I think this was incredible in terms of originality - camera work, dancing, costumes, style --
And I am really glad much love was given to hot Asian men and women. We get a really bad rap in the media. Asian females have been representing, now we've got Daniel Henney in 'Three Rivers', Tim Kang in 'The Mentalist' and John Cho in 'Flashforward'. I must have missed some. And C.S. Lee has the coolest lines in 'Dexter'.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Megan Fox's Transformer Diet Plan from Squidoo.com
Megan eats whole food sources instead of processed foods and avoids grains. This is similar to what many people call the "Paleo Diet". Which is similar to eating like our ancestors.
A Description of the Paleo Diet
Avoid Grains: Hunters and Gatherers ate fruits and vegetables as their carbohydrates. The human body was meant to eat fruits and vegetables, not grains.
Lot's of Natural Sources of Protein: Things like nuts, eggs, and meat is a great source of protein.
Fats Are Good For You: Yes, you heard it right. Megan Fox's diet had a good amount of fat. She ate an ounce of almonds and a few eggs ever day while preparing for her role in Transformers.
The bottom line...she stuck to whole foods without eating grains.
A Description of the Paleo Diet
Avoid Grains: Hunters and Gatherers ate fruits and vegetables as their carbohydrates. The human body was meant to eat fruits and vegetables, not grains.
Lot's of Natural Sources of Protein: Things like nuts, eggs, and meat is a great source of protein.
Fats Are Good For You: Yes, you heard it right. Megan Fox's diet had a good amount of fat. She ate an ounce of almonds and a few eggs ever day while preparing for her role in Transformers.
The bottom line...she stuck to whole foods without eating grains.
Megan Fox's Transformer Workout and Diet Plan from Squidoo.com
Here is the Workout Routine Megan Did for Her Role in Transformers
Megan hired a personal trainer who had her do a time compressed body-weight routine. This is a very similar routine that many of the stars are doing. Robert Downey Jr. did a similar type of workout for Ironman.
Megan Fox's trainer obviously understood the benefit of sticking to bodyweight intervals to keep her body slim, sexy, and functional without bulking up.
Believe it or not, this is a similar routine that actors like Brad Pitt and Daniel Craig do to get ready for their movie roles.
Okay, Back to Megan Fox's Workout
Planks: Megan's workout relied heavily on planks. Hollywood Trainer, Craig Ballantyne has a video page which shows several variations (will give link to that page later). Planks are by far the best move for women to get sexy, flat abs like Megan.
A Brief Ab Circuit: After blitzing her abs with planks, she would then spend 15-20 minutes doing a circuit that involved knee ups, leg swings, and ball leg lifts. This is done in an interval like fashion...hard effort with just a little rest and back to a tough exercise. The idea is to do 3-4 different exercises back-to-back, rest 30-60 seconds, then do it again. Repeat for 15-20 minutes. It is harder than it sounds!
Old School Stationary Bike: She then took advantage of the increased heart rate by finishing off with 30 minutes of cycling. This was done with low intensity (I'll explain why intervals, followed by low intensity cardio is extremely effective at getting lean).
Why Megan Fox's Brief Workout Burns Fat Like Crazy: You have probably heard that High Intensity Interval Training is great for getting lean and burning fat. This is true, but there is a flaw...
Interval Cardio is great at releasing fatty acids from fat cells (basically releasing fat into the bloodstream)...but is not good for using these fatty acids, once released.
Low Intensity Cardio is great for using fat for energy, but isn't good at releasing fat from the fat cells in the first place.
Megan Fox's Workout Program was a Hybrid Approach: She used body weight intervals to release the fat from the fat cells, followed by low intensity cardio to use these fatty acids for energy. The result was that Megan had a smokin' body for Transformers.
Megan hired a personal trainer who had her do a time compressed body-weight routine. This is a very similar routine that many of the stars are doing. Robert Downey Jr. did a similar type of workout for Ironman.
Megan Fox's trainer obviously understood the benefit of sticking to bodyweight intervals to keep her body slim, sexy, and functional without bulking up.
Believe it or not, this is a similar routine that actors like Brad Pitt and Daniel Craig do to get ready for their movie roles.
Okay, Back to Megan Fox's Workout
Planks: Megan's workout relied heavily on planks. Hollywood Trainer, Craig Ballantyne has a video page which shows several variations (will give link to that page later). Planks are by far the best move for women to get sexy, flat abs like Megan.
A Brief Ab Circuit: After blitzing her abs with planks, she would then spend 15-20 minutes doing a circuit that involved knee ups, leg swings, and ball leg lifts. This is done in an interval like fashion...hard effort with just a little rest and back to a tough exercise. The idea is to do 3-4 different exercises back-to-back, rest 30-60 seconds, then do it again. Repeat for 15-20 minutes. It is harder than it sounds!
Old School Stationary Bike: She then took advantage of the increased heart rate by finishing off with 30 minutes of cycling. This was done with low intensity (I'll explain why intervals, followed by low intensity cardio is extremely effective at getting lean).
Why Megan Fox's Brief Workout Burns Fat Like Crazy: You have probably heard that High Intensity Interval Training is great for getting lean and burning fat. This is true, but there is a flaw...
Interval Cardio is great at releasing fatty acids from fat cells (basically releasing fat into the bloodstream)...but is not good for using these fatty acids, once released.
Low Intensity Cardio is great for using fat for energy, but isn't good at releasing fat from the fat cells in the first place.
Megan Fox's Workout Program was a Hybrid Approach: She used body weight intervals to release the fat from the fat cells, followed by low intensity cardio to use these fatty acids for energy. The result was that Megan had a smokin' body for Transformers.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Three (Real) Ways to Make Money From Home in Your Spare Time by Carol Kopp Thursday, September 24, 2009
You are a world-class expert. Yes, you are, just like Stephen Hawking is a world-class expert on the Big Bang and Martha Stewart is a world-class expert on making festive party favors out of tissue paper.
Your personal interests, life and work experiences and education add up to real expertise in a number of subjects. Do you tinker with cars? Read Shakespeare for fun? Beat your buddies at chess? Lecture your friends about proper diet, or Web design, or Star Wars collectibles?
Then you're an expert, and there's a place online that can help you turn that avocation into hard cash.
There are at least three types of Web-based businesses that can help you earn cash in your spare time -- and a fourth type you shouldn't go near.
All three of the legit types supply the online base, the software and the marketing muscle you need to get started. You supply the expert "content," to use the hideous neo-media word for what we call "facts" in plain English.
This is not the get-rich-quick scheme you may have been looking for. The people who make real money through any of these schemes are working hard for it, really know their subjects and are good at communicating.
The money they earn is based on hard numbers. Page views and user ratings are modern equivalents to piece-work counts in a factory.
But if you can't find a full-time job, can't work regular hours or outside your home, or want to moonlight to supplement the 9 to 5 grind, one of these might be for you. For more strategies on how to moonlight, see Ten Ways to Moonlight.
A look at some of these online businesses suggests they are being used by young and out-of-work professionals to build up their resumes and hone their skills until the economy recovers. And, of course, many managers are using the services to get the job done until they can afford to add headcount.
All the sites claim to conduct a vetting process for contributors, and quality control over contributions, but their criteria are positively loosey-goosey compared to the personnel departments of a major corporation.
