OTTILT December

For December:
http://ottilt.blogspot.com/2013/12/december.html

For all of 2013 (you'll have to do a bit of scrolling and clicking):
http://ottilt.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2014-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=50

Pic a Day - 12/23 to 12/29

Mon. Dec 23, footed pajamas for the win!
OTTILT: actively trying to NOT be a procrastinator

Tues. Dec 24, watching It's a Wonderful Life
OTTILT: weird Christmas movie traditions

Wed. Dec 25, rocking a handmade candy-cane scarf
OTTILT: the good, the bad, and the wonderful on Christmas

Thurs. Dec 26, this little kid in the Pixar short "La Luna" looks so much like Gregory Alan Isakov with that little hat... seriously, look up "Gregory Alan Isakov" on Google Images, and you will see what I mean
OTTILT: light & fluffy German chocolate

Fri. Dec 27
OTTILT: "Eleanor & Park"

Sat. Dec 28, all right, time for another screenplay
OTTILT: lessons from a bad movie

Sun. Dec 29, drawing family character profiles (sorry it's in really light pencil)
OTTILT: seeing a plane fly into the clouds

Sharknado Review

All right, since I just spent an hour and a half of my life watching Sharknado, I will do everyone the service of telling you all why you shouldn't watch it. Trust me. You'll save an hour and twenty-seven minutes of your life. Unless you want to watch a movie about sharks in a tornado over L.A. (Exactly. It sounds ridiculous.)

"Anyway. Don't ask why, but a while after I got home... I watched Sharknado, just for the hell of it. Well, it was believable enough, because I felt that instinctive pull in my gut that you feel when you want to persuade characters to do the right thing and when you feel like you know what to do in that situation. However, beyond generic horror-movie gut instinct, it was not believable at all.

Cinematographically, it was very poorly put together. The clips were all filmed in different qualities and totally different times, and most were ridiculously shaky, and the beach & flood shots seemed like something from another world, another lifetime, a news report on Katrina or something. The actors weren't really awful, but they were either super-exaggerated or completely emotionless when they should have been angry or scared or something. Also, the background plot lines about the characters had little relevance to the shark epidemic except when necessary (like Nova telling about the sharks taking her grandfather... "so I really hate sharks"). And, if it was a water storm in the Pacific, wouldn't it be a tsunami? And hasn't the name David already been used [for a hurricane]? Since when does California get tornadoes, or any kind of water storm? Why would the sharks target people? Seriously, no animal in the wild targets humans just 'cause (except maybe lions or something). For CGI, that was horrible - plus, they constantly reused animated clips of CGI sharks swimming underwater when it didn't fit the scene (shallow water in street, swimming pool). People made dumb jokes at inappropriate times. The dialogue was really fake and forced.

The one good part? The super-cute Australian surfer guy, but stupid Fin [main character] didn't bother to shoot the shark that was eating his [Australian guy's] leg off, and Aussie blew into the tornado 'cause [Fin] took too long to notice him. Besides that, things worked out too perfectly - the opportunity to save a bunch of children from a sinking school bus threatened by sharks? The fact that Fin just had ammo in his car for some reason? Nova knowing how to shoot a gun? Being able to easily steal a car? Not getting caught by the cops while speeding - because they had stolen a car off a movie-set lot, so it had Nitro? Yeah, right. And the fact that all of Fin's family - and Nova, too, so Fin's son Matt would have a girlfriend - survived the attack made it too good to be true.

Well, I watched it, and even if it was bad for a [supposedly] horror flick, it taught me about film and how to make a good one."

excerpt taken from journal; December 28, 2013

Pic a Day - 12/16 to 12/22

Mon. Dec 16, this picture is hilarious and weird because I was just hurling a tennis ball in the air and quickly hitting the shutter button to try and get a picture, because my Samsung Galaxy (player) takes the slowest pictures
OTTILT: last-minute creativity

Tues. Dec 17, yep.
OTTILT: being everyone's Secret Santa

Wed. Dec 18, my little stuffed-animal class is also taking finals :(
OTTILT: studying with the smart kids

Thurs. Dec 19
OTTILT: crocheting craze

Fri. Dec 20, my first crochet project ever! I'm giving them to myself as a Christmas present!
OTTILT: my Hermes/aviator slippers

Sat. Dec 21, solstice festivity
OTTILT: setting up luminaria

Sun. Dec 22, Maria being hilarious, begging me to take photos for my blog and then totally, awesomely photo-bombing them (it's actually Molly's party; she's second from the right, opening presents)
OTTILT: chill, bowling-alley parties

Pic a Day - 12/9 to 12/15

(My excuse for this week's pictures being less-than-totally awesome is because I was sort of studying for finals. Sort of. And starting tomorrow will be more studying, and Wednesday through Friday will be the actual midterms and Saturday and Sunday I will be brain-dead and watching YouTube and Netflix. But, week after next I will get to you some more predictably awesome photos for this blog. Thanks for keeping up, even through the hard and boring weeks, everybody. It's crazy that you would look at pictures of writing for fun, but if you like it, I like it, and I like you. Not to be creepy or anything. Okay, on to pictures now.)

