Rami Ungar The Writer

Review: Tangled

Posted: February 14, 2012 in Review
Tags: college life, films, holidays, review

Well, for all you Valentine’s Day lovers, here’s a post about a heartwarming story: Disney’s 50th animated feature film (no seriously, it is their 50th. I know, I thought it’d be higher than that!), Tangled. Now I know I’m more of a traditional animated-by-hand kind of guy, I don’t know any anime nut who isn’t, but I still thought it was a nice story, even though the scene where the ruffians in the oddly-named tavern sing a honky-tonk song seemed a little strange. Maybe I’m just too used to the way ruffians in a bar usually act, with fists and whatever.

Anyway, I was watching the film because it’s Valentine’s Day this week and all week my residence hall is doing Valentine’s-related activitiies. Tonight was movie night, and because no normal guy would want to watch your regular collection of chick flicks like The Notebook or Dear John, the activity board chose the movie being reviewed. I was a little skeptical about the film, for my own reasons, but my sisters loved it, so I thought I’d give it a try. Turns out, I was actually touched, and even was held in suspense near the end. Disney, you did yourself a fine job with this film.

Now I’d like to introduce the rating system that I’ll be using from now on when I do reviews. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Tangled a 4.5.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.

Winter Quarter Half-Time Report

Posted: February 7, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Uncategorized
Tags: college life, editing, midterms, Super Bowl

No, the title of this post is not a reference to the Super Bowl. You’ll probably be disappointed to know that I am not a fan of sports and only watched a small part of the Super Bowl just so I could be social with the other tenants of my building.

Anyway, to the point of the post: I just got out of the last of my midterms, so the quarter is officially halfway done. Another four weeks and I’ll be worrying about finals! Yippee! My tests were okay, I think I did especially well on my History exam. The English exam was difficult though because it involved a lot of poetry and as you probably realized, I’m mostly a fiction kind of guy. Anyway, I’ll keep working hard.

Oh, and speaking of fiction, I’m still giving Reborn City another edit, but what I’ve done so far is pretty good. I think that maybe after this edit I’ll be ready to find an agent. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best, okay?

In the meantime, I’ll try and get some editing done after this post. Bye!

A Novel Idea: EUGO’s workshop for tomorrow’s novelists

Posted: January 26, 2012 in ideas, Novel, Progress Report

On Monday I went to a meeting held by the English Undergraduate Organization, or EUGO. The meeting was for those who wanted to write novels, who were writing novels, or had written novels and were unsure of what to do next (I think I fit into all of these categories, what do you think?). Two staff members from the English department, each with a couple of novels under their belts, were there to talk about their experiences and give feedback and answer questions for those of us who wanted to write novels.

That meeting was very informative and I learned several things: one was that the standard route was no longer publishing short stories before publishing novels, especially in the age of the Internet, although it does help to have a foundation so that agents and publishers can at least tell that you aren’t just some obscure wannabe. I also had an idea for Reborn City: for a while I’d been bugged by my heroine’s motivation in joining a gang, about how it just didn’t seem a realistic reason to join. However I had an epiphany at the meeting and decided to change her motive for joining the gang. Just like that the story seems so much better, and I’ve only edited a single chapter so far!

Anyway, I think after this draft Reborn City will seem that much cooler. Perhaps I might even be able to find an interested agent. I’ll let you know.

If you happen to go to my university and are interested in EUGO (and you should be, even if you just minor in English), go to their website at https://english.osu.edu/undergrad-studies/organizations-activities/eugo

All for now. Bye

SOPA & PIPA Bills: My Own Opinion

Posted: January 20, 2012 in Politics and Leadership

As far as I know, I’m the only person around who actally thinks the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act are good bills. Whenever it’s brought up (and it’s brought up in the strangest places, such as my British literature class), people look at me like I’m crazy. Am I crazy, or are the bills just misunderstood?

Both bills aim to curb the amount of illegal downloading and trafficking of copyrighted propety, particularly that of foreign websites. However, opponents fear that the bills, if made into law, will give the State Department too much power and lead to the censoring of online speech. If you actually look at the text of the bills though, the State Department only has the power to handle websites that facilitate illegal downloads and the like. So as long as you aren’t infringing on copyright laws on the Internet, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

PS I sent off “The Street Urchin’s Gift” yesterday. Let’s hope it finds a good home at a nice magazine.

Update: The Street Urchin’s Gift

Posted: January 17, 2012 in short story

Well, I’ve been working on it for several weeks, but it looks like I’ve finally completed the final draft of The Street Urchin’s Gift, a short story that takes place in Victorian England and revolves around a young boy and the mysterious box he recieves. This story took a lot of research to do and I struggled over whether to have an ambiguous ending or to have a very dark, fleshed-out ending. In the end, on the counseling of a friend, I went with the fleshed-out ending. Now all I have to do is find a publication who’ll want to publish it. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Oh, and the weather around campus has been crazy. Snow, rain, sun, heat, cold, it doesn’t stay consistent. It’s like God wants to annoy us all for the heck of it.

