Archive for the ‘Living and Life’ Category

An Evening On The 8th Floor

Posted: September 9, 2012 in Living and Life
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8th Floor Improv, to be exact. You see, this evening I went with some members of my dorm to see the campus improv-comedy group, 8th Floor Improv. I’d never seen an improv show before, so I was expecting the show would be awesome or a total fail. Luckily, it was awesome.

Of course, that’s not what I’m here to write about. I’m writing about something the members of 8th Floor did that was very special to me. You see, at some point during the show, the cast asked for a volunteer. Guess who got picked? ME. They sat me down for a candid interview al a Jon Stewart at the Daily Show to talk about who I was, my political impressions, and I got to plug my blog and short story Aasif (which may explain the sudden rise on my stats counter). I also got to show a little of my creepy side, perhaps a little more than I intended, but still enough to show that I’m serious about being the next big wave in horror, and I got to talk about Hunger Games, the book of which I’m reading for the first time, and how I would use economic warfare to bring the Hunger Games to a grinding halt.

It was pretty fun, and afterwards the actors used the discussion to “portray my dreams and nightmares”, which was pretty funny; the actress playing me nearly got me confused with Mitt Romney, couldn’t pronounce my legal name, tried to kill someone criticizing her by writing that person into a short story, and nearly got sued by actors playing Stephanie Meyers and Suzanne Collins.

To 8th Floor Improv, thanks for making me laugh till I nearly puked. In return, I’ll put the link to your website here for anyone who’s interested (http://8thfloorimprov.com/). And if anyone from the group wandered onto this blog, here’s the link to that child-soldier short story you sounded so interested in (http://mobiusmagazine.com/). It’s the fifth one on the list right under “Fiction”. Enjoy.

Oh, and to those who follow this blog and write also, I got a question or two for you: have you ever been interviewed? And if so, do you have any tips? Because like I said, I got to show my creepy side, but I worry sometimes that when I show it, I show too much of it.

Watching the President Gives Me Hope

Posted: September 7, 2012 in Living and Life, Politics and Leadership, Social Activism
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A wonderful image that speaks for itself.

This evening I went to a watch party close to campus to see President Obama accept his party’s nominations. We heard Eva Longoria, Jill and Joe Biden, Charlie Crest, John Kerry and several other people speak, telling us about what the President Obama’s done for the nation, too many to list here. And finally, when the man of the hour appeared, all I could do was feel like I was about to burst from a single emotion.

That emotion, my friends, was hope.

Yes, I feel hopeful. Amid the screaming, the clapping, the chanting of “USA!” and “Four more years!” and “Yes, We Can!” and others, I was hopeful. Obama spent nearly fifty minutes speaking about his beliefs and his plans in the future, and all of us, those of us listening at the convention, those watching at home, and me, one of nearly a hundred people crowded into a gourmet restaurant, were one in our hopes for this single man.

I support the President on many issues: as a student who needs financial aid and works in the financial aid office part-time at his university, I feel secure in my education knowing that the President is doing his utmost to protect mine and others’ educations and access to higher learning; as a supporter of Israel and of peace, I think the President’s approach to the Middle East, while at times at odds with Israel’s plans, is a vision that includes all parties working together and compromising, not one side getting everything while others are left in the cold; as a human being and as someone with LGBT friends and family, I’m happy my President supports my friends and families and doesn’t think they’re causing a degeneration in American values; as a young man coming from a family that’s at least 78% female, I’m glad my President doesn’t want to mess with my family’s right to make choices about their health; as a student on his parent’s medical insurance, I’m happy my President is defending my basic right to healthcare, not making it more expensive; as a grandson, I’m happy my President is looking out for people like my grandparents, who can afford medical services with his help; and most of all, as a future member of the work force, I’m excited that the President is protecting working and middle-class families and helping them keep their taxes low and their jobs secure.

Now, I know some more conservative bloggers will disagree with me on several points. But I’m hopeful. I’m confident. I’m optimistic. And I’m looking forward to casting my vote in my first presidential election. Because Obama’s been there for me, so I’m going to be there for him.

