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The Great Reshuffling

6/21/2023

San Antonio Missions, Texas — Mission San José

Howdy, folks,

I realized about a year ago that the riddles needed some love. They had been in autopilot for a while, and so I decided to reorganize them with a close friend. Most remain in the same place, many have moved, and some have been rewritten. They have all, I hope, been made better. The balance between beginning, middling, and challenging is more even, and I hope the reformatting is helpful to those of you who engage in the riddle-game. As always, let me know if you have any guesses, and I'll help you along or tell you if you're correct!

Hope you're all enjoying Tears.

- T

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Once Again Upon Us

5/11/2023

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Well, a new Zelda game is once again upon us. Tears of the Kingdom (as is news to no one at this point) drops tomorrow. Already the reviews are rolling out, but I'm avoiding them like lice. (A good review is like a good stew: it takes a lovely simmering of a good many things over a long period of time.)

To mark the occasion, I just finished the article on Hyrule's Lodges, which is now up. Happy reading, and happy playing.

- Talbot

Sencha tea in a gaiwan -- a spring afternoon

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Monster Strongholds

3/5/2023

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West Lake, Hangzhou, China. Taken by me.

Well, it's been a while, which is par for the course. Life goes on, with me feeling like butter scraped over too much bread. Welcome to modernity, eh? But, overall, I'm as content as a clam doing what I'm doing. Life is continually interesting, and I've no complaints. (And what good does complaining do, anyway?)

New article up on Monster Strongholds in Breath of the Wild, which leaves me with just two (???) more articles left. I realized the other day that I've been writing about that game for SIX YEARS now. That's sobering. And Tears of the Kingdom (a name I don't love) comes out very soon, which means even more content about which to write. I was hoping to have one game done before the next came out, but that's highly unlikely, given that I still need to write a probably-vast article about Hylian architecture. But, first, Lodges!
- T

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Human Projects and Apish Sentiments

9/26/2022

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More and more I feel like these three absurd apes building a trestle table: I have vague pretensions to understanding or knowledge, but then I realize my primate fallibility and wonder just what my trestle table is for: is it a firm foundation for understanding, a platform for greater knowledge, or just a nice place to sit and eat bananas? Ultimately, it's a bit of all three. I really do view humanity and its work as important (at least for humanity, and perhaps also for the universe), but I also think we need to remind ourselves of our apish history and sensibilities. This has the happy result of achieving two things: it allows us to laugh at ourselves while simultaneously bringing us a sense of true awe as we witness just what we've accomplished in spite (or perhaps because?) of our limitations. We seem quite jumped-up little creatures, and yet we've managed skyscrapers, DNA, and depictions of three apes building a trestle table. And, really, is there more we could do? Probably not.

Why this little reflection? Well, I am a reflective person, I suppose, and lately I've been particularly perplexed at the state of human knowledge and epistemology. We seem to simultaneously know so much, and yet so precious little. We also seem to not know how we know what we claim to know. Questions like these seem to trouble few people, likely as they open the floodgates of bottomless skepticism or aimless navel-gazing, but they are worth thinking about. Buddhism holds that ignorance is one of the Three Poisons, and this valley of confusion might be a necessary journey for most of us. As we get along our path, it might behoove us to remember the above image. "What am I but an ape building a trestle table?"

This is all to say: I've completed a new article on the Great Fairy Fountains of Hyrule, and it is . . . as vibrant as the Great Fairies themselves. And I will say no more. Good night, sweet dreams, and happy waking.

- Talbot

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Looking for Cool Safflina . . .

8/6/2022

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Summer has felt a small eternity, full of comings and goings. I haven't been home in about two months, which has taken something of a toll on me, though the travels have been joyous and meaningful. School begins soon, and it should prove a busy semester. Trying to get through some personal projects before then, including a (short) essay on the Great Fairy Fountains from Breath of the Wild. Otherwise, just a few new riddles and some new headings for the website!

Summer is always an odd time for me, torn as I am between the doing of things and the reflecting on them. On one hand, I desire to be "out and about" in the world, as I have been for the past two months; yet, on the other, I desire to curl up under a tree and read poetry, doing nothing but loaf around. And the closer we get to autumn, the stronger the second pull will become, until activity comes largely to a halt (as it moves to more mental landscapes). Hope you're all well, and surviving the current heat.

