My grandmother, who’s an alumna of Ohio State University, sent me this video (thanks so much, Nancy!). It shows everybody’s favorite mascot, the poisonous tree nut Brutus Buckeye, dancing to Psy’s “Gangnam Style” with the awesome OSU Cheerleading Squad. I hope you enjoy it, it’s just so much fun. O-H I-O Buckeye Style!
Archive for the ‘Living and Life’ Category
Ohio State Goes Gangnam Style
Posted: October 20, 2012 in Living and LifeTags: college life, entertainment, Ohio State University
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Some Thoughts on “Dodi Li”
Posted: October 18, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Reflections, Scary Stuff, short story, WritingTags: college life, editing, entertainment, films, ideas, Ohio State University, scary stuff, short story, writing
For those of you who have no idea what that title means, Dodi Li is a short story that I started this summer and that I’m rewriting before National Novel Writing Month starts in two weeks. It means “my darling” or “my beloved” in Hebrew and should not be confused with a popular Jewish song that is sung sometimes on Friday nights by Jews everywhere.
Dodi Li features a succubus, a demoness who visits men at night as a beautiful woman and steals their sperm in order to create demonic children or steal pieces of their soul through fornication, depending on what myths you believe. However my succubus, who I’ve named Umuruk (sounds like a name a succubus would have, right?) is not the antagonist of the story. Instead, she struggles to protect the other protagonist, a male she’s fallen in love with. Succubi have fallen in love with humans before, according to the folklore and stories I found by people who say they’ve had experiences with succubi (it’s on the Internet, so I can’t be sure if the writers are crazy or not, but I try to keep an open mind), and I decided to tap into that for this story.
The first draft was very plot-oriented, and sucked immensely. I decided to leave it alone until I could think of a way to make it better, and if I couldn’t, then it’d make a great learning experience. But yesterday in creative writing class, my teacher gave me an idea on how I could improve the story. So I went back and started to completely rewrite it, going until half-past ten last night, and then resuming for a little while this morning before class.
As I was heading to class, I realized something about my story: the main character, whose nine years old, and the antagonist, a 40-something with some mental issues, are the only male characters. All the rest are female: the doctor, the head nurse, the head of neurology, a possible detective character, and of course the succubus Umuruk, are all women, and all are women in positions of power that they use to help people.
I started to wonder if that might mean something, if my psyche was trying to tell me something through my writing. If it’s that I respect women in positions of power and that I think there should be more of them, that doesn’t surprise me at all; I grew up in a house full of women, my mom’s a rabbi, my boss is a woman, her boss is a woman, and I took a Women’s Studies course my first year at Ohio State, which I did very well in. So no surprise that powerful women show up in my story.
However, if it has something to do with the fact that Umuruk is able to help the main character more than these women, then I wonder what that might be saying. Perhaps even if women are educated and in positions of power, if they don’t occasionally open their minds to the impossible, then a mentally unbalanced man will hurt an innocent nine-year-old? That’s also a possibility.
In any case, once I finish the story I might understand more, and if I manage to get it published, you might be able to read it and give me some suggestions on what my Muse is trying to tell me.
Anyway, I’ve got some homework to do before I go to work, so I better get that taken care of right now. Have a nice day.
Oh, before I forget, something funny I have to tell you: I was talking to my history teacher after class today, and we had a really great discussion on the way out the building. You see, at the beginning of the semester, my teacher, whose focus is African History, told us that if any of us intentionally failed his class, he’d used magic he learned from tribal priests to enter our dreams and scare the heck out of us. Ever since then I’ve been trying on and off to get him to agree to teach me how to enter people’s dreams (can you blame me?).
At some point during our conversation, my teacher revealed he’d been joking, but I thought he’d been serious because he said it in such a serious way. This led to a discussion on witchcraft in different cultures, which led to a discussion on using magic and summoning stuff. That led to a discussion on spirits and possessions, and in the end, I ended up recommending my teacher to go see The Possession, which I reviewed back in September. Turns out, he agreed to see it. How about that?
Anyway, I think it’s funny, I have no idea what you think.
Edits and Construction
Posted: October 17, 2012 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, WritingTags: college life, editing, ideas, novel, Ohio State University, scary stuff, short story, Snake, writing
Well yestereday I edited two short stories. One was Doll’s Game, the short story I’m writing for class, though I might decide to edit it again if I can get this idea I got today for the story to work somehow. I also edited Hunt in the Slaughterhouse, a short story I wrote back in April based on a dream I had. I’ve been trying to get around to editing it for a while, but I’ve had some trouble doing that. But yesterday I had the chance and I have to say, it loooks much better. I’ll have to figure out whether or not I want to send it to a magazine right now or if I want to wait and show it to someone else beforehand.
