Ceramics Senior Kat Lee Awarded Windgate Fellowship

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KatLee-58View original post at http://tyler.temple.edu/blog/ceramics-senior-kat-lee-awarded-windgate-fellowship

Each year, the Windgate Fellowship program receives two nominations from more than 50 colleges and universities across the United States. Out of these 100 nominations, 10 graduating seniors working in a craft medium or process are awarded $15,000.

Kat Lee, a graduating senior in ceramics, was one of the few students to receive the award.

“Nick Kripal, the head of my department, had asked if I would like to represent one of the two positions,” Lee said. “I agreed knowing it was a great opportunity just being selected as one of the two students from Tyler. I was also aware of a past ceramics major that received the Windgate award and decided to give it a shot. There was nothing to lose.”
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Currently Reading: Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard

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ad4d06aa24b4764b20aafaaf4aeaa84bI’m not completely sure I’m ready to take on reading this entire series. Apparently there are 16 of them, and the last one is coming out this December, who knew?

I’m a fan of the television series and bought the first book a while ago (after watching the first season, finding out there were books, and needing to know who A was). I do know that the show has strayed somewhat from the books, but I think it might be interesting to see if there are any similarities/differences and where the story went in the books.

I’m about six chapters in, and so far it’s exactly like the first season. I actually really like all the Philadelphia/Pennsylvania references. Not sure if I’ve said this before, but I’m from Pa and actually went to college in Philly, so it’s pretty interesting and makes me connect a little more to the books.

Really, what I want to know is if anyone has actually read through all of the books in the series. Are they worth it? Are they as good? I’d really like to know. ALSO: if anyone wants to talk PLL and theories with me, I’d love to do that!

Casinos: History of Gambling in Philadelphia

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timthumb.phpView original post at PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.com

It may seem like it is taking a while for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) to issue Philadelphia’s second gaming license, but the wait is nothing that the city has not been through before. The process for legalized gambling in Pennsylvania goes all the way back to the late seventies when Atlantic City opened up their first hotel casino.
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Rimmel London ScandalEyes Precision Micro Eyeliner

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#InfluensterChamp! Since I received the UniVoxBox, I was able to complete different tasks (photos, blog posts, reviews) on the products that I received complimentary for testing purposes. If you complete all of those tasks, you can qualify for the brand badge associated with each item. Some of the people who receive the brand badges will be rewarded with another free product from that brand. For completing the tasks, I was also given this really cool eyeliner from Rimmel London. I’m also supposed to receive Kiss brand stick on nails and fake lashes, but they haven’t shown up in the mail yet.

To celebrate receiving new eyeliner (yay!), I decided to do a review of the product while (attempting) to do a cat eye on myself.
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Marisa Lombardo Repurposes Antiques for The Artemisian

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artemisia post-69-2Photo credit: Denise Guerin
View original post at http://tyler.temple.edu/blog/marisa-lombardo-repurposes-antiques-artemisian

With an interest in metals and sculpture, Marisa Lombardo decided to enroll in Tyler’s jewelry program.

“The demands and size of that kind of work were high,” Lombardo said. “So I wanted to take that knowledge and put it towards jewelry.”

During her first year in the jewelry program, Lombardo took a printmaking class.

“I had a really difficult time with jewelry, but loved the printmaking department,” Lombardo said.
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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

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9e6b334ea62e1557c2c84dbffd2d9d31Well, I definitely didn’t think I would have another post so quickly after finishing A Dance with Dragons, but here I am!

I started reading The Fault in Our Stars yesterday afternoon. It took me less than 24 hours to get through this book and I was not disappointed.

I decided to start reading it because of all the hype. I want to see the movie and I think there’s something wrong with people who get really excited to see movies, but have not read the books that they are based on. I’m guilty of doing this with the Harry Potter series, but I do plan on reading those eventually.

Anyway, when I started reading The Fault in Our Stars I prepared myself to be disappointed. I thought that the way that the characters acted wasn’t very believable and that, even though there were very “teenage” moments, they seemed too mature for sixteen and seventeen year olds. I’ve seen the argument that they were more mature because they had to deal with more difficult life experiences than normal teenagers, and I guess I can buy that.

Even though I was initially put off by the way they were written, and was worried that I would be the only person who didn’t like this book, I found myself wanting to read on to the next chapter and completely enthralled by this story.

I loved it. I loved the long speeches and how perfect Augustus and Hazel were for each other. I totally bought into the story and cried like everyone said you do. Like ugly cried. More than once. It was great. I even liked the parts with Van Houten, which I was also put-off by. I didn’t think it was believable that these two teenagers would travel to Amsterdam to meet an author, but I let myself believe it because I wanted to believe in a love story like theirs.

I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I’m going to try to get my sister to read it (and she hates reading), and I’m going to get my grandmother to read it, and then we can all go see the movie together. It was so good.

An Update! *Finally*

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I finally finished A Dance With Dragons! Whew, I can’t believe it took me that long…AND that it has taken me so long for a new post.

I could say sorry to my followers (though I’m not really sure how many of you actually pay attention to my posts and reviews *if you do I truly appreciate it!*), but really I need to apologize to myself. I love to read and the past few months I let the stress of school and work get in the way of it.

The fact that A Dance With Dragons was the book that I was “Currently Reading” when I started this blog is embarrassing. I flew through the other books, but to be fair, I was on a break and had absolutely nothing to do. I don’t want to make excuses for myself, but this last semester of college was really stressful. Even though I slacked off in areas of my life that I enjoyed, I’m proud that I graduated with a 3.65 GPA in my final semester as a college undergraduate.

And even though I wasn’t able to get through this book as quickly as I thought I would, I’m also proud to say that I didn’t stop reading it altogether. Many nights when I was so stressed to the point of wanting to cry, I made myself turn off the computer and read at least one chapter of ADWD. It was an escape for me and allowed me to have 30 minutes where I was completely immersed in something other than school.

ANYWAY…I’m going to start talking about what I thought of the book, so if you haven’t read it STOP READING NOW. Seriously, SPOILER ALERT!!!

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A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

Wow…just, wow. This book was incredible and so many things happened that I can’t even believe. I absolutely loved it and once again GRRM makes me feel like he’s some sort of crazy, evil, creative genius. As someone who loves writing and hopes to be a writer, he just blows my mind. Seriously, how can someone come up with this many plot lines? And they all are completely necessary and essential to wherever this story is going to end.

SERIOUSLY, I’ve never read a chapter from any of the books in the ASOIAF series and thought “GRRM could have done without this, it was a pretty pointless chapter.” These books are so detailed and all of the story lines are so well thought out, that even though I think I know where things are going, I’m shocked and I’m not mad about any of it.

Something that really made me think about all of this was when *SPOILER* Jon was stabbed after announcing to the brothers that he was going to return to Winterfell. After I got over my initial shock (Jon got stabbed! Is he dead?! This can’t happen!), I went online to see how others had reacted. I stumbled upon a site with the theory that Jon is Azor Ahai reborn (salty tears and smoking wounds, plus Melisandre’s visions). I had never even thought about that, but that wasn’t even the craziest thing about it. The site listed all of the theories surrounding Azor Ahai, and I had only thought there were two of them (Stannis and Daenerys). To have so many characters listed under the theories, there had to be some serious planning on GRRM’s part.

Everything has been planned out with so much detail, it’s no wonder it takes him so long to write these books. Reading the ASOIAF series and seeing the theories have made me fall in love with reading and writing again. I can’t wait for The Winds of Winter, and I look forward to seeing what GRRM does with the crazy world he created.