After all, their system of paying based on actual usage and client ratings ensures that only really good contributors get paid, and bad ones sink into the unplumbed depths of the database.
1. The Open Network
An open network offers a ready-built home for freelance writers to post articles on an infinite variety of useful or interesting subjects.
Associated Content, one of the largest and best known freelance networks, syndicates and custom-creates Editorial content, in text, video, image and audio forms.
It claims to be adding 5,000 articles a week to a database of more than 1 million articles on a vast range of subjects -- from curious facts about Abraham Lincoln to tips on easing your dog's separation anxiety.
That database was built by freelancers, who are paid a measly $3 to $15 per story but make an additional small sum based on user clicks, starting at $1.50 for every 1,000 page views. You can get a raise on that rate for page views as your output and audience grow.
The key to racking up page views is to write about something that interests everybody, like love or money. Or, write about a subject that interests many people intensely -- like parenting or World War II.
2. Answers On Demand
On-demand services connect people with an immediate need for information with experts who can supply that information. It's a one-on-one service, conducted over chat or via email for a fee.
LivePerson.com boasts 30,000 experts who are "ready to chat" on subjects from personal growth to small business solutions.
Some experts are lurking online, ready to jump in to answer your question, and others can be scheduled ahead for a one-on-one. The fee is set by the expert, anywhere from 50 cents to $5 per minute, about 45 percent of which goes to LivePerson.
Advice about "personal relationships" is clearly a money-maker here, although you can find a Web designer, a homework coach or a cosmetologist when you want one.
The vetting process includes licenses for professions that require them, like doctors and lawyers. All experts' resumes are available to prospective clients.
But once online, the experts live or die by client ratings which are, in the great tradition of the Internet, brutally honest. And in this world of pay-per-minute, the reviews cover typing speed as well as communication skills.
JustAnswer.com has an even simpler system. Got a problem? Just describe it, and indicate how much you're willing to pay for an answer. One of the experts will get back to you fast.
Experts run the gamut from veterinarians and attorneys to mechanics and computer repair people.
A quick glance through current questions reveals that many people are baffled by their electronic equipment, their cars and their puppies. Also, many students want somebody to write their term papers for them.
A new site out of Nashville, called Moontoast, wants to carry the concept to the next step and arrange actual face-to-face video and audio confrontations between expert and client. (Scary!)
Expected to launch soon, the site is bankrolled by country music stars and inspired by a musician's need to hear information, not just read it.
3. Crowd-Sourcing
This is the ultimate piece-work for the digital age.
"Crowd-sourcing" takes a big, ugly, often repetitive task and hacks it into small bits to be assigned to many people.
Say you are publishing a restaurant reservation directory, and every phone number has to be checked. How do you get it done? Try "crowd-sourcing" it.
MechanicalTurk.com, owned by Amazon, currently has almost 700 projects up for grabs, each divided into hundreds or thousands of "human intelligence tasks." Each task pays literally pennies -- from 1 cent to maybe 20 cents.
A lab needs information on 98 Web sites, for 10 cents a pop. Somebody is collecting data on 50 baseball players, for 9 cents each. Zappos wants people to edit product reviews for a nickel each. You might even see positions for big-time names like Google or Yahoo.
You grab a task, complete it and submit it for approval. As soon as it's approved, your payment gets transferred from the requester's Amazon Payments account to yours.
If you can stand it, you could sit at your computer all day banging these things out.
An experienced professional could get very bitter writing abstracts of technology news for a nickel each. But an under-employed college grad might greatly prefer it to flipping burgers, and it looks better on a resume.
More rarefied versions of crowd-sourcing are available at specialized freelance sites. DesignBay.com offers designers the chance to submit their work in online "contests" for posted projects. The odd jobs, most paying a couple of hundred dollars, come in from around the world, from small businesses and individuals who need logos or fliers, banner ads and posters.
Crowd-sourcing hits its low point in sites that pay people to "play around on the Internet." Put bluntly, they're falsifying usage data by goosing the number of unique hits on Web sites or banner ads.
CAUTION: The Age-Old Scam
Old scams never die. They just move onto the Internet.
If an ad promises you can make $50,000 a week clicking on Web sites, they're lying.
If a company wants you to pay upfront for a kit, or a book, or anything else, don't do it.
There are plenty of legitimate businesses in this game, and they make their money by helping you make money.
Your personal interests, life and work experiences and education add up to real expertise in a number of subjects. Do you tinker with cars? Read Shakespeare for fun? Beat your buddies at chess? Lecture your friends about proper diet, or Web design, or Star Wars collectibles?
Then you're an expert, and there's a place online that can help you turn that avocation into hard cash.
There are at least three types of Web-based businesses that can help you earn cash in your spare time -- and a fourth type you shouldn't go near.
All three of the legit types supply the online base, the software and the marketing muscle you need to get started. You supply the expert "content," to use the hideous neo-media word for what we call "facts" in plain English.
This is not the get-rich-quick scheme you may have been looking for. The people who make real money through any of these schemes are working hard for it, really know their subjects and are good at communicating.
The money they earn is based on hard numbers. Page views and user ratings are modern equivalents to piece-work counts in a factory.
But if you can't find a full-time job, can't work regular hours or outside your home, or want to moonlight to supplement the 9 to 5 grind, one of these might be for you. For more strategies on how to moonlight, see Ten Ways to Moonlight.
A look at some of these online businesses suggests they are being used by young and out-of-work professionals to build up their resumes and hone their skills until the economy recovers. And, of course, many managers are using the services to get the job done until they can afford to add headcount.
All the sites claim to conduct a vetting process for contributors, and quality control over contributions, but their criteria are positively loosey-goosey compared to the personnel departments of a major corporation.
After all, their system of paying based on actual usage and client ratings ensures that only really good contributors get paid, and bad ones sink into the unplumbed depths of the database.
1. The Open Network
An open network offers a ready-built home for freelance writers to post articles on an infinite variety of useful or interesting subjects.
Associated Content, one of the largest and best known freelance networks, syndicates and custom-creates Editorial content, in text, video, image and audio forms.
It claims to be adding 5,000 articles a week to a database of more than 1 million articles on a vast range of subjects -- from curious facts about Abraham Lincoln to tips on easing your dog's separation anxiety.
That database was built by freelancers, who are paid a measly $3 to $15 per story but make an additional small sum based on user clicks, starting at $1.50 for every 1,000 page views. You can get a raise on that rate for page views as your output and audience grow.
The key to racking up page views is to write about something that interests everybody, like love or money. Or, write about a subject that interests many people intensely -- like parenting or World War II.
2. Answers On Demand
On-demand services connect people with an immediate need for information with experts who can supply that information. It's a one-on-one service, conducted over chat or via email for a fee.
LivePerson.com boasts 30,000 experts who are "ready to chat" on subjects from personal growth to small business solutions.
Some experts are lurking online, ready to jump in to answer your question, and others can be scheduled ahead for a one-on-one. The fee is set by the expert, anywhere from 50 cents to $5 per minute, about 45 percent of which goes to LivePerson.
Advice about "personal relationships" is clearly a money-maker here, although you can find a Web designer, a homework coach or a cosmetologist when you want one.
