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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Mark Bukovec" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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01:02 pm
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Is it time to be an android or a man?
It's the clown costume that makes this great.
Current Music: Misfits - We Are 138
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12:00 am
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This year's pumpkin
Based on clip art I modified to create a pattern:
Tags: pumpkin
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11:45 pm
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Clarion West - Week 1
It's like that Rodney Dangerfield movie where he goes back to school with his son. Co-starring the ghost of Sally Kellerman. No, wait. That was a different movie. She's corporeal in this one. I don't get to be Rodney. I get to be Rodney's son. You know, the kid who goes around being embarassed that his dad is acting up as the lovable, grande-cajones jefe. I'm limited to straight-man emoting. Scrunchy-faced. Arms akimbo. Such hijinks. I complain. A lot. AND IT GETS TO RODNEY. That's when I've crossed the line. I realize Dad's OK. We learn something that day. Rodney gets to hump Sally. I think I get my own girl, but nobody cares about my character. Roll credits to "Rapping Rodney".
My favorite bullshit opening gambit in fiction writing is the extended description that doubles as metaphor. I'll try to avoid it. Like a junkie avoids introspection.
Asking questions is paramount to writing. Alcohol helps in this regard.
I'm weak-willed when it comes to turning down an opportunity to drink or eat.
I enjoyed the party last night until I didn't anymore. Fatigue set in, so I failed in my mission to spend the party interacting with the local scene. I retreated to the student circle on the back porch. We smoked cloves and created utopian worlds that conformed to our ideas of fun. Or maybe I'm thinking of a different party.
I got 8 hours of sleep and felt great. Just as I'm the only person who goes to a con to get more sleep, I seem to be doing the same at Clarion.
I have a huge advantage in that I can reenter my old life when I want to. The generosity of my family overwhelms me.
The instruction is damn good, but it's all in what you do with it, so there's no telling yet what good this is doing me. Plenty of duffers carry titanium drivers in their bags.
Tags: clarion west
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07:45 am
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Goals
I'm a goal-oriented person. I believe people become what they envision themselves to be. I work hard at planning the best future for myself.
I don't always reach my goals. I had planned to finish a draft of my novel before the baby arrived. Right now I'm halfway through. Half a manuscript is better than none (the perpetual "I've got this great idea for a book ...").
I've been thinking about what my goals for the Clarion West workshop are. My primary goal is to have a three-year writing plan. I find three years is a "workable" time frame for planning daily tasks against lifetime goals.
Also, three years from now all my kids will be in school, at which point I'll no longer be a full-time parent. Then I have to decide to what degree I'll focus my energies on writing and whether I'll "get a job" (one that actually pays money).
I'm looking for avenues to explore: subject matter, genre, technique, long vs. short form, etc. What are you doing and why are you doing it?
I'm glad I missed my last fiction class. Since we're coming to the end, students are starting to get touchy about their progress. They wonder why their writing hasn't gotten better. They're lashing out at the critiques, questioning their usefulness. Such displays make me cringe--like witnessing adult temper tantrums.
All of this is the unhappy realization that no one can tell you how to write. You have to figure it out for yourself.
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07:00 am
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Toddler schadenfreude
I think we've become the parents that other parents at pre-school look at and think "We're busy, but not as busy as they are". All my wife I had have left to look to in this regard is a woman at Nicky's swim lesson who we call "Pool Mom", who has four boys. Pool Mom still has time to hit the gym, though, because she looks fabulous for a woman who's gone through that many pregnancies.
On Wednesday our fiction class is giving readings at the University Bookstore. Since I'll have a whopping 8 minutes at the microphone, it's going to be a challenge to find a passage from my manuscript that will stand on its own without a boring preamble about context ("It's important to know that leprechauns are used as currency in my milieu").
The baby is a total sweetheart. I <3 Zack.
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10:10 am
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Zack Tomsen Bukovec
Born May 11 @ 10:38 PM
8 lbs, 12 oz
21" (!) long
Mother and baby are doing great. We didn't have to induce!
Current Music: Adam and the Ants - Ants Invasion
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08:15 am
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The Second Annual Report
Long time, no hear. I've been accepted into this year's class at Clarion West, which is a six-week workshop for speculative fiction writers. I've added a bunch of my new classmates to foster a get-to-know-you dealie.
I'm really excited about the workshop. The reason I'm able to do this is: 1) it's in Seattle, which means I'm not separated from my family for a full six weeks, and 2) it coincides with MLTB's maternity leave.
Which leads to the imminent arrival of my third son, Zack. This is week 38. Nick was born at 37 weeks and Alex at 38. I had originally predicted Cinco de Mayo, but it may happen sooner.
Welcome to new friends, hello again to the old ones.
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12:10 am
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Fun malapropism
Squeezed like a vice.
Had to occur to someone, somewhere before.
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09:45 am
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Something quite peculiar
It occurred to me when I was on my run this morning that the Church's "Under the Milky Way Tonight" and the Cure's "Lovesong" are basically the same song. The guitar chords and bass lines are remarkably similar.
