to sign up

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for citizenship.

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They had to shut down all

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the forms because they

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didn't understand that it

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wasn't a place that they could come live.

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That made the BBC,

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that made a whole bunch of like CNN.

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It was all over the news.

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That was also very helpful

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in terms of spreading awareness.

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But that's that's essentially.

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How I became aware of Ledonia,

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I became aware of it in.

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So I in nineteen ninety four,

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I was involved in

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co-founding an Internet service provider.

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So and, you know,

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it wasn't really there

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wasn't really a lot of Web

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browsing back then because

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the Web wasn't public until

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April of ninety five.

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But I was I was there at the beginning.

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So I was.

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I was on the computer a lot.

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I did a lot of tech support.

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I was sitting around.

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I had two T-ones.

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I was all over the internet all the time.

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Yeah.

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So our company was mentioned,

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or we had a little blurb about us in...

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an issue of Wired,

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and it was the same issue

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that Sealand was in.

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And that sort of sent me

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down the rabbit hole of

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micronations because I

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started researching Sealand.

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That's how I found Ledonia.

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Ledonia said that they were

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looking for people to help

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build their government and

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design their government.

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And I was in political

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science at Purdue at the time.

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And I said, why?

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This sounds like something I might enjoy.

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I apply for citizenship.

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So the the citizenship

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application was actually really long.

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And part of it was you had

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to contribute your creativity.

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So being the overachiever that I am,

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I wrote this like twenty

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page business case on why

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Ledonia should annex Gary, Indiana,

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all the wonderful benefits of Gary,

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Indiana.

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And then I researched the

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the political pathway of

00:10:24.124 --> 00:10:26.206
to getting Indiana to

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release Gary to a foreign

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country and then have the

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federal government approve

00:10:33.631 --> 00:10:36.474
that divestiture.

00:10:37.294 --> 00:10:38.596
Anyway, so I turned that in.

00:10:39.135 --> 00:10:40.356
They wrote back to me and said,

00:10:40.616 --> 00:10:41.938
we would love to have you as a citizen,

00:10:41.979 --> 00:10:42.399
by the way.

00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:43.679
We loved your contribution.

00:10:43.700 --> 00:10:45.421
Would you like to be a cabinet minister?

00:10:45.902 --> 00:10:48.504
And naturally, I said, absolutely,

00:10:48.543 --> 00:10:49.924
I'd love to be a cabinet minister.

00:10:50.445 --> 00:10:51.066
Let's do this.

00:10:51.549 --> 00:10:52.890
So that was how I joined.

00:10:52.971 --> 00:10:53.591
And I joined,

00:10:53.692 --> 00:10:55.033
I think it was official in

00:10:55.634 --> 00:10:57.316
ninety eight ninety nine.

00:10:57.355 --> 00:11:01.299
That explains something because, well,

00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:02.980
what is your I think that I

00:11:03.022 --> 00:11:03.841
know because I remember

00:11:03.881 --> 00:11:04.822
looking at it on the list.

00:11:04.863 --> 00:11:06.904
But but for everyone else,

00:11:06.965 --> 00:11:08.846
what is your cabinet title

00:11:08.907 --> 00:11:10.229
or what was your cabinet title?

00:11:10.249 --> 00:11:11.169
My cabinet title,

00:11:11.269 --> 00:11:12.490
I was the minister of

00:11:12.571 --> 00:11:14.312
customizations and Gary.

00:11:14.613 --> 00:11:15.173
Uh-huh.

00:11:15.293 --> 00:11:15.472
Yeah.

00:11:15.832 --> 00:11:16.453
Yeah.

00:11:16.594 --> 00:11:17.214
I was, uh,

00:11:17.254 --> 00:11:20.674
I have a friend named Gary and I

00:11:20.715 --> 00:11:22.294
was very confused by this as well.

00:11:22.495 --> 00:11:22.956
And I said,

00:11:22.995 --> 00:11:24.155
but she's the minister of

00:11:24.196 --> 00:11:25.395
customizations and Gary.

00:11:25.436 --> 00:11:26.897
So I guess she's your minister.

00:11:27.037 --> 00:11:27.817
And he's like,

00:11:27.876 --> 00:11:29.118
and he decided that that

00:11:29.158 --> 00:11:29.918
meant that he should start

00:11:29.937 --> 00:11:30.817
a Gary newsletter.

00:11:31.557 --> 00:11:35.119
Um, he could absolutely have a great,

00:11:35.580 --> 00:11:36.720
he should become a citizen

00:11:37.299 --> 00:11:39.041
and he could be, he, I could,

00:11:39.301 --> 00:11:40.061
I could give him.

00:11:40.505 --> 00:11:41.767
He could be my successor in

00:11:41.787 --> 00:11:42.787
the ministry of Gary.

00:11:43.067 --> 00:11:45.008
That's an interesting and enticing idea.

00:11:45.187 --> 00:11:47.750
I'll have to let him know.

00:11:47.950 --> 00:11:50.091
So, so yeah.

00:11:50.110 --> 00:11:50.510
That's how I,

00:11:50.591 --> 00:11:51.971
that's how I came to Latonia.

00:11:52.251 --> 00:11:55.033
I was there for eleven years

00:11:55.953 --> 00:11:56.995
before there was the

00:11:57.034 --> 00:11:58.434
constitutional crisis that

00:11:58.455 --> 00:11:59.296
put me on the throne.

00:11:59.336 --> 00:12:03.018
The queen that we had,

00:12:04.979 --> 00:12:06.219
we say that she disappeared.

00:12:08.634 --> 00:12:09.254
of didn't want to play

00:12:09.294 --> 00:12:12.256
anymore um she did just she

00:12:12.277 --> 00:12:12.937
fell off the face of the

00:12:12.956 --> 00:12:13.856
mat wouldn't return phone

00:12:13.876 --> 00:12:16.197
calls um the constitution

00:12:16.238 --> 00:12:17.139
says though that the

00:12:17.198 --> 00:12:18.359
cabinet with a super

00:12:18.379 --> 00:12:20.559
majority vote can um

00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:23.761
abdicate in absentia uh the

00:12:23.802 --> 00:12:25.822
queen and that was in place

00:12:25.863 --> 00:12:28.403
before this happened oh

00:12:28.464 --> 00:12:29.884
yeah that was um that was

00:12:29.923 --> 00:12:30.865
in the part of the original

00:12:30.904 --> 00:12:32.264
constitution that was ratified in

00:12:34.625 --> 00:12:36.567
So obviously folks were

00:12:36.606 --> 00:12:38.488
thinking about the possibility of like,

00:12:38.528 --> 00:12:38.668
yeah,

00:12:38.727 --> 00:12:40.869
if somebody just kind of falls off

00:12:40.889 --> 00:12:41.629
the map, then.

00:12:41.929 --> 00:12:43.910
Falls off the map or like

00:12:44.250 --> 00:12:45.351
goes crazy with power.

00:12:45.392 --> 00:12:47.292
There has to be there.

00:12:48.173 --> 00:12:48.932
You always have to kind of

00:12:48.972 --> 00:12:50.234
anticipate that something

00:12:50.274 --> 00:12:51.274
is going to go pear shaped

00:12:51.354 --> 00:12:51.995
and you're going to have to

00:12:52.034 --> 00:12:53.916
get rid of somebody against their will.

00:12:55.135 --> 00:12:56.317
Not everybody is going to be

00:12:56.616 --> 00:12:58.076
a nice person all the time.

00:12:59.157 --> 00:13:00.418
We'd already had situations

00:13:00.477 --> 00:13:02.477
where there were presidents

00:13:02.518 --> 00:13:04.318
that have been bullied out

00:13:04.339 --> 00:13:06.419
of office before their time.

00:13:08.360 --> 00:13:11.900
Nothing requiring a forcing

00:13:11.961 --> 00:13:13.162
of them out of office though.

00:13:13.221 --> 00:13:16.722
It was more of a,

00:13:17.123 --> 00:13:18.182
you can go by the stairs or

00:13:18.202 --> 00:13:19.764
you can go by the window, your choice,

00:13:19.823 --> 00:13:21.043
and they took the stairs.

00:13:22.625 --> 00:13:23.245
The queen though,

00:13:24.404 --> 00:13:25.946
She just sort of vanished.

00:13:27.447 --> 00:13:28.609
So the cabinet voted her off

00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:29.950
the throne and that made

00:13:30.009 --> 00:13:31.631
her heirs ineligible as well,

00:13:31.672 --> 00:13:32.753
which created a vacancy.

00:13:32.773 --> 00:13:33.913
The constitution says when

00:13:33.933 --> 00:13:34.813
there's a vacancy on the

00:13:34.833 --> 00:13:36.196
throne and no eligible heirs,

00:13:36.735 --> 00:13:38.356
they take nominations from

00:13:38.418 --> 00:13:40.960
the cabinet and the only

00:13:41.679 --> 00:13:43.001
The only people that can be

00:13:43.081 --> 00:13:46.426
nominated are citizens who are also women,

00:13:46.726 --> 00:13:48.489
because we only have queens in Ledonia.

00:13:48.850 --> 00:13:51.753
Men are not allowed to take the throne.

00:13:52.575 --> 00:13:53.475
So I was nominated.

00:13:53.535 --> 00:13:54.898
There were five other

00:13:55.118 --> 00:13:56.299
candidates nominated.

00:13:56.860 --> 00:13:58.360
One of which, though, was Angelina Jolie,

00:13:58.379 --> 00:13:59.379
and that doesn't really count.

00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:01.280
So I successfully petitioned

00:14:01.301 --> 00:14:02.201
to have her removed from

00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:03.520
the ballot on the grounds

00:14:03.561 --> 00:14:05.000
if she's not already a citizen.

00:14:05.542 --> 00:14:07.621
So I didn't think that would be fair.

00:14:08.501 --> 00:14:09.501
Then there was an election.

00:14:09.701 --> 00:14:11.602
The voting lasted for two weeks,

00:14:12.163 --> 00:14:13.442
longest two weeks of my life.

00:14:14.322 --> 00:14:17.364
And then I won.

00:14:17.384 --> 00:14:20.524
Were you looking forward to being queen?

00:14:20.583 --> 00:14:23.365
Were you kind of apprehensive?

00:14:23.424 --> 00:14:24.865
What does that two weeks look like?

00:14:25.264 --> 00:14:27.705
was it was weird um and I

00:14:27.725 --> 00:14:29.384
was I was nervous and I

00:14:29.424 --> 00:14:30.505
remember asking my husband

00:14:30.525 --> 00:14:32.426
I'm like this is weird I

00:14:32.446 --> 00:14:35.466
should not do this he goes

00:14:35.506 --> 00:14:37.307
it's weird but why not like

00:14:37.587 --> 00:14:40.249
how how often does this how

00:14:40.349 --> 00:14:41.269
often does someone approach

00:14:41.288 --> 00:14:42.028
you and say here would you

00:14:42.068 --> 00:14:46.370
like to wear a tiara yes um

00:14:47.224 --> 00:14:48.264
I'm like, well, I mean,

00:14:48.404 --> 00:14:50.246
but it's I might have to do

00:14:50.307 --> 00:14:52.148
stuff like go places and do

00:14:52.187 --> 00:14:53.389
stuff because it'll be fun.

