Complacency's Placeholding Platitudes

I was going to try to come up with a clever introduction to these photos and their links, but really, I just like cool clothes, for men or women. So, here are some rather classy, herringbone gray galoshes that would look just smashing with this asymmetrical wool jacket. Also, if anyone has that model’s number, facebook me, k?

I need to put together my Halloween costume this weekend, and that means shopping, which might mean I shop for … ahem… more than just my Halloween costume.

I need more closet space.

And a haircut.

This is getting a little random...

The Parents were in town this weekend. I wish I had been a more exciting host, but mostly we hung out w/ my friends and walked about. So, I did what I normally do. We did manage to go apple picking and, while I abandoned them to go to lectures on Gadamer, they took a tour of the North End. So, not a total bust.

As a result of apple picking, I have just oodles of apple-based baked goods in my apt presently and there are only going to be more. You should come over and have some so I don’t turn into a big, apple-smelling fatty.

I’ve got a nice queue of photos all ready to write about, just have to get a spare moment to do it. So, you’ve got that to look forward too. I’m sure you’re waiting with bated breath.

Yes, that's how you spell "bated" in that usage. Bill Bryson says so.

OK, Ready For Fall Now

American Apparel Windbreaker...

Meet Icon of Cool:


I'm hoping that putting some thought (and money) into my wardrobe will bear some fruit. I don't want to have to give up...I dunno, the expressiveness of trendier clothes, but I do want to start dressing a touch more adult. So, here goes.

Color and Flash

I've started messing with my digital camera. It was a Christmas present and its been left largely unattended since I received it. It's difficult to get in the habit, I think, if you've not had a camera for a long time and aren't used to finding the moments to utilize it. Plus, noone wants to be the naggy-photo-taker.

"Hey! Hey! Everyone look over here!"



So, instead I've been playing with darkness and color and lighting in my apt. It makes me look like a bit of a loser with no friends, but I assure I have a few.

The above are my two favorite wardrobe additions of late: my fedora and my argyle sweater.



I've got a pretty cool paper that needs writing. It's about ethics and the theoretical accounts of our moral aspirations and difficulties. Kant is gonna take a beating from Blondel and Lonergan on his failure to provide us with real Freedom. Autonomy is just not the same thing.

Good thing I'm posting on this thing right now...

And now, a blurry picture of me in a polka dot tie.

Style Profile

I totally stole this from other people. Enjoy.
Job?
I get paid to be an IT assistant for the facilities and capital projects department at BC. I pay a whole lot of money to be a Masters student in Philosophy at that same school. That is more truly my employment.

Best Sartorial advice from your parents?
Don’t wear sandals when you ride your bike.

Style icons?
Justin Timberlake. Trent Reznor’s recent militaristic turn. Seth Bullock.

Describe your personal style...
Eclectic and precise, with spurts of bombast and flamboyance. I’ll borrow from the preppy, the soldier, the rock-star and the hipster alike. My piercings and ridiculous haircuts tend to give everything a punk-rawk edge.

I build my daily look around?
Jeans and shoes. Skinny jeans w/ sneakers? Bootcut w/ monk-strap square toes? Everything else starts with the answers to those questions.

Personal Style quirk?
I’ll always wear my studded belts backward. I picked it up in the Sacramento hardcore scene in high school and never let it go. Makes life difficult for the rapists.

Favorite designers?
G-star just came out w/ a line of more dressy clothes that I really like. Slacks and vests as designed by your local Gestapo. Hot. Buuuuuut, I’m poor.

Most cherished item?
Hrm...Keffiyeh I got in Albany Park after I graduated, I think.

Never caught wearing?
Cardigans. Crocs. Uggs.

Most underrated item in menswear/womenswear?
By me personally? Socks. In general? Scarves.

Dress to impress who?
Mari Andrew, mostly. And hot chicks, in general.

Flats or heels?
I know this is aimed at women, but I seriously wish I owned more boots w/ a heel. A masculine, cowboy-esque heel..but yeah, something that’ll make me tower even more.

Favorite stores?
H&M. Found some good (REALLY CHEAP) stuff on sale at Heritage over spring break, but I’m sure its crap. Village Discount Thrift Stores in Chicago are my favoritests.

Your next "must have" purchase?
A Pair of Oxfords and a gray, tropical weight wool suit.

I skimp when buying ...
Um…clothes?

I splurge on...
Jeans most. Outerwear too.

Favorite item of clothing?,
Changes often, but at the moment: dark wash slim-fit jeans from H&M, Brown, white and pink argyle sweater from Express for Men.

Favorite fashion magazines?
I loved Men’s Vogue (RIP) but I just got a subscription to GQ. Don’t think it will be as good… Dwell (Okay, architecture/design, but still about style).

