To play a diverse array of people, you need to know a diverse array of people. When you meet people, do your best to be quiet and listen. Ask them about their lives and stories, note how they talk and any slang they use, and let yourself be a sponge. Reading helps you see these concepts at work. Moreover, reading actually activates the same part of your brain as acting does. You should also do specific research for your part. If it is based on a specific person or time period, find out as much as you can. These little facts will work their way into your performance, even if only unconsciously. When you're watching someone act, let the scene simply wash over you the first time, watching like you would watch any other movie. Then replay the scene, paying specific attention to each actor separately. What do they do when they aren't talking? How do they deliver their lines? What is their body positioning and posture like? What movements do they use to sell their lines?  Would you read the same lines differently? If so, how? Classic plays, like Shakespeare, are a great way to see the artistry of acting. YouTube, for example, 5 different actors delivering the same monologue from Hamlet. How do they all differ? What artistic choices is each actor making to make the character unique? These classes often end in a production or performance, and are a great way to practice acting in a low-pressure environment. Take note not only of the teacher, but the other students. What can you learn from them? How would you improve their line readings, and would you make any different character choices? Make friends with your fellow actors, and talk to them from time to ask them for advice or tips on your performance. You never know when a fellow actor will make it big, and could potentially help you get a role. Be kind and friendly to everyone in class-- it will pay dividends later. Improvisation is the art of acting in the present, letting your character take over the action and react accordingly. Improv skills will help your characters seem natural, like they are reacting to the events on the screen in real time and not reading off a page. There are many improvisation classes in urban and semi-urban areas, and many acting classes feature a small amount of improv training. Improv games, like acting out suggestions from friends, acting with weird props, or acting short scenes with a friend, are great ways to practice acting anywhere. A cold read is when you're handed a script and asked to act it out on the spot. Sometimes you get 1-2 minutes to look it over, and sometimes you need to just launch into it. While this is scary, it is also very easy to practice. Buy a book of monologues, grab passages from a book, or even pick up a dramatic newspaper story and read it out loud. You can also read it once, silently, then take 20-30 seconds to choose a direction for the piece before beginning. This is also a good warm-up exercise, helping you prepare your mind and body for acting.

Summary: Research human behavior through conversations and books. Watch and rewatch actors you admire. Go to acting classes. Take improv classes. Practice "cold readings" to ace your auditions.


If you haven’t cleaned your window tracks in a while you may need a variety of supplies to get your window tracks back to that new and clean look. You’ll need:  A good vacuum with a hose attachment. A brush head can also help you break up caked on dirt. A thin cleaning brush or an old toothbrush. You can also purchase special window track cleaning brushes. These brushes are designed with a special brush head that’s made to get all those hard to reach corners in the window track. A clean bucket of warm or hot water. Add a few drops of dish soap or Dawn Soap until you see foamy bubbles. One towel to dip into your water and one dry towel to wipe up any leftover moisture. You may also want to grab baking soda and vinegar, or hydrogen peroxide to help you break down any tough dirt or mold. You’ll need q-tips as well to loosen the dirt. Take your vacuum cleaner with the attachment hose and suck out all the loose debris in the window track.   Your vacuum will suck up any loose dirt as well as dead insects, dust, cobwebs, etc. Once you have vacuumed up as much debris as you can, use your brush attachment if you have one. Scrub the tracks with your brush to help you break up more debris. Loosen up the muck with vinegar and baking soda. Target the corners first and then work your way into the center.   You may also want to remove your screen for separate cleaning. Pour a small amount of baking soda on your tracks. You only need a couple of tablespoons. Then pour a small amount of vinegar into the tracks. Again, you don’t need a lot. Just enough vinegar so that it causes the baking soda to fizzle. The baking soda and vinegar will help to break up any tougher grime that your vacuum didn’t get. Once you’ve let the vinegar and baking soda soak in and work for a few minutes, go over the grime with your toothbrush, pulling it to the center of the window. Use a butter knife to lift the grime out of the track. A rule of thumb is to wait until the baking soda stops fizzling.  Start at the corners and sweep all the muck toward the center. The toothbrush should get most of the muck off the tracks. Use cotton swabs to clean out tight areas like the corners. Lay down some paper towels and press to soak up any leftover vinegar and grime.

Summary: Grab your cleaning supplies. Vacuum up any bigger pieces of debris and dirt. Clean the corners and tough spots. Scrub the tracks with a toothbrush and then place paper towels on the tracks to soak up the vinegar.


Let's say you're working with the following problem: Y =√(x-7) You cannot take the square root of a negative number, though you can take the square root of 0. So, set the terms inside the radicand to be greater than or equal to 0. Note that this applies not just to square roots, but to all even-numbered roots. It does not, however, apply to odd-numbered roots, because it is perfectly fine to have negatives under odd roots. Here's how: x-7 ≧ 0 Now, to isolate x on the left side of the equation, just add 7 to both sides, so you're left with the following: x ≧ 7 Here is how you would write it: D = [7,∞) Let's say you're working with the following function: Y = 1/√( ̅x2 -4). When you factor the denominator and set it equal to zero, you'll get x ≠ (2, - 2). Here's where you go from there:  Now, check the area below -2 (by plugging in -3, for example), to see if the numbers below -2 can be plugged into the denominator to yield a number higher than 0. They do. (-3)2 - 4 = 5  Now, check the area between -2 and 2. Pick 0, for example. 02 - 4 = -4, so you know the numbers between -2 and 2 don't work.  Now try a number above 2, such as +3. 32 - 4 = 5, so the numbers over 2 do work.  Write the domain when you're done. Here is how you would write the domain: D = (-∞, -2) U (2, ∞)
Summary: Write the problem. Set the terms inside the radicand to be greater than or equal to 0. Isolate the variable. State the domain correctly. Find the domain of a function with a square root when there are multiple solutions.