Archive for the ‘Living and Life’ Category

Merry Christmas (Even Though I Don’t Celebrate It)

Posted: December 25, 2012 in Living and Life
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Hello people following my blog or just happening upon it. How are you this fine day? I know it’s Christmas, and you want to just spend time with your family (or possibly away from it), but I thought I’d give you all a couple presents, and you can only get these presents by reading the rest of this post. So I’m giving you 4 videos for Christmas! Yay!

The first video is called Rewind YouTube Style 2012, which features a bunch of YouTube stars (most of whom I don’t know) getting together to do Gangnam Style and Call Me Maybe together. It is hilarious and I think you’d like it, especially because Psy and the Annoying Orange are in the video.

The second video is by The Piano Guys, doing their version of Star Wars: Cello Wars. It’s very well done, both with the music and the SFX. And watch what Darth Vader does during parts of this video, because he is certainly a highlight in this awesome music vid:

These last two videos go together, so you can’t watch one without the other. It’s the Addams Family Christmas, from the original television series of the 1960s. Wednesday and Pugsley Addams are told by their Scroogey neighbor that there’s no Santa Claus, and the adults of the family work together–or maybe not so together–to bring the Christmas spirit back to the house, with surprising and hilarious results.

Well, I hope you like these gifts from a not-so-Grinchy Jew. I wish you a Merry Christmas (or solstice if you’re a Neo-Pagan) and in the immortal words of Cousin Itt, “Bedehh bububa pfft heheh nigbooyu heheh!”

An Episode With A Point

Posted: December 24, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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I’m sitting in the kitchen at my dad’s place, writing and watching reruns of Family Guy. The episode they played today, I felt was aired for a reason: Peter realizes he’s got a smaller phallis than his son Chris, and joins a parody of the National Rifle Association in order to make himself feel like a bigger man. Let me tell you, I found myself laughing as I thought to myself, “Did they decide to air this particular episode as a response to some of the s&^t that the president of the NRA has been saying in light of the Newtown shooting and the new push from all sides to get guns under control?”

Let me tell you, the episode made some good points. For example, the guy who recruits Peter to the National Gun Association (NGA), says that how much of a man you are depends on the size of your assault rifle (no wonder people don’t want to give up their guns; they’re worried about their penis size…unless they’re women, in which case they’re tyring to show they’re as macho as the men without losing any chance of getting laid). Then, when Lois worries that Peter taking Chris on a hunting trip is a bad idea, they show a video that shows, among other things, Jesus and Moses using AR-17s on Romans, giving the Second Amendment the same sacredness as the Bible in the gun nuts’ minds, telling kids if they hug a pistol they can get rid of bad guys, and then saying that guns are good and safe, before showing a disclaimer that says that guns aren’t the safest thing in the world.

You know, I really love Seth MacFarlene; he really can take everything and show its stupid side in ways no one else can. And in this early episode, from season 3 and well before our current plague of gun violence and anger over gun violence, it surely is a perfect response to Wayne LaPierre and his NRA leadership buddies, who are not only out of touch, they are out of touch with their own members, who apparently do believe in some restrictions in guns (imagine that!).

Now, with politicians on both sides of the aisle working towards gun control legislation, we can expect the NRA to put up a huge fight. In fact, LaPierre has already called a reinstated ban on assault rifles “an evil bill based on lies” (or something along those lines). Well NRA members who do believe in some gun control, I hope you can put some sense intl your leadership. The nation needs it.

The Second Short Story For The Collection Is Done

Posted: December 23, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Reflections, short story, Writing
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And it was much shorter than the first short story. This one, called “Addict”, is just under 3000 words but it’s pretty extraordinary in itself. For example, I told it all in 2nd person. It’s also more literary in nature than my previous work, but it straddles the line between literary and genre in certain ways, and I like that ambiguous nature to it. But most importantly, it’s based on the experiences of a friend:

My friend, who I’ll call SA, mostly because that’s about as far from his real name as I can get, had an addiction to pornography and sex that he only told me because he felt he could trust me. It was very difficult for him. He never told anyone, and for a long time, he denied he had a problem, believing he just had a bigger libido than most. Eventually it got to be problematic for him though, and began to interfere with his life, his work and his studies. Eventually he sought help, and he’s moving ahead, one day at a time. He’s fallen off the bandwagon once or twice, but he’s apologized for his mistakes and gotten back on as soon as he can.

