Page 1. Charlie comes home to her apartment to find the building has been condemned. At this point I couldn’t figure out some things with text layers, so that’s why everything is handwritten. I will actually do all the spoken text like that.
Images with black borders for the panels will be part of the main story. I will sometimes post one shot strips and the borders will be a different color.
Hello everyone!
I know I haven’t posted in…well, a while! I have been active on other social media sites, and writing for other blogs.
This update is to let you know that there will be some changes around here starting December 7th, 2018. I will be hosting a comic I’m drawing called “Salisbury House”. The first four pages will also be posted on the official Salisbury House social media, but the subsequent pages will only be previews that link back to here.
I’m very excited about this project because it tackles subject matter that is very important to me. I hope you all enjoy reading it.
Thank you,
Ally Amador
Hey everybody! Apparently Chrome and WordPress are friends again so I can do updates conveniently once more.
Anyway, the new Ellen Page movie, “Mercy” is looking for extras. If you’d like to be a part of this project please click the link for more information. http://bit.ly/2du2M0A
Best of luck. Unless something happens I’ll be there. For more information about what it is like being an extra please see the post What To Expect.
Behinds the scenes of “But I’m and Actress”
Hello everyone!
I’m still not entirely sure what is causing my website to act weird but it does have something to do with Chrome. I use that as my default browser, and for some reason the log in pop up Word Press creates isn’t showing up properly in Chrome, so I can’t even get to the regular log in screen. It is weird. So now I’m updating from Internet Explorer.
So a lot has happened since I last posted in January. I got the pleasure of being in a few films, “Thanks, Bill” and “But I’m an Actress” to name two and I’ve had two kind of big surgeries on my feet. I’ve also be able to do some voice acting! When more information is available about that project I’ll post it.
Because of the surgeries I can’t walk very well. I have a cane and a pair of crutches to help me get around, but it means I’ve been on an acting break since about mid March. I also haven’t been able to exercise as much as I want.
What were the surgeries? They are a medical implant called Hyprocure that is used to treat severe flat feet and other issues like fallen arches. I was born with flat feet, and for quite a while it didn’t cause many issues with my body. However in high school I was in marching band. For those of you who don’t know marching band requires you to be on your feet for many hours at a time. Our summer practices started at 8 am, break at noon, and then ended at 5 pm. Aside from small, five minute breaks during the practice, we were on our feet the entire time. I began to notice an increase in pain in my feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, shoulders and neck.
As I got older the pain only increased. I could handle it well enough, but the shape of my feet were severe enough that I was basically standing on my ankle bones and this caused my knees to bend inward. This made running, even for short periods, very painful as it put a lot of stress on my knees.
When I became an actress I was required to stand for hours at a time. By the end of the day I was in so much pain that I just wanted to flop on the couch and not move until morning.
So I did some research. I found several different options for “fixing” flat feet but decided the Hyprocure implant was what made the most sense for me. In March I had my first foot done. The experience was quite nice. I went to St. Vincent in Indianapolis and my doctor, Dr. Lanie Huffman, was incredibly informative and knew how to help me relax. I didn’t have a cane or crutches for the recovery of my right foot, but I will say it was painful. I’m about 98% recovered on my right foot, but last month I had the left done.
My left foot hasn’t been as kind to me. I am in pain longer than with my right, but I think my daughter has something to do with that. Three times now she has accidentally hit my healing foot, and I did twist my ankle at a Walmart. If I can get a hold of my x-rays to show you the before and after I’ll post them. It is quite amazing how different my feet are now.
It’s a weird thing to get excited about, but I have very normal looking feet now and I can tell my knees are already starting to look normal too. I’m so happy with the results, and I can’t wait to be more active again. Considering how long I’ve been in pain, I think a few more months is a perfectly find trade off.
You may notice from time to time that I’ll post information about becoming an extra for some of the bigger movies in the Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus area.
Some of the extras from Marauders. I’m bottom center!
In the past few months I’ve been an extra for Marauders, Tiger and 478. Those are just three of the the many films that have used the southern Ohio area for filming and 2016 looks to have a lot more opportunities. I’ll try to make sure my website is updated with information about opportunities as I see them.
That having been said it’s important to know what it means to be an extra. There are a few things to expect, and things that only experience will teach you.
Well that’s it for now. These are some of the tips I can think of so far, but if I think of more I’ll write another article.
Best of luck!
I forgot to mention this! I meant to post about it here when I posted to my YouTube channel but I’m going to be trying to do this weekly. Every Wednesday or so I’m going to do a “cold read” of a script I have in a book or that I find online. I haven’t read any of the ones from my books beforehand, otherwise they wouldn’t be “cold reads”.
What is a cold read? When you go to audition you’ll sometimes have to do one of these. They give you a script you’ve not seen before, you get a moment to look it over, and then you do the scene. It can be difficult to do since you don’t get a lot of time to prepare. So how can you get better at it? Practice!
