nothing much to say

I haven't posted lately because I haven't had much to say. But I realize how utterly dissapointed I am when I go to friends blogs only to find that they haven't posted in a while (I'm looking at you Johnson), so I figure I'll put up a bit of drivel.

Here's my question, when did it become unbelievable that a guy who has reached his 30's doesn't want to dress up for Halloween. Fact is I haven't been excited about halloween for ages. I don't like dressing up, and I don't remember getting hasseled for it (with the exception of a girlfriend several years ago). Maybe it's because I'm in school again, but I keep getting shit about not wanting to go to costume parties. And the more I get hassled the more resolute I become.

On another not, related to the anti-SUV pro hybrid questionable public transportation debate on Adam's site, what happens to a Hybrid when the battery goes dead. I know what happens to an SUV. When the connection to the negative post is loose the battery doesn't get current from the alternator and the car refuses to start. Fortunately I have a stick, so I could get a push start. Of course I then proceeded to leave the headlights on and suck the thing dry. I think that given the abuse the battery has gone through since this summer, it should be replaced. Hopefully that will solve some of my car troubles. But seriously, what happens when a hybrid battery goes out. Does it cost hundreds of dollars to replace?

weekend update

Let me preface my endoursement of "Good Night and Good Luck" by saying that yes, I had a couple drinks before the movie started. The department happy hour was on Friday, and by the time we got to the theater the show was sold out. We went to the restaraunt across the street and I had a couple more drinks, untill the next show. Having said that, there were times when I wanted to shout at the screen. Not in a "this sucks, I want my money back!" way. The tension of certain scenes and the arrogance of the jr. senator got me all worked up.

On a more humorous note, I had an interesting run-in at the bus stop. I was at a cafe in Capital Hill and needed to catch a bus home. I usually drive to Capital Hill, but I was having car trouble. I don't know the bus system in that neighborhood, so I walked downtown to a stop of a bus that goes past my house. That particular stop is now my least favorite in the city. It is always full of dealers even though it is daylight in the middle of downtown. As I was waiting for the bus a lady sits down beside me and starts laughing and asks me where I'm going. Heres a recreation:

Crazy Lady: "HaHa, that bus says terminal. I'm not going to the terminal. Where you going? You going to the MOtel?"
Me: "No"
CL: "You sure you ain't going to the MOtel? Ten Dollars."
Me: "No"
CL: "I'll rock your world. I do it for five."
Me: "no thanks"

then she proceeds to go on about somebody stealing shit and gettiing shot and shooting and on and on.

Hate that bus stop!

Aristotle

One stream I am following suggests that all moral philosophy since the enlightenment is flawed because it has moved away from Aristotle's basic structure of human nature as it is, human nature as it could be if it realized its telos, and precepts of rational ethics as the means of moving from the former to the latter. The important distinction is the modern denial of telos, the idea of man having an essence that defines an end goal, rather than a continuum of development (or stagnation). While it is generally agreed that human nature is continually developing, it is rarely placed within a context of "end goal." As a result, ethics is seen as a description of how we ought to live, but is no longer seen as a functional concept.
Modern moral philosophy conceives of human nature as it is, and seeks to discern rationally who we ought to live, but denies a end goal defined by the essence of what it means to be human. Hume argued for judgment according to passions, Kant according to reason, but neither was able to move outside of their particular culture.

This is all still pretty muddled, and I'm sure my comments are filled with holes.

Kant's defense of Morality

I was just reading something that I would be interested in feedback on, particularly from those of you in the religious field, though all are welcome. In his defense of rational tests for the morality of any maxim, Kant first rejects the notion of testing according to individual happiness. He concludes that mankind's concept of happiness is too vague and conditional to be used as a universal rational basis. OK, fine with that, but then he approaches the question of religious beliefs. He repudiates the notion of testing according to whether a maxim or moral precept is commanded by God, because rationally mankind must first determine whether God's commandments are morally worthy of obedience. According to Kant, if we already possess such a standard of judgment, than God's commandments are essentially redundant. Now remember that Kant was a good God fearing Lutheran, so don't think that he was off-hand discounting God. The moral precepts he was defending were the product of his Lutheran upbringing. What he was trying to do was suggest that there must be some innate practical reason by which, appealing to nothing outside of reason, we are able to discern moral from immoral or amoral precepts. Of course it can be argued that this reason is a product of God, but I have not read enough Kant to know if he would agree.

Google Earth

Jay was writing about the google map images, and I discovred a program called google earth on the computers in our lab. Here is a picture of my apartment. I must have been gone at the time;the oil stain on the right is mine.