Favorite (style) books?
Hm…I should get some of those. I want to make one for myself, actually, that I can reference when I go to make purchases. Like a fashion/design scrap book.

Favorite stylish movies?
“Arabesque”; “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”; “Quantum of Solace”

Favorite vacation spot?
California’s Sierra Mountains, the more remote the better.

Favorite neighborhood restaurant?
In Chicago: Tre Kroner (Swedish food)
In Boston: Café Fixe (Technically just coffee and pastries, but mah favah-rite)

Anti-Hegel, Anti-Ugg, Anti-Zombie

The fundamental crazy is what makes it all possible. These felt experiences of my own motivational systems, prior to thought or theory, are limiting in the sort of way that creates possibilities. Opens up vistas of happenings (as received) and doings (as offered). But these are my limitations, too. The extraneous limitations, taken into myself like a foreign substance as a super-ego'd voice, are what hinder. The standards that are not my own messy boundaries are the ones that I cannot conceive of meeting spontaneously, and so I "tactically" scheme my way to their satisfaction.



But unfortunately, I can't really do that because if I'm motivated by the projected idea of what "they" want, I never do anything. The utter paralysis of perfectionism claws its way through my motivation and cripples the fibers of its muscle.



So, we need to listen to the crazy that tells me what I can and might like to do. and to the God who harmonizes my crazy with the totality of possibility in His world and through His strength. Work can be prayer, and prayer oughtn't be work.

- - - - -

"You aren't a worrying person are you?" she asked, more seriously than expected. "No, not usually." I replied. Was I lying?

Later:
"I must sound SO lazy! I'm really not. I work very hard. I just like to shut my brain off sometimes." She said, correcting the impression. "Maybe you can show me how to do that..." I joked. Maybe.
"Does that big brain never turn off?"
"No, not really. Always running on something."
"Well, a TV will help with that."

I'm rambling from the caffeine and David Mamet wasn't as interesting tonight as previously. Will Bob ever get Teach coffee? Who knows!

- - - - -


and not an ugg boot, a Northface fleece or an over-exposed ass cheek in sight. Thanks, Sartorialist.

- - - - -

Got zombie problems?

Not anymore you don't!

Humble Thyself, Oh Spirit

Hegel was such a good protestant. He recognizes that communities make moral rules for themselves and they are un-reflectively certain about what those rules are and how to apply them. "That's just how we do things around here," after all. It's just obvious. And some people are just going to do whatever they want anyways, and then talk a good game, appealing to the communities rules in their speech alone.

And others are going to look at those 'evil' people and say, "hey, you're breaking the rules! and worse, you're appealing to the rules to try to say that you aren't!" The problem is, the people making that judgment are so concerned with their own moral purity that they only ever talk about the rules anyways. They never do anything, good or bad, for fear of sullying their morally pristine souls. Their 'beautiful souls.'

So, the 'evil' person looks at the judging person and sees the they aren't that different from themselves. They are just another person hoping that talking about morality is the same as actually being moral. So, they confess to the judging person;

"yeah, I'm evil and hypocritical...just like you."

and it turns out that the only way out of this little conflict is for each person to be humble and recognize that they are only an aspect of the Truth, the Truth that resides in communities. In doing so, they can forgive the other and be reconciled to them. and then the spirit of the community can be itself in a truly human way.

But the answer is humility and forgiveness.

Hegel isn't wrong about that.

In other news, girls at Boston College need to figure out that those weird heavy leggings/stretch pants things are not to be worn as outerwear. Under a skirt: fine. Even a really, really short skirt or a long, crotch-covering t-shirt is better than full-on youthful ass exposure. I'm trying to learn here!

Skinny jeans tucked into these new-fangled, wellington-style fitted galoshes; ADORIBLE. I approve. w/ a trench coat and knit scarf? EXCELLENT.

And for fuck's sake, let's not let the sweat-pants leave the gym or the apartment, plz? Either gender, really.

I'd like to, at this point, thank the internet for easing procrastination so elegantly. Kant and Girard and Fichte are justifiably ignored at the moment, and its all thanks to you! Keep up the good work, World Wide Web!

Also, (speaking of distractions) I got a new David Milch lecture, except this one is on DVD. I haven't watched all of it yet, but I'm excited to digest more of his excellence. I also got a wicked awesome CD by Bring Me The Horizon. They might really hate women, but they are really good at metal. Good thing most of the lyrics aren't at all intelligible. Otherwise I'd feel dirty.

That'll do for now. I'm taking someone cute to see them light up the Christmas tree downtown after class tonight. There will be hot chocolate involved. God help me, there will be hot chocolate.

*update* Date got canceled. Baking cookies cures disappointment paralysis. I hope. *update*