The vetting process includes licenses for professions that require them, like doctors and lawyers. All experts' resumes are available to prospective clients.
But once online, the experts live or die by client ratings which are, in the great tradition of the Internet, brutally honest. And in this world of pay-per-minute, the reviews cover typing speed as well as communication skills.
JustAnswer.com has an even simpler system. Got a problem? Just describe it, and indicate how much you're willing to pay for an answer. One of the experts will get back to you fast.
Experts run the gamut from veterinarians and attorneys to mechanics and computer repair people.
A quick glance through current questions reveals that many people are baffled by their electronic equipment, their cars and their puppies. Also, many students want somebody to write their term papers for them.
A new site out of Nashville, called Moontoast, wants to carry the concept to the next step and arrange actual face-to-face video and audio confrontations between expert and client. (Scary!)
Expected to launch soon, the site is bankrolled by country music stars and inspired by a musician's need to hear information, not just read it.
3. Crowd-Sourcing
This is the ultimate piece-work for the digital age.
"Crowd-sourcing" takes a big, ugly, often repetitive task and hacks it into small bits to be assigned to many people.
Say you are publishing a restaurant reservation directory, and every phone number has to be checked. How do you get it done? Try "crowd-sourcing" it.
MechanicalTurk.com, owned by Amazon, currently has almost 700 projects up for grabs, each divided into hundreds or thousands of "human intelligence tasks." Each task pays literally pennies -- from 1 cent to maybe 20 cents.
A lab needs information on 98 Web sites, for 10 cents a pop. Somebody is collecting data on 50 baseball players, for 9 cents each. Zappos wants people to edit product reviews for a nickel each. You might even see positions for big-time names like Google or Yahoo.
You grab a task, complete it and submit it for approval. As soon as it's approved, your payment gets transferred from the requester's Amazon Payments account to yours.
If you can stand it, you could sit at your computer all day banging these things out.
An experienced professional could get very bitter writing abstracts of technology news for a nickel each. But an under-employed college grad might greatly prefer it to flipping burgers, and it looks better on a resume.
More rarefied versions of crowd-sourcing are available at specialized freelance sites. DesignBay.com offers designers the chance to submit their work in online "contests" for posted projects. The odd jobs, most paying a couple of hundred dollars, come in from around the world, from small businesses and individuals who need logos or fliers, banner ads and posters.
Crowd-sourcing hits its low point in sites that pay people to "play around on the Internet." Put bluntly, they're falsifying usage data by goosing the number of unique hits on Web sites or banner ads.
CAUTION: The Age-Old Scam
Old scams never die. They just move onto the Internet.
If an ad promises you can make $50,000 a week clicking on Web sites, they're lying.
If a company wants you to pay upfront for a kit, or a book, or anything else, don't do it.
There are plenty of legitimate businesses in this game, and they make their money by helping you make money.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
How To: Back Up All Your Stuff, For Free By John Herrman (from Gizmodo.com)
People don't neglect backing up their computers because it's hard—it isn't, at all. No, people file into the inevitable death march of data loss for one reason: Backing up usually costs money. But it doesn't have to.
When your concerned friends and family insist that you have to back your data up (as anyone who's seen my atrociously beaten-down laptop in the last few months has done to me) they're effectively telling you two things: That backing up your data will save you a massive headache in the future, because more likely the not, your hard drive will fail; and, less bluntly, that you need to buy a hard drive. And who wants to do that? It's hard to lay out the cash for a backup hard drive, since the payoff is uncertain, and (hopefully) far away. It's a good investment—not an easy one.
The good news is, most of us cheapskates can still keep our most important files safe without spending a dime, or wasting more than a few minutes. Here how:
Note: These methods don't give you traditional, full backups—they are ways to keep copies of the files that matter most to you, like your documents, photos, music and videos.
Share
Do you live with someone else? Do you share a network with someone else? Then hey, you've got an ready-built backup system right there! There are a few ways to deal with this setup, from stupid-simple to moderately complex.
First, you need permission. Whoever your networked buddy is, sit them down and have a talk. Give them a glass of milk, and explain to them how important data backup is. Persuade them. Coax them. Scare them. Offer to store their backups in exchange for them storing yours. Great! Now you have a partner in data safety. Congratulations.
The easiest, most direct and least intimidating way to get free backups is to set up simple file sharing on your PC or Mac. On the PC, it's just a matter of ticking a few boxes and setting a few parameters (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7) and on Mac, it's not much harder (To another Mac, to a PC, courtesy of Lifehacker).
Now you need to decide what to back up, and how to do it. If privacy isn't an issue, like in a scenario where you're just syncing files between two open access family computers, you can simple copy your documents, photos, video and audio to opposing computers' shared folders, and voila. If privacy is an issue, like if you're trying to back up sensitive documents or embarrassing photos, you can simply create a password-protected archive of some or all of your data, then copy that over to the backup folder.
But this is all a little manual for my taste—for a longer term solution, I'd recommend something a little more automated. All we need with such a simple setup is a basic backup utility. For Windows, I've been happy with IdleBackup, a free little utility that'll copy selected folders to any destination you want—including network folders—while your computer isn't working. For Mac, Lacie's SilverKeeper is as simple and powerful a tool as you'll need, syncing folders locally or over a network on a set schedule—also free.
Go Online
Again, short of purchasing a whole lot of online space especially designed for the purpose of storing full backups, this'll be a scenario in which you're picking a choosing what you save and what you don't; your intention here is to save and recover the files that matter most, not restore your entire operating system. Luckily, with increasingly generous offers from online storage companies, you can put quite a bit of your stuff on someone else's servers for nothing. A few of the best:
Windows Live Skydrive: This one really deserves more publicity that it seems to get, because it hands you 25GB of no-strings-attached storage, for free. The 50MB filesize limit is a little low considering how large the online disk is, but for document, photo, and even music backup, it's hard to beat this.
File Factory: 100GB of free storage with a 300MB file limit. The catch? It can be a little slow, so this much data isn't necessarily that usable.
Dropbox: This is more than just a backup service—it has plenty of nifty file syncing and features, too—but it's a super-simple way to store 2GB of data online, with well-designed clients on every major platform
Mozy: Gives you 2GB of storage for free, or an unlimited amount for $5 a month. Comes with an extremely handy Windows utility that makes it easy to specify what gets uploaded, and what doesn't.
Orbit Files: Offers 6GB of space, but with fewer options available for non-paying customers, and no software client.
Scatter Yourself In the Cloud
The bad news is, this is the most time-consuming way to skirt proper backups, both in terms of setup and recovery. The good news is, you're probably already doing this, to an extent.
If my laptop died right now, I'd lose my settings, a little bit of music, a few day's worth of documents, and well, that's about it. That's because so, so much of my data lives in various online services, just by nature of how I work. Rather than undertaking a day-long effort to upload all your files to myriad websites, just consider changing your habits a little, and easing into a cloud over time. That these services provide useful backups is incidental—usually they're intended as web apps—but that doesn't mean they don't serve the purpose beautifully. Use them for their intended purposes-be it document editing, photo sharing, or music streaming—and you'll soon realize that, without even trying, you've create a wonderful, distributed backup of your most-used media across the internet.
Documents:
Google Docs: This one's a no-brainer, since a lot of you probably already use Gmail, with which Docs is tightly integrated. It can sometimes break formatting in files, but at least you won't lose important data.
