The Scent

A trip to Raleigh the weekend that passed before the latter took us to a rose garden. The perfume scent the air a-buzz with the promise of flowernscesters yet to come while the wild smell among the petals dwarfed the contrived supercenter stinks in their numbers. The fragrances ran the gambit; from lucid aromas that wafted the pallet in phantasmic bouquets of silken fruit & sugars to warmongering aromatic armies that attacked the nostrils with the zeal of a spongebath du Rose Noir. It was a beautiful place, more roses than I have ever seen in one garden. Walking through the isles and looking deep into the folded centers of the painted petals I came across my name being called from across the way. An old friend came walking in suprise to greet me as she waded through the rows keeping eyes on her neice, waiting for her bridal shower to start. A change meeting, the second of that trip. 


Experimenting with macro flowerography, I find that it is essentially difficult to capture the insects that explore the rosey crevasses; eyes are out of focus, or the lure of sweeter pastures sends the pollinators to flight, missing just the perfect shot. Every now and again something good will arise out of the many, but even still the magnitude of the magnification makes for a hard sell.

 

Persistance, Quantity, and Time will tell the tale of focus, I'm sure. 

Lavender

I think finally spring has sprung its trap on winter's rebellious advances, the allies are winning and the twisted branches of Grandfather Frost are melting once again and finally into the histories. Taking advantage of the change in seasons is something I keep high on the to-do list and such as led me to some wonderful hikes, lounges, and climbingings among the weather. 


There is much that I want to accomplish, there is a groove I want to fall into for the summer. AdWords Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Yoga, Italian. Chinese, Photography, Climbing, Camping, and a few other projects. With any luck the groove will be wide enough for me to fall among and I'll come out of the other side with a tote-full. 

The meantime exposes a lust for good beer, homemade breads, networking, and floating along the river of life... moving with it seems to work just about as good as anything when trying to get along. I am blessed to be seemingly reflectant of stress, drama, and idiocracy; life becomes easier when sleep comes quickly and idle thoughts pour over creation, exploration, and flavor rather than what might could would have been hence thusly. Relax.

Irritatingly unknown spider munching a fly in its casbah

Per the photo show I am having on the 3rd of next month I have branched out and come to meet some good people in the photo scene. For the mere price of an hour drive, Melise and I spent 8 hours with George and Betty, front runners of the Ashe County Camera Club (http://ashecameraclub.com/?page_id=1605).


We spoke of printing, photo shows, delicious morel mushrooms, music, and food. It was a wonderful evening filled with printing, conversation, and excitement. For free I recieved 10 prints of various sizes on amazing paper. I am getting them mounted and framed this week in preparation. Quite the costly endeavor, my original hope of 20-25 photos for the show may dwindle down to about 15, framing is expensive. Regardless, I look forward to the expereince and the further showcase I will have at a business here in  Boone very shortly indeed. 

Melise is doing well, preparing for her last set of exams tomorrow before the summer begins. Her best friend and roommate dates a mutual friend of ours. This evening he and I went shopping in preparation for tomorrow, a night of cooking, wine, and cheeses for the ladies and their triumphant & honorable push through the last bits of the semester. Should be a good time. 


Melise and I are doing well, enjoying eachother's company, and planning many experiences for the summer, it should be a good one filled with new work opportunities, climbing, hiking, friends, good beer, great food, and beautiful weather. 

The new camera I have procured for myself per my last post is handling wonderfully. I have been using it constantly and found many a good use for it where my previous equipment fell slightly short. The Magnesium body is durable and full of notable functions; the capabilities are welcomed in their upgrade; the capacity appreciated.


In the world of music, I must not go another minute without first suggesting a few artists:


Ray Lamontange is a master of soul and spirit. I could, and often do, listen to this man's music for days on end. He is a true master of folk, poetry, and beauty. Please explore Ray Lamontange.


Joe Purdy is another great artist with several upon several songs that hit the sound. I recommend this guy for some soft and casual listening.




My dear jazz love is Norah Jones. Like Ray, I get lost in her pourings from time to time; smooth like homemade butter and just as genuine. Please enjoy.




I leave with a disappointed mind towards Mr. Obama's speech regarding Osama bin Laden. He played to vengence, retribiution, and closure too heavily and took liberties with the pain of those affected by war's loss. He should have said the following, 


"We killed Osama bin Laden, a plot of terror will nevermore come from his mind. But we are not out of the boiler yet, one leader gone is mearly one step closer to the dismantling and disruption of organizations such as Al Qaeda, but make not the mistake that this is victory. We must continue our quest against the wretched killers of our time and pursue with a vengeance all those that would aim to hinder the right of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Thank you, and good night.


