Kevin · Allen · Jr.

I figure that if you don't think a nationalized healthcare plan is a good idea, you probably don't have any idea what it's like not having healthcare.

Progress comes whether industry likes it or not. Sometimes necessary innovation bankrupts those that didn't have the foresight or care to consider the needs of real human beings. It's not an accident or a problem, it's the very fulcrum capitalism bends upon. Those so concerned with avoiding socialism would be well suited to take an econ class so as better to understand what it is exactly that they are defending. Marching boldly into the future inevitably leaves the craven and stubborn behind. Just ask typewriter manufacturers, library card catalogs, Pan Am, telegram services, or GM.

Stalwart nostalgia and personal greed are no excuse for hamstringing the weakest members of society. That is, the working class citizens that the venal and pandering so love to court.

Making it IN ANY WAY more difficult for the ill to get treatment is perverse and grotesque. Turning the plight of the sick into a strange political gambit is not simply wrongheaded, it's predatory and cruel. Cruel in the same way pretend-drowning is cruel; cruel in the same way locking someone in a sweltering rattan hut is cruel; cruel in the same way shooting animals from helicopters is cruel.

It is a dark farce of a caring nation that would see me bankrupt and homeless because I fell and broke an arm, or got a bad cold, or needed to get my tonsils out. You want to help people? You want to do gods work? Be a patriot? Then concern yourself with the plight of the tired, the poor, the tempest-tossed, and look beyond the ludicrous desires of rich old men who would use sensationalism, propaganda, and hate-speech to line their pockets at the expense of any not like themselves.

Really, in other words: Don't be a douche, the people need doctors.

New post on Adverting disaster. Part two of the Espresso book machine discussion. (NOTE: if you feed this content to your LJ, you got a sneak peak at my editors notes thanks to a copy/paste snafu, lucky you. This problem has since been corrected on the actual blog.)

New photos up on My Flickr. Like this one:

Happy friday.

advertingdisaster.blogspot.com/

This one's about two really crappy commercials. Check it out.

Also, I'm twittering now, you can follow me @ twitter.com/kevinallenjr

ain't i just a media darling?

I was in Disney World all last week, and because of that, I have fallen behind in my internet posting duties. Here's me getting my act back together:

1. A new Adverting Disaster is up. This one's about Republicans, hope you enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, feel free to comment.

2. I've posted some of my vacation photos here. I realize now that I didn't really take any vacationy photos. I barely have any of the lovely folks I went with, none of the "park highlights," and since we didn't go to Universal I didn't get the shot of me molesting/fighting Wolverine that I had my heart set on. Oh well, you'll have to settle for photos of giant vultures:

3. Here's some links for you to enjoy:
• If you haven't been to ThruYou then you've done a great disservice to yourself. Video mixing so astounding and funky you'll kick off your shoes and start dancing in front of you computer. Seriously tight. If you like breakbeat, dub, or Jive get on this.
• Have firewalls at work blocked your ability to chat with internet friends? Tinychat can help. For now at least.

• So normally my flickr doesn't get a ton of hits, around 20 a day, but every week and half it spikes, like jumps up to the hundreds of views. I'm not complaining, but I don't exactly understand it. I didn't post a new photo during the entire course of february, so it's not new content hitting people's contacts feed. I wonder what facet of the internet is drawing people with such regularity.

• New article up on Adverting Disaster. This one's about orange juice.

No Adverting Disaster this week. Next week we'll go back to the two articles a week schedule though.

In the meantime, here's a video for you.

BRYAN LOOK WHAT YOUR FRIENDS HAVE from Ryan Aylsworth on Vimeo.

Available @ http://advertingdisaster.blogspot.com/

This one's about donuts. Yumm

[if your using Chrome as your web browser, there may be some problems with the links in that post, I'm looking for corrections to the problem currently, sorry for the inconvenience]

1. I posted a follow up article about PETA's veggie sex commercial over on Adverting Disaster, check it out.

If you want to stay current on that site, you can feed it (see the bottom of the right hand collumn on that page) or you can go to http://syndicated.livejournal.com/advertingdisast/. (big special thanks to fred hicks for setting that up ((i didn't even ask))).

2. Poster boy may or may not have been arrested. Poster boy is one of the most innovative space taking artists in NYC. His only weapon is a razor blade and what's already out there on the walls. Check out some of his stuff:

3. There isn't enough praise i can heap on the 1000 blocks project. You simply have to see it. Go to the link above, read the short description, then click on the words "1000 blocks." I don't know why the site has made it confusing to find your way to it's bountiful harvest of gorgeous art, but it has. Follow my instructions, you won't be sorry.

4. I haven't done any photo work this week, sorry.

Adverting Disaster

So my new blog is all about the media, communication arts, and the future of consumerism. I think it's interesting stuff, give it a look, comment, tell me what you think.