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01:02 am
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Observations (out of context)
1) Everyone used to smoke. Now everyone plays with their cell phones.
2) Despite derivative remakes, Japanese horror films are not superior to American ones.
3) The song remains the same, but you, my friend, are older.
Current Music: Die Kreuzen -- Gone Away
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02:15 pm
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The one and only dominator
There's a certain kind of song that, when it comes on, everyone thinks it's about them. Here's my top three for those songs:
1) "Where Eagles Dare", Misfits. My girlfriend Jen used to complain that every guy thinks this song is about him. Watch guys when this song comes on---every one of them will sing along to the "I ain't no goddamn son-of-a-bitch. You better think about it, baby" part, often pointing at the women they're with when doing it.
2) "The One and Only Dominator". I don't know who does this song. It was an early techno song from back around 1990. The only lyrics are "I am the one and only dominator", so I guess that's what it's called. My girlfriend Ellen refused to dance to this song because she said when it came on everyone thought they were the one and only dominator. I hadn't noticed it, but it was true. Everyone on the dance floor got haughty looks and posed and preened. She ruined the song for me, because, until then, I thought I was the one and only dominator.
3) "I Walk the Line", Alien Sex Fiend. Actually, by the time this comes on, you're walking the line between drunk and drunker.
Feel free to comments with additions to this list.
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02:45 pm
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Safety manager
I got a flyer addessed to me as the "Safety Manager" of my company. Which, I guess, I am, seeing how spend a good part of my day making sure Alex doesn't ingest Pine-Sol. The flyer was for welding certification classes.
My grandfather was a welder, and, from what I'm told, quite a good one. I have a hard time picturing him actually holding down a job. This was a man whose big achievement of the day was moving from the recliner to the dinner table.
Maybe it runs in the genes, like alcoholism. I have used an oxy-acetylene torch. Working with fire satisfies some primal need, which is why I barbeque, even in sketchy weather.
I will become a journeyman welder, my tanks trailing behind me. I'll go from town to town brazing, joining, and, when need be, cutting. But for the love of a good woman, my life would be the best a man could expect. Or something like that.
Current Music: Shellac - The Admiral
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04:00 pm
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Battlestar Galactica
OK, I'm a little late to this, but the new Battlestar Galactica is a good show. I never gave it a chance because: 1) the original series sucked, and 2) it's on the same network that produced Farscape.
I love how they did a huge rewrite of the original series. But I do kinda miss those corny "space" words they had for normal words: "centons" for "minutes", etc. Unfortunately, they stuck with "frak" for "fuck". Yuck.
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04:45 pm
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Cheap A/C
I went to go see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at the Crest last night. The Crest is the whole way up in Shoreline, but it rules. They show films that were released around 6 months ago and still aren't on DVD for $3. I hit the 7-ll right across the street and stuffed my cargo shorts with candy.
My only exposure to Hitchhiker's Guide was the British TV version they'd occaisionally run on PBS when I was in high school. That version was pretty funny. Or maybe it wasn't. I recently watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the first time in 20 years and I didn't laugh much at all. I got really tired of all the "zany" humor (humour?). Maybe I had too many computer geeks quote all the good bits to me too much. Hitchhiker's Guide seems to appeal to the same crowd, so that's why I never read the books.
So I can't comment much on how "faithful" it was to the original, but I think such discussion is pointless becuase the written word and cinema are two entirely different media.
I laughed at one line: "I'm British. I know how to queue." The rest was all funny-nose-and-glasses crap. To think how much money and time went into this. Sad. However, paying $3 for 2 hours of A/C was worth it.
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03:19 pm
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The webs of the rising sun
I've been running to Mercer Island for the past few weeks, and have recently switched to a 5:30 AM running time. My only other choice would be to run at 5:30 PM, which is broiling this time of year.
I've noticed something I never saw before. The I-90 bridge is crawling with spiders. When the sun pops over the Cascades and glints off the lake, you can see the outlines of their webs that you'd normally miss.
When you think of it, it's a great place to be a spider. The wind from the north side of the lake brings in flying prey. The webs are stacked up like arachnid condos. It's a lot like net fishing. Those spiders have it made.
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03:02 pm
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Shock the pickle
Went to go see Michael Swanwick read at the Science Fiction Museum on Tuesday night. A while back, I said in these pages that I didn't understand why he wasn't a more popular writer. Well, now I think I know why. I read The Iron Dragon's Daughter and Jack Faust since then, and they suffer from similar problems. Swanwick is quite good at the initial attention grabber, but things bog down in the middle. I found myself skimming to the end. Don't get me wrong--he's got serious chops, but I'll hold everything he writes up against Stations of the Tide.
I hadn't read his short fiction. He read a story about humans colonizing a giant grasshopper. It suffered from the usual problems that a story that takes a far-fetched premise and runs with it does, in that the premise overwhelms the human story. Also, the last line was a total clunker: "I am Death, and this is my story." Bleah. To think they acutally charged $4 at the door for this.