00:14:53.408 --> 00:14:54.009
It'll be fine.

00:14:54.470 --> 00:14:55.010
We'll do this.

00:14:55.471 --> 00:14:57.312
But I was I was nervous and I was,

00:14:58.514 --> 00:15:00.195
you know, because I don't like to lose.

00:15:01.316 --> 00:15:02.116
Even if I didn't want to do

00:15:02.177 --> 00:15:03.057
something in the first place,

00:15:03.097 --> 00:15:03.998
I don't want to lose.

00:15:04.298 --> 00:15:05.038
That's not fun.

00:15:05.779 --> 00:15:07.260
And because they were all in Europe,

00:15:07.301 --> 00:15:08.101
a lot of the voting was.

00:15:08.429 --> 00:15:10.010
changed and happened in the

00:15:10.030 --> 00:15:10.991
middle of the night for me

00:15:11.072 --> 00:15:12.494
so I would spend a lot of

00:15:12.533 --> 00:15:14.375
nights awake refreshing

00:15:14.414 --> 00:15:19.178
things like you do yep as one does yeah

00:15:20.520 --> 00:15:23.403
And, and I mean, like you mentioned, like,

00:15:23.663 --> 00:15:25.604
uh, it's, it's not just you,

00:15:25.644 --> 00:15:26.965
it's like your,

00:15:27.004 --> 00:15:28.265
your husband's on the website,

00:15:28.326 --> 00:15:29.265
your daughter's on the website,

00:15:29.285 --> 00:15:30.927
your daughter is actively doing stuff.

00:15:31.126 --> 00:15:33.148
Uh, as far as I know, like, this is,

00:15:33.928 --> 00:15:35.070
this is, this is it.

00:15:35.090 --> 00:15:36.850
This is like your queen for life.

00:15:36.931 --> 00:15:38.591
Do you anticipate like

00:15:39.731 --> 00:15:41.273
voluntarily abdicating at

00:15:41.332 --> 00:15:42.793
some point in the future?

00:15:42.833 --> 00:15:44.595
Or do you, are you full on in it?

00:15:44.674 --> 00:15:47.076
Like, is this, how, how does that, like,

00:15:47.116 --> 00:15:48.576
what does the math of that look like?

00:15:48.898 --> 00:15:49.057
Um,

00:15:52.346 --> 00:15:53.648
I don't anticipate at this

00:15:53.687 --> 00:15:56.888
juncture abdicating for any reason.

00:15:56.947 --> 00:16:00.729
But my daughter, she's got a job.

00:16:00.749 --> 00:16:01.889
She's busy with her stuff.

00:16:02.470 --> 00:16:05.149
And this is a lot of work.

00:16:05.671 --> 00:16:07.150
I think part of the reason

00:16:07.211 --> 00:16:07.971
it's so much work is

00:16:08.030 --> 00:16:09.370
because I do most of the

00:16:09.431 --> 00:16:10.591
internet-y parts of it.

00:16:12.412 --> 00:16:13.652
And there's a lot that I

00:16:13.692 --> 00:16:15.452
probably could pass off to other people,

00:16:15.472 --> 00:16:18.714
but I just don't because I

00:16:18.774 --> 00:16:19.874
need to protect it.

00:16:21.061 --> 00:16:22.923
Um, but it,

00:16:22.962 --> 00:16:25.183
it is a lot of work and it's not cheap.

00:16:25.745 --> 00:16:26.384
I, uh,

00:16:26.404 --> 00:16:27.966
it would be irresponsible to use

00:16:28.527 --> 00:16:31.489
country money to, you know,

00:16:31.528 --> 00:16:32.529
to handle travel or to

00:16:32.549 --> 00:16:33.750
handle any of the other expenses.

00:16:34.010 --> 00:16:35.010
So, um,

00:16:35.110 --> 00:16:36.471
I have to be able to fund it myself.

00:16:36.533 --> 00:16:37.373
I just don't know.

00:16:38.354 --> 00:16:39.514
I wouldn't want to dump that

00:16:39.715 --> 00:16:41.976
on her before she's ready

00:16:42.017 --> 00:16:42.917
or interested in it.

00:16:43.677 --> 00:16:47.259
And I, um, I'm still capable of doing it,

00:16:47.299 --> 00:16:49.322
so I'm going to continue.

00:16:50.389 --> 00:16:51.470
continue running the show

00:16:51.509 --> 00:16:54.751
until I can't run the show anymore.

00:16:54.772 --> 00:16:57.192
But you also, uh, you also have,

00:16:57.472 --> 00:17:01.456
have a normal job, uh, inside, uh,

00:17:01.495 --> 00:17:03.056
ostensibly the WordPress or

00:17:03.116 --> 00:17:04.736
greater web industry.

00:17:05.057 --> 00:17:06.077
Uh, how does,

00:17:06.418 --> 00:17:08.399
so it sounds like kind of

00:17:08.419 --> 00:17:09.620
you're working two jobs.

00:17:10.061 --> 00:17:11.400
Like you have, you have your,

00:17:11.581 --> 00:17:12.562
you have your day job and

00:17:12.581 --> 00:17:13.482
then you ha you put on your

00:17:13.883 --> 00:17:15.903
crown and then you have your,

00:17:16.124 --> 00:17:17.125
your queenly duties.

00:17:18.073 --> 00:17:19.075
Yeah, I mean,

00:17:19.995 --> 00:17:20.996
I actually think I probably

00:17:21.017 --> 00:17:22.458
have more than two jobs at this point.

00:17:23.598 --> 00:17:26.221
But it is a lot of work on

00:17:26.241 --> 00:17:29.403
the upside because everything I do,

00:17:29.865 --> 00:17:31.346
real job and queen job,

00:17:31.967 --> 00:17:33.888
are internet based.

00:17:34.088 --> 00:17:35.690
I can do them wherever, whenever.

00:17:35.829 --> 00:17:37.051
So, you know,

00:17:37.432 --> 00:17:38.732
I'm doing things off my phone.

00:17:38.752 --> 00:17:40.213
I'm doing things off my laptop.

00:17:40.674 --> 00:17:42.195
I do a lot of international flights,

00:17:42.215 --> 00:17:43.758
which gives me a lot of, you know,

00:17:44.653 --> 00:17:46.413
seven hour chunks of time to

00:17:46.815 --> 00:17:50.438
do what I need to do um and

00:17:50.538 --> 00:17:53.539
it's uh you know you use

00:17:53.579 --> 00:17:54.760
the technology to make it

00:17:54.800 --> 00:17:56.402
work like I've got I've got

00:17:56.422 --> 00:17:58.282
my phone system set up so that it can

00:17:59.249 --> 00:18:01.451
It changes the icon based on

00:18:01.611 --> 00:18:02.471
which phone number is being

00:18:02.510 --> 00:18:06.173
called so I know how to answer the phone,

00:18:06.253 --> 00:18:07.174
those kinds of things.

00:18:07.295 --> 00:18:09.635
And then the emails and

00:18:09.977 --> 00:18:11.817
ChatGPT has been great, actually,

00:18:11.837 --> 00:18:13.378
because the translations

00:18:13.598 --> 00:18:16.060
are so much better than they were before.

00:18:16.161 --> 00:18:19.303
So I'm able to clear the

00:18:19.383 --> 00:18:21.744
inbox much quicker than before.

00:18:23.645 --> 00:18:27.028
But yeah, I work all the time.

00:18:28.213 --> 00:18:29.715
I'm at my computer at six in the morning.

00:18:29.756 --> 00:18:32.019
I'm lucky if I go to bed at nine.

00:18:34.521 --> 00:18:35.303
And by go to bed,

00:18:35.343 --> 00:18:36.443
I mean get off the computer

00:18:36.463 --> 00:18:37.885
because it's pretty much up

00:18:37.945 --> 00:18:38.686
and then straight to the

00:18:38.707 --> 00:18:41.549
bed kind of thing.

00:18:41.609 --> 00:18:42.070
It's busy.

00:18:42.570 --> 00:18:42.811
Yeah.

00:18:45.034 --> 00:18:45.654
Obviously...

00:18:46.615 --> 00:18:48.416
You could have entered in

00:18:48.436 --> 00:18:49.999
your information in the

00:18:50.500 --> 00:18:52.182
attendee registration form

00:18:53.123 --> 00:18:56.948
as your normal Yoast

00:18:57.228 --> 00:18:58.970
position occupying self.

00:19:00.192 --> 00:19:02.314
Are you attending as like,

00:19:02.334 --> 00:19:03.556
will you be wearing a crown?

00:19:04.056 --> 00:19:04.215
Like,

00:19:04.316 --> 00:19:06.377
are you attending as royalty or you

00:19:06.397 --> 00:19:09.059
just wanted to sort of do more to,

00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:10.240
you mentioned earlier about

00:19:11.580 --> 00:19:13.843
trying to get the algorithm

00:19:13.863 --> 00:19:15.523
to sort of recognize you as

00:19:15.564 --> 00:19:16.384
the Queen of Ledonia.

00:19:16.404 --> 00:19:17.945
Was it an... Well,

00:19:17.965 --> 00:19:18.746
the algorithm already

00:19:18.766 --> 00:19:20.307
recognizes me as the Queen of Ledonia.

00:19:20.326 --> 00:19:21.028
That's not an issue.

00:19:21.048 --> 00:19:22.608
You type in who is the Queen of Ledonia,

00:19:22.628 --> 00:19:23.509
there's a picture of me.

00:19:23.630 --> 00:19:24.029
So I'm not,

00:19:24.170 --> 00:19:25.351
that part I'm not worried about.

00:19:27.692 --> 00:19:29.693
I was looking at, I...

00:19:30.586 --> 00:19:31.487
I knew that I was going to

00:19:31.507 --> 00:19:34.749
be going on behalf of Yoast anyway.

00:19:35.170 --> 00:19:36.131
I assumed that they would be

00:19:36.151 --> 00:19:37.030
buying me a ticket.

00:19:37.531 --> 00:19:39.292
But when I was poking around,

00:19:39.472 --> 00:19:41.255
I noticed that there was a

00:19:41.295 --> 00:19:42.496
list of all the attendees.

00:19:42.776 --> 00:19:43.537
And I wasn't sure if that

00:19:43.557 --> 00:19:45.357
was everyone or just a select few.

00:19:45.958 --> 00:19:47.159
And there was a link.

00:19:47.960 --> 00:19:48.760
And I said, well,

00:19:51.002 --> 00:19:51.843
I could use some more

00:19:51.863 --> 00:19:53.183
backlinks to Ledonia.

00:19:53.403 --> 00:19:54.625
I think I have an account here.

00:19:56.136 --> 00:19:57.597
Let me just, you know, how much is it?

00:19:57.617 --> 00:19:58.117
A hundred bucks.