Something I Learned Today I Wish To Share With You

Posted: September 5, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, short story
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Now, you’re probably thinking, “Rami’s a college student at Ohio State. What’s so important that he wants to share it with us?” If you’re not thinking that, then I’m sorry for trying to read your mind and failing miserably at it.

But back on subject: I was talking with a friend of mine and I told him my short story, Aasif (which, if you have not read, can be found at this web address: http://mobiusmagazine.com/ ) was published over the weekend. Since my friend was right by a computer, I told him the web address and gave him the name of the story.

Now my friend, who is Muslim, saw the title and said, “Did you know that ‘Aasif’ means ‘sorry’ or ‘apologies’ in Arabic?”

No, I did not. Most likely, I got the name from Aasif Mandvi, the Indian-American correspondent from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, not caring what the name meant. But strangely that name, “Aasif”, makes sense for the character, given what happens to Aasif (and if you still haven’t read the story even though I posted the link above, read it now because there’s a spoiler alert after I close these parentheses): Aasif has to kill a child. Not only that, it’s a child he knows, and the possibility of facing the child’s parents after what he’s done grieves him horribly. He’s also worried because right afterward he killed the warlord Marda’ar, and he wonders if that will have reprecussions on him and his soul.

Now, I won’t get into whether or not Aasif’s problems have solutions; I will say though that I think that everyone has done something horrible, something we wish we could take back, and like Aasif, there’s no way we can. In a way, we can emphasize with Aasif because we’ve all been in his situation before.

Any thoughts on this? Oh, and if you’ve read the story, thanks for your patronage!

What I Hope People Get From “Carrie”

Posted: September 3, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
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It seems only lately we as an American people have begun to realize that bullying is more than just something all people have to go through while in school. It’s a problem, one that should be a crime punishable by law, and if left untreated, it can lead to depression, suicide, and in some extreme cases, violence. The subject of bullying is one I’m all too familiar with: in third grade I was bullied horribly in the form of nasty and ridiculous rumors that my classmates ate up, and eventually I just said they were true in the hope they would shut up and leave me alone (they didn’t). In fourth grade I changed schools, but a few kids thought I’d make a great target for teasing. Boy, did they realize just how wrong they were when little fourth-grade me decided to fight them off!

Why do I mention this story? Because in a strange way, Carrie White from Stephen King’s Carrie is very similar to me. Although my home life was much better than Carrie’s, I was in elementary school, I didn’t have psychic powers, and I belonged to a different religion (among other things), Carrie and I both faced daily torture in the form of bullying, and we both wanted revenge, to lash out and take control of an uncontrollable situation. And in the end we both did, though my lashing out was bloodless and had better results than Carrie’s did.

I hope that when people see any version of Carrie–the 1976 film, the 2002 TV remake, or the new version due out in spring 2013–or if they read the novel, they realize just how horrible bullying is. It’s not just something kids do, and it doesn’t toughen anyone up. It’s a form of abuse and harassment, and if schools are any good at taking care of their students, they will crack down on bullying. If I had my way, I’d require schools across the nation to either show a version of Carrie to the students–ratings and nudity be damned, they see that stuff at home already, so why not show it at school with some moral lessons attached–or make it required reading in middle school. Yes, that early! And I’d include the ABC Family film Cyberbully to further get the point across!

So if you plan on seeing or reading Carrie anytime soon, I suggest you keep in mind what the story of Carrie White can teach us about accepting those different than us. Thanks for reading.

200 Comments!!!

Posted: August 30, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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This evening I reached the 200 comment mark! For me, that’s a big deal, as it means people are actually stopping by this blog to read it and give me their thoughts. Thanks to everyone who’s been with me all this time, a special thank you to everyone who’s ever given me their thoughts, and a very special thank you to my dad, Rabbi Michael Ungar, who gave me my 200th comment when he commented on my hair. Abba, you’re the man.

Rami Ungar’s On LinkedIn

Posted: August 27, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Or, to be more specific, Ephraim Ungar’s on LinkedIn (that’s my legal name; don’t ask me how you get Rami from that!).