The second story was a short-short, or "flash" story. This was the best part of the reading. He used a prop, which was a pickle sunk into two metal posts with a wire running to the posts. When he plugged it in, one end of the pickle glowed a bright yellow. Has to do with the salts from the brine containing suspeded sodium atoms reaching a higher electrovalent (is that the word I want?) state when absorbing electromagnetic energy and emitting light when falling back the normal state. I didn't hear much he said, because I was too busy watching the glowing pickle.
Then the part I hate came, which is the Q&A. I wasn't conveniently located near an exit to slip out unnoticed. A lot of the crowd were students and people associated with the current Clarion West class, so the whole affair had sticky feel of knowing camraderie. I didn't stay around to chat.
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09:45 pm
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Dorks in the 'hood
So after a day of weeding, pruning, shoveling, and extreme childcare, I was damn thirsty. I walked down the hill to the Shell station to get something to drink.
I'm usually wary when I get a block from Rainier, because there's a big vacant lot where drunks like to lie around and piss themselves. Instead I see a couple of Viets. On the opposite corner, there is a pho restaurant with a bar in the rear that is a big Viet hangout. It was even more so back when it was a pool hall. Every unemployed Viet male sponging off his mom whiled away the hours there.
One of the guys is kind of old to be hanging out. He's got a buzzed head and, if not for his pastel shirt and khaki shorts, he could pass for a monk. The other guy is taller, a lot younger, and jug-eared. They both have 64-oz cups from the Shell station.
They don't look drunk though. They're bobbing their heads and looking around a lot, so I know they're up to something. Then some POS Cutlass Cierra with rims worth more than the car itself booms by. These guys get all fidgety, craning their necks, but nothing happens.
I see them in the parking lot of the Shell station after I got something drink doing the same thing. Now I'm thinking they were looking to buy drugs, but didn't really know how. I should have come back with a baggie of flour and sold them the good shit. Peace out!
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09:30 pm
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Mr. Turtle's terrarium
So the kids' sandbox, which is this big plastic turtle with a shell cover, really got funky over the winter. The sand is covered with all kinds of neat lichens and mosses, like the landscape of an alien planet. However, I'd like to put the sandbox back in use and the dog run needed more sand, so I dug it up.
Poor lichens, their Level 0 attacks useless against the onslaught of the shovel. The only power that wet sand has is Hasten Oxidation of Ferrous Materials, but that will take too long to be any use to them. The few that survive find themselves in a new land, drier, but perhaps they could make a home of it?
Morning brings a deluge of dog piss. This new world cares naught for us. Who will tell our mossy stories? We are lost to the sands of time.
That would make a better War of the Worlds then Tom Cruise running around saving some kid from peril.
Current Music: Bad Brains - The Big Takeover
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01:00 am
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Those guys were the greatest band ever
My cable was out yesterday, so I pretty much ceased to exist. However, it did come back up in time for Tivo to tape something called Punk: Attitude. Overall, it wasn't such a bad retrospective of punk. The best part was seeing all these geezers like Siouxsie Sioux and Marco Pirroni (no Adam Ant, though) in their all their bloatedness.
Too much Sex Pistols. Why bother? They're thoroughly documented in a bunch of films. Too much 1977 for me in general. Really, what is there to say about the Ramones that hasn't been said? I was 9 years old then. They glossed over 80s punk, which was a real shame. They had one Fugazi clip and they interviewed Agnostic Front. Not a bad choice for 80s hardcore, I guess. They had the sound.
The parts I really hated were guys like Glen Branca saying bands like DNA were so important. Nobody listens to DNA. Or Suicide. It's one thing when you're a college DJ and you pick something obscure or painful to listen to as your mark of coolnees, but get over it already. It's like when I thought Cabaret Voltaire was really great in high school, then I grew up and realized they were boring. Or I bought Einsturzende Neubauten records just so I could say Einsturzende Neubauten when trying to pick up goth chicks, which I didn't learn to pronounce right for 10 years, anyway. OK, Halber Mensch is pretty good, but my point is made. I was a teenage poseur. That is my "punk attitude".
Current Music: Government Issue - Another Day
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12:45 am
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Best day ever
I took Nicky to ride Thomas the Tank Engine at the Snoqualmie Train Museum. Well, it wasn't really Thomas, but they had a fake engine, which was really a caboose, done up to look like Thomas.
If you aren't hip to the preschool set, you have no idea what I'm talking about. If you are, then you know what a commercial juggernaut Thomas trains are. Don't try to fight it. Just fork over your credit card and buy everything Thomas. Well, I managed to avoid it because the onsite markup for Thomas gear was ridiculous. I did buy a great t-shirt for Nicky, though.
I also got to meet Sir Topham Hat. It wasn't just a guy dressed like him, either, but more of a mascot-looking guy all puffed out. Unfortunately, he didn't talk, or I would've hit him up for a job. Nicky was a little spooked by him and I couldn't get him to stand closer than 5 feet away from him.
Nicky is really great to be around. He's imaginative, empathetic, and polite. I didn't want to be anywhere else.
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