Brandon Webster "Selling out"

There have been many times in my life to where I am judged on my character from the presentation of my person. People have told me that because of the way I dress gives off the wrong message of how I may act. This is relevant because there is a certain attire for certain situations. I can respect the thought of dressing in business attire for a business type of event, or tucking the tail of a shirt in my pants in the workplace. Certain jobs and careers have restrictions on what you should wear and are usually necessary. I have no problem dressing as required for a job interview, meeting with a business owner or representative. If i were to ever have the opportunity to meet the President of the United State, I would dress appropriately. Those are stipulations that I can agree on. One thing I can't seem to agree on is the thought that a lot of people surrounding me express. They say that in approaching graduation and heading into the job market, I won't be able to secure a good job if I don't cut my locks. This may be a subject I am biased on because I have locks and I love my locks. At the same time, I don't think the hair a person chooses to have says whether or not this person is a good person or bad person, trustworthy person or a dangerous person. To me hair is a blessing, something that grows out of the body, a living organism that should be embraced. Now don't get me wrong, keeping neat hair is a difference. I think because hair is a consistently growing organism of the body, you must maintain the neatness and health of it. I like to believe that i keep my locks neat and presentable. Whether or not I have locks or I have a short cut, I will still be Brandon Webster, the hair doesn't make the man. I just believe it is a persons choice to have the hair they want, now in making that choice, I think it is an obligation of that person to maintain the cleanliness of this hair. Cutting my locks doesn't make me a morally better person, my morals were the same and continue to get stronger each day as I connect with myself. I think it is a false consciousness to believe that hiring someone for a position in the workplace on if they have short hair over long hair is better. So with that said the influence of cutting my hair will be my decision alone when I am ready to, not because it is the deciding factor in making a buck by doing what someone else wants me to do.

Brandon Webster "Wall of Expression"

One day I had this bright idea to cover my walk with these squares of black card stock. The idea of this was to add some life to my wall and allow my friends come over an claim a square where they illustrate whatever they want to. These illustrations are done with a metallic sharpie that when the lights are off and the moon lights comes through my window adds a glow to the writings on the wall. The sight of this is very pleasant to me, kind of calms me also. Right now the wall consists of twelve squares in a three row, four column style. Recently the last square was claimed by a friend, and now I have to add more squares because more friends want to be able to claim a square. I like the fact that my friends want to share their expressions on the wall because it give me a different type of connection to my peers. There is power in spoken words, but to me there is even more in written words. Soon I will add more squares so more friends can post their expressions. "The more the marry!!" Soon enough my whole wall will be covered in black card stock, but I don't mind because a wall is not meant to be left plain in my eyes. I added a photo of the "Wall of Expressions" to give you a look of what is going on with it.

Brandon Webster "My Passion for Music"

The funny thing is that as I sit here and post this blog I have music playing pretty loud in the background. I don't exactly know why it is that I grab on to music the way I do, but I do know that I'm not mad that I do. My music collection is pretty broad. I have different types of music I like to listen to when I am in different moods. Sometimes when I don't know what type of mood I am in (usually when I have to wake up at 5a.m.) I search for a song to decide that mood. It doesn't matter what I am doing, how mad I am or how happy or excited I am, I believe that there is a song, or an instrumental that I can listen to in order to calm my self in the stage of anger, or in the case of joy, a song that speaks almost exactly the excitement I feel at the time. I don't think I have a favorite song right now, I have a lot of favorite songs right now. Sometimes I wonder how a day, week, or even a month without music would have me feeling. In the thought of living and having music taken away from me I frown and flush those thoughts immediately. Once I have that thought, I say to myself "If it is ever taken away, I can always make my own and play it in my mind". I actually make music myself sometimes just for fun. I use song making to express what is inside my heart and mind sometimes. Reason for this is because opening up to people is a tough thing for me to do on that level if I have yet to grasp that level of comfortability with someone. So i just resort to do it with song. Music is like a therapy for me, there has never been a time where I have been like I don't want to listen to any music. I have a passion for music especially music with a meaning. Meaning as in music that doesn't just glorify the success of a person. I like my music to have some pain in it, express the conquering of some type of struggle because in the stage I am in life I can definitely relate to struggle. Music is like a friend to me.

Brandon Webster "Film America the Beautiful"

Recently I had the pleasure of watching the film "America the Beautiful". The film was sort of like a documentary where the film maker traveled across the U.S. and some parts across seas. In the film makers travels he observed the life of a 12 year old runway model and also what people in America believe to be beautiful, and the things they would do to reach these social standards of beauty. What I want to really focus on is the aspect of what beauty is. Most definitions would say that to possess beauty is to have "the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations" (dictionary.com). But socially defined, beauty is that perfect, that "have to have it"look as a person. Societies norms for this is very crucial because people are critical and care about how others view them. The film makers goes on to ask girls if they thought they were pretty and why. A lot of the girls said no, and the reason why is because they don't look like the popular people, the celebrities and models. In the film, they break down the production of the look of models and celebrities and how they get them to look so good on camera and in photos. It is no natural aspect they possess that make them look like this perfect example of beautiful, but all of the alterations they undergo to reach this level of beauty. I think the view we have on beauty is unrealistic and as stated by some scholars, "It is an unattainable goal". The reason for this is because even with these alterations, plastic surgery, makeup and weight loss, the world is never going to be satisfied. These standards for beauty in society are forever changing and it is almost impossible to keep up with them.