Practicing cold reads is one of my favorite activities. I find it to be tremendously fun. I thought I’d do some video recordings of my cold read practice. If you want to do a video too feel free to send it to me! I’d love to see it. I’d also love new scripts so if you know of any send them my way too.
Happy holidays. I know there are a lot of denominations that celebrate this time of year, and New Years is coming up too, so if you are celebrating anything have fun and be safe.
I know it’s common to overindulge but if you do don’t drive drunk! It isn’t worth it. The price you’ll pay if you get into an accident or get caught is going to be far higher than if you just got a cab.
I’ve had a really rough time recently. I won’t go into the details, but I find more and more that I need something good to happen. I’m not talking about something grand and life changing, but something that I can be happy about for a while.
This has gotten me thinking about the nature of my mental health. It is incredibly important to acknowledge that staying mentally healthy is imperative, and there’s a lot of information out there about ways to improve your mood (etc).
Depression is something I’ve struggled with since I was a teenager. I was often overwhelmed and found the only way I could get any joy was to completely immerse myself in my art and music projects. This, in truth, is not the best way to treat the problem because I was not addressing the issues at hand. It’s a bit too late to do that now, but I still managed to “wait it out” until my life got better.
I had tried to talk to my mother once, but did it in the completely wrong way and ended up exacerbating things. For the longest time I thought I couldn’t talk to anyone as a result.
In college I had a roller coaster ride with my depression. There were plenty of times that I felt completely overwhelmed and unprepared. My husband, Joey, helped me though I never really spoke to him more than a handful of times about how I felt. After I graduated I had one life change after the other. I moved, had uncertainty, moved again, then had a kid.
I guess things haven’t really calmed down a great deal, but there are so many aspects of my life that I wouldn’t change. I love my daughter, I enjoy living in Cincinnati, and I am pursuing something that I could only ever hope for when I lived in Lafayette, Indiana.
Yet despite this I am still having issues with depression. Depression isn’t logical. It doesn’t care how great your life is. It doesn’t care that you got a new job, have a loving family, or seem to be having one amazing opportunity after another. It doesn’t care if you lost a loved one, had your car stolen or if you had a traumatic accident. It doesn’t care if you’re male or female. It affects all races and social classes. Depression is an asshole.
And so depression has come at me hard again. I have to force myself to get out of bed. I have to force myself to type this. To do everything that I have to do. I lack the motivation to eat (unlike in the past where I would scarf down junk food like it was nothing).
Since help is so expensive I’ve always had to figure out my own way to get past the large down-swings of depression. I’m going to start taking my daughter to preschool as motivation to not sleep until 11 am. I’m going to make lists of little things I can accomplish each day and not let the setbacks be so devastating.
I’m going to try hard not to spend the morning crying and feeling like shit. Because this is what I can do. This is what I can afford to do. I wish I could seek professional help but it is just too damn expensive and most insurance won’t even cover it at all.
According to NAMI 16 million Americans had a severe depressive episode in the last year. 16 million. I will take comfort, and you can to if you’re feeling it, in the fact that there are so many people who know what it’s like to be hit hard with depression.
Even though so many people are affected with mental illness, we don’t seem to be capable of treating it seriously. I wish with everything I can muster that the prevailing attitude about mental illness would change. For now I will make do.
We are human. We aren’t perfect. We can do this.
Hello everyone! Today I’m writing to tell you about an exciting opportunity to participate in something called “Meals 4 Monologues”.
This is a chance to show one of the biggest names in acting in Cincinnati your stuff! D. Lynn Meyers is often responsible for casting big projects that come to the area. She and her assistant Ben remember every name and face that auditions for them. It’s quite impressive, really.
All you have to do to participate in this amazing opportunity is to contact Ben Raanan, the assistant director, at auditions@ensemblecincinnati.org or (513) 421-3555 by November 30th to secure your time slot. Please include a current headshot, resume and telephone number.
Once you get your time slot for either December 7th or 8th, prepare your audition! You have 5 minutes to show your stuff. It can be either one monologue, a cappella song, both or two monologues.
On the day of your audition be sure to bring three non-perishable food items (pasta, rice, canned goods, etc.) or toiletry items (soap, toothpaste, etc.) and be prepared to do your best.
This event is appointment only so be sure to contact Ben Raanan by November 30th! And break a leg!
Saturday I had nothing until noon, so I actually got to sleep in. It was everything I had wanted and more. I was so tired and just wanting to rest for so long it was great to get those extra hours.
The noon event was a ShadowRun LARP, and it was fun. There are a few things I think they could do to tweak it. We had a lot of people who had never played before, which that in itself isn’t a bad thing, but they didn’t know it would be so physical. One of them had a heart issue and had to sit and rest several times because he had started to have heart pains. I think a quick disclaimer in the convention book would’ve been helpful.