00:19:58.377 --> 00:19:59.179
I can do a hundred bucks.

00:19:59.979 --> 00:20:00.618
Um,

00:20:00.659 --> 00:20:02.359
so it was more a test to see if the

00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:03.101
link would show up.

00:20:04.401 --> 00:20:06.261
And then I figured let's roll with it.

00:20:06.281 --> 00:20:06.863
It'll be fun.

00:20:07.542 --> 00:20:10.525
So do you have a ticket as, as, uh,

00:20:10.565 --> 00:20:11.845
as your Yoast self?

00:20:12.506 --> 00:20:14.386
I don't know if they went

00:20:14.426 --> 00:20:17.268
ahead and got me one or not, actually.

00:20:17.288 --> 00:20:19.589
Um,

00:20:19.609 --> 00:20:20.789
they probably thought they didn't need to,

00:20:20.809 --> 00:20:22.451
cause I already have, I already have one.

00:20:23.172 --> 00:20:24.652
Um, I don't know.

00:20:24.692 --> 00:20:25.313
I'll have to check.

00:20:27.162 --> 00:20:29.243
Honestly, I just got back.

00:20:30.384 --> 00:20:31.005
What's today?

00:20:31.306 --> 00:20:32.646
Tuesday?

00:20:32.686 --> 00:20:35.588
I got back two days ago from a conference.

00:20:35.689 --> 00:20:37.871
I don't know what happened.

00:20:37.911 --> 00:20:39.392
Conference season used to be in the autumn,

00:20:39.451 --> 00:20:39.972
and it seems like

00:20:40.032 --> 00:20:40.952
everything shifted to

00:20:41.013 --> 00:20:42.375
summer because I've had

00:20:42.454 --> 00:20:43.776
like six conferences in the

00:20:43.816 --> 00:20:44.957
last two months.

00:20:45.537 --> 00:20:50.161
So that conference is still

00:20:50.181 --> 00:20:51.741
far enough ahead that I

00:20:51.761 --> 00:20:52.603
haven't started thinking

00:20:52.623 --> 00:20:54.684
that hard about it yet.

00:20:54.744 --> 00:20:54.964
Yeah.

00:20:55.781 --> 00:20:55.981
Wow.

00:20:56.342 --> 00:20:57.462
It's we're, we're just,

00:20:58.003 --> 00:20:59.884
we're ramping up to, to, to getting,

00:20:59.924 --> 00:21:01.066
so I'm thinking about it a lot.

00:21:01.665 --> 00:21:03.407
Um, but, uh,

00:21:03.428 --> 00:21:04.167
but I've been thinking about

00:21:04.188 --> 00:21:05.769
it a lot since, uh, since,

00:21:05.970 --> 00:21:07.191
since I discovered Ledonia.

00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:11.673
So as a citizen, uh, so obviously there's,

00:21:11.713 --> 00:21:13.394
there's a website and the website, uh,

00:21:13.535 --> 00:21:14.615
talks about like the

00:21:14.655 --> 00:21:16.297
history and the story that you told about,

00:21:16.416 --> 00:21:17.077
uh, this,

00:21:17.317 --> 00:21:18.338
the sculptures and the legal

00:21:18.358 --> 00:21:19.078
battles and all of that

00:21:19.098 --> 00:21:22.000
sort of stuff and has a

00:21:22.060 --> 00:21:23.761
list of all the ministries

00:21:23.781 --> 00:21:26.282
and ministers of which

00:21:26.303 --> 00:21:27.144
there are many and that's

00:21:27.163 --> 00:21:28.605
another thing that ChatGBT

00:21:29.924 --> 00:21:31.185
clued me in on because I

00:21:31.385 --> 00:21:32.686
hadn't visited that page

00:21:32.747 --> 00:21:33.867
organically and it's like, yeah,

00:21:33.907 --> 00:21:35.769
there's lots of ministries

00:21:35.788 --> 00:21:36.628
with silly names.

00:21:36.888 --> 00:21:38.349
I'm like, there are?

00:21:41.011 --> 00:21:41.892
And that came from the

00:21:41.912 --> 00:21:43.313
Wikipedia training data.

00:21:43.772 --> 00:21:44.273
Yeah.

00:21:46.673 --> 00:21:46.834
Well,

00:21:46.854 --> 00:21:48.815
it's funny because it was wrong about

00:21:48.855 --> 00:21:49.934
the specifics that it gave

00:21:49.954 --> 00:21:50.615
me because it said that

00:21:50.634 --> 00:21:51.435
there are things like

00:21:51.596 --> 00:21:53.016
Minister of Silly Walks and

00:21:53.096 --> 00:21:54.576
Duke of something or other.

00:21:55.076 --> 00:21:56.176
And I was like, no,

00:21:56.217 --> 00:21:57.998
there's not either of those things.

00:21:58.698 --> 00:22:01.618
There was.

00:22:01.638 --> 00:22:03.278
There was a Minister of Silly Walks.

00:22:06.660 --> 00:22:07.700
What happened to that person?

00:22:07.901 --> 00:22:08.980
So maybe it's old data.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:10.661
It is old data.

00:22:10.701 --> 00:22:12.261
So I do know that ChatGPT

00:22:12.281 --> 00:22:13.442
right now is operating on a

00:22:13.541 --> 00:22:15.883
training set that is only up through

00:22:17.596 --> 00:22:19.356
I think June of twenty four.

00:22:20.718 --> 00:22:21.618
That being said,

00:22:21.818 --> 00:22:23.599
I know that our Wikipedia

00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:25.381
article is incredibly

00:22:25.421 --> 00:22:28.041
difficult to keep correct

00:22:28.142 --> 00:22:30.363
because there's an editor

00:22:30.403 --> 00:22:33.125
who has a burr under his

00:22:33.164 --> 00:22:34.585
saddle about Ledonia in

00:22:34.645 --> 00:22:36.026
general and reverts all of

00:22:36.125 --> 00:22:37.586
the changes that I try to submit.

00:22:37.606 --> 00:22:41.989
OK.

00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:43.349
I imagined a conversation like,

00:22:43.390 --> 00:22:44.211
don't you know who I am?

00:22:44.270 --> 00:22:44.871
But we don't know.

00:22:47.513 --> 00:22:51.896
The, yeah, that's usually, you don't know,

00:22:51.957 --> 00:22:55.057
you can't prove this.

00:22:55.097 --> 00:22:55.479
And then, well,

00:22:55.499 --> 00:22:57.019
we don't like first party sources.

00:22:57.420 --> 00:22:58.420
Right, exactly.

00:22:58.540 --> 00:22:59.340
That would be the counter

00:22:59.381 --> 00:22:59.980
argument to that.

00:23:02.522 --> 00:23:02.702
Yeah,

00:23:03.143 --> 00:23:06.484
so as anybody can apply for citizenship,

00:23:06.625 --> 00:23:08.465
and if you give a donation,

00:23:08.486 --> 00:23:09.487
you can have a title.

00:23:10.827 --> 00:23:12.788
Are there benefits of,

00:23:13.648 --> 00:23:15.971
besides sort of being part of this

00:23:18.555 --> 00:23:20.916
kind of global experiment in

00:23:21.537 --> 00:23:23.578
governance to being a citizen?

00:23:25.779 --> 00:23:30.223
What is your pitch to your subjects?

00:23:30.243 --> 00:23:32.685
Well, so the goal of

00:23:33.390 --> 00:23:35.311
pursuing and keeping LaDonia

00:23:35.352 --> 00:23:38.614
going even after our founder passed away,

00:23:38.653 --> 00:23:39.375
unfortunately,

00:23:39.555 --> 00:23:42.416
in October of twenty one is

00:23:42.497 --> 00:23:45.500
to raise funds and go out

00:23:45.559 --> 00:23:46.279
and actually do the

00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:47.461
maintenance on the artworks.

00:23:48.041 --> 00:23:49.643
So one of the

00:23:52.135 --> 00:23:54.278
I don't spend a great deal

00:23:54.298 --> 00:23:56.481
of time entertaining the subjects.

00:23:58.304 --> 00:23:59.766
I actually focus most of my

00:23:59.826 --> 00:24:02.410
time on the legal

00:24:02.971 --> 00:24:05.273
wranglings around making

00:24:05.314 --> 00:24:06.474
sure that we have the

00:24:07.236 --> 00:24:09.297
the continued access and

00:24:09.356 --> 00:24:11.278
right to maintain the artworks,

00:24:11.317 --> 00:24:12.818
because they are made of driftwood,

00:24:13.318 --> 00:24:15.160
they will, Nemes especially,

00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:16.901
will collapse into the sea

00:24:17.020 --> 00:24:18.642
if we're not out there repairing it.

00:24:19.102 --> 00:24:20.682
There's so many visitors that come,

00:24:20.942 --> 00:24:22.443
there's nails sticking out everywhere.

00:24:22.544 --> 00:24:23.505
You know, it's really,

00:24:24.265 --> 00:24:25.746
it's a struggle to keep the

00:24:25.885 --> 00:24:27.267
artwork from falling apart.

00:24:27.767 --> 00:24:29.428
We want to keep it going to

00:24:29.528 --> 00:24:31.048
preserve Lars's legacy.

00:24:31.788 --> 00:24:32.869
um because that was his

00:24:32.910 --> 00:24:35.051
life's work um and there

00:24:35.092 --> 00:24:36.134
are people that are trying

00:24:36.173 --> 00:24:37.474
to stop us from doing that

00:24:38.375 --> 00:24:41.078
um so it's a that there's a

00:24:41.118 --> 00:24:41.818
lot of there's a lot of

00:24:41.838 --> 00:24:42.920
really fun like internet

00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:44.741
stuff that I had to do to

00:24:44.902 --> 00:24:46.403
to protect things too um

00:24:46.903 --> 00:24:49.346
right after he died uh he had a

00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:53.381
a group that claimed his estate,

00:24:54.102 --> 00:24:55.402
and they wanted me to just

00:24:55.442 --> 00:24:57.644
turn over everything belonging to Ledonia,

00:24:57.683 --> 00:24:59.644
including the websites and

00:24:59.664 --> 00:25:01.605
the domain names and the bank accounts.

00:25:01.665 --> 00:25:02.686
And I'm like, no.

00:25:03.047 --> 00:25:04.126
Like, oh, well, we're running it now.

00:25:04.146 --> 00:25:05.127
I'm like, yeah, but you're not,

00:25:05.167 --> 00:25:07.068
because it wasn't a

00:25:07.148 --> 00:25:08.549
singular thing that could

00:25:08.789 --> 00:25:10.490
any one person own copyright over.

00:25:11.151 --> 00:25:11.432
So...

00:25:12.849 --> 00:25:15.451
you didn't inherit it and it's not yours.

00:25:15.471 --> 00:25:16.291
I'm like, oh,

00:25:16.311 --> 00:25:17.053
but we're going to set up

00:25:17.093 --> 00:25:18.953
this foundation so that we

00:25:18.993 --> 00:25:19.855
can raise money.