I’ve known this friend for a long time, so he knew he could trust me with this secret. He told me a lot about his struggles, and he still tells me. I got his permission to write this story only after I asked if I could use some of the stuff he’s gone through as base material. He told me that I’d probably turn it into something unrecognizable (which I did), so it was alright; nobody would know it was him.

In any case, I think this short story came out very well, and the fact that it’s in second person may make it very personal for current or recovering sex and porn addicts. I’ll bring it to my creative writing class to workshop it, as I signed up to volunteer a short story on the first day. I hope to get some good feedback for it, because this is a short story I think has potential.

That’s all for now. I’ll start the third short story tomorrow, but first I’d like to take a shower and then spend the night reading “Silence of the Lambs”. All for now. Blog on you later.

Forgiving A Bully For Old Hurts

Posted: December 23, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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Looks like I have something to be grateful to Facebook for: I found an old bully of mine. In 3rd Grade he made my life hell with his friends, and I was so happy when I left that school and transferred to a school that, although I had a rocky start there, I felt I had found a home for myself. However the memory of that bully never left me, and I sometimes wondered from time to time what happened to him. I do admit I was bitter up until a few years ago, still upset about what I went through. I even made him a character in a story I wrote once, changing his name a little, where he ended up killed because he was an evil vampire.

Now, I don’t need to be psychoanalyzed to know that I wanted to put all the hurt I felt into a weapon and get back at him through the power of writing. And at some point I realized that holding onto this hate wasn’t going to do me any favors. So I tried finding reasons to forgive him. After a bit of soul searching, I found one: I was molded into a writer of scary stories by many sources, first and foremost by an experience involving two staff members at a synagogue scaring the hell out of me after services one day when I was no older than six. But the torment I went through in the third grade–the teasing, the isolation, the one time a friend of his put glue in my hair and I didn’t notice until someone pointed the glue out to me–helped mold me as a writer and as a person. It wouldn’t be the last source to warp me, but it played its role.

And I emerged from that experience much stronger than I had been. I started writing, found I loved it, discovered I loved writing horror, learned how to scare people with some effectiveness, and started getting some of my work published. In addition, I began to feel an empathy not only for those who were bullied, but for those who’ve been hurt and discriminated against because they were a little different than others. It’s a part of me I cherish, because it makes me a better person.

I’m now over the hurt, even though I still don’t like it when certain aspects of that time are brought up (my immediate family probably knows what I’m talking about). I write a lot, I emphasize with people, and I try to treat everyone as kindly as possible. But I wanted to find this guy, if only to ask why, or to get a little closure or something. I had trouble finding him, particularly because I didn’t want to use social networking to find him.

But I got a Facebook page to spread the word on my writing. Lo and behold, I found him. I sent him a message. And I told him I forgive him for all the hurts, and I wish him happiness and success in life.

Now that I’ve sent the message, I feel a sense of peace. I feel like I’ve finally gotten something off my back, and now that it’s gone, it feels so great. I don’t know what’ll happen next though. Maybe he’ll read the message. Maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll send something back. Maybe he’ll ask to be my friend. I don’t know. But I do know that he’s in California and I’m in Ohio, so the distance between us is enough that I feel comfortable enough to just see where this goes and not worry that he’ll show up and harass me or something.

In the end, I’ve closed a chapter of my life that deserves to stay closed. And now, I would like nothing more than to continue working on the short story I’ve been working on since this morning.

Happy Holidays, everybody.