He needs new speech writers, that statement he gave was crap. 


In closing I will say that I look forward to our next meeting, be it sooner, later, or tomorrow. Love to all, good night.

Marshed

Dawn, Dave, Melise

South Carolina was just about as good as I imagine a newly spring weekend could have mustered. Breaking away from the beautiful weather and trucking on back to Boone was hard for Melise and me, but the vacation's warmth lingered well enough to make it tolerable. We certainly missed a storm back here in North Carolina, apparently a tornnado or two ran amok over a 40 mile strip of the Peidmont and North Eastern flatlands. Not more than a drip spoiled our visit to Bluffton, we seemed to have picked a good couple of days to visit the coastal south east.

Dawn

It's always good to see family, especially when that family lives in a place substantially warmer than yourself. Good food adventures, Marsh Lunching, Sandbar Loitering, Dog Walking, and Picture Taking were among the endeavors undertaken while in SC, all very enjoyed. 

Molly

Molly, ever shy, was energized by her daily walk and sprinted in joyous exhilaration this was and that; sometimes too long a 'that', prompting a well meant fetching. The outside air and the grass between her pawtoes is a riveting pleasure on her doggy soul, I'm sure of it. 

I made a deal for a new camera, the Canon 50D. Not as well suited for coin photography as hoped, the deal was passed on to me and my equipment bag accepted an upgrade. Substantially more agressive, it will aide wonderfully in low light situations with its more fine tuned ISO capabilities (great for photos of music shows), shoots much faster (one full stop faster, great for shows and climbing), and has a good handful of very specific selections that I will spend a heck of a lot of time reviewing and practicing before I get it all right.

The Big Somethin' -- Boone Saloon April 7, 2011

Many of the operations are the same, but button configuration and interface and new settings are going to need researching. It's a good upgrade at a good deal with its included accoutrements, I look forward to the increased capability I will enjoy with this new body and lens. 


Melise and I had a great time. I am planning on heading down to the southern realm of NC during the 4th of July, sounds like it will be a good time.
 
The work in Boone begins again with Google AdWords, grooming keywords, researching new opportunities, and training another part of the team. We'll be using data from sales and customers in conjunction with advertising information and data to make things happen. Looking forward to the challenge and the experience, hopefully it turns out well. 

Spanish Moss

Other tasks on my to-do list include organizing and ordering prints for the upcoming show in Hendersonville. I have to get them mounted somehow and ready by June 1st. Coming along. I think I am going to have some photos in a couple more places around Boone.


Other than all else I am still climbing and trying to spend as much time outside as possible. The spring has come and, tame or treacherous, I believe the temperature has finally gotten off the escalator and is now walking amongst the flowers and foliage of Floor 2, Spring.

Words

Friend Austin on unnamed problem at secret
climbing spot.

Times are coming about. Not sure what times, but I suppose its safe to say that they're comin' 'round the bend. We'll start with climbing. As always its coming along quite nicely, lots of bouldering. As the season progresses and winter pretends to fade and then sneaks up with a frosted claw, each day yet brings closer to us in The High Country a sweet smell of spring. Today I got a fresh whiff of just cut grass, sweet and light. The mowers are abound and the days are longer, climbing routes is coming into focus. I have been working on technique and expanding my horizons, next weekend I am headed to the new river gorge for some epic climbing, and then I will be headed back for something called The New River Rendezvous; a climbing party-a-thon involving climbers from all over the east in a place that has rock conducive to all sorts of styles for the hardiest to the moderately lightest of climbers. Should be a blast. I am working on a series of night bouldering photos from the Boone area and hope to get them and an article published in a magazine. We'll see.

Dog out night bouldering

At work things have changed. I have moved positions and will be staying in Boone for another year. I will be handling the SEO (search engine optimization) and Google AdWords (Pay Per Click Advertising) accounts for about 6 companies. It's a daunting task for sure, but I'll be getting paid to learn and practice. I expect that I will come out a very marketable figure.... unless I get overwhelmed. I'm doing a lot of reading and studying, I should be able to wrap my mind around it all. I have a different office, and I am no longer working directly with the riff raff upsatairs, so I am able to get more done and really dive in. A new person will start monday to take over what I no longer will be primarily handling, the appointment and sales stats.