00:25:20.434 --> 00:25:22.855
And when people Google NIMAS,

00:25:22.895 --> 00:25:24.176
we want them to come to our page.

00:25:24.196 --> 00:25:24.817
I'm like, aha.

00:25:26.563 --> 00:25:27.463
I see where this is going.

00:25:27.864 --> 00:25:28.724
No, you can't have it.

00:25:29.625 --> 00:25:31.086
So I immediately lawyered up

00:25:31.586 --> 00:25:33.128
and I secured trademarks

00:25:33.288 --> 00:25:36.090
for Ledonia in Sweden and the EU.

00:25:36.431 --> 00:25:37.332
And then I registered all

00:25:37.352 --> 00:25:38.252
the domains that I needed

00:25:38.292 --> 00:25:39.894
to so that they would not

00:25:39.953 --> 00:25:41.415
have a successful UDRP.

00:25:42.256 --> 00:25:44.157
And they tried to set up

00:25:44.218 --> 00:25:46.160
their competing website and

00:25:46.200 --> 00:25:47.740
it did not do well because

00:25:49.461 --> 00:25:52.865
I have all of the SEO authority for it.

00:25:52.944 --> 00:25:55.126
So now is a good time.

00:25:55.737 --> 00:25:55.936
Yeah.

00:25:56.478 --> 00:26:00.040
I mean, it sounds like a lot of... I mean,

00:26:00.161 --> 00:26:02.923
it harkens back to an early

00:26:03.042 --> 00:26:06.346
day of the internet when

00:26:06.905 --> 00:26:08.948
things were kind of more...

00:26:11.208 --> 00:26:12.729
Less serious and more fun.

00:26:13.650 --> 00:26:14.809
I remember in college,

00:26:15.171 --> 00:26:16.652
I had stumbled across a

00:26:17.612 --> 00:26:19.032
website for the Universal

00:26:19.073 --> 00:26:21.454
Life Church where you could

00:26:21.535 --> 00:26:22.816
just click a few buttons

00:26:22.836 --> 00:26:23.796
and fill out a form and

00:26:23.816 --> 00:26:25.136
become an ordained minister

00:26:25.176 --> 00:26:26.357
of the Universal Life Church.

00:26:27.138 --> 00:26:29.599
And I was like, this is cool.

00:26:30.101 --> 00:26:30.901
I've got a printer.

00:26:32.001 --> 00:26:33.383
Let's become priests.

00:26:34.663 --> 00:26:36.164
I have a friend who is a

00:26:36.244 --> 00:26:38.346
baron of Ladonia and also

00:26:38.586 --> 00:26:40.146
an ordained minister in the

00:26:40.166 --> 00:26:41.028
Universal Life Church.

00:26:41.428 --> 00:26:44.471
I don't know where my, like,

00:26:45.313 --> 00:26:47.115
minister paperwork has gone.

00:26:47.175 --> 00:26:49.519
It's disappeared since for, I don't know,

00:26:49.818 --> 00:26:51.260
twenty-plus years ago.

00:26:51.280 --> 00:26:51.801
You should find it,

00:26:51.902 --> 00:26:54.105
and then for your title, you should use,

00:26:54.184 --> 00:26:56.827
like,

00:26:57.769 --> 00:26:59.270
Reverend Father or something like that.

00:27:01.707 --> 00:27:02.846
Um, but yeah, I mean, this is,

00:27:02.906 --> 00:27:04.847
this is very, very much in that vein.

00:27:04.867 --> 00:27:06.448
And I remember like one of

00:27:06.468 --> 00:27:09.749
the things as I was, um, as I was, uh,

00:27:09.808 --> 00:27:11.809
sharing this experience, uh,

00:27:12.170 --> 00:27:14.109
of discovering Ledonia with

00:27:14.150 --> 00:27:17.371
a couple of friends of mine, um,

00:27:17.530 --> 00:27:19.671
my friend Alison was saying that like,

00:27:20.211 --> 00:27:22.852
it felt like it felt really not,

00:27:23.392 --> 00:27:25.333
not her words, but it's it, the,

00:27:25.633 --> 00:27:26.732
the vibe that I got was

00:27:26.752 --> 00:27:27.874
that it sort of felt cozy.

00:27:27.913 --> 00:27:29.634
Like, this is kind of the thing that like,

00:27:31.538 --> 00:27:32.539
this was her words like this

00:27:32.559 --> 00:27:34.181
is what my brain needed for

00:27:34.260 --> 00:27:35.362
like right now for like

00:27:35.382 --> 00:27:36.041
things that are happening

00:27:36.061 --> 00:27:38.104
is like like this this I

00:27:38.124 --> 00:27:39.484
can like handle like

00:27:39.765 --> 00:27:40.925
everything else maybe not

00:27:40.965 --> 00:27:42.446
but this this is nice I

00:27:42.487 --> 00:27:44.867
like this so I think I

00:27:44.887 --> 00:27:45.929
think the attraction for a

00:27:45.989 --> 00:27:47.809
lot of people is they're

00:27:49.932 --> 00:27:50.612
when you're born in a

00:27:50.672 --> 00:27:51.512
country you don't really

00:27:51.573 --> 00:27:53.775
get the opportunity to not

00:27:53.815 --> 00:27:55.576
want to be from that country like

00:27:56.075 --> 00:27:56.737
you're stuck there.

00:27:56.797 --> 00:27:58.160
There's an accident of birth.

00:27:58.200 --> 00:27:58.842
You're stuck with it.

00:27:59.363 --> 00:28:00.727
This is something that everyone that,

00:28:00.747 --> 00:28:01.929
that people actively choose,

00:28:01.950 --> 00:28:03.512
they seek it out and it's,

00:28:04.586 --> 00:28:04.747
you know,

00:28:04.767 --> 00:28:05.866
we're not trying to tell you how

00:28:05.886 --> 00:28:06.586
to live your life.

00:28:06.626 --> 00:28:07.106
We're not,

00:28:07.227 --> 00:28:08.948
we're not extracting taxes from you.

00:28:09.387 --> 00:28:11.327
It's very, it's very much,

00:28:11.448 --> 00:28:12.708
I'm doing this because I want to,

00:28:12.748 --> 00:28:14.009
not because I'm obligated to.

00:28:14.368 --> 00:28:15.788
And I think people, people like that.

00:28:15.848 --> 00:28:16.209
There are,

00:28:16.288 --> 00:28:17.568
there are title collectors who

00:28:17.608 --> 00:28:19.269
are out there just to, you know,

00:28:19.289 --> 00:28:20.970
they want to be a Lord or a lady,

00:28:21.049 --> 00:28:22.390
or they want to be a Duchess,

00:28:22.470 --> 00:28:23.329
those kinds of things.

00:28:25.171 --> 00:28:26.211
But there's also people who

00:28:26.250 --> 00:28:27.750
just want a piece of paper

00:28:28.351 --> 00:28:30.310
that says they're part of

00:28:30.371 --> 00:28:31.412
something that they want to

00:28:31.432 --> 00:28:33.031
be part of rather than,

00:28:33.913 --> 00:28:34.733
they're part of,

00:28:35.794 --> 00:28:37.654
every time there's an election in the US,

00:28:38.315 --> 00:28:40.036
we will get the losing side

00:28:40.056 --> 00:28:41.096
flooding to Latonia,

00:28:42.435 --> 00:28:43.175
which is interesting

00:28:43.215 --> 00:28:43.955
because we end up with a

00:28:43.996 --> 00:28:45.057
lot of citizens with very

00:28:45.096 --> 00:28:45.997
conflicting views,

00:28:46.777 --> 00:28:48.538
but they all kind of want the same thing,

00:28:48.657 --> 00:28:50.577
which is to be able to say

00:28:50.617 --> 00:28:51.678
that they're not from here.

00:28:53.679 --> 00:28:54.739
And they want a piece of

00:28:54.778 --> 00:28:56.078
paper that shows that.

00:28:58.440 --> 00:29:02.181
And we do really stress and fight for,

00:29:03.730 --> 00:29:04.892
freedom of expression and

00:29:04.951 --> 00:29:05.792
freedom of speech.

00:29:05.854 --> 00:29:06.974
And that was really kind of

00:29:07.015 --> 00:29:08.036
what we were founded on.

00:29:08.096 --> 00:29:09.857
So we do things like we've

00:29:09.897 --> 00:29:12.080
done fundraisers to support some of our,

00:29:12.161 --> 00:29:13.962
we have a minister who is

00:29:14.022 --> 00:29:17.006
part of that protest group

00:29:17.046 --> 00:29:19.588
that protests topless all over the place.

00:29:20.526 --> 00:29:21.807
She goes to those things.

00:29:21.987 --> 00:29:24.709
And we've run GoFundMes and

00:29:24.749 --> 00:29:26.710
fundraisers for her to send

00:29:26.730 --> 00:29:28.131
her to some of these protests,

00:29:28.872 --> 00:29:30.292
maybe to bail her out once in a while,

00:29:30.373 --> 00:29:31.093
that kind of stuff.

00:29:33.335 --> 00:29:36.076
So I think people are attracted to that.

00:29:36.537 --> 00:29:38.398
I think we do have a pretty

00:29:38.459 --> 00:29:40.099
large LGBT community

00:29:40.907 --> 00:29:43.088
uh contingent and I know

00:29:43.128 --> 00:29:45.130
that particularly for our

00:29:45.190 --> 00:29:47.310
trans friends they like

00:29:47.371 --> 00:29:48.451
having this this

00:29:48.531 --> 00:29:50.692
certificate that shows them

00:29:50.833 --> 00:29:52.993
as they want to be um

00:29:53.354 --> 00:29:54.253
without having to go

00:29:54.273 --> 00:29:55.815
through all sorts of hoops

00:29:55.875 --> 00:29:57.615
and illegal and expensive

00:29:58.536 --> 00:29:59.977
illegal things to get it

00:29:59.997 --> 00:30:01.798
done so I I think that

00:30:01.817 --> 00:30:02.557
that's something that's

00:30:02.577 --> 00:30:04.118
attractive to to people

00:30:04.138 --> 00:30:06.180
that are looking for um an

00:30:06.299 --> 00:30:09.000
alternate nationality a

00:30:09.060 --> 00:30:10.362
chosen nationality you know

00:30:12.287 --> 00:30:14.387
And we do have, we try to do things.

00:30:14.667 --> 00:30:16.449
We've not been as successful

00:30:16.588 --> 00:30:19.010
in the small local get

00:30:19.050 --> 00:30:20.392
togethers as I would have hoped,

00:30:20.711 --> 00:30:21.632
but we have done some.

00:30:22.232 --> 00:30:23.313
We've done some ennoblement

00:30:23.333 --> 00:30:25.114
ceremonies in Las Vegas.

00:30:25.134 --> 00:30:25.954
That was a lot of fun.

00:30:25.994 --> 00:30:26.634
Everybody was up.

00:30:26.654 --> 00:30:29.957
We, you know, went into the,

00:30:30.057 --> 00:30:31.837
one time we did it at the,

00:30:31.919 --> 00:30:34.140
in the lobby at the, was it the Bellagio?