An Afternoon With A Friend

Posted: December 23, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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I spent this afternoon hanging out with a friend I’d hardly seen since graduation, mostly because he’d spent a year in Israel interning at a television network. Turns out that while I’d been busy, so had my friend: not only had he been interning in Israel, but he’d also done some pretty amazing things. My friend’s a whiz when it comes to doing special effects with computers, and he’d done some special effects work for the B-grade horror film Smiley and for the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers video. Yes, he did that.

But that’s not all; apparently my friend’s family owns some properties around Columbus’s Old Towne East neighborhood, a historic neighborhood that had in recent years had fallen into disuse and decay. His family has been buying up properties however, and they’ve been working to renovate many of the buildings, upping the value of the other buildings and making them useful once more. This has brought a steady stream of people back to the neighborhood and even helped bring some money into the neighborhood (if you’ve been in that neighborhood and have been to Yellow Brick Pizza, you can see why). My friend even showed me a few properties, like one that’s in the middle of its renovation and another that hasn’t been renovated yet (the latter looks like a location for a paranormal exploration team’s lockdown at the moment). It was pretty interesting, and I was happy that my friend was contributing to the community. In fact, he told me that several times the people in the neighborhood have called the police when they think a building’s been broken into, just because they don’t want anything to happen to the properties my friend’s renovating with his family.

I have to say, it’s pretty interesting to see what he’s been up to lately, and I was happy to hang out with him.

Not only that, but he gave me some great tips on how to promote my writing, particularly my books when they come out (hopefully soon). I’m definitely going to have to use those tips, especially since they came from a guy who’s made a few successes doing his promotion through YouTube and whatever. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Rami Ungar’s On Facebook!

Posted: December 22, 2012 in Living and Life
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I’ve always been against Facebook for personal reasons. It’s a long story, so I’m not going to bore you with the details. But guess what? I’m now on Facebook. Why? Because it’s a great way to let people know I’m a writer and I’m going to let everyone know when something comes out. I don’t know how active I’ll be with FB, but I’ll definitely use it as much as I feel comfortable. So far I have 60+ friends and counting. Soon I may have even more.

If you’d like to friend me, please do so (but send a message first so that I know who you are). I’d love to have you as a friend. And could someone tell me how to link my blog to my facebook? I’ve no idea how to do it.

Oh Look, The World Hasn’t Ended

Posted: December 21, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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I’m not going to say “I told you so” to the people who were expecting earthquakes and meteors and gods attacking and whatever. Instead, I’d like to quote Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory: “I informed you thusly!”

Let’s face it, the world has been predicted to end several times over the past 2000 years. It’s not going to end, at least not on some prophecy. If it does end, we won’t see it coming. Luckily, I don’t expect the world to end, so I’m not too worried about something happened. We just need to start a revolution in Iran to elect a true democratic government, bring preace between Israel and its citizens, and I think we’ll be fine.

However, some people believe that the date the world ends isn’t for another ten days, on New Year’s Eve. So unless the ball in Times Square is laced with explosives, I think I’ll ignore this date too and just spend time with the family.

So Happy Solstice, and I hope the worse weather you’re having is some snow. That’s what I’m getting, and the worse it’s doing to me is keeping me indoors.

It’s The Day Before The World Will End (Not Really)

Posted: December 20, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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So it’s about 24 hours before the Mayan calendar is supposed to wind down and the doomsday naysayers crap their pants with worry. Given the lack of scientific evidence that there is something to make the world end, the fact that the Mayans weren’t thinking about fire and brimstone when they created their long-count calendar, and the fact that prophecies of doom have come and gone without a hair falling out of place (most recently May 2011), I think it’s unlikely the world will end.

In fact, I plan to act like the world won’t end. I’ll get up, wonder if there’s still time to go to the Christmas party at work even though I’m not scheduled to go into work today and therefore slept in a little, write, remember the world’s supposed to end, shrug and get back to whatever I was doing, bring in the Sabbath, and laugh as nothing happens.

