Posts Tagged ‘college life’

Now I’m On Twitter

Posted: January 11, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , , , ,
8

If the me of a year ago knew what I was doing these days, he may have a heart attack. Or possibly slap his future self. Or some combination of that.

Yes I, Rami Ungar, resistant to new technology and social media crazes, have gotten a Twitter. Why? For the same reason I got a Facebook: to spread my writing to those who may not be on this blog but may be on other social media websites. This twitter account of mine, @RamiUngartheWriter, will focus exclusively on my writing. Already I’ve published a couple of tweets advertising my upcoming collection The Quiet Game: Five Tales To Chill Your Bones. I’m very excited and I hope I gain a followship soon. You’re welcome to follow me if you like. Just know this: I’ve got a scary picture as my profile pic and it may cause some nightmares.

And no, it’s not of my face. Much scarier than that.

Also, I don’t know if any of my blog followers got a notification (do they send notifications for pages?), but I set up a new page that lists my upcoming books. Which means of course at this point only The Quiet Game is on that list, without even a picture, but I plan to rectify that soon. Check it out if you like, and have a great weekend.

Done Researching, So Onto The Fifth Short Story

Posted: January 7, 2013 in Progress Report, Scary Stuff, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
4

Today was my first day of class in the new semester, but I only have the one class on Mondays, and then the rest of the day I’m free. So I got my homework done, ran a few errands, put a load of laundry through, and spent the rest of the day doing research for that fifth and final short story for the collection I’ve been writing. The research was specificially about Native American cultures and their belief systems. I focused mainly on the belief systems of the Apache, Mojave, and Navajo cultures, mainly because they are all in the same area, at least two of these tribes share a common ancestral tribe, and because a good amount of myths involving dogs, coyotes, and wolves come from those areas.

This story will be the one I planned involving a black dog spirit. Black dogs, as you may guess, are symbols of death and destruction and usually derive from the myth of Cerberus in Greco-Roman mythology. Of course, the Native Americans probably only first encountered Cerberus in classrooms where they learned the myths of the Greeks, but the fact that they have their own myths involving black dogs, wolves, and coyotes points to how large a role these creatures played in their belief systems. Either that, or Jung was really onto something.

I also learned quite a bit on the Navajo belief of Hozho, or beauty, harmony, balance, and health. Many ceremonies in Navajo culture are meant to restore this in someone who is feeling ill, and there are a variety of ceremonies, chants, and methods to heal someone who is suffering from any number of maladies. If you ask me, Hozho sounds like a very Zen belief, so score another one for Jung.

Well, I’m going to get to work on this short story before dinner. Hopefully I’ll be able to get this all done by the end of the week, though with my school work and my job taking priority and it being the first week of the semester, anything could happen. Wish me luck.

Getting Ready For A New Workshop

Posted: January 6, 2013 in Living and Life, Progress Report, short story, Writing
Tags: , , , , ,
0

I signed up for another creative writing course this semester, though this one you have to apply and submit a portfolio to get in. The teacher was worried that I’d be unable to do well in the class because the focus of the class is literary fiction and genre fiction, which I prefer. But hey, some of my ideas straddle the border between literary and genre, so I might just survive.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to the first class. I volunteered to write a short story and submit it to the class to be workshopped on the first day. The short story I’m submitting is “Addict”, one of the short stories I wrote during winter vacation. “Addict”, for those of you who don’t know, is based on some of the experiences of a friend of mine who was addicted to sex and pornography, and I plan on adding it to a collection of short stories I hope to put out by the end of the semester.

“Addict” is literary enough that I can submit it to the class and have them take a look over it. Just earlier today, I decided to take one more look at it before I submit it. I’m hoping they like this story; I wrote it out in a day, and it’s rare for me to be able to write any short story that quickly with that sort of flow. Whether they like it or not, I think it has potential, but I’m glad I’m having somebody look at it beforehand, because then I get an unbiased opinion.

I’ll let you know what the class thinks when I’m done with the workshop. Hopefully I won’t have to do too much editing, though that’s usually easier than the writing.  At least I’ll get the workshop out of the way rather quickly, and on the plus side, I’ll be able to set the tone of the class for a bit with this short story.

All for now. Blog on you later.