00:30:34.637 --> 00:30:36.499
knows that the wind, um,

00:30:36.519 --> 00:30:37.500
with all the trees and the

00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:38.400
lights and it was very

00:30:38.460 --> 00:30:39.941
pretty and people took

00:30:39.961 --> 00:30:41.041
pictures and it was just,

00:30:41.142 --> 00:30:41.883
it was a good time.

00:30:42.262 --> 00:30:46.545
So we try to, we try to do fun things.

00:30:46.786 --> 00:30:55.711
Um, what, uh, what is, um, what is, uh, uh,

00:30:57.011 --> 00:30:57.913
you talked a little bit about,

00:30:57.972 --> 00:30:59.334
about like the legal stuff.

00:30:59.634 --> 00:31:03.155
Um, what other sort of, um,

00:31:05.926 --> 00:31:08.928
guess queenly duties uh like

00:31:09.407 --> 00:31:10.528
like what is what is what

00:31:10.548 --> 00:31:11.888
is the day in the life of a

00:31:11.969 --> 00:31:13.048
queen kind of look at like

00:31:13.088 --> 00:31:15.769
I don't probably will it is

00:31:15.910 --> 00:31:17.049
unlikely that I will speak

00:31:17.089 --> 00:31:21.030
to a queen again unless I I

00:31:21.070 --> 00:31:21.951
guess I I guess that's

00:31:21.990 --> 00:31:22.811
maybe I shouldn't I

00:31:22.832 --> 00:31:23.832
shouldn't set myself up for

00:31:23.872 --> 00:31:26.972
failure well I mean I I

00:31:26.992 --> 00:31:28.532
would imagine that what I

00:31:28.573 --> 00:31:30.193
do is radically different

00:31:30.273 --> 00:31:31.594
from what a normal

00:31:32.977 --> 00:31:33.656
A normal queen,

00:31:33.696 --> 00:31:35.478
much less a normal queen regnant,

00:31:35.597 --> 00:31:36.057
would do.

00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:42.201
Most queens in the universe

00:31:42.260 --> 00:31:43.560
these days are consorts.

00:31:43.601 --> 00:31:45.261
So they're the wife of the king.

00:31:46.041 --> 00:31:47.261
Because we don't have kings,

00:31:47.422 --> 00:31:49.383
I'm the head honcho.

00:31:49.403 --> 00:31:50.743
So I'm like Queen Elizabeth was.

00:31:52.364 --> 00:31:53.605
I'm at the top of the pile.

00:31:55.726 --> 00:31:59.047
But I do a lot of, I would say,

00:31:59.067 --> 00:32:00.906
the administrative tasks that...

00:32:04.184 --> 00:32:05.565
Normal monarchs don't do.

00:32:07.465 --> 00:32:08.405
It's almost more like the

00:32:08.486 --> 00:32:11.048
leader of a nonprofit or a

00:32:11.087 --> 00:32:12.228
company or an organization.

00:32:12.248 --> 00:32:13.167
We are a nonprofit.

00:32:13.188 --> 00:32:13.909
So we have,

00:32:13.929 --> 00:32:15.789
I established a nonprofit

00:32:15.829 --> 00:32:17.829
organization in the US to

00:32:18.351 --> 00:32:20.392
keep the funds and the

00:32:20.432 --> 00:32:21.731
activities separate from my

00:32:21.771 --> 00:32:22.833
personal business.

00:32:24.032 --> 00:32:24.833
So we have the Ladonia

00:32:24.853 --> 00:32:26.894
Foundation and actually we just got our,

00:32:27.054 --> 00:32:28.295
I just got my IRS letter.

00:32:30.768 --> 00:32:31.729
never been so happy to get

00:32:31.749 --> 00:32:33.369
an IRS letter in my entire life.

00:32:33.410 --> 00:32:34.009
Yesterday,

00:32:35.431 --> 00:32:36.731
I'm always afraid when I open

00:32:36.751 --> 00:32:38.113
them that I'm like, oh, this one's good.

00:32:39.252 --> 00:32:40.513
We have been granted

00:32:41.094 --> 00:32:42.714
official recognition from

00:32:42.734 --> 00:32:44.516
the federal government as a

00:32:44.896 --> 00:32:45.636
public charity.

00:32:46.037 --> 00:32:46.357
So we're a

00:32:56.387 --> 00:32:58.289
so we're we're for reals in

00:32:58.349 --> 00:33:00.191
terms of being a legitimate

00:33:00.310 --> 00:33:03.634
charity donations uh

00:33:03.653 --> 00:33:06.056
donations to be a noble are

00:33:06.115 --> 00:33:07.277
tax deductible now if

00:33:07.297 --> 00:33:09.219
you're a u.s citizen so all

00:33:09.239 --> 00:33:11.000
of that is is very good but

00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:14.182
I um so I do a lot of I

00:33:14.202 --> 00:33:15.544
look over the applications

00:33:15.584 --> 00:33:17.545
for citizenship I help them

00:33:17.586 --> 00:33:18.645
run background checks on

00:33:18.685 --> 00:33:19.787
people just to make sure

00:33:19.807 --> 00:33:23.009
that they're not you know

00:33:23.450 --> 00:33:24.191
you don't you don't want

00:33:25.113 --> 00:33:26.615
people infiltrating the

00:33:26.654 --> 00:33:28.236
group that have bad

00:33:28.276 --> 00:33:30.699
intentions or people that

00:33:30.798 --> 00:33:32.381
might be looking just to

00:33:32.401 --> 00:33:33.721
get a copy of something

00:33:33.741 --> 00:33:34.742
official so that they can

00:33:34.803 --> 00:33:36.065
counterfeit it and sell it.

00:33:36.424 --> 00:33:37.605
At one point we saw people

00:33:37.767 --> 00:33:38.827
and it was some Chinese

00:33:38.948 --> 00:33:40.470
diploma mill selling

00:33:41.170 --> 00:33:43.049
selling for lots of money,

00:33:43.351 --> 00:33:45.330
diplomas from Ladonia University.

00:33:45.351 --> 00:33:46.330
And that was a joke that

00:33:46.391 --> 00:33:47.852
someone like mocked up a

00:33:47.912 --> 00:33:49.392
certificate and put it on

00:33:49.412 --> 00:33:50.471
the internet years ago.

00:33:50.571 --> 00:33:51.392
And they saw it like, oh,

00:33:51.412 --> 00:33:52.192
this must be real.

00:33:52.732 --> 00:33:54.093
And they started counterfeiting them.

00:33:54.153 --> 00:33:55.633
So you really kind of have

00:33:55.653 --> 00:33:56.733
to keep an eye out for people.

00:33:56.773 --> 00:33:57.034
There's,

00:33:58.374 --> 00:34:01.714
especially in certain developing areas,

00:34:01.755 --> 00:34:02.654
there are people that

00:34:05.159 --> 00:34:06.862
will present access or

00:34:06.942 --> 00:34:09.086
membership in Ledonia as a

00:34:09.146 --> 00:34:11.653
means of entering Europe or

00:34:11.673 --> 00:34:12.694
being allowed to work in Europe.

00:34:13.211 --> 00:34:14.652
And it's not those things.

00:34:14.711 --> 00:34:15.811
And I don't want anyone to

00:34:15.832 --> 00:34:16.772
be taken advantage of.

00:34:16.833 --> 00:34:18.353
So we do try to make sure

00:34:18.393 --> 00:34:19.973
that we're properly vetting

00:34:20.114 --> 00:34:20.854
the applicants.

00:34:21.234 --> 00:34:21.855
So I do that.

00:34:22.835 --> 00:34:23.976
I manage the websites.

00:34:24.855 --> 00:34:28.498
I make sure that the hosting is secure.

00:34:29.057 --> 00:34:29.757
I make sure that we're not

00:34:29.777 --> 00:34:31.418
getting broken into or hacked.

00:34:31.898 --> 00:34:33.599
I've fixed some hacks before.

00:34:33.780 --> 00:34:34.880
When I first became queen,

00:34:34.981 --> 00:34:36.101
I had to rebuild everything

00:34:36.161 --> 00:34:36.840
and I rebuilt it in

00:34:36.860 --> 00:34:41.422
WordPress because it was so hacked.

00:34:41.583 --> 00:34:42.003
Oh, my God.

00:34:42.103 --> 00:34:42.344
It was.

00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:45.780
It was really bad.

00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:46.621
And we were feeling the

00:34:46.641 --> 00:34:48.724
repercussions of how bad

00:34:48.764 --> 00:34:49.505
that hack was because they

00:34:49.525 --> 00:34:52.849
were uploading the JPEGs

00:34:52.869 --> 00:34:53.670
with the executables.

00:34:54.735 --> 00:34:55.737
into the upload directory

00:34:55.836 --> 00:34:56.677
and then triggering them.

00:34:56.717 --> 00:34:57.697
So they, we were getting,

00:34:57.918 --> 00:34:59.398
we had tons of backlinks, which was great,

00:34:59.418 --> 00:35:00.039
but we had tons of

00:35:00.059 --> 00:35:01.280
backlinks for all the wrong reasons.

00:35:02.521 --> 00:35:04.342
So it was, that was a mess.

00:35:05.664 --> 00:35:06.784
And then I had to develop,

00:35:07.184 --> 00:35:08.186
I developed the online

00:35:08.686 --> 00:35:10.387
application system so that

00:35:10.407 --> 00:35:11.887
we could keep track of all

00:35:11.907 --> 00:35:13.369
the citizenship records online.

00:35:13.409 --> 00:35:13.628
Thanks.

00:35:13.648 --> 00:35:15.971
Gravity forms.

00:35:16.050 --> 00:35:17.632
Ledonia is powered by gravity forms.

00:35:18.713 --> 00:35:20.094
Yeah.

00:35:20.114 --> 00:35:21.755
Then I set up the shop and

00:35:21.855 --> 00:35:22.856
we've got the souvenirs.

00:35:22.896 --> 00:35:24.137
So I helped come up with,

00:35:25.007 --> 00:35:26.708
things that we can sell on our shop.

00:35:26.789 --> 00:35:28.730
Like, um, we've got,

00:35:28.750 --> 00:35:33.251
we've got fridge magnets, um,

00:35:33.271 --> 00:35:35.512
fridge magnets, flags, lapel pins,

00:35:35.592 --> 00:35:36.152
metals.

00:35:36.253 --> 00:35:37.373
We, uh,

00:35:37.393 --> 00:35:39.074
this is my fifteenth year on the throne.

00:35:39.135 --> 00:35:40.394
So we've got a new metal

00:35:40.454 --> 00:35:42.056
that's we're offering.

00:35:42.576 --> 00:35:43.456
And I don't know if you can tell,

00:35:43.476 --> 00:35:45.277
but there's, there's like me on it.

00:35:48.318 --> 00:35:50.440
Um, so we sell that in the shop too.