Actually, that’s probably the case.

Winter Quarter 2012

Posted: January 12, 2012 in Living and Life, short story

Well, I’m working hard. That’s pretty much it. I’m taking four classes and they’re not exactly the picture of easiness, especially my Linguistics course (that last one counts as my math requirement, believe it or not!). I’m also working two days out of the week, and also trying to have a life (which for me basically involves conversations with friends, reading a multitude of books, and watching different shows on TV. I don’t do the drinking-partying scene, though I’m sure I’d be popular there).

I’m also still working on that short story from last quarter/year. I’m still trying to work on whether to have an ambiguous or flesh out a real creepy one. If I do the former, then the story will be more literary than horror but will have plenty of choices of places to be published. If I do the latter, then I’ll have to make a rather violent ending and try and find a horror magazine that would go for this sort of story. Thankfully I’m working with a friend who’s been giving me excellent feedback. Perhaps I’ll be able to get this thing published with his help.

I’ll keep you posted on how this quarter and my writing goes. Wish me luck!

It’s 2012! Happy New Year!

Posted: January 1, 2012 in Living and Life

Well, 2011 has come and gone. In my humble opinion, it’s been a pretty good year. Our economy has even improved a little. And now it’s 2012, I’d like to share my new year’s resolutions: one is to improve my writing and strive to get more short stories and possibly even a novel published. My second resolution is to make more friends and just to control my sometimes wild behavior.

Also, I’d like to say one thing: I don’t believe the world will end in 2012. Not by earthquake, fire, water, natural, supernatural, angelic, demonic, bacterial, viral, vampiric, or zombified means. However, God forbid that the world ends, I’m guessing by zombies, my sister Maya’s bad gas (LOL), or the wrong candidate getting the presidency. I’m not saying who on that last one, because I have no idea what my readers’ political leanings are. However, if you want to post who you think is the wrong candidate in a comment, I’d love to see what you say.

Happy New Year, and have a nice day.

Northeastern University

Posted: December 16, 2011 in Living and Life

My sister (not the one having the bat mitzvah this weekend) has just recieved her first college acceptance! What’s more, it’s her dream school, and it looks like they’ve given her a merit scholarship to boot! Pretty amazing right there.

Now she’s in a daze, looking at the website, finding out the university has given her an email address already, seeing all that is possible. She reminds me of me when I was just getting accepted to colleges and everything was a strange and wild process full of wonder. I feel so proud of her! Congratulations, Adi, and I know wherever you end up going (though for your sake, I hope it’s Northeastern), you’ll do amazing.

I Had It All Along?

Posted: December 15, 2011 in ideas

Okay, remember how I wrote a couple of posts back that I was researching a new short story, but I had to do some research on it? And then I further elaborated that the research was really obscure? So obscure, that I had to email people in England about it? Well, funny story about that:

Last night I was in the basement at my dad’s place, doing the laundry and thinking about the research and how it seemed almost impossible that I’d be able to find what I was looking for, it was so obscure! And then I had a thought: a while back I bought the entire first season of an anime taking place in Victorian England. The box set came with a small little booklet that contained all sorts of information about Victorian England to further elaborate the story in the anime. My story takes place in Victorian England, so perhaps the booklet contains the information I’m looking for?

Yes, it did! Turns out I had the info I needed under my nose the whole time, and there it was! Talk about embarassing! This happen to any of you? Let me know!

This Coming Weekend (Dec. 16-18)

Posted: December 15, 2011 in Living and Life

Well, life’s been good. I finished my first term at school (with a 3.76 GPA), I’m employed and able to make a little money, and the holidays are coming! Yay Hannukah! (What? Is there something wrong with yelling out the holiday you celebrate? Christians do it all the time)

Now, as for the true reason behind this post: I’ve got a huge weekend starting tomorrow. First, and taking up most of the weekend, is my younger sister’s bat mitzvah (coming-of-age ceremony in Judaism celebrated in the teen years, for all of you who don’t know a lot about Judaism). It’s a big thing and I’m even reading Torah in honor of it. After the Sabbath we’ll have a big party (it’s pretty much standard in America these days to hire a DJ and have a party after a bar/bat mitzvah), during which I’ll dance as I usually dance, which will lead my sisters (yes, that’s right, sisters) to beg me to stop, which I won’t do.

After the bat mitzvah, my dad’s family will be having an early Hannukah party, during which we’ll exchange gifts and I’ll get razzed because of the school I go to (most of my dad’s family went to U of M, darn Michigan fans!). After the party is over, I’ll be heading to campus to stay overnight. Why you ask? I’ll tell you: Tran-Siberian Orchestra! The bus route to the concert runs right through campus, so I’ll stay overnight after the concert. I’m looking forward to the concert, it’s supposed to have a killer laser-light show!

What happens after that, I don’t know. I may go to the gym, or I’ll go see Sherlock Holmes, or both! All I know is, I’ve got a busy weekend up ahead and I’m looking so forward to it! Shabbat Shalom and good luck, Maya! I know you’ll do amazing on Shabbas!