2012 in Review

Posted: December 31, 2012 in Living and Life
Tags: , , ,
0

Awfully big, isn’t it?

Like a lot of people, I got my report from WordPress on how I did this past year. Let’s just say I got a lot of views, and a lot of comments. My highest grossing article was–you guessed it–my review of The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice, which got 580 views on July 6th, 2012. My highest commenter was my friend Matt Williams with 57 comments, followed by my Uncle Joel with 28 comments. Of the 99 countries that had people visiting my blog, most of my views came from the United States, with Canada and England close behind. And my biggest referrer was Facebook, specifically Anne Rice’s Facebook (I’ll be forever grateful to her for that little bit of recognition).

But besides blogging, I did a bunch of other stuff; I finished my first year of college and finished my first semester of college (OSU just switched to semesters, in case you didn’t know); decided to self-publish; had two short stories published, with a third in June; wrote a ton; finished a novel in six months; and a whole bunch of other things.

I’m hoping for some good stuff next year as well. I hope to publish a collection or novel soon; possibly be Freshly Pressed; more comments and followers; and some other stuff I’m not going to list here.

Thanks for a great year, and I hope to update you with a whole bunch of other great stuff soon.

Happy New Year,

Rami Ungar the Writer

Forgiving A Bully For Old Hurts

Posted: December 23, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
Tags: , ,
0

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.

Autumn Semester 2012: The Wrap-Up

Posted: December 18, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report
Tags: ,
0

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.

Presenting My History Project

Posted: December 6, 2012 in Living and Life
Tags: , ,
0
Me next to my project; I'm not wearing my glasses because they were still getting used to the lack of sunlight. How do you like my poster?

Me next to my project; I’m not wearing my glasses because they were still getting used to the lack of sunlight. How do you like my project?

Today, my history class met one last time to show our final projects gallery-style. The subject of my history class was an overview of the Historical Studies discipline, which involves the history of history (yes, that does exist); how history is gathered; how we classify different types of history; and other fun and interesting topics for historians and History majors to talk about. For our final project, each of us had to demonstrate the research and detective skills we were supposed to have developed over the past semester, and create our own poster detailing a subject of our choosing. I chose to do the history of Holocaust awareness in America, since the Holocaust is the focus of my History major, and I used a book by Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life, as my main source of information.

My project went very well; I learned a lot and put it all into an interesting and colorful tri-fold that looked at the Holocaust in America from 1945 to now, and how the Holocaust was at first ignored in the US before gaining prominence in the sixties and becoming a part of our culture in the latter years of the twentieth century. There were also some other projects that were pretty interesting: several posters involved the second World War, including Ohio’s contribution to the war effort, the experiences of soldiers who participated in D-Day, and the US propaganda for the war effort. One guy did the history of the jazz industry here in Columbus (I didn’t know Columbus even had a jazz industry), while one girl looked at the founding of Israel from the perspective of Israeli-Arab relations of the times. One girl looked at the growth of Columbus over the years, and another guy did the history of white-tailed deer in Ohio. Each project though, was well-researched and the student put a lot of effort into their project’s presentation, so they all definitely deserve A’s.

Now, my teacher had us all go around and grade our projects from 1-5, with 5 being a bad grade and 1 being an awesome grade (we also had some guests who helped in the grading). The person(s) with the best grades will recieve a prize or two, so here’s hoping people liked my project. We also have to turn in a 5-page paper on our research subjects. Since I didn’t want to just rehash what I put on my tri-fold, I asked my teacher if I could do the problems associated with teaching the Holocaust in public schools (yes, such problems exist). He said yes, so I’m in the middle of working on a kick-ass paper. I’m about 2 1/2 pages in, so hopefully I’ll be done by Monday, when the report is due.

So to Dr. Kobo and my classmates, thanks for an interesting semester. Let’s do well in the future and make our own history. Good luck to you all.

NaNoWriMo’s Over Now

Posted: December 1, 2012 in Living and Life, Progress Report, Writing
Tags: , , ,
2

It’s December 1st, so that means National Novel Writing Month is over. I was in it, then I was out, and then I was in again. I got over 30,000 words written of Snake written, which is not bad at all, especially when you consider all the breaks I had to take for class work and for my part-time job. But hey, I think next year I could make 50k. Who knows?

