Expertologist » Expertology

Expertology & You

chrislamb — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:00:13 +0000

As part of my ongoing effort to figure out what exactly I want to do with this space (where “ongoing” means “every once and while, when it occurs to me”), I’ve borrowed an idea from the Michael Bay school of thought – in place of direction, make it bigger. So I’ve added a tumblr to the site, as that’s what all the kids are in to when they are driving around in their raps and shooting up all the jobs. If you also have a tumblr, feel free to follow me and I’ll follow you back.

Right now the idea for Expertology & You is two-fold: give me a place to throw random odds and ends from the internet that I think are interesting, funny, or whatever else but don’t feel like writing a full post here about, and to ease me back in to the routine of blogging. I don’t want this to be a “sorry I haven’t posted” post, but it has been a while, and I feel a need to give this space some purpose beyond talking about other people’s games I like or don’t like (which is what it’s largely been so far). Whether that means talking more about game design and my own work, side projects I’m involved in or looking to start, or just posting screen grabs from Parks & Recreation with text from The Dark Knight Returns over them is what I’m trying to work out now, and the new tumblr (you can get there via the tabs at the top of the page) is part of that.

It’s a process.

A Correction

chrislamb — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:35:38 +0000

It has been brought to my attention by certain parties (which will remain nameless) that the caricature presented in yesterday’s post of a poor, hard suffering girlfriend eking out a grim shadow of normal life while laboring under the verbal shackles of my frequent dissertations on the subject of Fallout 3 and it’s unusually high awesomenicity quotient may have been, to a degree, false. In effort to rectify this falsehood before it worms its way too deeply into the framework of tubes making up this electronical communication array of ours, I offer a correction in the form of a more accurate portrait of the reality of the situation. In truth, the special lady friend in question (referred to henceforth as “the victim”) quite enjoys watching my excursions in to the digital portrayal of blighted, apocalyptic Washington town, And any suffering experienced on the victim’s part is merely due to the internal struggle over which Perk I should take upon massacring enough individuals – deserving or otherwise – as to gain enough experience to advance a level of skill. Such struggle is not so different from a serious case of the vapors, and in its most extreme occurrences may require the employment of smelling salts to resolve.

I hereby do apologize, the victim, for any unwarranted stress this may have caused you, and to you, you baker’s dozen (or thereabouts) of readers whose already bare-knuckle grasp on reality may have been further strained by this blasé use of misdirection in place of the truth you are so rightfully accustomed to. May you return to your day with some sense of peace and stability.

Signs Of Life

chrislamb — Tue, 27 May 2008 22:40:26 +0000

Despite proving utterly incapable of posting here in the last couple of weeks (or doing much of anything else besides working and working through GTA IV – more on that later), I’ve managed to cobble together a few words for the Powerhead Games blog on the Mixed CD Swap I arranged. Sure, the actual swapping went down nearly two weeks ago, but better late than never, yeah?

You can find the post here, if you’re so inclined. Stuff will actually happen here in the next little bit, honest – just as soon as I work out how much of my morning to spend Wii Fit-ing verus how much to spend trying to be clever, we should be good to go.

Now On The LJ

chrislamb — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:38:04 +0000

Thanks to the wonders of WordPress plugins, everything posted here will also be sent to my poor unused LiveJournal (found here). If you have one of the things, drop me a friending or whatever it is you kids do.

Vital Information

chrislamb — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:50:15 +0000

Thanks to the gentle proddings of Gallaher last night over drinks, I’ve finally gotten around to updating the About and Games section of the site. I’m particularly glad to see Games finally up, as it contains links to nearly everything I’ve worked on over the last few years. Some appear completely lost to the terrible long-term memory of the internet, however, so you’ll just have to imagine how awesome Dudeson’s Bonebreaker might have been for yourself.

No idea when the Written section might get filled out, as a good chunk of my older stuff (i.e., all the stabs at music journo-ing from several years ago) seem to have vanished. This may actually be for the best, though.

Things That Are Fixed

chrislamb — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:22:32 +0000

Somehow or another I’ve managed to fix the site, so direct linking to posts (and comments, which were also apparently broken) should now work. Cue rapturous applause, parades in the streets, and statues dedicated to my ability to copy and paste bits of code until things magically work.

Linking Troubles

chrislamb — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:46:35 +0000

Something screwy seems to be going on with WordPress all of a sudden – whenever I link to an older post via its permalink, it leads to a blank white screen. Poking around in the controls doesn’t seem to do anything, and WordPress support appears extremely unhelpful. Anybody have any ideas? Direct linking isn’t terribly vital, unless I manage to write something that people want to share with others, but it also effects any post using the “More” tag, obscuring anything hidden after the jump. Any and all offers of WordPress wizardry would be more than appreciated.

Missing Links and Games

chrislamb — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:39:59 +0000

WordPress has been acting up a bit lately, first swallowing up last Friday’s Link Roundup (though it’s possible I might have done something to cause that one) and then losing last night’s Monday Flash post when it chose the exact moment I hit “Publish” to crash horribly. Clearly I’m going to have to start writing these things in a Word doc first if it means not losing them to the ether.

Not sure I’ll have time to rewrite them, so you may just have to go without this week. I’ll probably include last week’s links briefly at the beginning of this week’s post or something. Carry on.

Update: it appears the Monday Flash post some survived mostly intact and hidden away as a draft, and should be going up in just a few minutes. Huzzah technology.

Site Issues (Now With 64% Less Issues)

chrislamb — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:36:35 +0000

Good news: that whole thing with you occasionally be redirected to a parking site should be resolved now. You may have to do the dance of clearing your cookies and browser cache, but that particular infuriating headache should be a thing of the past from here on out. The problem was actually with the company I have the domain name registered through, and entirely down to something I goofed when setting things up back in the halcyon days of last year. So not so much PowWeb’s fault, but due to other areas of failing and their sort of “who knows?” approach to problem solving (it took a kindly stranger on a message board suggesting I check the DNS settings, while PowWeb’s customer support took nearly two weeks to recommend clearing my cookies), I’m still jumping ship at the end of the month. Hell hath no fury like a luddite site owner scorned.

Site Issues

chrislamb — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:53:54 +0000

If you’ve tried to visit here in the past only to be confronted with a placeholder or “parking” site instead of the real thing, you’re not alone. It’s an issue that has plagued the site since it first went up and has only gotten worse in the last few months, culminating in preventing me from getting into WordPress or other aspects of the site. I’ve spoken with PowWeb, the bunch in charge of hosting the site, and they have no idea what’s going on.

This, along with several other issues lead me to the conclusion that PowWeb are a bit shit.

But there is hope on the horizon – my time with PowWeb is up at the end of the month, at which point I’ll be switching teams to DreamHost, a company recommended to me by several people with the added bonus of not having fired any friends that I’m aware of. I’m hoping it will be a painless process, as simple as flipping a switch, but given my luddite status when it comes to this thing’s actual innards, it could all go horribly wrong. More as it develops.