Mon. Dec 9, drawing awesome rainbow bar graphs for a biology lab
OTTILT: way too much awesomeness for the public to handle

Tues. Dec 10, browsing through the fiction section in this month's issue of TeenInk
OTTILT: "Troika"

Wed. Dec 11, fall-ish winter
OTTILT: taste-test reviewing

Thurs. Dec 12, my new and cool way to study for history
OTTILT: Gene Wilder in "The Young Frankenstein"

Fri. Dec 13, Spanish vocabulary on Quizlet
OTTILT: drawing a little Jason Voorhees mask next to the date on Friday the 13th

Sat. Dec 14, I found a nice collection of used treasures at the book sale
OTTILT: rereading books from your childhood

Sun. Dec 15, when I go to the grocery store, I practice juggling in the baby food/OTC medication aisle
OTTILT: young trees that tower over you

Pic a Day - 12/2 to 12/8

Mon. Dec 2, my friend and his art contribution to our English class
OTTILT: NaNo withdrawal symptoms

Tues. Dec 3, library jungle
OTTILT: cool banjo/folk mixes

Wed. Dec 4, weird eagle clouds
OTTILT: being able to prove a teacher wrong

Thurs. Dec 5, spooky snow tree
OTTILT: when only five kids show up to class, so you get to watch Hulu

Fri. Dec 6, a text conversation between Romeo and Mercutio
OTTILT: the parody songs in the Rutles movie

Sat. Dec 7, I love the layout of my 8tracks homepage
OTTILT: dramatic History Channel specials

Sun. Dec 8, with crocheted facial hair I can become a small, bearded man
OTTILT: The Iron Giant

OTTILT November

The full month of November! (You'll be surprised that I didn't just put "NaNo" for every single day):

http://ottilt.blogspot.com/2013/12/november.html

Pic a Day - 11/25 to 12/1

Mon. Nov 25, we had just enough snow for a snowman
OTTILT: friendly, generic counselor-student talks

Tues. Nov 26, fourth week of NaNo
OTTILT: spy missions

Wed. Nov 27, some poetry on a hot chocolate box
OTTILT: things to make you smile 

Thurs. Nov 28
OTTILT: moms that make awesome Thanksgiving food

Fri. Nov 29, counting words
OTTILT: overdosing on cuteness

Sat. Nov 30, checking out Christmas lights across the way (the red line is from the lights in my room)
OTTILT: conversation days

Sun. Dec 1, my brother's Lego neighborhood
OTTILT: Matthew Hussey videos

Okay, so the foods I had for Thanksgiving:

mashed potatoes with rosemary-mushroom gravy, Boston baked beans (Ingalls Wilder-style), garlic green beans (from my Single-Serving Vegan recipe), biscuits with cranberry butter, maple-orange cranberry sauce

Don't forget the sweet potato pie with cranberry mousse!

Pic a Day - 11/18 to 11/24

 Mon. Nov 18

OTTILT: fitting yourself into artwork

  Tues. Nov 19, when teachers say one-sided study sheets...

OTTILT: teachers letting you work alone

 Wed. Nov 20

OTTILT: hand binoculars

Thurs. Nov 21, this time I get a letter from Pierce Brosnan

OTTILT: Eric Whitacre's virtual choir

Fri. Nov 22

OTTILT: clever Pictionary interpretations

Sat. Nov 23, holiday-themed Wheat Thins

OTTILT: your half birthday

Sun. Nov 24, climate change in action (seriously, this time last year it was just barely getting cold)

OTTILT: snow melting

Pic a Day - 11/11 to 11/17

Mon. Nov 11, my homework policy (I'm not even kidding)
OTTILT: getting away with being a (stylish) rebel

Tues. Nov 12, if you can't actually get the problem right, at least be artistic about it
OTTILT: friends interested in your private writing projects

Wed. Nov 13, Jelelah's off to Japan! (Unagi Travel)
OTTILT: being called "sweet" (especially if you're a little demon)

Thurs. Nov 14, probably sleep-deprived
OTTILT: a bat sock-puppet

Fri. Nov 15, and here's photographic proof of the bat sock-puppet!
OTTILT: being able to have both opinions

Sat. Nov 16, my great-grandmother's sewing machine
OTTILT: skills passed down for generations

Sun. Nov 17, a sweet new hoodie
OTTILT: NaNo plot advice