00:35:51.360 --> 00:35:52.041
Just, it's, um,

00:35:52.985 --> 00:35:54.987
It's like multiple

00:35:55.007 --> 00:35:57.228
businesses because then I also have to,

00:35:58.268 --> 00:35:59.849
I'll fly over to Sweden to

00:35:59.889 --> 00:36:03.152
give tours to TV crews a

00:36:03.172 --> 00:36:03.952
few times a year.

00:36:05.353 --> 00:36:06.353
They'll call and they'll say, hey,

00:36:06.373 --> 00:36:07.775
we're going to come with a crew.

00:36:08.195 --> 00:36:08.954
We're going to do a

00:36:09.315 --> 00:36:11.456
documentary for a Japanese TV show.

00:36:11.476 --> 00:36:12.898
I'm like, cool.

00:36:12.918 --> 00:36:13.737
When should we be there?

00:36:14.298 --> 00:36:16.980
And I fly over and I do those things.

00:36:17.099 --> 00:36:18.740
And I wear the tiara and I

00:36:18.780 --> 00:36:19.621
hike through the woods,

00:36:20.902 --> 00:36:21.563
all the fun stuff.

00:36:22.336 --> 00:36:24.420
I hope you have just a ton

00:36:24.440 --> 00:36:26.003
of frequent flyer miles.

00:36:26.083 --> 00:36:27.585
I have so many frequent flyer miles.

00:36:27.664 --> 00:36:28.306
It's not funny.

00:36:29.327 --> 00:36:29.949
I'm from your one K.

00:36:32.188 --> 00:36:34.530
Um, uh, yeah.

00:36:34.550 --> 00:36:37.233
And so people make the track, like I, the,

00:36:37.373 --> 00:36:38.335
the website says it's like

00:36:38.414 --> 00:36:41.237
a. Two point two kilometer hike, uh,

00:36:41.257 --> 00:36:41.978
to get there.

00:36:42.219 --> 00:36:42.498
Uh,

00:36:42.518 --> 00:36:44.099
I saw on the Herald that there are like

00:36:44.141 --> 00:36:45.402
maybe signs, uh,

00:36:45.422 --> 00:36:46.702
that are kept or that's

00:36:46.742 --> 00:36:47.364
probably one of the things

00:36:47.384 --> 00:36:48.364
that needs to be maintained

00:36:48.405 --> 00:36:50.266
to sort of like allow or

00:36:50.286 --> 00:36:51.728
make it easier for people to make that,

00:36:51.847 --> 00:36:52.307
that hike.

00:36:53.068 --> 00:36:53.989
We have to keep putting them

00:36:54.050 --> 00:36:55.331
up because the, um,

00:36:55.512 --> 00:36:56.693
there's rangers at the

00:36:58.596 --> 00:36:59.617
in that area that will take

00:36:59.637 --> 00:37:00.836
them down or they'll put up

00:37:01.077 --> 00:37:02.478
signs that point the wrong direction.

00:37:03.057 --> 00:37:05.259
That's malicious.

00:37:05.619 --> 00:37:06.699
It is super malicious.

00:37:07.920 --> 00:37:09.559
Then they had the audacity

00:37:09.599 --> 00:37:12.001
to put up QR codes to donate,

00:37:12.501 --> 00:37:14.282
but they get the donations.

00:37:17.295 --> 00:37:18.856
It's, it's a constant struggle.

00:37:18.896 --> 00:37:20.135
It's like, you know, you want,

00:37:20.416 --> 00:37:21.657
you want the tourists and

00:37:21.677 --> 00:37:22.536
you want their money,

00:37:22.657 --> 00:37:24.498
but you don't want to let

00:37:24.557 --> 00:37:26.599
us do the maintenance and,

00:37:26.639 --> 00:37:28.059
but you're not doing the maintenance.

00:37:28.478 --> 00:37:31.159
And it's yeah, it's been,

00:37:31.219 --> 00:37:32.360
it's been an ongoing,

00:37:33.420 --> 00:37:34.382
it's been a huge fight.

00:37:34.402 --> 00:37:36.742
I I'm very friendly with my

00:37:36.782 --> 00:37:40.023
lawyer in Sweden and we have a very

00:37:41.476 --> 00:37:42.838
an unreasonably large

00:37:43.117 --> 00:37:44.539
attorney's bill on a

00:37:44.599 --> 00:37:46.639
monthly basis just dealing

00:37:46.659 --> 00:37:48.141
with all of that stuff and

00:37:48.161 --> 00:37:48.961
that's part of the reason

00:37:49.001 --> 00:37:50.422
that we do we sell the

00:37:50.463 --> 00:37:52.704
things and we accept the

00:37:52.724 --> 00:37:54.284
donations is because in

00:37:54.324 --> 00:37:55.826
addition to needing to fund

00:37:55.905 --> 00:37:56.947
the maintenance we also

00:37:56.987 --> 00:37:58.987
have to pay the lawyers to

00:37:59.288 --> 00:38:00.509
be able to continue doing

00:38:00.528 --> 00:38:02.590
that and really I mean I

00:38:02.630 --> 00:38:03.731
suppose we could walk away

00:38:04.371 --> 00:38:05.791
but I feel like I was

00:38:07.764 --> 00:38:09.565
I was entrusted with the

00:38:09.605 --> 00:38:11.666
care of this when they

00:38:11.706 --> 00:38:13.067
elected me and I accepted

00:38:13.086 --> 00:38:14.228
that responsibility so I

00:38:14.248 --> 00:38:15.708
can't just walk away from

00:38:15.728 --> 00:38:16.650
that responsibility.

00:38:17.969 --> 00:38:19.550
I took on this job, I can't quit.

00:38:21.143 --> 00:38:22.844
yeah in this conversation I

00:38:24.164 --> 00:38:26.547
we've you've I've tried not

00:38:26.646 --> 00:38:29.009
to myself uh use phrases

00:38:29.028 --> 00:38:31.271
like real or normal or but

00:38:31.351 --> 00:38:32.152
I've I've heard you say

00:38:32.172 --> 00:38:34.032
this yeah no I mean because

00:38:34.072 --> 00:38:35.574
I want to like give it the

00:38:35.673 --> 00:38:37.615
the respect that it is but

00:38:37.655 --> 00:38:38.936
it is but I've heard you

00:38:38.976 --> 00:38:40.277
say those things and so

00:38:40.297 --> 00:38:43.661
there is like this um it's it's

00:38:45.257 --> 00:38:47.478
a level of tongue-in-cheekness,

00:38:48.119 --> 00:38:51.380
but also it feels like, no,

00:38:51.400 --> 00:38:52.420
we're still actually trying

00:38:52.440 --> 00:38:53.581
to do the thing too.

00:38:53.641 --> 00:38:54.862
It's like we're doing the

00:38:54.902 --> 00:38:56.742
thing and we're self-aware

00:38:56.762 --> 00:38:58.302
that we're like, it's not,

00:38:58.382 --> 00:39:00.083
we're not a recognized nation,

00:39:00.744 --> 00:39:02.184
but we're still going to do

00:39:02.204 --> 00:39:03.686
this because it is a collective,

00:39:03.965 --> 00:39:05.987
like it is still a group or

00:39:06.007 --> 00:39:06.806
an organization that is

00:39:06.867 --> 00:39:08.307
greater than it's some,

00:39:08.628 --> 00:39:10.009
like it's a single thing.

00:39:10.228 --> 00:39:14.130
It's a some collection of individuals.

00:39:14.842 --> 00:39:17.043
So, I mean,

00:39:17.083 --> 00:39:18.204
we really lean into the tongue

00:39:18.224 --> 00:39:19.885
in cheek for a reason.

00:39:20.085 --> 00:39:21.987
One of the reasons is if you

00:39:22.027 --> 00:39:23.447
take yourself too seriously

00:39:23.947 --> 00:39:25.728
and you present yourself as

00:39:27.449 --> 00:39:28.369
a separatist group,

00:39:28.409 --> 00:39:29.311
you will be treated like a

00:39:29.371 --> 00:39:30.090
separatist group.

00:39:30.190 --> 00:39:33.492
And what happens to separatist groups?

00:39:33.532 --> 00:39:34.373
Bad, bad,

00:39:34.413 --> 00:39:35.974
bad things happen to separatist groups.

00:39:36.735 --> 00:39:41.516
So by maintaining a high level of humor,

00:39:42.038 --> 00:39:42.617
we can

00:39:43.666 --> 00:39:46.869
make ourselves,

00:39:46.889 --> 00:39:47.550
we don't want to

00:39:47.690 --> 00:39:48.409
inadvertently make

00:39:48.429 --> 00:39:50.012
ourselves look like a

00:39:50.112 --> 00:39:51.273
bigger threat than we are.

00:39:52.032 --> 00:39:53.173
So that's, that's one thing.

00:39:54.996 --> 00:39:59.820
Does that mean that one of

00:39:59.840 --> 00:40:02.121
the things that I've, I learned,

00:40:02.563 --> 00:40:02.762
you know,

00:40:03.432 --> 00:40:04.152
in business,

00:40:04.554 --> 00:40:05.893
I started in business at a

00:40:05.934 --> 00:40:07.894
very young age and, you know,

00:40:08.835 --> 00:40:09.896
political science going

00:40:09.916 --> 00:40:11.137
through all everything,

00:40:12.016 --> 00:40:13.657
everything is very arbitrary.

00:40:13.797 --> 00:40:14.759
Yes, there are rules,

00:40:14.798 --> 00:40:15.719
but why are there rules?

00:40:15.759 --> 00:40:16.480
There's rules because

00:40:16.519 --> 00:40:17.519
somebody made the rules and

00:40:17.539 --> 00:40:18.460
they usually make the rules

00:40:18.501 --> 00:40:19.701
to preserve the status quo

00:40:20.021 --> 00:40:21.822
and protect what they, what they want.

00:40:22.322 --> 00:40:25.063
So what is the function of

00:40:25.617 --> 00:40:27.438
a nation state these days.

00:40:27.938 --> 00:40:29.860
It used to be to provide protection.

00:40:29.920 --> 00:40:31.282
It used to be to provide

00:40:31.782 --> 00:40:35.106
services and whatnot for its residents.

00:40:35.286 --> 00:40:38.829
But what kind of protection

00:40:38.849 --> 00:40:39.869
are you really giving when

00:40:41.030 --> 00:40:42.331
borders are porous now?

00:40:42.693 --> 00:40:43.733
We're certainly not doing a

00:40:43.773 --> 00:40:45.454
good job keeping invaders out.

00:40:49.963 --> 00:40:51.324
Anybody can get missiles.

00:40:51.463 --> 00:40:52.224
Like there's just,

00:40:52.304 --> 00:40:53.284
there's so much going on.

00:40:53.403 --> 00:40:53.623
I don't,

00:40:53.744 --> 00:40:57.565
I don't entirely understand how

00:40:57.786 --> 00:40:59.146
the nation state as we've

00:40:59.286 --> 00:41:02.288
known it for the past, you know, however,

00:41:02.327 --> 00:41:04.248
hundreds of years is going

00:41:04.289 --> 00:41:05.608
to continue in its current

00:41:05.728 --> 00:41:06.809
form other than just

00:41:06.849 --> 00:41:08.090
through force and inertia.