You guys get where I’m going with this, right? The world’s not going to end. There’s nothing to make it end. I know things have been crazy the past week in the USA because of all the shootings and attempted shootings. It’s enough to make you think the world might actually end. But it won’t; the world’s going to keep spinning, I’m going to keep writing, and on Christmas I’m going to order Chinese and watch a movie, as many Jews will do during the holiday season.

But if you’re still scared, please watch this music video by British artist Jay Sean, featuring supposedly-Trinidadian-but-possibly-from-outer-space artist Nicki Minaj. If this doesn’t convince you the world’s not ending, you’re a lunatic:

Autumn Semester 2012: The Wrap-Up

Posted: December 18, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Well folks, I got all my grades back from this past semester, so you know what that means! Time to tell you how I did, what I wish I could’ve done, and what I hope for the coming semester. Oh, and this was Ohio State’s first semester, so the fact that I managed to survive the extra six weeks and did so well is a good sign. Oh, and for those of you who are new to Rami Ungar the Writer, I’m double majoring in both History and in English. I think those are great majors for a writer to have, don’t you?

Okay, so my classes: I had Documentary, Creative Fiction Writing, History, and Philosophy, and all but Philosophy I got A’s in. Documentary was a sort of experimental class, where we spent time around computers creating audio and video recordings about our writing styles, along with creative art projects meant to explain our connection to a certain book of literary renown (I did John Milton’s Paradise Lost). Creative Friction Writing, although more literary than I expected, was interesting, and it gave me a short story I plan to submit to a certain magazine right after I finish writing this post. History was about the discipline of Historical Studies and explain how historians went about their business. I probably did the best in that class, getting A’s on nearly all my assignments, and doing a kick-ass project on the history of Holocaust awareness in America. I passed Philosophy with a grade lower than I’d hoped for, but my final paper got an A-, which was higher than I expected, so hurray for me. Also, I’m now able to point out how a certain article may have dubious statistics in it, so that’s a useful skill.

I also went to my first home football game this semester, and I got to see President Obama speak. These were all very special occasions for me, and I totally enjoyed myself.

Next semester I’ll be taking four classes: another Creative Fiction Writing, which I had to apply for to get in (it’s that special, apparently); a History class on World War II, which is a part of my History focus; an American Literature course, which may encompass anything from Washington Iriving to Catcher in the Rye; and as an elective, I ‘m taking Abnormal Psychology (aka Where Everything We Learn Could Potentially Be Applied to My Family). I’m certainly looking forward to this coming semester, especially since as time goes by the weather will get warmer.

Or maybe it won’t get warmer; Ohio weather is often strange and unpredictable.

All for now. Tune in next semester to see how I’m doing.

Looks Like Someone Got The Message

Posted: December 16, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Progress Report, Reflections, Social Activism
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This morning I wrote a post calling for everyone reading this blog to contact every politician they can think of and ask them to work for stricter measures against gun violence. Afterwards I saw an article on HuffPost.com on how a man in Indiana threatened to kill his wife and then go into a local elementary school and shoot them up. Thankfully yesterday he was arrested and is being held on felony intimidation charges, but it still had me spooked. I mean, it’s enough to make you think this coming Friday really is the end of the world!

But when I got back home from my meditation class, I saw an article that said on the first day of the new Congress, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California plans to introduce a bill that’ll stop the sale of assault weapons to civilians. As she said on her campaign website, “Who needs these military-style assault weapons? Who needs an ammunition feeding device capable of holding 100 rounds? These weapons are not for hunting deer — they’re for hunting people.”

So true, Senator Feinstein. So true.

So at least someone in Washington has the guts to step up and speak out on the gun problem in the United States. I hope soon we can see some progress, and I wish Senator Feinstein the best of luck in getting this bill through Congress.

However this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep emailing our elected officials. On the contrary, we should email them more, because if a bill like this is going to get through Congress, it’s going to need all the popular support it can get, and I’m hoping you’ll help support it. So email away; I’ve got to email the senator herself and thank her for saying she’ll introduce this bill, because as you can tell it means a lot to me.

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