- Talbot

At the MET's Cloisters in New York

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Long Ways to Go Yet . . .

2/4/2022

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On a lake in Wisconsin in a long-past summer.

The semester is now duly underway! I must say that my brain is not naturally built for linear regression (or statistics more generally). But, as with all things, I'll give it a go and try to pick up and master what I can.

I hope things are well with you wherever you are. We are in month 7,832 of winter here in New England, and I am beginning to feel the siren-call of springtime. I want little more than to open my door and feel a warming breeze . . .

On a more germane topic to our purposes, today I sat down for a bit of reflection on this website, and revamped the "About the Author" section. I don't know if this section holds value at all, or if it is just an exercise of the ego-self, but there you have a bit of a window into what I'm up to here: my process and person.

- Talbot

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"I was . . . delayed."

11/6/2021

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Along the coast of Maine, late October, 2021.

Good evening, all,

Well, the Rito article has, as of two minutes ago, finally been published. It is somewhat extensive, which explains why it took me so long. There is a surprising amount of depth behind the Rito (at least for the discerning gamer), and I hope the article can shed some light upon their culture's inspiration. I had planned on uploading it the last day of October, but was detained a bit from that goal due to an unplanned camping trip to Maine. (Let us say that it was . . . cold.)

That said, with the Rito finished, all the non-Hylian races have been covered, which leaves me with just a few things: Hyrule Castle and other Hylian structures, the Forgotten Temple, the strange Labyrinths and the Lomei Culture, and, potentially, a wee article on the Great Fairy Fountains. Please let me know if you have preferences, or any ideas for articles of your own. I'm always open to suggestions. As always, happy reading.

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Serotinal Update

8/28/2021

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Nagas at a temple in Luang Prabang, Laos

Hey, all . . .

I am indeed alive (thanks to those of you who've asked)! I just completed my move to Connecticut, marking my first time in New England. I'll be starting my PhD here soon (no, not in architecture, but in Educational Psychology), so things are only bound to get busier. That said, this is a project I'll never abandon, even if article-production slows to the pace of a snail.

For those that are wondering, the Rito article is close-ish to done, and I've also added a secret compartment to the website where you can access other things I've written ⁠— as a few of you have asked about my short stories and poems.

Happy hunting, and be well.

Talbot

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A Rough Guide to Riddling

3/29/2021

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Bilbo and Gollum exchanging riddles in the 1977 animated movie "The Hobbit".

Whimsically, I decided to write a brief essay about the riddles on this website, and about riddling in general. The essay discusses these things to varying degrees:

1) What's a riddle?
2) What do riddles do, and why bother?
3) Why Zelda riddles? How are they different?
4) How can we solve them?

It's not an overly-involved or profound article, but, as I really do enjoy the game of riddling, I thought I'd share my thoughts. The article on the Rito is (slowly) coming along!

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Thanks to a Tea-brick

2/21/2021

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“There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.”

– Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living [Author's note: please consider reading this book.]

Well, it finally happened. The 1999 tea-brick finally yielded a pot of tea. I thought it'd never be touched. My roommate had it sitting on the shelf for years. Years. I tell you this not because it was an incredible cup of tea (although it was, and if you're familiar with pu'er, you'll know that it tasted like a deep pile of semi-wet hay in an untouched barn, in the best sense possible), but because it finally got me thinking about Zelda architecture again; things had been in a dry-spell since I began to apply to grad school last year, worrying about this, that, and the other thing. But now that I'm just waiting on responses (with only the "normal" exigencies of life), the tea breathed life anew into me, just as the water breathed life into it after so long a time. Wonderful the serendipity, the parallelism, no? Teakind, humankind; so the leaf, so the man. Thus, an article on the Rito is in the writing. I have gathered and collected what I could find, and now I shall begin the lovely process of word-putting.

On another note, if you haven't already, please, under the "Recommended Readings" section of this website, check out the stories written by my friend Steffen Schmidt. I was reading and editing an alpha-version of a story he's currently working on today (concerning Zelda, of course), and it was so beautiful as to knock my proverbial socks off. I cannot highly enough recommend you to it. And I know it would mean the world to him.

Fat snowflakes fall outside, but the inner world is warm. I hope you're all doing well.

- T

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