00:41:08.730 --> 00:41:09.731
It's, it's not,

00:41:10.190 --> 00:41:10.731
I don't think it's

00:41:10.871 --> 00:41:13.512
necessary to preserve all

00:41:13.552 --> 00:41:15.353
of the borders exactly as

00:41:15.393 --> 00:41:16.172
they are right now.

00:41:16.472 --> 00:41:17.853
And that's another thing that I think,

00:41:19.436 --> 00:41:21.159
makes it easier for people

00:41:21.338 --> 00:41:22.460
in certain parts of the

00:41:22.500 --> 00:41:24.902
world to be okay with the

00:41:25.001 --> 00:41:27.684
idea of a new state because

00:41:27.864 --> 00:41:31.027
their borders were only

00:41:31.067 --> 00:41:33.088
established within their living memory.

00:41:34.269 --> 00:41:36.552
Pakistan didn't exist, was it,

00:41:36.592 --> 00:41:37.932
seventy five years ago?

00:41:37.972 --> 00:41:38.594
Something like that.

00:41:39.594 --> 00:41:40.695
There are people alive that

00:41:40.916 --> 00:41:42.536
remember when Pakistan wasn't a thing.

00:41:42.556 --> 00:41:43.518
There are people alive that

00:41:43.557 --> 00:41:44.759
were born in the USSR.

00:41:45.637 --> 00:41:46.396
They're, you know,

00:41:46.496 --> 00:41:49.018
so they know that states

00:41:49.038 --> 00:41:50.958
can come and go and borders

00:41:50.978 --> 00:41:51.739
can be redrawn.

00:41:52.139 --> 00:41:53.099
In the U.S., though,

00:41:53.739 --> 00:41:56.940
nobody remembers the Revolutionary War.

00:41:57.000 --> 00:41:58.219
You know, in England,

00:41:58.460 --> 00:42:00.121
nobody remembers them not

00:42:00.181 --> 00:42:01.860
being a country.

00:42:01.981 --> 00:42:04.141
Nobody remembers Scotland being separate.

00:42:04.981 --> 00:42:05.641
They say they do,

00:42:05.681 --> 00:42:09.282
but there's no actual awareness of that.

00:42:09.362 --> 00:42:14.804
So I think we could reasonably...

00:42:16.311 --> 00:42:17.150
if we're successful,

00:42:17.251 --> 00:42:19.512
demonstrate that we could

00:42:19.552 --> 00:42:22.492
have new political

00:42:22.532 --> 00:42:26.315
divisions and sections created,

00:42:27.074 --> 00:42:28.655
hopefully without bloodshed.

00:42:28.675 --> 00:42:29.416
Because really,

00:42:29.655 --> 00:42:31.157
if you look at all of the

00:42:32.336 --> 00:42:33.818
majority of prior

00:42:34.677 --> 00:42:36.338
nation-making and state-making,

00:42:37.139 --> 00:42:38.179
it's all involved a lot of

00:42:38.579 --> 00:42:39.460
bloody revolution.

00:42:39.860 --> 00:42:41.059
And I would like to think

00:42:41.099 --> 00:42:43.380
that humanity has grown to

00:42:43.420 --> 00:42:45.001
a point where we can have

00:42:45.693 --> 00:42:47.474
conversations and reach

00:42:47.554 --> 00:42:49.677
agreements about borders

00:42:49.717 --> 00:42:53.539
and groupings and political

00:42:53.599 --> 00:42:56.740
entities that doesn't involve bloodshed.

00:42:57.121 --> 00:42:57.981
And that's really kind of

00:42:58.041 --> 00:42:59.983
what I'm interested in

00:43:00.023 --> 00:43:03.945
doing is how do we serve a

00:43:04.025 --> 00:43:07.146
group of constituents that... Well,

00:43:07.186 --> 00:43:08.588
group of constituents, that's redundant.

00:43:08.688 --> 00:43:10.869
You know what I meant.

00:43:11.030 --> 00:43:12.831
How do we serve our constituents

00:43:15.340 --> 00:43:17.224
in a way that is useful to their lives,

00:43:18.005 --> 00:43:19.487
but also have this be

00:43:19.567 --> 00:43:21.690
recognized and acknowledged

00:43:22.269 --> 00:43:24.293
by these greater

00:43:24.452 --> 00:43:25.614
organizations that have

00:43:25.655 --> 00:43:27.016
decided that they own everything.

00:43:27.797 --> 00:43:30.201
And you can't get into the UN

00:43:30.867 --> 00:43:32.128
because you have to be,

00:43:32.387 --> 00:43:33.507
you have to be sponsored by

00:43:33.527 --> 00:43:34.489
another state and none of

00:43:34.509 --> 00:43:35.449
the other states, part of the,

00:43:35.789 --> 00:43:36.650
part of the charter is

00:43:36.949 --> 00:43:37.929
you're not going to violate

00:43:37.949 --> 00:43:39.170
the territorial integrity

00:43:39.771 --> 00:43:41.251
of any of the member states

00:43:41.411 --> 00:43:42.813
and everybody's claimed all

00:43:42.833 --> 00:43:43.893
of the land everywhere.

00:43:44.233 --> 00:43:45.213
So you can't make a new

00:43:45.293 --> 00:43:46.974
state because anyone who's

00:43:47.014 --> 00:43:47.894
trying to make a new state

00:43:47.934 --> 00:43:48.574
is violating the

00:43:48.594 --> 00:43:50.476
territorial integrity of somebody,

00:43:52.336 --> 00:43:53.418
you know, it's just, it's,

00:43:54.237 --> 00:43:55.559
it's just all very arbitrary.

00:43:55.659 --> 00:43:57.880
And I'm, I, I,

00:43:58.440 --> 00:43:59.762
would personally like to see

00:44:00.481 --> 00:44:02.762
if we can do anything to,

00:44:03.682 --> 00:44:05.503
to move that a little bit,

00:44:05.523 --> 00:44:07.684
because it's not, I don't know.

00:44:07.744 --> 00:44:07.965
I don't,

00:44:08.045 --> 00:44:09.144
I don't know that it's going to be

00:44:09.286 --> 00:44:11.686
continue to be useful to

00:44:11.746 --> 00:44:13.306
run the way it is right now.

00:44:13.327 --> 00:44:16.309
I don't know that that got really deep.

00:44:16.329 --> 00:44:17.849
Sorry.

00:44:17.889 --> 00:44:21.530
Well, no, I think that that's, that's, I,

00:44:21.971 --> 00:44:26.672
I love that there is equal parts

00:44:28.327 --> 00:44:32.811
like satire and that level

00:44:33.072 --> 00:44:36.135
of seriousness and levity.

00:44:37.076 --> 00:44:38.237
It's very much like,

00:44:39.465 --> 00:44:40.385
It's very much like, you know,

00:44:40.425 --> 00:44:42.387
the Monty Python telling

00:44:42.867 --> 00:44:44.268
the story of history or something,

00:44:44.289 --> 00:44:44.568
you know?

00:44:45.349 --> 00:44:48.231
Where, like, we're making fun,

00:44:48.311 --> 00:44:49.373
but also we're making fun

00:44:49.413 --> 00:44:50.673
of very real things.

00:44:50.773 --> 00:44:51.614
And, like, you know,

00:44:51.635 --> 00:44:53.657
the conversation... Like,

00:44:53.737 --> 00:44:55.597
it's the scene where the

00:44:55.717 --> 00:44:59.280
Anachro Commune with King, you know...

00:45:00.141 --> 00:45:02.422
uh king arthur uh and and

00:45:02.442 --> 00:45:03.762
the inaccurate communist

00:45:03.822 --> 00:45:04.603
conversation which it's a

00:45:04.682 --> 00:45:06.023
very real conversation but

00:45:06.043 --> 00:45:08.103
it's a very hugely

00:45:08.182 --> 00:45:09.903
ridiculous like like

00:45:10.324 --> 00:45:12.344
surreal like this wouldn't

00:45:12.384 --> 00:45:13.903
happen but it's but it like

00:45:14.083 --> 00:45:15.324
it's bringing up very real

00:45:15.364 --> 00:45:16.144
things and I think that

00:45:16.164 --> 00:45:18.224
that's the perfect delivery

00:45:18.284 --> 00:45:21.766
mechanism for like actual

00:45:22.306 --> 00:45:24.646
sort of social or political

00:45:24.746 --> 00:45:27.766
commentary is through humor um and i

00:45:29.532 --> 00:45:31.534
Well, I was I was working on a book.

00:45:32.273 --> 00:45:33.833
I wanted to explain like one

00:45:33.853 --> 00:45:35.255
of the things I get a lot

00:45:35.315 --> 00:45:36.594
personally is you're not

00:45:36.614 --> 00:45:37.635
you're not a real queen.

00:45:38.976 --> 00:45:39.795
Can't elect a queen.

00:45:40.235 --> 00:45:41.735
You can have an elective monarchy.

00:45:41.795 --> 00:45:43.297
Elective monarchies exist.

00:45:43.976 --> 00:45:45.277
These things are not unheard

00:45:45.317 --> 00:45:46.757
of in history and people

00:45:46.777 --> 00:45:47.597
don't talk about it.

00:45:48.077 --> 00:45:49.739
It's Belgium.

00:45:50.338 --> 00:45:50.559
Right.

00:45:51.045 --> 00:45:51.907
Who are the Belgians?

00:45:52.427 --> 00:45:54.389
Are the Belgians a nationality?

00:45:54.429 --> 00:45:55.690
Are they an ethnicity?

00:45:55.831 --> 00:45:56.492
One of the things is you

00:45:56.532 --> 00:45:57.211
can't have a country

00:45:57.251 --> 00:45:58.474
because you don't have a

00:45:58.514 --> 00:46:00.295
historical claim to a

00:46:00.356 --> 00:46:01.476
cohesive group of people

00:46:01.516 --> 00:46:03.219
that share a common culture, right?

00:46:03.539 --> 00:46:04.880
There's no such thing as Belgians.

00:46:04.960 --> 00:46:06.181
Belgians is a new thing.

00:46:06.262 --> 00:46:07.222
And it was a new thing.

00:46:07.302 --> 00:46:09.826
It's younger than the United States by,

00:46:09.846 --> 00:46:10.666
I think, a hundred years.

00:46:11.527 --> 00:46:12.688
There was no

00:46:14.871 --> 00:46:16.273
There is no ethnic group of

00:46:16.313 --> 00:46:17.295
people called Belgians.

00:46:17.775 --> 00:46:19.677
There's like a bunch of

00:46:19.717 --> 00:46:21.400
different states and they

00:46:21.420 --> 00:46:22.262
were all part of either

00:46:22.342 --> 00:46:23.903
France or Denmark or

00:46:24.043 --> 00:46:25.846
Flanders and Germans.

00:46:25.945 --> 00:46:26.887
And they're all like kind of

00:46:26.987 --> 00:46:28.389
mishmashed in this little area.