Office Live: Microsoft's take on the online office suite comes with a free 5GB, which, let's be honest, is an awful lot of Word documents.
Zoho: As an online office suite, Zoho offers a few little features that Google and Microsoft don't. As a storage service, though, they only offer 1GB. Still!
Photos:
Flickr: The obvious choice for photography geeks, Flickr give you unlimited storage for free, at a rate of 100MB a month.
Snapfish: With fewer options for enthusiasts, Snapfish's draw is its unlimited storage and orderable photo prints.
Picasa: 1GB of Google's storage space for free out of the box, with a nice client to boot.
Photobucket: Another 1GB of free storage, but this one takes video as well.
Facebook: This might seem like an unlikely recommendation, but they've got one of the best deals going, in a way. If you're not concerned about the quality of your photo uploads—like, you just want them for onscreen viewing—you can upload unlimited photos here, 200 at a time. And in any case, a medium-quality JPEG is better than no photo at all.
Music:
MP3Tunes: Puts your music library everywhere, with a bevy of client apps for various platforms, including the iPhone. 2GB of free storage isn't much, but it's something.
File Factory: Mentioned above in the general storage section, FileFactory also has a web interface for music. 100GB is quite possibly enough to store your whole library.
Deezer: A French music streaming service that also lets you upload as much music as you'd like, for personal use.
Video:
This is the most hackish of the bunch, but YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and the like usually support private or invite-only videos, which means they can act as last resort backup solutions, though the loss of quality and long upload times might make these plans a little unwieldy.
When your concerned friends and family insist that you have to back your data up (as anyone who's seen my atrociously beaten-down laptop in the last few months has done to me) they're effectively telling you two things: That backing up your data will save you a massive headache in the future, because more likely the not, your hard drive will fail; and, less bluntly, that you need to buy a hard drive. And who wants to do that? It's hard to lay out the cash for a backup hard drive, since the payoff is uncertain, and (hopefully) far away. It's a good investment—not an easy one.
The good news is, most of us cheapskates can still keep our most important files safe without spending a dime, or wasting more than a few minutes. Here how:
Note: These methods don't give you traditional, full backups—they are ways to keep copies of the files that matter most to you, like your documents, photos, music and videos.
Share
Do you live with someone else? Do you share a network with someone else? Then hey, you've got an ready-built backup system right there! There are a few ways to deal with this setup, from stupid-simple to moderately complex.
First, you need permission. Whoever your networked buddy is, sit them down and have a talk. Give them a glass of milk, and explain to them how important data backup is. Persuade them. Coax them. Scare them. Offer to store their backups in exchange for them storing yours. Great! Now you have a partner in data safety. Congratulations.
The easiest, most direct and least intimidating way to get free backups is to set up simple file sharing on your PC or Mac. On the PC, it's just a matter of ticking a few boxes and setting a few parameters (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7) and on Mac, it's not much harder (To another Mac, to a PC, courtesy of Lifehacker).
Now you need to decide what to back up, and how to do it. If privacy isn't an issue, like in a scenario where you're just syncing files between two open access family computers, you can simple copy your documents, photos, video and audio to opposing computers' shared folders, and voila. If privacy is an issue, like if you're trying to back up sensitive documents or embarrassing photos, you can simply create a password-protected archive of some or all of your data, then copy that over to the backup folder.
But this is all a little manual for my taste—for a longer term solution, I'd recommend something a little more automated. All we need with such a simple setup is a basic backup utility. For Windows, I've been happy with IdleBackup, a free little utility that'll copy selected folders to any destination you want—including network folders—while your computer isn't working. For Mac, Lacie's SilverKeeper is as simple and powerful a tool as you'll need, syncing folders locally or over a network on a set schedule—also free.
Go Online
Again, short of purchasing a whole lot of online space especially designed for the purpose of storing full backups, this'll be a scenario in which you're picking a choosing what you save and what you don't; your intention here is to save and recover the files that matter most, not restore your entire operating system. Luckily, with increasingly generous offers from online storage companies, you can put quite a bit of your stuff on someone else's servers for nothing. A few of the best:
Windows Live Skydrive: This one really deserves more publicity that it seems to get, because it hands you 25GB of no-strings-attached storage, for free. The 50MB filesize limit is a little low considering how large the online disk is, but for document, photo, and even music backup, it's hard to beat this.
File Factory: 100GB of free storage with a 300MB file limit. The catch? It can be a little slow, so this much data isn't necessarily that usable.
Dropbox: This is more than just a backup service—it has plenty of nifty file syncing and features, too—but it's a super-simple way to store 2GB of data online, with well-designed clients on every major platform
Mozy: Gives you 2GB of storage for free, or an unlimited amount for $5 a month. Comes with an extremely handy Windows utility that makes it easy to specify what gets uploaded, and what doesn't.
Orbit Files: Offers 6GB of space, but with fewer options available for non-paying customers, and no software client.
Scatter Yourself In the Cloud
The bad news is, this is the most time-consuming way to skirt proper backups, both in terms of setup and recovery. The good news is, you're probably already doing this, to an extent.
If my laptop died right now, I'd lose my settings, a little bit of music, a few day's worth of documents, and well, that's about it. That's because so, so much of my data lives in various online services, just by nature of how I work. Rather than undertaking a day-long effort to upload all your files to myriad websites, just consider changing your habits a little, and easing into a cloud over time. That these services provide useful backups is incidental—usually they're intended as web apps—but that doesn't mean they don't serve the purpose beautifully. Use them for their intended purposes-be it document editing, photo sharing, or music streaming—and you'll soon realize that, without even trying, you've create a wonderful, distributed backup of your most-used media across the internet.
Documents:
Google Docs: This one's a no-brainer, since a lot of you probably already use Gmail, with which Docs is tightly integrated. It can sometimes break formatting in files, but at least you won't lose important data.
Office Live: Microsoft's take on the online office suite comes with a free 5GB, which, let's be honest, is an awful lot of Word documents.
Zoho: As an online office suite, Zoho offers a few little features that Google and Microsoft don't. As a storage service, though, they only offer 1GB. Still!
Photos:
Flickr: The obvious choice for photography geeks, Flickr give you unlimited storage for free, at a rate of 100MB a month.
Snapfish: With fewer options for enthusiasts, Snapfish's draw is its unlimited storage and orderable photo prints.
Picasa: 1GB of Google's storage space for free out of the box, with a nice client to boot.
Photobucket: Another 1GB of free storage, but this one takes video as well.
Facebook: This might seem like an unlikely recommendation, but they've got one of the best deals going, in a way. If you're not concerned about the quality of your photo uploads—like, you just want them for onscreen viewing—you can upload unlimited photos here, 200 at a time. And in any case, a medium-quality JPEG is better than no photo at all.
Music:
MP3Tunes: Puts your music library everywhere, with a bevy of client apps for various platforms, including the iPhone. 2GB of free storage isn't much, but it's something.
File Factory: Mentioned above in the general storage section, FileFactory also has a web interface for music. 100GB is quite possibly enough to store your whole library.
Deezer: A French music streaming service that also lets you upload as much music as you'd like, for personal use.