Aside from that we had a great team. Our team made a lot of money because we had at least one really deadly person with each section when we split up. We covered more ground that way. The NPCs did amazing staying in character and they were helpful when it was obvious you didn’t know what you were doing. These people cared enough to try to make it a great event, and they listened to you, for the most part, when you talked to them about your concerns. There was one group of NPCs that made me angry.
The gentleman I mentioned before, with the heart condition, was taking it easy. Several times they saw him lagging behind (he insisted we go on ahead) and attacked his character. Despite knowing this they continually went for him, instead of letting him have a freaking breather.
The Cosplay Parade happened during our event, right in the middle of our area of the convention, and he got separated by a long line of cosplayers. We had to try and get back to him before they killed him. Eventually we got so sick of it we just killed those NPCs.
One of the NPCs made my brother do a Russian dance in order to get an item from her, but I didn’t get to see it because I was doing another mission for my team. The event was only $10, and I really think I got my money’s worth out of that. I will do it again next year, only this time I’m going to take some of my acting supplies and dress up.
After that I walked around the Circle Center Mall for a bit. Joey and Allen had a big board Power Grid game to do so I thought I had some free time. As it turns out it was cancelled, but Joey and Allen got a refund and some swag for their trouble. We went to Loughmiller’s for lunch where I tried one of their “Gen Con drinks” and let me tell you it was delicious! If they ever have the “green fairy” on the drinks menu again, or even just see if they have it regularly, try it! It is delicious! They had other neat drinks that were very tasty and worth a try too, including an alcoholic Butterbeer (from Harry Potter). I don’t even like butterscotch but that was very tasty.
By the time our last event was eminent on Saturday I was feeling pretty sick. Joey was so sweet and went to the shop in the hotel to get me some medicine. They didn’t sell chewable pain meds, so he walked across the street to a gas station to get me some children’s Motrin! I have such a considerate husband.
A little while later and I was feeling better. Allen, Joey and I decided to get to True Dungeon really early so we could get the classes we liked. Well, I got screwed out of being the bard, like I had last year. I was the druid again, so that was okay. I was feeling a little crappy still, and Bryan and Steve were really late so Bryan and I got into a little argument right before the game. I was very disappointed in not being able to be the bard because I had remembered my ukulele this time. At least this year the person who took it seemed to know what he was doing and didn’t become flaky. He sang some pretty funny songs too so at least there was that.
Out team did a good job, but it was more difficult this time. This session was called Sable Gauntlet. One of the DMs was the main boss from the day before. There was a room that seemed last minute and rather unnecessary. When you come in you had either a spider or larva attach to you and deal damage until you could get it off. That’s it. That was the purpose of the room.
One notable room had a large, person controlled spider. It was huge and he could control the back end, and the legs. He even had one bump my butt. I made a joke about it because I imagine he was trying to touch my leg to startle me, but it was hard to control. I ended up killing the thing in almost one shot with a boosted fireball spell.
The main issue we had with the boss this time was time. We got some solid hits against it, but we just couldn’t do the right amount of damage per turn. If we had one more round we could’ve probably killed the thing. It was undead so I used some amplified healing to do some major damage.
After the game we went back to Loughmiller’s to eat a bunch of mini corn dogs and drink more green fairies. It was Bryan’s suggestion. If you go there and want some really good food you’ll have to visit them during the day. Their evening menu is really trimmed down. No pepper jack cheese stuffed pretzels. Those are incredible.
Sunday, as has become our tradition, was reserved for walking around the vendor’s hall. We bought a few games for Ilaria, but when we tried them out at home it seems she not quite old enough for them. I would like to find some games for her to play with us because it is so great developmentally and socially.
When the convention was over for us we headed to Shapiro’s for some amazing food. We drove to my parents’ to pick up my daughter and then back to Cincinnati. Next year we’re going to see about some events for her. I’d like to start bringing her, if only for a day.
Something notable happened that wasn’t really an event. My friend Allen made a Mii last year of Wil Wheaton to see if he could troll people. This year Wil Wheaton mentioned it on his twitter! So that was pretty cool. I will tell you Allen is not the type with ill intent, and he was just having a bit of fun. He would never do anything to defame a person.
If you couldn’t tell I am very aware of how much things cost. And I think if you’re going to visit the vendor’s hall you should know too. It isn’t uncommon for games to be $45 or more, and t-shirts average about $20 a piece. You can find some very unique items there, but they can be very pricey so please keep that in mind. A great bonus for the people who hand make things is they often have business cards you can take and look them up later.
They have non-gaming related events too, like yoga classes and jewelry making. There are events where you can make your own foam weapon, writing workshops and film panels too! They do offer daycare, but you have to pay for it and I don’t remember how much it is.
Every year they do a large balloon statue for charity. One person is chosen out of the donors (I don’t know what the criteria are) and they get to pop the whole thing. If you back is hurting they have massage seats set up.
Well that is my 2015 Gen Con experience for you all. If you like board games, geeky things, RPGs or card games then you should consider going. Check out their website for a list of events. I’m sure you’ll find something you like.
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