Church going folk

So last night, after a cram session for today's German test, I had lost much of my English vocabulary. There is a college Christian group that meets in the arch building (why here?) on Thursdays for worship. My friend was commenting that they were all hanging around for a long time after it ended, and I said it was all part of the community building, etc. It was then that I realized I forgot what we called that time. You know, the coffee and donut time.

So here is my question:

What do you call the time set aside for socializing, and the space where that occurs? Also what are the various names for the worship space?

Yes, I am ashamed that I don't remember what they were called at my church (any help Heather). Problem is we switched to the all in one sanctuary basketball court, so those separate spaces disappeared.

And yes, I realize this points out how long its been since I attended church, hence the name of my blog.

Side note: I ran a spell check just now. The spell check does not know the word "blog"

Earl

OK, so on a lighter note than the last couple posts, I honestly think one of the funniest shows on TV at the moment is My Name is Earl. It stars (and is produced by) Jason Lee of Mallrats, Chasing Amy, etc. He credits Steve Buscemi as his inspiration for becoming an actor, so you know he has unique tastes. Of course it is on at the same time Amazing Race (good, lets tear families apart by setting them at each others throats) and Commander in Chief (paving the way for Hillary 2008). Check it out

Moral assertions

Here are a couple statements linking morality with aesthetic issues.

"..there was no decoration in the houses; people lived with a robust simplicity- proof of their moral wholesomeness."
-Le Corbusier

"A pressed glass bowl trying to look like crystal, a machine-made coal scuttle trying to look hand-beaten, machine made mouldings on furniture, a tricky device to make electric fire look like a flickering coke fire, a metal bedstead masquerading as wood- all that is immoral. So are sham materials and sham techniques. And so is all showy, pompous, blatant design."
- Nikolaus Pevsner

"To us clarity means the definite expression of the purpose of a building and the sincere expression of its structure. One can regard this sincerity as a sort of moral duty..."
- Marcel Breuer

"Freedom from ornament is a sign of spiritual strength."
-Adolf Loos

These are just a few that came to mind, but they serve to frame the discussion. Claims of morality focus on either honesty in the use of materials, the removal of ornamentation, or the expression of structural forces. An example of the latter would be Ruskin's description of colonetes in Gothic architecture as honest, because they express the way gravitational forces are transferred to the ground. Therefore the entirely non-structural colonetes (fake columns attached to the actual columns) are an example of how Gothic is the only true and Christian architecture.

Friday

OK, its Friday and I've spent some of the day working hard, so a little humor is in order. I came across this hilarious blog about horrible knitting projects.

http://youknitwhat.blogspot.com

Any thoughts?

Let me throw this out there to anyone who cares to respond:

Do you think there is an ethical component to aesthetics? Does the look of an object have anything to do with ethics? Of course this also questions how you define ethics.

I know that these things are much more interesting with pictures, so here you are. This is my studio space, in the thesis "pit". We've only been in school for a week and already my desk is a mess. Hopefully I will aquire a bookshelf soon, because the stack of books is just beginning.
a brief lesson:
der Tisch= the table (masculine)
das Buch= the book (nuetral)
die Lampe= the light (feminine)

the gender thing is really confusing, because it isn't tied to anything in particular about the object, you just have to know.

Guten Tag

I decided to take a German class this quarter, and hopefully for the rest of the year. I would like to think that it is all packed away inside me somewhere, cultural heritage and all that. Unfortunatly that doesn't seem to be the case. Of course I've only had 5 classes, and haven't really studied much on my own (flashcards and the like) so I can't be too surprised.

The rest of the quarter will be taken up by an AutoCAD class, GSA (grading and tutoring) for an Arch history class, and researching my thesis. My thesis has something to do with the relation of ethics and aesthetics, but I'm not exactly sure where the research will take me. I know that it will not get into issues of sustainability or professional ethics. Most people who write about it focus on either honesty of materials (don't paint wood to look like marble) or ethics as representation of the ethos (zietgiest, worldview) which I think is a cop-out, or at least a misuse of the term ethics. Expect to read more about it in the posts to come.

Other than that my life is the same. I still live in a tiny studio, I'm still single, and I'm still being crushed under a rising mountain of debt that only the lottery or my eventual demise will resolve. On the bright side I have my health, good friends, and a passion for what I do. Debt be damned, I'm staying in school!

Aufgefallen

So I tried to ues the title of the blog for the web address, but somebody already beat me to it, hence the boring justinkliewer.blogspot. Oh well.

I know that I promised on the last blog that it would end when I returned from Taiwan, well it did. Sure it was implied that I wouldn't continue blogging, but I lied. I do that sometimes. Its not pretty, but there you have it, call me a sinner if you will, I can take it. I was jealous (another sin) of my friends blogs, and decided that I wanted a way to keep them up to date about my comings and goings. So really I'm doing this for all of you.

Your welcome.