Video:
This is the most hackish of the bunch, but YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler and the like usually support private or invite-only videos, which means they can act as last resort backup solutions, though the loss of quality and long upload times might make these plans a little unwieldy.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle By ELMORE LEONARD Published: Monday, July 16, 2001, NYT
These are rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.
1. Never open a book with weather.
If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
2. Avoid prologues.
They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.
There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's ''Sweet Thursday,'' but it's O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: ''I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.''
3. Never use a verb other than ''said'' to carry dialogue.
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with ''she asseverated,'' and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ''said'' . . .
. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances ''full of rape and adverbs.''
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.
6. Never use the words ''suddenly'' or ''all hell broke loose.''
This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use ''suddenly'' tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories ''Close Range.''
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's ''Hills Like White Elephants'' what do the ''American and the girl with him'' look like? ''She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.'' That's the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you're good at it, you don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
And finally:
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)
If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character -- the one whose view best brings the scene to life -- I'm able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what's going on, and I'm nowhere in sight.
What Steinbeck did in ''Sweet Thursday'' was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. ''Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts'' is one, ''Lousy Wednesday'' another. The third chapter is titled ''Hooptedoodle 1'' and the 38th chapter ''Hooptedoodle 2'' as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: ''Here's where you'll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won't get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.''
''Sweet Thursday'' came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I've never forgotten that prologue.
Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.
Writers on Writing
This article is part of a series in which writers explore literary themes. Previous contributions, including essays by John Updike, E. L. Doctorow, Ed McBain, Annie Proulx, Jamaica Kincaid, Saul Bellow and others, can be found with this article at The New York Times on the Web:
www.nytimes.com/arts
1. Never open a book with weather.
If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.
2. Avoid prologues.
They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.
There is a prologue in John Steinbeck's ''Sweet Thursday,'' but it's O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: ''I like a lot of talk in a book and I don't like to have nobody tell me what the guy that's talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy's thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That's nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don't have to read it. I don't want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.''
3. Never use a verb other than ''said'' to carry dialogue.
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with ''she asseverated,'' and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb ''said'' . . .
. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances ''full of rape and adverbs.''
5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.
6. Never use the words ''suddenly'' or ''all hell broke loose.''
This rule doesn't require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use ''suddenly'' tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won't be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories ''Close Range.''
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's ''Hills Like White Elephants'' what do the ''American and the girl with him'' look like? ''She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.'' That's the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
Unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you're good at it, you don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.
And finally:
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)
If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character -- the one whose view best brings the scene to life -- I'm able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what's going on, and I'm nowhere in sight.
What Steinbeck did in ''Sweet Thursday'' was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. ''Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts'' is one, ''Lousy Wednesday'' another. The third chapter is titled ''Hooptedoodle 1'' and the 38th chapter ''Hooptedoodle 2'' as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: ''Here's where you'll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won't get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.''
''Sweet Thursday'' came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I've never forgotten that prologue.
Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.
Writers on Writing
This article is part of a series in which writers explore literary themes. Previous contributions, including essays by John Updike, E. L. Doctorow, Ed McBain, Annie Proulx, Jamaica Kincaid, Saul Bellow and others, can be found with this article at The New York Times on the Web:
www.nytimes.com/arts
Friday, September 4, 2009
Money for Grad School By Jane Bennett Clark, Senior Associate Editor From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, August 2009
If you've been out of school for a while, look for awards that suit your strengths and goals on Web sites such as FinAid.org, FastWeb.com, GradSchools.com and CollegeScholarships.org. These sites provide not only a list of fellowships but also tips on how to apply. Caroline Elliott, a grad student at Boston University, went one step further by paying for access to Foundation Grants to Individuals Online ($20 for one month or $100 for one year). Elliott, 35, credits the site with pointing her to an AAUW fellowship that fit with her plan to segue from a job at MTV to a career in the film industry. She won a $12,000 award for career changers that has helped defray the cost of a master's degree in fine arts.
Don't neglect to tap one excellent source of funding: your boss. More than two-thirds of private-sector employers with 100 workers or more pay educational expenses for their employees, according to a 2008 National Compensation Survey. Such assistance is tax-free up to $5,250 a year and may escape taxes on higher amounts if you take classes to enhance job skills or meet a job requirement.
Fill in with loans. You'll probably end up with at least a few student loans. Focus on the federally backed Perkins, Stafford and GradPlus loans, which you apply for by filling out the FAFSA. The Perkins, a need-based loan program that the school administers, charges 5% and lets you defer repayment until nine months after graduation. As of July 2009, you can borrow up to $8,000 a year, to a maximum (undergraduate and graduate) of $60,000. The amount you get depends on your financial need and on how much the school has in its kitty.
Staffords come in two forms: subsidized and unsubsidized. Subsidized Staffords are awarded to students with financial need. For grad students, both subsidized and unsubsidized Staffords carry a fixed 6.8% rate. The feds pay the interest on the loans until the borrower starts repayment, six months after graduation.
Unsubsidized Staffords, available to any student who applies, carry a 6.8% rate, which starts accruing as soon as the loan is disbursed. As with subsidized Staffords, you can defer repayment on the loans (including the interest) until six months after you graduate. Grad students can borrow up to $20,500 a year in Staffords, of which no more than $8,500 can be in subsidized loans.
GradPlus loans, created in 2006, are a boon to graduate students because of their generous provisions and relatively easy qualifying standards. They require a basic credit check to ensure you haven't defaulted on any loans, but otherwise don't factor in your credit rating in approving your application or in setting the rate. The loans carry a fixed rate of 8.5% or less and cover the cost of attendance, including living expenses. Repayment begins 60 days after the loan is disbursed; students who attend school more than half-time can defer repayment until six months after graduation.
All that makes GradPlus loans far more attractive than private student loans, which require a creditworthy cosigner, carry variable rates and have less-flexible repayment terms. With GradPlus loans on the table, students have little reason to consider the private alternative, says Kevin Walker, of SimpleTuition.com, a student-loan comparison site. "There really is no role for private loans at the graduate level."
Take a tax break
Need more help? Ask Uncle Sam. The lifetime learning tax credit deducts from your tax bill up to $2,000, or 20% of your first $10,000 of qualified tuition and fees, minus scholarships and other financial aid. You get this bennie even if you attend school less than half-time, and you can claim it for as many years as you have qualified expenses. The credit starts to phase out for 2009 at $50,000 for single filers and $100,000 for married couples filing jointly, and it disappears at $60,000 for single filers and $120,000 for couples.
If your income prevents you from claiming a Lifetime Learning credit, you can take an education deduction for tuition and fees. The maximum deduction is $4,000 if your modified adjusted gross income does not exceed $65,000 ($130,000 for couples filing jointly); it's $2,000 for single filers whose income tops out at $80,000 and for joint filers with income of no more than $160,000. The break expires at the end of 2009 unless Congress extends it, as it has in the past.
Don't neglect to tap one excellent source of funding: your boss. More than two-thirds of private-sector employers with 100 workers or more pay educational expenses for their employees, according to a 2008 National Compensation Survey. Such assistance is tax-free up to $5,250 a year and may escape taxes on higher amounts if you take classes to enhance job skills or meet a job requirement.