Anyway, after months of people telling me to get a LinkedIn account and after my uncle wrote me an email saying I should join, I did (thank you Uncle Joel; I’ll lay off the Buckeye-love this one post as a thank you). If you go on, you’ll be able to friend me or whatever and we can do the whole networking thing. However I’m warning you, I’m very inexperienced when it comes to social-networking sites (though this one I might get very into).

Feel free to friend me or whatever it is we’re supposed to do on LinkedIn; just look for Ephraim Ungar in Columbus, Ohio.

Oh, and any suggestions on how to make my profile better are appreciated.

A Trip to the Clubs

Posted: August 26, 2012 in ideas, Living and Life, Writing
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This is very similar to what I saw this evening. Rock on, dude!

Okay, this evening I went clubbing (and by the time you read this it’ll probably not be evening anymore, but whatever). It’s not something I do often; outside of weddings or bar/bat mitzvahs, I rarely go out and party, and as I’m only 19 I never drink while doing it. Last year I even got invited to a frat party, but instead decided to go to a late-night pancake buffet at my dorm (which paid off; I met OSU’s President E. Gordon Gee, who decided to make a surprise visit, and I have the photographic evidence to prove it too). But I felt like doing something different tonight; heck, SNL”s not going to be back for another couple weeks, and I didn’t have anything better to do, so I went clubbing.

See, I told you I had the proof; way cooler than a frat party. O-H!

The club I went to, Rio, is close to my dorm and allows anyone 18 and older in. Lucky for me too, because what a night it was: the music was crazy loud, the laser light show was crazy, the DJs knew how to remix popular music (I swear, Gotye sounds so awesome with an electronic beat), and I even saw a few friends there who went to the same high school as me.

But what was most awesome about Rio? I’ll tell you: the fact that I got inspired and had an idea for both a short story and a poem, which just goes to show that if you distract your mind with something, you’ll come up with something great (and there’s a clip from The Big Bang Theory of Sheldon waiting tables on YouTube that proves it; I would’ve embedded it here, but the embedding was disabled). The short story I’ll use for my Creative Writing with a Literary Bent course (not the title of the class, but you get the idea), as all the other ideas I had for that class suck. The poem, which came to me while watching the lasers interact with the smoke coming from the stage, I think I’ll see if I can get it into a magazine.

And of course, if anything gets published, I’ll make sure to let you know. Now, I’d like to write some more about clubbing, and another post about something someone said to me recently and what I thought of it, but it’s past two in the morning and I’ve got to get up later for a meditation course, so go find that Big Bang Theory clip and have a lovely morning coffee (if you’re like me, you drink something to wake up in the morning while surfing the net, in my case tea).

My Classes: Fall 2012

Posted: August 23, 2012 in Living and Life
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I got such great reception from my uncle the last time I used this image, I’m using it again. Go Buckeyes!

Well, I’m sure you all want to know what sort of classes I’m taking at Ohio State, seeing as we’ve moved from the quarter system to semesters and whatnot. Okay, maybe you’re not that interested, but maybe I’ll tell you anyway because you’re already here reading this, right?

Okay, so I’m taking four classes, the minimum allowed for a full-time student on semesters (I want to ease into the whole semester thing after just getting used to quarters). Yesterday morning I had my first class, a Philosophy course that studies how statistics can be faulty or misleading and how you can spot said statistics. It was interesting, especially since it’s an election year here in the United States, and everybody is using statistics in promoting one candidate or another. Plus, the course was in Hitchcock Hall, which meant that half the class was composed of birds, the teacher was a cross-dresser named Norman Bates, there was a rear window in the classroom, and one of the non-avian students suffered from vertigo (not really, but wouldn’t it be hilarious if all that did happen?).

The second class was a fiction-writing course, and apparently each one of us is going to be working on a single short story throughout the year and workshopping it and editing it as the semester rolls on. The class has a more literary bent than I expected, but thankfully the teacher is allowing supernatural elements in our stories, so you know I’m thankful, because some other teachers who teach this sort of class prefer not to have genre elements at all! Don’t know why, maybe they’re just insane.