In the meantime, I’ll work on finishing Snake and publishing Reborn City; I’ll keep my grades up and do well at work; I’ll work on several short stories after Snake is finished; I’ll work on losing some unwanted weight I’ve accumulated over the semester; and I’ll just try to be a better person, I guess. Also, National Short Story Month is in May, about six months from now, so that’s something to look forward to.

And to the people who participated in NaNoWriMo, whether you reached your goal or not, congratulations and I hope you get 50k next year! Let’s work hard as writers and do our best.

My Last Creative Writing Class

Posted: November 30, 2012 in Living and Life, Writing
Tags: , , , ,
2

Well today we had our last meeting in my English 2265 class, Introduction to Creative Fiction. I don’t think it’ll surprise that many people, but I did very well in this class. Still, it could be difficult at times, especially since I had to write a literary short story with only genre elements. That was rough. Luckily the second draft went very well, so I think that one I could potentially get published.

Well, we did our final critiques and revision exercises in class, someone passed around candy, we filled out some papers meant to grade the teacher (God I love that), and somehow at the end I managed to convince the entire class to join me in a singing of “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley. It was pretty funny, actually. After the class I had to listen to that song on my iPod.

I also turned in my final portfolio for the class, which included my initial draft of Doll’s Game, the revision exercise I had to turn in and read to the class, the global revision (or as I call it, the rewrite) and an essay where I went over how I incorporated the material from the critique session into my short story. I think I’m one of the person to turn their portfolio in, so hopefully my teacher will get to it first. I really would like that to be the case, because I want to send Doll’s Game (or as I renamed it, Animal Child) to a certain new magazine I’ve heard about.

Here’s to a good grade. Have a great weekend.

A Discussion on Disney

Posted: November 29, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections
Tags: , , , ,
14

This evening at my dorm, we had a program about how Disney might’ve affected our worldviews in a number of ways when we were children. The discussion wasn’t so much to bash Disney as an evil organization that brainwashes children (though that might actually be the case, for all I know), but so much to sit back and tak as educated adults about how Disney may have incorporated certain things into their works, willingly or unwillingly, that changed our outlooks on life. The discussion went through all sorts of topics, from the princess mentality (you saw that coming), sexuality, the villains all are ugly and wearing black, the good looks of the main characters and the sometimes stereotypical ugliness of the villains and minor characters, the differences between men with power and women with power, and it encompassed all sorts of works, from the early Disney films that were obviously about women in traditional roles and love at first sight, to Disney’s current attempts to be more modern and accepting at the expense of the princess of Brave being called a lesbian and the popular TV show Once Upon a Time, which is owned by Disney but takes it old classics and turns them upside down in an interesting fashion.

What we discussed was really interesting and I learned a lot more than I thought I would, and I think everyone else feels the same. Heck, we brought up major criticisms of Aladdin involving stereotypes and mishmashed cultures, and that’s something I haven’t thought about. If you go back and look at some of these old films, you may find yourself seeing things you didn’t see as a kid (I went to Youtube to look at some songs brought up at the discussion, and Good Lord, there were lyrics with more significance than I remember).

Oh, and for those of you wondering how much Disney may have affected me (and consequently my writing), you don’t have to worry; when I first saw those films, I was at an age where I had pretty pictures and sounds to occupy me. I didn’t absorb much beyond that. It wasn’t until I was older that I started absorbing stuff from what I watched, and by then I’d moved onto animes like Sailor Moon and Ronin Warriors. Trust me, it showed in my early writing: when I was ten I tried writing a pirate novel, and a princess ended up joining the crew after they boarded her ship (why she was on the ship or what happened to the crew of said ship or why she joined the pirate crew as an alternative to a dungeon on a magic island or why she was automatically made first mate, I never explained, but I was 10, so go figure), and for a while she was only interested in being a good first mate. Romance didn’t develop till later (or it would have; I never finished that story to tell you the truth).

What about you? Has Disney films affected you in any way?

That includes wondering if your kids should be watching this sort of stuff with all the themes you’re noticing in the storyline and animation, by the way.

Oh, and who in the discussion group said that in the Aladdin song “Arabian nights” there was a lyric about getting ears cut off for ugly faces? I looked, but it’s not in the official movie. It’s in another version though. Look:

Older Entries
Newer Entries