Fill in with loans. You'll probably end up with at least a few student loans. Focus on the federally backed Perkins, Stafford and GradPlus loans, which you apply for by filling out the FAFSA. The Perkins, a need-based loan program that the school administers, charges 5% and lets you defer repayment until nine months after graduation. As of July 2009, you can borrow up to $8,000 a year, to a maximum (undergraduate and graduate) of $60,000. The amount you get depends on your financial need and on how much the school has in its kitty.
Staffords come in two forms: subsidized and unsubsidized. Subsidized Staffords are awarded to students with financial need. For grad students, both subsidized and unsubsidized Staffords carry a fixed 6.8% rate. The feds pay the interest on the loans until the borrower starts repayment, six months after graduation.
Unsubsidized Staffords, available to any student who applies, carry a 6.8% rate, which starts accruing as soon as the loan is disbursed. As with subsidized Staffords, you can defer repayment on the loans (including the interest) until six months after you graduate. Grad students can borrow up to $20,500 a year in Staffords, of which no more than $8,500 can be in subsidized loans.
GradPlus loans, created in 2006, are a boon to graduate students because of their generous provisions and relatively easy qualifying standards. They require a basic credit check to ensure you haven't defaulted on any loans, but otherwise don't factor in your credit rating in approving your application or in setting the rate. The loans carry a fixed rate of 8.5% or less and cover the cost of attendance, including living expenses. Repayment begins 60 days after the loan is disbursed; students who attend school more than half-time can defer repayment until six months after graduation.
All that makes GradPlus loans far more attractive than private student loans, which require a creditworthy cosigner, carry variable rates and have less-flexible repayment terms. With GradPlus loans on the table, students have little reason to consider the private alternative, says Kevin Walker, of SimpleTuition.com, a student-loan comparison site. "There really is no role for private loans at the graduate level."
Take a tax break
Need more help? Ask Uncle Sam. The lifetime learning tax credit deducts from your tax bill up to $2,000, or 20% of your first $10,000 of qualified tuition and fees, minus scholarships and other financial aid. You get this bennie even if you attend school less than half-time, and you can claim it for as many years as you have qualified expenses. The credit starts to phase out for 2009 at $50,000 for single filers and $100,000 for married couples filing jointly, and it disappears at $60,000 for single filers and $120,000 for couples.
If your income prevents you from claiming a Lifetime Learning credit, you can take an education deduction for tuition and fees. The maximum deduction is $4,000 if your modified adjusted gross income does not exceed $65,000 ($130,000 for couples filing jointly); it's $2,000 for single filers whose income tops out at $80,000 and for joint filers with income of no more than $160,000. The break expires at the end of 2009 unless Congress extends it, as it has in the past.
Free Stuff
Free Software
For word processing and spreadsheets, go to OpenOffice.org. For antivirus protection, head to http://free.avg.com. For free basic photo editing, check out http://picasa.google.com, or for more advanced touch-ups, try Gimp.org. And to manage your finances, use the free programs at Mint.com or Wesabe.com.
Free Rewards
When you have to make a purchase online, start at BondRewards.com to earn another cool freebie: You click on an affiliated online retailer (there are hundreds) to do your shopping as usual, and a percentage of your purchase is given back to you in your BondRewards account. You then redeem your rewards for U.S. savings bonds or cash.
Free Financial Advice
Kiplinger.com
Free Mobile Apps
You spent all that money on a new iPhone. Now download some free apps to help you save money and recoup the cost. For instance, the free Mint.com or Quicken apps help you track your spending and manage your money and investments on the go. AMT Hunter can help you find a surcharge-free machine near wherever you are. And iShop can help you search for the lowest price on an item before you buy.
There are plenty of other useful applications at the iTunes App Store, with free recipes, weather updates, diet help, music, games and more.
Free Digital Storage Space
With free online backup storage, you can protect your important files and photos from computer crashes, theft or natural disaster.
For instance, Spideroak.com and Myotherdrive.com each give you 2 gigabytes of free and secure digital storage space. You can also store your cherished photos and videos at sites such as Photobucket.com and Flickr.com. You can also store your pics at photo-print ordering sites such as Snapfish.com, Shutterfly.com or Walmart.com, as long as your account is active.
Free Tech Recycling -- With Benefits
Not only is it getting easier to keep your old electronics out of the landfill, but you may even get some free cash in exchange. Services such as BuyMyTronics.com, Gazelle.com, MyBoneyard.com and GreenPhone.com recycle or refurbish your old tech and send you a check in return. They take cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, game consoles and more.
If you can't find anyone willing to pay for your dinosaur, look for other free places to recycle. For instance, Best Buy will take many of your tech castoffs at no charge. And keep your eyes open for free e-recycling days in your city.
Free Capital Gains
Who wouldn't love to let their investments grow 100% tax-free? Take a pass on paying capital-gains taxes by investing in a Roth IRA. Any money you put into your Roth grows tax-free, and you won't owe Uncle Sam a dime when you cash out in retirement. It's all yours.
For word processing and spreadsheets, go to OpenOffice.org. For antivirus protection, head to http://free.avg.com. For free basic photo editing, check out http://picasa.google.com, or for more advanced touch-ups, try Gimp.org. And to manage your finances, use the free programs at Mint.com or Wesabe.com.
Free Rewards
When you have to make a purchase online, start at BondRewards.com to earn another cool freebie: You click on an affiliated online retailer (there are hundreds) to do your shopping as usual, and a percentage of your purchase is given back to you in your BondRewards account. You then redeem your rewards for U.S. savings bonds or cash.
Free Financial Advice
Kiplinger.com
Free Mobile Apps
You spent all that money on a new iPhone. Now download some free apps to help you save money and recoup the cost. For instance, the free Mint.com or Quicken apps help you track your spending and manage your money and investments on the go. AMT Hunter can help you find a surcharge-free machine near wherever you are. And iShop can help you search for the lowest price on an item before you buy.
There are plenty of other useful applications at the iTunes App Store, with free recipes, weather updates, diet help, music, games and more.
Free Digital Storage Space
With free online backup storage, you can protect your important files and photos from computer crashes, theft or natural disaster.
For instance, Spideroak.com and Myotherdrive.com each give you 2 gigabytes of free and secure digital storage space. You can also store your cherished photos and videos at sites such as Photobucket.com and Flickr.com. You can also store your pics at photo-print ordering sites such as Snapfish.com, Shutterfly.com or Walmart.com, as long as your account is active.
Free Tech Recycling -- With Benefits
Not only is it getting easier to keep your old electronics out of the landfill, but you may even get some free cash in exchange. Services such as BuyMyTronics.com, Gazelle.com, MyBoneyard.com and GreenPhone.com recycle or refurbish your old tech and send you a check in return. They take cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, game consoles and more.
If you can't find anyone willing to pay for your dinosaur, look for other free places to recycle. For instance, Best Buy will take many of your tech castoffs at no charge. And keep your eyes open for free e-recycling days in your city.
Free Capital Gains
Who wouldn't love to let their investments grow 100% tax-free? Take a pass on paying capital-gains taxes by investing in a Roth IRA. Any money you put into your Roth grows tax-free, and you won't owe Uncle Sam a dime when you cash out in retirement. It's all yours.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The wear and tear of heavy stage makeup and what to do about it By Jessyca Dewey
Chances are the next role you audition for won't be that of an acne-ridden teenager. Sure, it's not totally impossible that a Freaks and Geeks spinoff will land at your feet, but for most auditions, acne is not considered an asset.