After that I have a documentary class, where we’re actually going to be creating autobiographical works in a variety of written, audio, and video formats. It sounds like a lot of work, but it also sounds like a ton of fun! If I can, I’ll post some of the work from that class here on Rami Ungar the Writer.

And this morning I had my fourth and final class, Introduction to the Discipline of History. Basically we’re looking at the study of history itself, and how history has evolved over the years. It’s required for all History majors, and you have to at least get a C in it to pass and take more history courses. Of course, I’m aiming for all A’s this semester, so I’m definitely going to work hard!

Well, that’s all I got to talk about for now. I’ve got some homework to take care of, so I’ll see you all later when the urge to type up a good post comes to me. Have a great day and enjoy the weather.

Moving Back Into the Dorms

Posted: August 17, 2012 in Living and Life
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Ohio State University, my school and in my opinion one of the most awesome schools out there (though my relatives in Michigan will disagree).

Well, I moved back into the dorms today, as can be evidenced by the title. Can I just say I love being back? I have the same room as I did last year (signed up for that option), and since I have no roommates (it’s a single), I have a bedroom and bathroom all to myself! What’s more, I have an excellent view of campus, and heat I can control. Does it get any better than that?

I moved in a couple days early because my parents couldn’t swing moving me in with everybody else, which in retrospect seems like a good thing; I’m avoiding the rush and crazy traffic that always accompanies Ohio State on our famous move-in day. So I think I’ll enjoy myself this weekend and have some down time before school starts up on Wednesday. I may even hang out with a few friends if we can find the time, though with the whole switch-from-quarters-to-semesters on top of moving in and whatnot, it might be difficult.

Oh, and what classes am I taking, you ask? I’m taking a fiction-writing course (hopefully from this will come some great new short stories, and a few tricks for writing said stories), a documentary class (looks like I’ll finally learn how to make a movie on my computer), a history class (required for all History majors like myself), and a philosophy class that somehow fulfills a stats requirement (I’m not really sure how that works, but I’m not complaining!). I hope to get all A’s this year, so wish me luck, okay?

Got to go, have a great weekend!

Happy Birthday to Rami Ungar the Writer!!!!

Posted: August 2, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
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Happy Birthday to the blog,

Happy Birthday to the bog,

Happy Birthday to the blog,

Happy Birthday to the blog.

Yes indeed, ladies and gentlebloggers, it was exactly one year ago that Rami Ungar the Writer hit the Internet. And what a year it’s been: including this post, I’ve written 108 posts, racked up 3,049 views (an average of 8.4 a day), at least 150 likes (I lost count after 100), 50 followers that I know of (there’s more than one way to follow a WordPress blog besides signing up through WordPress, and I have no idea how many people do that), and 122 comments. I survived my first year of college, found out two short stories I’d written are going to be published, and was even honored by Anne Rice at one point. But most of all, I’ve found some loyal readers and some great friends, whom I can always count on for an interesting and fun comment conversation.

I’d like to thank WordPress for being an awesome blogging website, and I’d like to thank everyone who’s been with me up till this point. I hope you stay with me while I continue blogging and working on achieving my dream of becoming a horror novelist.

Now before you go out and decide what gift to buy for me, please read the rest of this post:

1. I would appreciate it more if you donated money to an organization supporting LGBT rights, helping victims of assault and/or abuse, supporting Israel, or that gives funding to underfunded school. However if any of you want to help me pay for college, I would not mind at all.

2. I am giving you guys a gift or two instead today. Below are two videos off of YouTube. The first is from Disney’s 1951 film Alice in Wonderland, with a hearty rendition of “A Merry Un-Birthday”. I chose this because I wanted a video that doesn’t have the regular birthday song, and because I couldn’t find any birthday songs that sounded scary. Besides, even if I don’t care for this particular adaptation, I just love Alice in Wonderland!

The next video is from the people of HISHEdotcom, who are always to take the latest Hollywood blockbuster and tell you How It Should Have Ended. This is one of their latest videos, detailing all the problems of Prometheus and how they think it should have been done. You should really check out their other videos if you like this one, they’ve done stuff to just about every type of movie imaginable.

Hope you enjoy these videos. Have a lovely day. See ya!

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