I also had an idea for Dodi Li, the succubus story I wrote over the summer. Although the plot for that story was really bad and I ended up deciding this story was best left as a learning experience, I decided to rewrite it after my teacher in my creative writing class gave me an idea. You see, she had been discussing the story we were critiquing today, and how the author was able to make it difficult to tell what was reality and what was delusion in his story. Listening to that, I just had a burst of inspiration for Dodi Li, which I plan to get to work on as soon as possible. Got to say, those workshop critiques can do wonders for you.
On, and before I forget, remember how I rewrote the outline for my serial killer novel Snake and that I mentioned I’d set a scene in a construction site? Well today I finally reached the man who could help me get onto the site. We’re going to try and find a time that works for both of us so that I can tour a site and ask some questions. This is a big oppurtunity for me because I want my readers not to have to suspend their disbelief too much and what’s better than actual experience?
Well, hope to have more good news for you later. In the meantime, I’ve editing to do.
The President Reassured Me Tonight
Posted: October 16, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Social ActivismTags: activism, government, politics and leadership, proper decisions
Thanks President Obama. You did a lot to set me at ease tonight.
This evening, the local Obama for America office and my campus group Buckeyes for Obama hosted an event at the local movie theater next to campus. You can guess the event: the second Presidential debate, hosted by Hofstra University in New York (aka the school named after a spell from Harry Potter) and done town hall style, where undecided voters get to ask the questions to the candidates.
Well of course I’d gone. I support the President, I hadn’t seen any of the debates yet, and I wanted to see at least part of one. And around 10:15p, I decided I’d heard enough and I should head home. As I was leaving, the moderator called up a woman named Nina Gonzales to ask her question, and I stopped to listen.
The question was on gun control, particularly on military-grade firearms and assault rifles.
And like that, I had to listen.
Now as many of you know, during the summer there were a lot of incidents of gun violence where innocent people lost lives, particularly in Aurora, Colorado and in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Now at the time of the former, both President Obama and Governor Romney said they were going to follow previous gun control policies and stay along those lines.
It certainly helps.
Meaning they weren’t going to do a thing. And of course I was upset by this statement, having written several posts in the wake of those shootings asking for stricter gun control on assault rifles and laws against selling to those with criminal histories and/or serious mental health issues from the federal government.
But tonight, President Obama reassured me. He said he was going to push for stricter laws on assault rifles and try to keep guns out of the hands who shouldn’t. He would also take steps to help cut down on the other factors that create gun violence, including improving education so people don’t resort to crime and making health care more affordable so that people with mental health disorders can afford their medication.
Now I’m not going to go into what Governor Romney said, mainly because he contradicted himself and because he said something I found absolutely ridiculous (*cough cough” “marriage” *cough cough*). But I am going to tell you that that gun control question was the one question I’d been hoping to hear tonight, and I did get to hear it. And it made me so happy to hear the candidate I’m supporting give the answer I’d been hoping to hear.
Good luck to you, Mr. President. Good luck to you.
Well, it’s a week of milestones. Five-thousand views, and now 300 comments, thanks to my friend Matt Williams of the awesome blog, http://storiesbywilliams.com/. Maybe I’ll get 100 followers on Thursday. Are there twelve people who like horror, thriller, following aspiring writers in college and don’t mind the occasional post on how much I support the Democrats and how I am confused by Republicans and the things they say and do?
You know, when I first started this blog, I found it inconcievable, when I was barely getting five views a week, that I could get a single comment more than once a month. Now, I’ve got 100 more comments after posting about getting 200 less than a month-and-a-half ago. This is just so incredible, I’m geeking out a little while I write this.
Thanks for all the reading and all the commenting, folks. It means a lot and it means you’re sticking with me through all my trials and tribulations. Hope to hear good news soon. Maybe I’ll finish editing Reborn City and hand it off for some edits from a third party this week. Wouldn’t that be awesome!
Talk to you later.
An Awesome Book: A Self-Publishing Story
Posted: October 14, 2012 in Living and Life, ReflectionsTags: entertainment, publishing, Reborn City
I saw an ad for Google Chrome today that I wanted to share with you. Normally I wouldn’t waste your time with a Google Chrome ad, especially since Internet Explorer is more my type. But this one has to do with a self-publishing success story:
In the video, Clayton Dallas wrote a children’s book for his son that encouraged him to dream big. Mr. Dallas wanted to publish his book, but publishers turned him down. He decided to do self-publishing, and over time, his book, titled An Awesome Book, caught on. Before he knew it, Mr. Dallas was touring the country and abroad, reading his book about how any child can change the future if they put their minds to it.