If you're playing a role that requires heavy stage makeup, however, acne and breakouts are nearly inevitable. Thick, pore-clogging makeup piled on for hours, night after night, will eventually take a toll on the skin, says aesthetician Marc Edward, owner of Marc Edward Skincare (www.marcedwardskincare.com). At the very least, says Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald, a cosmetic and clinical dermatologist in Los Angeles, anyone with a propensity for acne will see breakouts.
Unfortunately, skipping the makeup is rarely an option. "The reality is that when the makeup artist is there, they're really going to do what they think is best," says Edward. "It's their craft."
Fine, but if the makeup is inescapable, the acne and redness shouldn't be. There are many ways to help prevent it. The best way to clean your skin, according to Fitzgerald and Edward, is the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush. "That brush is the best thing we've ever had for that heavy makeup residue," says Fitzgerald. "Masks can't hurt, but they don't do what it does."
The brush, which uses sonic waves to loosen dirt, oil, and makeup from the pores, is more costly than a good old-fashioned washcloth and cleanser, but according to Edward, "It's a great investment for an actor to spend that $195—which is cheaper than some facials in town—and it really gets rid of a lot of that embedded makeup that gets clogged after each show." Voted "Best Facialist in L.A." by Frontiers magazine, Edward has been using the brush as part of his facial treatments for more than five years.
Regular facials also help keep the skin healthy. "Someone who's a famous actor—someone who makes a lot of money—to be quite honest, they're going to get a facial once a week," says Edward. "They know the benefit of keeping their skin clean." But for most actors, he adds, "that's not always in the budget." Fitzgerald agrees that facials are effective and recommends that actors get one treatment per month if they can afford it, or at least four treatments a year.
Pore Health for Poor Actors
As beneficial as regular facials and high-tech brushes might be, many struggling and not-so-struggling actors won't have the cash to spare. If you're on a tight budget, even simple, inexpensive techniques—such as using soft washcloths and cleaning the face twice—will help, says Edward. For actors without access to a sink directly after a stage performance, Fitzgerald recommends carrying Olay Daily Facials Night Cleansing Cloths and La Roche-Posay Thermal Spring Water, which you can spray on your face as a moisturizer.
For at-home facials, Fitzgerald likes Bioré's Purify Self-Heating Mask, and Edward advises following the facial cleanser with an acid-based toner. "This will actually help to dissolve any of the other things that are left behind," he says, "whether it's makeup, oil, or blackheads, or pollution, or all of those things." But he warns against toners that are drying or alcohol-based.
An actor who wears a lot of heavy stage makeup might be tempted to forgo a moisturizer, reasoning that it will further clog the pores, says Edward. "But the reality is that a lot of makeup can be quite drying to the skin, and if you're doing a double cleansing to get rid of it, then it can be even a little bit irritating sometimes. So everyone should be using a moisturizer."
"Dry skin is more-vulnerable skin," warns Fitzgerald. "So keeping your skin in good shape and well-moisturized will make it much less vulnerable to any bad effects of all the stage makeup. And even though you're exhausted at night and it's tempting to just fall in bed with that stuff on your face, don't do it." Unless, of course, you aspire to a career playing acne-ridden teens. In that case, by all means, go for it.
If you're playing a role that requires heavy stage makeup, however, acne and breakouts are nearly inevitable. Thick, pore-clogging makeup piled on for hours, night after night, will eventually take a toll on the skin, says aesthetician Marc Edward, owner of Marc Edward Skincare (www.marcedwardskincare.com). At the very least, says Dr. Rebecca Fitzgerald, a cosmetic and clinical dermatologist in Los Angeles, anyone with a propensity for acne will see breakouts.
Unfortunately, skipping the makeup is rarely an option. "The reality is that when the makeup artist is there, they're really going to do what they think is best," says Edward. "It's their craft."
Fine, but if the makeup is inescapable, the acne and redness shouldn't be. There are many ways to help prevent it. The best way to clean your skin, according to Fitzgerald and Edward, is the Clarisonic Skin Care Brush. "That brush is the best thing we've ever had for that heavy makeup residue," says Fitzgerald. "Masks can't hurt, but they don't do what it does."
The brush, which uses sonic waves to loosen dirt, oil, and makeup from the pores, is more costly than a good old-fashioned washcloth and cleanser, but according to Edward, "It's a great investment for an actor to spend that $195—which is cheaper than some facials in town—and it really gets rid of a lot of that embedded makeup that gets clogged after each show." Voted "Best Facialist in L.A." by Frontiers magazine, Edward has been using the brush as part of his facial treatments for more than five years.
Regular facials also help keep the skin healthy. "Someone who's a famous actor—someone who makes a lot of money—to be quite honest, they're going to get a facial once a week," says Edward. "They know the benefit of keeping their skin clean." But for most actors, he adds, "that's not always in the budget." Fitzgerald agrees that facials are effective and recommends that actors get one treatment per month if they can afford it, or at least four treatments a year.
Pore Health for Poor Actors
As beneficial as regular facials and high-tech brushes might be, many struggling and not-so-struggling actors won't have the cash to spare. If you're on a tight budget, even simple, inexpensive techniques—such as using soft washcloths and cleaning the face twice—will help, says Edward. For actors without access to a sink directly after a stage performance, Fitzgerald recommends carrying Olay Daily Facials Night Cleansing Cloths and La Roche-Posay Thermal Spring Water, which you can spray on your face as a moisturizer.
For at-home facials, Fitzgerald likes Bioré's Purify Self-Heating Mask, and Edward advises following the facial cleanser with an acid-based toner. "This will actually help to dissolve any of the other things that are left behind," he says, "whether it's makeup, oil, or blackheads, or pollution, or all of those things." But he warns against toners that are drying or alcohol-based.
An actor who wears a lot of heavy stage makeup might be tempted to forgo a moisturizer, reasoning that it will further clog the pores, says Edward. "But the reality is that a lot of makeup can be quite drying to the skin, and if you're doing a double cleansing to get rid of it, then it can be even a little bit irritating sometimes. So everyone should be using a moisturizer."
"Dry skin is more-vulnerable skin," warns Fitzgerald. "So keeping your skin in good shape and well-moisturized will make it much less vulnerable to any bad effects of all the stage makeup. And even though you're exhausted at night and it's tempting to just fall in bed with that stuff on your face, don't do it." Unless, of course, you aspire to a career playing acne-ridden teens. In that case, by all means, go for it.
What to wear and what not to wear when meeting with an agent By Jessyca Dewey
On camera or on stage, an actor's every garment is expertly chosen and arranged. If only actors had personal stylists and costume designers at their disposal the rest of the time. Once you've changed back into your own clothes, however, your choices are up to you. While it's a good idea to look your best whenever possible—in this industry, you never know who you'll meet—sometimes it's of utmost importance, such as when meeting with potential representation.
Sitting across the desk from an agent who may be interested in signing you, you're selling that person on your face, your personality, and your talent. So you want to infuse your outfit with a little bit of your personality, says veteran L.A. stylist Tin Wornom. But actors, especially women, should be careful their clothing doesn't draw too much attention. "You want them to look at your face," she warns. "You don't want them to look at your boobs."