Today's article: The most superest of bowls.

I'm still going to update this blog with the same stuff i always have, mostly link roll, some personal crap, some gaming crap. Just needed a new more directed place to talk about things i've been really meaning to talk about.

it's been a remarkably busy week for someone who doesn't have a job.

1. We launched a new game called The Five(it's an early version, a bigger better one will come out later this year). It's about street gangs in a stylized hip-hip NYC. It plays a lot like the old video game Double Dragon. Here's the cover:

Did i mention it was only a dollar?

2. Do you like history? Do you like it in more than just 2 lame old dimensions? Well then check out cursive buildings blog for some brilliant old steroscopes turned into animated gifs.

3. Next time your with your friends and you're thinking "OH MY GOD, we are so crazy! We do such crazy stuff! We're awesome!" just remember that the two guys pictured below are already bored of the shit i'm showing you and have moved on to even greener pastures.

These dudes party whenever.

4. From my flickr

It's friday, let's waste some time together.

1.
Do you like indie rock? Well then listen you should be listening to KEXP 90.3FM in seattle. But you don't live in Seattle? Well why not, they built their city on top of an older city (just like in batman)! And all sorts of great bands go to KEXPs studio to record all sorts of good stuff.
You: "BUUUUUUUT I don't want to move to Seattle, there's way to much granola out there."
Me: Shit, that's a good assesment. I don't want to move out there either, now that you mention it.

Fortunatly for us, we can now listen to a lot of great studio sessions right there on their site. Lucky us.

2.

I considered not posting this. People who love the Prisoner have already seen it, and people who haven't might not like it. But then i figured, Lost came back on air this week so why not. The prisoner is nothing like Lost content wise, but it nails that "what the fuck is going on, but i'm super interested" thing with just as much deftness. Well, you can now watch ALL OF THE PRISONER online, for free. Thanks AMC

3. What was grandpa so worried about? NO, not the looming specter of his impending death. He was worried about blizzards, hurricanes, riots, and twisters. Now you can come to understand his morbid phobia better, thanks to Gendisasters.com an awkwardly designed site all about the cataclysms of old. An interesting mid-day read.

4.
New photos posted.

1. People done been talking about Little Big Planet as a great platform for innovation. Sure you can use that games world builder engine to design some great mini-games, but did you realize it can also be used for everyday applications? Well some folks out there are using their noodles, taking the existing architecture of the game and whipping up some monumentally intricate shit. For example, in the video below, the creator has build a FUNCTIONAL ELECTRONIC CALCULATOR! Check it out, it's actually way more interesting than it sounds (if your into hack engineering or DIY).



2. This next bit is an actual game. It's a puzzle solver flash game that's been on the internet for a while, but I just discovered it, and it's totally gorgeous. It's from poland (but don't worry about language or any of that, it's all english) and it's called Samorost. There's a sequel game Samorost 2. Both games are designed by Jakub Dvorsky. The first Samorost game is complete and free and plays in about 20 min more or less depending on if you get stumped. The second game is told in 2 chapters, the first is free (and a complete story), the second you must pay for. 2 is a slightly better game, with more developed animation and more intricate puzzles and a longer play time, but i suggest you play through the first game first to check out what it's all about. Samorost 2 won a bunch of awards (including a webby) when it came out in 2007. Here's some screen caps to get you hungry:

1. Ken Hite is a beautiful man. He has written a very positive review of my game Sweet Agatha. He makes some interesting points, and says some very nice things. It's most fascinating to see how he uses very gamer-centric insight to describe how he played the game with a non-gamer (his wife) and had a good time with it. Thank you Ken, your Out Of The Box review blog is an invaluable resource to people interested in the cooperative storytelling hobby. You fine readers should go check it out, be you not already regulars to that column.

2. David Lee Roth is a pretty hardcore douche. We all know it. Sometimes, though, we want to call our friends at 3:45 in the morning pretending we are him accidentally ordering 30 cheese pizzas to the wrong number, in the wrong state. The Diamond Dave Soundboard makes this nocturnal act of telephone prankery eminently more possible.

3. Next time your having a bad day go to india, stand around in the street and look all sad eyed. The people of the subcontinent are very magnanimous, they will reverse time for you until everything works out.

4. I know it's a little late to do a year end list, but this just to good not to link to. The top mugshots of 2008. Instead of saying something snarky here, i just want to note that when you get to the woman dressed like a cow, do yourself a service and read the story. It's worth it.

5. Since I've already broken the seal on post season lists, check out Listropolis.com. It's one of those sites that you inadvertently spend hours wandering around in, learning shit. Do it after lunch, it's a tuesday, you don't have any work to do, ya know?

6. Photo.