Well, that’s pretty interesting. Not only am I self-publishing Reborn City, but one of the overarching themes of RC and its two sequels is that one can better their lives and change the world if they work hard and they put their minds to it and never give up. I like that idea, and I think it’s one that not enough people believe in these days, and many people put down all too willingly, which may be why it can be difficult sometimes to get people to vote in elections (a possibility).
So Mr. Dallas, I wish you luck with your book. I hope it inspires a whole new generation of young people. As for myself, I’ll work to get my book out too, and maybe somebody will be inspired enough to try and make a change after reading RC and its sequels (fingers crossed). I also hope that if publishing companies haven’t taken your book seriously yet, then after the Google Chrome commercial they are! Otherwise, they are just dense.
Talk to you guys later. I’ve got some homework to do and then I’m going to see Taken 2, which I’ll review afterwards. Spoiler alert: Someone gets taken and Liam Neeson has to go save them. But we already knew that, didn’t we?
You like me, you really like me!
Yes, I’ve finally gotten past 5000 views on Rami Ungar the Writer. It’s been a year, 2 months, a week, and two days since I started this blog. There were times when no one visited my blog at all, and I worried I wasted my time writing it. Thanks to everyone who’s stuck with me or logged on or even just strayed here accidentally looking for a picture of a creepy doll or information on whether Alex Cross’s partner John Sampson would be in the new movie (he’s not). It means a lot, and I hope you stick with me while I work to publish my novel Reborn City and work to become a professional novelist.
To all, thank you.
You know, I just love calling these little posts about how my semester is going “half-time reports.” Must be my love of Ohio State football.
Now, onto how I’m doing. Like I’ve said in previous posts, I’m taking a creative writing class, and we’re all currently in the middle of critiquing everybody’s stories (mine’s being turned in early November). I’m enjoying that and doing well grade-wise, though last night I read one of my classmates’ stories and thought it was horrible, though don’t tell any of my classmates I said that. I’m also taking a documentary course, which I’m also doing well in, and which I have to thank for empowering me to self-publish my novel Reborn City without having to rely on a service. After all, I’ve learned to use GarageBand and iMovie. Who says I can’t learn to format my novel as an e-book?
I’m also taking a history course, and got one assignment and my midterm back yesterday. The assignment, which was for us to watch a documentary and then evaluate the historical sources used in the documentary, didn’t have a specific letter grade on it, but judging by the feedback my teacher gave me, I got at least a B+, probably and A- for going over the sources and seeing how biased against Leopold II of Belgium they were. My midterm was even better, with 92% correct answers. In addition, even the answers that were wrong got partial credit, so I’m happy about that.
I’m also taking a philosophy course on statistics, which fulflills a GEC requirement. I didn’t do so well on the initial quizzes, but I’ve been studying hard and meeting with my teacher outside of class to discuss problems I’ve been having with the coursework, and as a result my grades have gone up a lot. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep this up and get even better grades on the quiz a week from now.
Other than that, not much else to report: I watch Buckeye games every Saturday with a few good friends (we’re 6-0 right now, and I’m hoping we beat Indiana this week, if we can keep our defense strong and our offense stronger), I edit Reborn City, and I store up a few ideas for short stories that I’ll do once I have the time to do them.
Wish me luck with the rest of the semester. We only have 8 weeks to go, and that’s not including the two weeks devoted to finals (somehow I only have one final to do, and it’s on the last day of exams, in philosophy. How the heck does that even happen in your first semester?). Hoping to get all A’s this semester, keep our fingers crossed.
Oh, and before I forget, have a great weekend. Go Bucks!
Critiquing In My Creative Writing Class
Posted: October 10, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, WritingTags: college life, editing, short story, writing
“God, I love what you’ve written. I do have some thoughts though…first off, can we maybe have less commandments? Twenty-seven’s a little much to remember and recite!”
For the first half of my creative writing class this semester, we’ve been going over some of the fundamentals of writing fiction, including plot, dialogue, and characters, among other things. We’ve also been told to each write a shorty story between 8 and 20 pages, or 2,000 and 5,000 words, and while I certainly had trouble writing my story, mostly because it’s literary, I’ve been enjoying reading and critiquing the stories of my classmates.