Stylist Pascale Nyby, whose credits include Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal, agrees. "I think that restraint should be used when showing the chest," she says. "Obviously, low-cut tops are good, but not to the extent where you're uncomfortable and somebody else might think that something's going to happen if you move too quickly in one direction or the other."
There are several guidelines for deciding whether a piece of clothing is suitable. Wornom stresses the importance of common sense: "If you wouldn't wear that to go meet your boyfriend's family for the first time, I definitely wouldn't wear it to meet an agent or manager for the first time."
Feeling comfortable and confident is also important, for men and women. Says Sabrina Newman, New York–based founder and style editor of the fashion website ANewMode
.com, "There are some people who can wear a low-cut shirt and make it look completely classy, and there are people who will wear it and you can tell they feel uncomfortable and they feel like they're being a little too revealing."
Adds Nyby, "You're taking a neutral stance when you go into a meeting with anybody, and you don't want to go too loudly in one direction or the other until you're sure what they really like." Though it may be wise to play it cool and avoid extreme fashion statements, there are ways to incorporate your personality and style in your outfit without being too loud.
For women, Wornom suggests avoiding bold prints on top—or, if you must, try wearing them on the bottom. "It's about mixing it up and making things look effortless," she says. Accessories are also a great way to show a bit of personality without coming off too strong.
If the Jeans Fit, Wear 'Em
All the stylists agree that it's appropriate to wear a nice pair of dark jeans to an industry meeting. But there are several common faux pas to avoid. Wornom, who has also worked in casting, advises men to steer clear of very tight pants: "I'm not casting you or interested in you because of your junk. I'm interested in you because you actually have talent." Find jeans that are neither too revealing nor too loose, she advises, and avoid the "skater, Urban Outfitter kind of thing," adding that men should always wear a belt to achieve a more polished look.
Tight-fitting jeans may not be a bad choice for women, but it depends on your body type, says Nyby: A woman in really good shape can wear tight jeans without exposing too much flesh and appear just as conservative as a woman who's not in great shape in looser-fitting jeans. It's common for women to wear jeans about two sizes too small, but to ensure the best fit, Nyby recommends trying them on and sitting down: If they expose your back, they're too small.
"It's a great feeling to fit into a size smaller," says Newman, "but it can make you look so much heavier because it doesn't fit you right, and if you're spilling out or you have a muffin top, it's definitely no good."
If you don't already own a pair of high-quality, great-fitting jeans, the stylists highly recommend investing in one. Wornom suggests Ernest Sewn or Antik Denim; Newman likes J Brand and Rock & Republic. While they're definitely more pricey than Old Navy, you'll notice the difference in quality, they say. "There are going to be people who are like, 'Oh, no, it's all the same,' " says Wornom. "You know what? It ain't the same. My ass does not look as good in a pair of Forever 21 jeans as it does in my Diesels." Nyby agrees, adding that a nice pair of jeans from a recognizable designer helps an actor appear successful and confident.
Sacrificing quality to save money may have adverse affects, according to Wornom. "You don't look polished," she says. "You look like you're broke and you need a job, and no one wants to hire you if you look like you're broke and you need a job. I've been doing this for 16 years, and the desperate-looking people that walk through the door are never the ones that get hired."
Bottom line? "If you're wearing something that you love, it's going to show," says Newman. "The No. 1 fashion tip in general is that it's always important to stay true to yourself and to your own personal style." So before you walk out your front door, be sure you not only look good but feel good too.
Sitting across the desk from an agent who may be interested in signing you, you're selling that person on your face, your personality, and your talent. So you want to infuse your outfit with a little bit of your personality, says veteran L.A. stylist Tin Wornom. But actors, especially women, should be careful their clothing doesn't draw too much attention. "You want them to look at your face," she warns. "You don't want them to look at your boobs."
Stylist Pascale Nyby, whose credits include Grey's Anatomy and Boston Legal, agrees. "I think that restraint should be used when showing the chest," she says. "Obviously, low-cut tops are good, but not to the extent where you're uncomfortable and somebody else might think that something's going to happen if you move too quickly in one direction or the other."
There are several guidelines for deciding whether a piece of clothing is suitable. Wornom stresses the importance of common sense: "If you wouldn't wear that to go meet your boyfriend's family for the first time, I definitely wouldn't wear it to meet an agent or manager for the first time."
Feeling comfortable and confident is also important, for men and women. Says Sabrina Newman, New York–based founder and style editor of the fashion website ANewMode
.com, "There are some people who can wear a low-cut shirt and make it look completely classy, and there are people who will wear it and you can tell they feel uncomfortable and they feel like they're being a little too revealing."
Adds Nyby, "You're taking a neutral stance when you go into a meeting with anybody, and you don't want to go too loudly in one direction or the other until you're sure what they really like." Though it may be wise to play it cool and avoid extreme fashion statements, there are ways to incorporate your personality and style in your outfit without being too loud.
For women, Wornom suggests avoiding bold prints on top—or, if you must, try wearing them on the bottom. "It's about mixing it up and making things look effortless," she says. Accessories are also a great way to show a bit of personality without coming off too strong.
If the Jeans Fit, Wear 'Em
All the stylists agree that it's appropriate to wear a nice pair of dark jeans to an industry meeting. But there are several common faux pas to avoid. Wornom, who has also worked in casting, advises men to steer clear of very tight pants: "I'm not casting you or interested in you because of your junk. I'm interested in you because you actually have talent." Find jeans that are neither too revealing nor too loose, she advises, and avoid the "skater, Urban Outfitter kind of thing," adding that men should always wear a belt to achieve a more polished look.
Tight-fitting jeans may not be a bad choice for women, but it depends on your body type, says Nyby: A woman in really good shape can wear tight jeans without exposing too much flesh and appear just as conservative as a woman who's not in great shape in looser-fitting jeans. It's common for women to wear jeans about two sizes too small, but to ensure the best fit, Nyby recommends trying them on and sitting down: If they expose your back, they're too small.
"It's a great feeling to fit into a size smaller," says Newman, "but it can make you look so much heavier because it doesn't fit you right, and if you're spilling out or you have a muffin top, it's definitely no good."
If you don't already own a pair of high-quality, great-fitting jeans, the stylists highly recommend investing in one. Wornom suggests Ernest Sewn or Antik Denim; Newman likes J Brand and Rock & Republic. While they're definitely more pricey than Old Navy, you'll notice the difference in quality, they say. "There are going to be people who are like, 'Oh, no, it's all the same,' " says Wornom. "You know what? It ain't the same. My ass does not look as good in a pair of Forever 21 jeans as it does in my Diesels." Nyby agrees, adding that a nice pair of jeans from a recognizable designer helps an actor appear successful and confident.
Sacrificing quality to save money may have adverse affects, according to Wornom. "You don't look polished," she says. "You look like you're broke and you need a job, and no one wants to hire you if you look like you're broke and you need a job. I've been doing this for 16 years, and the desperate-looking people that walk through the door are never the ones that get hired."
Bottom line? "If you're wearing something that you love, it's going to show," says Newman. "The No. 1 fashion tip in general is that it's always important to stay true to yourself and to your own personal style." So before you walk out your front door, be sure you not only look good but feel good too.
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