Rami Ungar The Writer

You know, I never put much stock into blog awards, but a really good friend of mine on the blogosphere nominated me for an award, so I’ll do the same shtick and nominate a few others. But before I do, did someone else nominate me for an award a while back? I remember being nominated, but I didn’t do anything about it. Oh well, I’ll have to check it out later.

Anyway, I have to write 7 things most people don’t know about me before I nominate anyone, kind of the rules of the award. Okay, here I go:

1. I’ve used firearms before. Although I’m very much into sensible gun control, I’ve used both military grade rifles and simple handguns before. The first one was while in Israel, when I took part in a 4 1/2 day training simulation in the Israeli army, which culminated in us going to a firing range to shoot some weapons into targets (best part of the whole experience, I tell you!). The second time was at OSU’s pistol club, where for $10 you could purchase about fifty rounds and shoot holes into little paper targets. It was exciting and I enjoyed it, but I was very afraid of what my dad would say, even though I did it mostly for researching what using a gun was actually like. I didn’t tell him for nearly a year!

2. I once made some friends think our hotel room was haunted. One time I was rooming with some friends at a hotel, and I was the only one in our room one evening. I also had the only key to the room and I was about to take a shower, so I decided to leave the door open a crack for them. Just as I’m about to get into the bathroom, I hear my friends outside say, “Why’s our door open?” Me being me, an evil idea popped into my head and I hid behind the door, slowly opened it, and then slammed it shut.  My friends ran screaming, “Ghost!” This still ranks among my top 5 pranks I’ve successfully pulled.

3. I got a special mention at my graduation. My graduation had less than 20 people. That meant that not only did everyone give a speech that afternoon, we also had our own little blurbs that we wrote ourselves in the graduation playbill/pamphlet thing. On mine, two of the things I wrote were, “Known to always have a comment” and “In his past life was either Ludwig van Beethoven or some powerful demonic entity (probably the latter).”

I can’t remember the name of our guest speaker, but she was a state representative and she came up after all our speeches were done. She starts talking, saying that she’ll only be a few minutes. Then she turns around to face us graduates on the stage and says, “And Rami, no comments!” After the laughs die down, I say, “They always ruin my fun.”

Later she mentioned the diversity of the class, saying, “We have a hockey player, the reincarnation of Ludwig van Beethoven…” It was another highlight to an already awesome day.

4. I’ve worn nail polish before. And every time, it’s been freaking hilarious! For the record though, I’ve only done it twice.

5. I do a great Michael Jackson impersonation. Ah, I miss that man; he went before his time, like too many stars these days. Anyway, I can moon-walk, dance, sing, and talk just like the King of Pop himself. I even went as MJ for Purim, which is the Jewish version of Halloween. I was so convincing I won my high school’s costume competition.

6. I’m distantly related to Natalie Portman. But only through marriage, by which I mean my dad’s wife’s distant cousins are the ones who are actually related to her. But it’s still a relation, right?

7. My sweet tooth is my weakness. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to stop myself from eating sweets! It’s a big problem, and I work hard so I don’t gain weight from all the sugary stuff. It’s easier in the winter though, because I’m not consuming so much ice cream and I’m working out more. I wonder why that is?

Alright, time for the nominees. If you wish to check out their blogs, it’s at the end of their nomination. Each nominee is a writer in their own right who has inspired me to some degree or another and whom I’ve had long conversations with before via comments. Congratulations:

Jason Alan: A poet and writer living in France, Jason always has some poetry or a funny little short short to share. An outspoken critic of those who use religion as an excuse for bigotry and ignorance, and a whistleblower on those who use their money and status to manipulate the people, Jason always has something to say to those who feel like commenting on his blog, be it to tell him how great he is or to tell him that he’s going to hell for being an atheist/socialist/whatever-ist. http://jasonalanwriter.wordpress.com/

Pat Bertram: A novelist from out West, Pat has years of experience in writing and in life, and she always has thoughts to share on either. She’s been Freshly Pressed three times, and she is a woman to be admired. Pat, thanks for all our conversations. I hope we have more in the blog posts to come. http://ptbertram.wordpress.com/

Cristian Mihai: A novelist from Romania, Cristian is an inspiration to me. He’s self-published several times before, and has written several books already. He is always willing to share his thoughts on writing, and to give you tips if you should so need them. Good luck to you in the future Cristian. http://cristianmihai.net/

All for now. Congratulations to the nominees, and I hope we can blog together for several years to come.