00:46:28.949 --> 00:46:30.592
And because they were trying

00:46:30.612 --> 00:46:31.534
to get away from

00:46:32.420 --> 00:46:34.701
you know, being tossed back and forth.

00:46:34.721 --> 00:46:35.561
I think it was between

00:46:35.621 --> 00:46:36.902
France and the Danes.

00:46:36.922 --> 00:46:39.682
Now I'm spacing on some of the details.

00:46:40.402 --> 00:46:41.583
They eventually decided to

00:46:41.603 --> 00:46:42.244
try to make their own

00:46:42.284 --> 00:46:43.704
country and they tried to do it twice.

00:46:44.103 --> 00:46:45.105
The second time stuck.

00:46:45.625 --> 00:46:46.804
They elected a king.

00:46:47.144 --> 00:46:48.186
Was he always the king?

00:46:48.346 --> 00:46:50.186
No, they elected him.

00:46:50.246 --> 00:46:51.047
That was an election.

00:46:52.420 --> 00:46:53.820
The Vatican is an absolute

00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:56.181
monarchy and that monarch

00:46:56.282 --> 00:46:57.382
is the Pope and he's

00:46:57.443 --> 00:46:59.684
elected every time because

00:46:59.724 --> 00:47:00.565
they're priests and they

00:47:00.585 --> 00:47:01.146
don't have children,

00:47:01.206 --> 00:47:03.567
but that's another story.

00:47:04.228 --> 00:47:06.349
Mexico had an emperor and

00:47:06.389 --> 00:47:08.389
the emperor was just

00:47:08.489 --> 00:47:12.492
installed by Napoleon, I think.

00:47:13.481 --> 00:47:13.882
Yeah,

00:47:13.902 --> 00:47:15.583
it was one of the younger brothers of

00:47:15.603 --> 00:47:16.606
the Habsburg Empire.

00:47:17.246 --> 00:47:17.887
And then the U.S.

00:47:17.907 --> 00:47:19.048
decided that we didn't want

00:47:19.250 --> 00:47:21.974
a monarchy on North America,

00:47:22.034 --> 00:47:22.735
on our continent,

00:47:22.755 --> 00:47:25.878
so we gave a bunch of guns to them,

00:47:25.978 --> 00:47:28.262
and I think to Benito Juarez, and he...

00:47:29.586 --> 00:47:30.768
put emperor maximilian up

00:47:30.788 --> 00:47:31.588
against a wall and killed

00:47:31.608 --> 00:47:33.231
him um but anyway that's

00:47:33.251 --> 00:47:35.132
another story there's a lot

00:47:35.152 --> 00:47:36.032
there's a lot of things so

00:47:36.052 --> 00:47:36.793
when when I get this

00:47:36.833 --> 00:47:38.014
pushback like you can't you

00:47:38.054 --> 00:47:39.996
can't do x because of y I

00:47:40.036 --> 00:47:41.077
can think of historical

00:47:41.119 --> 00:47:42.719
precedents where absolutely

00:47:42.800 --> 00:47:44.942
I can and this is this

00:47:45.001 --> 00:47:46.063
doesn't make it not real

00:47:46.083 --> 00:47:46.903
this just makes it not

00:47:46.963 --> 00:47:47.704
something you're used to

00:47:47.744 --> 00:47:49.306
seeing so just because it's

00:47:49.327 --> 00:47:51.248
something's not familiar to

00:47:51.289 --> 00:47:52.349
you doesn't make it fake

00:47:52.929 --> 00:47:54.050
Does that make sense?

00:47:54.110 --> 00:47:54.550
Yeah.

00:47:54.630 --> 00:47:55.391
Yeah, absolutely.

00:47:56.490 --> 00:48:00.492
Well, thank you so much, Your Majesty,

00:48:00.512 --> 00:48:03.293
for coming on my humble little show.

00:48:03.873 --> 00:48:06.094
Do you have any sort of

00:48:06.215 --> 00:48:08.394
parting thoughts or links

00:48:08.414 --> 00:48:09.755
that you want to share or

00:48:09.856 --> 00:48:10.556
anything that you would

00:48:10.576 --> 00:48:12.197
like to say for anyone that

00:48:12.237 --> 00:48:15.097
finds this podcast episode

00:48:15.137 --> 00:48:16.938
or this video on the internets?

00:48:17.518 --> 00:48:17.938
Oh, geez.

00:48:18.996 --> 00:48:19.195
Well,

00:48:19.295 --> 00:48:21.878
if you're interested in supporting us

00:48:22.077 --> 00:48:23.559
and our maintenance of the

00:48:23.639 --> 00:48:24.900
artworks in Sweden or

00:48:24.960 --> 00:48:27.543
supporting our efforts to, you know,

00:48:27.603 --> 00:48:29.224
just try to redefine what a

00:48:29.264 --> 00:48:30.144
nation state is,

00:48:30.184 --> 00:48:32.186
you can go to ledonia.org.

00:48:32.806 --> 00:48:34.487
And that is our primary website.

00:48:34.867 --> 00:48:35.789
You can make donations.

00:48:35.809 --> 00:48:36.909
You can become a citizen if

00:48:36.929 --> 00:48:38.331
you're interested in a noble title.

00:48:38.391 --> 00:48:39.972
I think I can make that happen for you,

00:48:40.012 --> 00:48:40.192
too.

00:48:42.788 --> 00:48:44.309
It's pretty self-explanatory,

00:48:44.349 --> 00:48:45.510
but if you have any questions,

00:48:45.909 --> 00:48:47.030
we've got a phone number

00:48:47.371 --> 00:48:48.351
that's on the website.

00:48:48.692 --> 00:48:49.952
We've got email that's also

00:48:50.012 --> 00:48:50.293
on the website.

00:48:50.313 --> 00:48:51.853
Who answers the phone for LaDonia?

00:48:54.135 --> 00:48:54.856
My secretary.

00:48:59.059 --> 00:49:02.021
So, yeah, that's a long story.

00:49:03.021 --> 00:49:04.023
That's a long story.

00:49:04.556 --> 00:49:06.217
Anyway, um, so we do have,

00:49:06.376 --> 00:49:07.297
we do have a phone number

00:49:07.398 --> 00:49:08.338
if anyone wants to call.

00:49:08.918 --> 00:49:10.820
Um, I'll be, I'll be at WordCamp.

00:49:11.021 --> 00:49:11.641
So, uh,

00:49:11.681 --> 00:49:12.882
you can probably find me at the

00:49:12.922 --> 00:49:14.422
Yoast booth if you,

00:49:14.443 --> 00:49:15.202
if you look hard enough.

00:49:15.483 --> 00:49:16.583
I will not be wearing the

00:49:16.623 --> 00:49:18.045
crown because you don't wear,

00:49:18.786 --> 00:49:19.907
you don't wear diamonds in

00:49:19.947 --> 00:49:21.188
the daytime for one thing.

00:49:21.447 --> 00:49:24.070
And you also don't wear the, the,

00:49:24.090 --> 00:49:25.550
the heavy duty jewelry when

00:49:25.570 --> 00:49:27.552
you're not in white tie or

00:49:27.751 --> 00:49:28.572
at a state event.

00:49:28.753 --> 00:49:30.634
And this does not qualify as those things.

00:49:30.673 --> 00:49:33.255
So I will not be wearing the, uh,

00:49:34.202 --> 00:49:36.224
the big heavy hardware.

00:49:36.764 --> 00:49:38.425
I am learning so much about

00:49:38.605 --> 00:49:39.784
a Royal protocol.

00:49:40.405 --> 00:49:40.945
Oh my gosh.

00:49:41.126 --> 00:49:41.945
I have a protocol.

00:49:42.567 --> 00:49:43.706
I have a protocol officer

00:49:44.427 --> 00:49:47.148
who helps me pick wardrobes,

00:49:47.208 --> 00:49:49.190
tells me what I need to wear when there's,

00:49:49.389 --> 00:49:52.490
there's like, so I, I get a lot of, um,

00:49:52.951 --> 00:49:53.610
awards.

00:49:54.391 --> 00:49:55.711
I have a lot of orders and,

00:49:55.831 --> 00:49:57.273
and metals that I've received from,

00:49:57.492 --> 00:49:58.353
from other places.

00:49:58.974 --> 00:50:00.414
And there's a protocol in

00:50:00.474 --> 00:50:03.695
terms of what you wear in what position

00:50:04.333 --> 00:50:06.416
in what combination based on

00:50:06.617 --> 00:50:07.398
where you're going,

00:50:07.438 --> 00:50:09.079
who's hosting and who

00:50:09.099 --> 00:50:09.820
you're representing.

00:50:11.222 --> 00:50:13.505
So he's got like, he's got like this,

00:50:13.945 --> 00:50:14.425
this line,

00:50:14.567 --> 00:50:16.208
Ikea line drawing basically of

00:50:16.248 --> 00:50:19.112
a lady in a gown and be like, okay,

00:50:19.472 --> 00:50:20.554
you wear this sash,

00:50:20.934 --> 00:50:22.396
you wear it left to right

00:50:22.416 --> 00:50:23.297
or right to left.

00:50:23.356 --> 00:50:23.878
And then you wear

00:50:24.273 --> 00:50:25.534
these pins and this location,

00:50:25.574 --> 00:50:26.875
he colors it in for me.

00:50:26.914 --> 00:50:28.335
So I have a color coded map

00:50:28.394 --> 00:50:29.056
of what I'm supposed to

00:50:29.096 --> 00:50:30.556
pack and where I'm supposed

00:50:30.576 --> 00:50:31.657
to attach it to the dress.

00:50:32.317 --> 00:50:34.777
So I have learned a great

00:50:34.818 --> 00:50:37.039
deal through the course of

00:50:37.079 --> 00:50:38.099
this adventure.

00:50:39.431 --> 00:50:40.150
Well,

00:50:40.291 --> 00:50:42.811
thanks again for your royal

00:50:42.871 --> 00:50:44.492
benevolence and also for

00:50:44.532 --> 00:50:45.592
coming on to my show.

00:50:46.952 --> 00:50:49.992
And I'll see you in a month at WordCamp,

00:50:50.213 --> 00:50:51.552
although that will have

00:50:51.632 --> 00:50:52.693
already happened by the

00:50:52.713 --> 00:50:54.494
time this episode comes out.

00:50:55.454 --> 00:50:56.653
But yeah,

00:50:56.693 --> 00:50:58.434
anybody who's watching or seeing

00:50:58.454 --> 00:51:00.775
this can go to ladonia.org

00:51:00.815 --> 00:51:01.875
and learn all the things

00:51:01.894 --> 00:51:02.715
and go down the rabbit hole

00:51:02.735 --> 00:51:03.434
that I went down.

00:51:04.614 --> 00:51:05.594
And again,

00:51:06.175 --> 00:51:08.016
thanks for coming on and we'll

00:51:08.036 --> 00:51:08.735
see you on the internet.

00:51:09.527 --> 00:51:10.231
Thanks for having me.