Brandon Webster "Conversations of Religion with Friends"

I like to think of myself as an open minded person for the most part. The only things I feel as if i am biased about is when someone is talking to me in my stubborn stage. If I am upset, I don't want to hear anything that has to be said sometimes. Luckily I am not often an upset person. In this case I am discussing; religion, I am not biased at all. Whenever I voice to my friends or peers the fact that I am don't have a religion, they often get the assumption that I don't believe in God or some type of Lord. My definition of not having a religion is I don't religiously follow one faith (Christian, Muslim,etc.). I have a variety of different types of friends, but for the most part they are followers of the Christian faith. My belief is that some ultimate force (God) created this world, gave life to the people, creatures and organisms in it. Whether or not it is the higher power worshiped in Christian churches or Muslim ceremonies, I have no idea. I do believe in a higher power, I just feel I am in no position to say who is right on who God is. My belief practices consist asking God for forgiveness, blessings for family, friends and everyone else in the world. I never question anyones faith, I like to sit and listen to my friends express their beliefs. The more insight I gain the more knowledge I gain in life. Some of my friends think I am wrong for not attending church regularly and not being a religious follower of Christianity. Some say that I don't have a real relationship with the Lord. I beg to differ though because I drop to my knees almost every night before bed to say a few prayers and I'm praying to God, the creator and to me that is relationship enough.

Gabby Brezovsky "Art as Communication"

Leo Tolstoy views art as an essential and highly relevant form of expression. “For Tolstoy, art is like language in general: a means of communication. He thinks of language as fundamentally a means for conveying one person’s thoughts to another” (Wartenberg, 102). The common conception that art must be beautiful contradicts Tolstoy’s view of art. In Tolstoy’s opinion “art is no less central to human existence [than speech], for it makes accessible the feelings of other human beings” (Wartenberg, 102). I agree with Tolstoy’s stance on art. A work doesn’t necessarily have to be aesthetically pleasing in order for it to be considered art. For example, sometimes art can be disturbing or even upsetting to the audience. It is the artist’s prerogative to express their feelings and communicate those feelings to their intended audience.
In Chapter 8 of “The Nature of Art,” Tolstoy provides the reader with numerous definitions of beauty and art. He claims that many of the widely-accepted definitions of art do not fully encompass what art truly is. Tolstoy writes, “In order to define any human activity, one must understand its meaning and significance” (Wartenberg, 105). We tie beauty and art so closely together that we are not able to fully grasp what art really is. Although Tolstoy suggests that we separate beauty from art, (because art is so much more than something pleasing to us as individuals) he doesn’t really go into what we can do to gain a true and sincere appreciation of art for what it is. How are we supposed to go about doing this? Does there need to be a reconstruction of the definition of art?

Hank Harrison - Are Ethics and Beauty Related

I dont know if this has much to it, but much of what Ive learned about the subjectivity of ethics seems to apply, at least in rule, to the study of what different people perceive as beautiful. Beauty, as sometimes with ethics, is in the eye of the beholder. Though there are exceptions, there seem to exist generally accepted standards for both. "Thou shalt not kill" to ethics as "I need a dime thats top of the line cute face lil waist with a big behind" is to beauty. Both examples, while obviously totally different, evidence what I mean by general consistencies in the realm of what is supposed to be "subjective."

What, then, is to be said for either any kind of absolute standard? I think its evident that neither extremes of the spectrum can be accurate, and that there is some kind of generally understood conception of what what is beautiful and ethical "should" be. It then follows that there must be some kind of loosely attached universal standard... the pursuit of understanding it is the study of philosophy.

Hank Harrison - Natural vs Artificial

What can possibly truly be artificial? By artificial, I mean something that is not "natural," or something that would not "normally" occur in nature. But what is there that we have observed in this world that is not "natural" at least in some sense? Are human beings an anomaly in that they force their wil upon the earth? Friedrich Nietzsche's principle is based on basic human ambition to achieve, but do nonhumans not have some element of ambition to force their will on the world around them? My dog Reggie tries to catch squirrels all the time but the 65lb mutt just isnt fast enough. His ambition is above his natural ability, but if he catches the squirrel is this so unnatural as to be artificial?

Human beings are different in that they have exponentially higher abilities which they use to impose a far more impressive will. I argue that phenomena typically termed artificial because it originates from human action is no more unnatural than Reggie catching the squirrel. Humanity's construction of huge cities and exploration into space is indeed natural because it is the result of the endless natural chain of events that is life on earth.

On the other hand, certain results of human action lead to drastically unnatural results. Personal opinion of the matter aside, global warming I feel is a good example of this.