 Hyrule's symbol of gratitude. | Happy Thanksgiving, all, or to those of you who celebrate. But, even if you don't, you should always take a few moments in appreciation of where you are in life: remembering those that came before you, those that support you in this life, and even those who are living a world apart whom you will never see or know. It's an interconnected world out there, and we need to look after one another. The article about Tarrey Town and Modular Architecture is up, as of a few minutes ago. It was a pretty crunchy topic to think about (and also to write about), but it was worthwhile in the end, as I learned something new about architecture and about myself. (Those two things intersect more than I would ever have thought.) Anyway, happy reading, and thanks for your time and readership. - Talbot |
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 A few housekeeping notes:
1) There is a new article on Dodongo's Cavern within the Ocarina of Time menu; I had originally skipped the Cavern, not finding much of architectural worth within it, but recently had a random thought that I should cover it, at least in some depth. So I did. As I expected, there was not too much to analyze or discover, but it was still an enjoyable afternoon, and yielded some interesting findings. 2) Another new article can be found under the Random Articles tab, and it concerns game design within the Great Deku Tree. As a warning, I have no experience writing about game design; I simply felt moved to try my hand at it. I hope the result is worthwhile. And, as a final note to all my Buddhist friends and fellow sangha members around the world, happy birthday to Siddhartha Gautama; may all sentient beings find peace and equanimity.
Some research (though there is not much on the topic) shows that the use of hyperlinks in articles, e-books, and their ilk radically interrupts our engagement in a piece. (If curious, look into the work of Nicholas Carr.) Each hyperlink, while potentially useful, also represents a Carrollian rabbit hole of twisting, shifting information. Each thing we click on reveals a new visual world to take in, changing our attention momentarily, separating us from the work with which we are engaged. Each new stimulus rips us from our object of focus. And it takes us far longer than we realize to become refocused. I don't want to drag on about this, but I think it is a thing very important - that we control our own attention. Few things are as important as that. Without the ability to place our attention where we want and when, we are basically slaves to impulse and random stimuli. To that end, I try to strip this website of everything unnecessary: ads, comment sections, hashtags, etc.
The internet is distressing because it encourages fast-paced skimming, flitting around between media, a plethora of simultaneous stimuli, and efficiency over depth, none of which is good for our psychological well-being or cultivated habits. I hope this all makes sense. As always, I'm interested in your thoughts, as well. - Talbot A few mental mathoms* for you all:
1) More riddles have nestled into their homes among the others this past week; a few were added to the "Middling" section, and a few to the "Simple" section. I encourage you to hone your linguistic and mental faculties upon them! (They're not too difficult, of course, but even a moment's thought can be the equivalent of a few jumping jacks.) 2) The holidays, while wonderful, have meant that I've given almost no time to anything Zelda-related for a few weeks; I have been playing through the new DLC (to mixed review) slowly, and am perhaps close to the end, now. 3) The next article will be on Kakariko Village, which means that I need to venture in time thousands of years (perhaps only hundreds, depending on our timeline here) to new eras in Japanese history, alighting on some sense of vernacular architecture (being the "folk" architecture of homes and public structures). I really loved this incarnation of Kakariko, and I have quite a bit to say, especially concerning the music, which I greatly enjoy. Winter wellbeing to everyone. Until next year, Talbot *Mathom - an old word of the Hobbit-dialect, not recorded as being in use outside the Shire. It was used to refer to "trinkets" or any item that had no particular immediate use.
This is more house-keeping than anything else, but some of you may have noticed that the forums walked off into the wilderness and were never seen again; in talking with someone from Weebly, they reported that: "The Tal.ki forum was not a service provided directly by Weebly and was not a tool over which we had even the slightest control. We added it to our editor in partnership with Tal.ki in order to provide our users an easy way to simply drag a forum on to their site, however after several issues with the forum element we elected to discontinue its use and removed it from the elements tray." So, in short, there was nothing to be done. Apologies on my end, as well, for not notifying any of you in advance.
That said, I will soon be embedding another forum into the site, so that communication can flow again. You'll soon know what that looks like. And, again, I apologize for any inconvenience. On an article-related note, I am about halfway done with an article on Ancient Sheikah art and architecture; there has been a lot of fascinating research over the past weeks, and now I finally get to play Breath of the Wild with a critical eye toward architecture. The article should be released within a few weeks. Thanks for your patience. - Talbot Though the title says it all, I'll explain it a bit more. As I have just finished my Breath of the Wild review (which took longer than I imagined it would, as per norm), I finally have something to post! Being the first thing concerning Breath of the Wild that I've written, I now need somewhere to store it; to that end, you will now be able to find a section entitled "Breath of the Wild" under the Articles header. As I write more about the game, that is where things will be located, as with everything else game-related on this website. If you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to reach out.
Thanks for your patience, and please enjoy! Best, Talbot |