We’ve actually only read 4 stories so far, but they’ve all been interesting in their own way. There was a story about the rivalry between two princes, a vignette about a day in the life of a soldier, a crime story, and even one involving a virtual reality game. And later today we’re recieving a new story, so I’m wondering what that’s going to be about.
After we read the story, we have to type up a critique in the form of a letter and hand it in to both our teacher and the writer of the story in question. We also give our impressions orally to the writer during class, allowing them to absorb some more feedback before they start editing their story. Although I like getting critiqued myself (because I want to know what problems my stories have and what I can do to fix them), it’s another story entirely to critique someone else’s work (pun intended). I like the feeling of helping someone improve a story they wrote, especially if the story is good. And it’s different from when I look over my own work, because I’m not looking at my classmates’ work with a biased eye.
I’ll be turning in my own story for critiquing in early November, a few days before my science-fiction short story “Ripple” is set to hit the web. Between now and then, I’ll go over my story and do a few edits before I turn it in, because I like to give my short stories an edit or two before I turn them in for critiquing by anyone. But for now, I’ll just sit back, get my homework done, and critique other people’s work.
What about you? Have you ever been critiqued or critiqued someone else’s work? How does it feel when you do?
President Obama At Ohio State
Posted: October 9, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and LeadershipTags: celebrities, college life, government, Ohio State University, politics and leadership
Isn’t that the most winning smile? Too bad I didn’t take it with my own camera.
Unfortunately, I have no photos. Well, I do, but they were taken from a great distance with a camera that’s better suited for close-range shots. So all I have are some grainy images that are a little shaky. So, instead of showing you those, I decided to go with a stock photo from Google Images (above).
Okay, so President Obama’s speech at OSU. I’m assuming you wanted to know the details, since you’re reading this post. Well, I got into line around 1, which extended around Thompson Library, across the street to Lazenby Hall, around the corner from that, and heading back to whatever’s beyond that. I entered line around the driveway for delivery trucks into Lazenby. There I saw a few friends whom I allowed to cut in line, and the usual pro-life protesters who always look like they just got back from a hunting party or tailgating. Around 2 the line started moving, and I bought a decorative press pass from a vendor.
When we got to the Oval, where the speech would take place, we were halfway between Orton Hall, where Obama would be speaking, and University Hall, which was where everybody was entering and getting their bags checked. In short, I was in the middle of the crowd, which is why I got bad photos. In addition, everybody kept moving around, so at times I was getting squished by people saying “Excuse me” and shoving me and everyone else around them. Plus the weather decided to be like early September, so I’m a little sunburned.
But besides that, everything was great. First Mayor Michael Coleman of Columbus came on and gave a little warm-up speech. Then we had the Pledge of Alliegance and the National Anthem. Some students, including one I knew from volunteering, made some speeches on how Obama’s policies were helping them get the education they needed. Senators John Glenn and Sherrod Brown also made speeches, which I thought were very good, though I thought Senator Brown said something that might come back to haunt him later: “If you’re here at this rally, it shows you are more knowledgeable about politics than your friends or family.” That’s paraphrased for brevity’s sake, but you can see why some might have a problem with that statement.
And then will.i.am, one of the Black Eyed Peas. showed up and started DJ-ing for the whole crowd, using his songs and others. It was an awesome time, awesome enough that we forgave him for DJ-ing from a small blue tent where no one from the audience could see him. After that, President Obama came out!
He stood up there, told us how important Ohio was, and how because of the auto bailout, 1 in 8 Ohio jobs were now automotive-related jobs. He also spoke about other policies of his that had benefited the American people, backed up his sayings with statistics, used examples from people he’d met on the campaign trail, and compared his plan for the future with Mitt Romney’s plan. He also brought up Big Bird, which got plenty of laughs from the audience (I swear, Governor Romney is never going to live that down).
All in all, it was a pretty good day. I may have stood for several hours, which brought up back pain, but I feel inspired and I’m so glad I voted about a week before the rally. And I bet a lot of other people felt inspired too, because after the rally there were buses that could take you to vote early, which many people got on (of course, they may have gotten on just because will.i.am was supposed to be DJ-ing there too, but I’m an optimist).
So that’s my day. And if you’re American and registered to vote, I urge you to do so, no matter who you’re supporting this election (though you know who I hope will win the election). Your vote counts, despite what you may think about voting in masses, and when you make your voice heard, you get the right to complain whenever something happens in Washington you don’t like.
Happy 30 days or so till Election Day, everybody.
Rami Ungar The Writer 