Survey: Trouble Projecting Your Voice? Despite "Yelling"?

"My director keeps asking me to be louder, but I already feel like I'm yelling!"

Do you feel like this? Are you getting requests to be louder, but not getting the right tips to help?

Surprisingly, you're not alone.

Lately, more and more of my students are saying things like this, and asking what they're doing wrong.

And, it got me wondering:

• How many other working actors or actors in training are struggling with projecting their voices?
• What's been missing in actor education and experiences?
• What hasn't worked? What helps?
• How do we fill that gap?
• How do you think it's affecting your career?

I'm looking for insight into how I can help my students (and others) better, and I'd appreciate your feedback!

Click here for the survey.

Fill in your email at the end of the survey, and I'll send you a helpful guide about projecting your voice and being heard.

Picking a Good Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System for Home Use

When you’re picking out the best reverse osmosis water filter system for your home, there’s a lot to consider. But it doesn’t need to be complicated.

In this excellent and extensive article, everything you need to know is broken down. Here’s a brief summary:

1. Determine what’s in your water that you want to filter out.
   Contact local water authority, or test your well water. and make sure the system you choose is calibrated to removed those contaminants.
2. Decide whether you want to remove minerals from your water, or keep them in.If you want to keep them in, you should either NOT use reverse osmosis, or get a system with an additional stage that adds minerals back in.
3. Budget and Schedule the Maintenance
   Each of the filtering stages in your reverse osmosis water filter system will have to be replaced on a regular basis. Check the manual to determine how easy it is to swap these out, and how frequently each filter needs to be replaced. Also check prices for replacements online, so you can set your maintenance schedule and budget.
4. Estimate how much clean water you’ll need in a day.Most people will only use their filtered water for drinking and cooking. Others may want to use it for plants, or brushing their teeth, or more. This is also affected by the size of your household. Popular reverse osmosis systems for home use are rated in gallons per day (GPD). Usually they produce more than enough for an average household, but if you want to know more, check out the sidebar about Reverse Osmosis GPD, below.
5. Installation Considerations:
1. Do you have enough room to store the filtration system under the sink or on the counter? In a separate cabinet? Will it crowd your garbage disposal or other things in your cabinets? The storage tank can take up a lot of space!
2. Will you need access to electricity? Additional stages like an ultraviolet lamp or a permeate pump will need an electrical source nearby to plug into.
3. Will you need professional Plumbing and Construction Work? Determine whether or not you can do the work yourself, or if you should pay someone like a professional or your savvy uncle.
6. Will you need/want any Reverse Osmosis Accessories?What will enhance your experience? A hot and cold filtered waterdispenser for hot water on demand, for for example. Water testing kits for drinking water and pH balance testers for mineralized water are other popular accessories.

To get all the details and ins and outs, read more at this link.

Finding the Best Outdoor Refrigerator for Your Budget

There are a wide variety of outdoor refrigerators out there, from the super-cheap to the ultra-expensive. Sometimes you just want to get a basic model at a good price without too many extras.

How do you find the best outdoor refrigerator for your budget?

Here are a couple of articles that will make your search a bit easier:

• Good Outdoor Refrigerators Under $1,000 (Reviews + Buyer’s Guide)
• 3 Good Outdoor Refrigerators Under $500

You'll find tips on maintenance and care, as well as reviews of particular models and features to look out for. Nice and succinct guides on finding the best outdoor refrigerator for your financial situation.

Finding the Best Outdoor Compact Refrigerator

There are 3 important considerations when looking for the best outdoor compact refrigerator for your situation:

1. Make sure it's rated for outdoor use.
2. Make sure it's rust resistant.
3. Check that it's designed to be built-in or freestanding.

Outdoor refrigerators have to work harder because they're outside.

Outside temperature changes drastically and dramatically—from very hot in the day, to very cool at night. Not only do compressors have to work harder to keep everything cool and at an even temperature, they also have special insulation to compensate for temperature differences.

Also, the electrical components have to be weatherproofed. Outdoor refrigerators can be exposed to water and humidity from rain, or swimming pool splashing, or the like.

Outdoor fridges should be made from high-grade stainless steel for its ability to resist rust. Not all stainless steel is made with the same level of rust-resistance, so check your fridge specs when you buy.

Most refrigerators need a few inches of ventilation space on all sides, so that the heat removed from the inside of the fridge can be released into the air and environment.

When you build a fridge into a cabinet or outdoor kitchen island, this prevents air from circulating around the fridge, and inhibits the refrigerator’s ability to cool the inside.

So, some models are specially designed to have vent on the front so that they can be "built in" to these figures and fit snugly. This allows the the fridge to blow away the heat without needing extra space on the sides for ventilation.

Installing a “freestanding” fridge into your outdoor kitchen island without proper space and ventilation will not only make it difficult to refrigerate its contents, it may also overheat and cause damage.

There are other more aesthetic things to consider when looking for the best outdoor compact refrigerator. Check out a list of optional features midway down this article: 3 Good Outdoor Mini Refrigerators

For more information about outdoor compact refrigerators and fridge recommendations, check out the articles about outdoor refrigerators on 3GoodOnes.com.

A bunch more garage ready refrigerators

Hi, all.

I finally finished it. In response to my article about a few good refrigerators for a garage, I've come up with a list of more garage ready refrigerators. This list covers not only refrigerators, but chest freezers, upright freezers, and convertible refrigerator freezers. I've also added some of the strategies I used to find these on the internet. Take a look, and comment to let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Make Money: Your Computer + The Internet

Affiliate Marketing is one of the many ways you can make money on your computer working from home.

Of all the tools you can use to make money, your computer is probably one of the most important.

There are 6 ways to make money with a blog.

Learning how to use Internet Marketing to sell is one of your best first steps right now. Once you've learned that, you'll be able to select the best, most lucrative products to sell.

Finding the "Best Buy" — Apple Computers Sale

I'm on a budget, so I went digging for the best buy. Apple Computers sales seem hard to come by. However, I found a few tricks to make sure I could get a good price.

1. Buy Online — but NOT from Apple

Apple has an online store, but there are a number of discount stores that specialize in Apple, and they are often about $100 cheaper. Apple ships their new computers directly to these stores for sale, so the product is exactly the same.

(I guess Apple wants to maintain a reputation with their prices? I don't know.)

Buy from a discount Apple store like MacMall.com, and use the money you save on some cool software, or a backup drive or something.

2. Buy an Older Model

Once Apple starts selling a new model/version of the MacBook or iMac, last year's model drops significantly in price. And it's only a year "old", so you won't be missing out on too many features. After all, just the day before it was the latest and greatest!

I recently found this search on Amazon.com turns up some good, cheap options for older iMacs.

3. Buy "Pre-Owned" or "Refurbished"

As long as you buy from an Authorized Apple reseller, you can get a perfectly good used computer or refurbished one for about half the price of a brand new one. And it will be fully tested and good as new. It might take some shopping around to find one, but it's a huge payoff when you do!

Sometimes you can even find an "open box" deal at your local retailer. That's when someone buys the computer, takes it home, and returns it within the store's return policy period. They can't resell it as "new", so they take a bit off the top. Could be anywhere from $50 to $150 depending on the time.

Finding a Mac computers sale just takes a little time researching online. But if you take the time, you might find the best buy on Apple computers.