TED

There are some really good ideas flowing about the world. They're not always in your face or apparent, though you may be thinking along with them without even knowing it. The funny thing is, the most applicable and seemingly form changing ideas about our actions, communities, way of life, psyche, etc. are just brilliant moments of clarity in common sense. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy of profits tends to have a dissolving effect on collective benefit, on those ideas that, mutually beneficial, could really have a chance to make the forward progress that our world is hungering for.

"Good Ideas" are a dime a dozen on paper, so to speak, but I once read that a 'good idea' isn't a good idea until it works. I believe this and, amongst other ideas, have grown to understand why it annoys the crap out of me when I hear "communism is a good idea on paper" ... no, its not, it doesn't work, its a bad idea (not to mention a lame one). Good ideas have to work in the world as it is, not in some fictional, hypothetical, ideal world.

Someday I would like to be a part of a good idea, someday I would like to be involved in an idea that changes peoples minds, that stops them in the street, that makes them smile and, at the end of the day, sends them home full of something they were missing. I suppose everyone wants that and most fail to ever achiueve it, who knows.

Down from the clouds I sit here typing away letting you all know that, on June 3rd, I will have an exhibit of my photos in a local book store in Hendersonville, NC (near Asheville). Needless to say I have been busy planning layouts, photos, taking photos, pricing, printing, and other things. It's really my first showing so I am pretty excited, though feel very under prepared and a little overwhelmed. It is a few months away, but my photos are a veritable disarray of confusion and I am struggling to get my thoughts focused.   

Sections of Fire Hydrants, Scenery, People, Climbing, Architecture and Still Life will surely be involved. I will have large prints, small prints, medium prints and perhaps cards too. Get myself seen and purchased is the idea.

The climbing season is coming, though it seems to have got distracted 80 miles south of Boone somewhere, probably sniffing the flowers and lollygagging about the small towns, blooming their Dogwoods and Flowering fragrant their quaint streetwalks. Here, today, it snowed.

Work is ok, I tire of working in 20 minutes intervals before interruption comes waltzing up to my door with idiocracy and menial endeavors. It's hard to complete a thought process and think something out when your day is filled, split, and caked in a sludge of microtasks who's solutions are heard and forgotten time in time out day in day out employee in employee out. This is not the job for me, and my patients wanes with each passing day. Its a roller coaster of interest and agitation. In one hand i get to explore, learn, and create; in the other i get the surely benefits of a manager, those of eye rolling employees, selective hearing, selective productivity, selective maturity, and selective sanity. Though never a dull moment, the office here is something fit for television, not reality (or perhaps reality TV, though a little less rating racking).

The winds will change, and if they refuse to blow I'll fashion a fan, put the wall behind me, and create a little breeze to get me started, office junkie is not my calling nor my forte. I want to talk to people, I want to help people, I want to interact and participate, I want to exchange, I want to create. This I cannot do in an office like mine. I want the wind, I want my camera and a force to pull my eye. A target. I feel a bit like a pole dancing compass, motivated to direction with no clear idea where. I know that, given current circumstances, the end of June (Mid-June really) will bring forth the spring of my move onward and away. It is time to change my scenery and hopefully give a, however brief, calming to the confusion.

In the meantime, away from existential ramblings, life is good. I am happy with my friends, happy with my hobbies, happy with my photography, and happy with my relationship. Melise is doing well and I really enjoy her company. We make bread, hike, climb, motivate, and relax. We will soon be learning Chinese together and she will be teaching me French, as she has been studying it for years now.

I recently learned of more opportunities for photographic work here in Boone come winter again, though I somewhat hope not to be here by then. However, should I remain I do have some more plans. There are a few galleries, local businesses, and venies for photos around town here, plus a few ideas that I could foster here while I hvea proximity to such a place as this. If I can find a well paying job here in town perhaps I can stay, perhaps I can find something that gives the satisfaction of a good day's work with the satisfaction of a good day's bank account.

I hope to see the universe fall together sooner rather than later above me.

foie gras

Me taking a Pizza break from taking photos
 at the Climbing Comp on 2/26/2011

Greetings and Sal-U-Tations!

Another day, another dollar I suppose. The price of gasoline will be going up up up so I hear. The disaster, and continuing disasters in Japan are affecting the world markets... and not just the Store! And unrest in the middle east doesn't spell hope for cheap travels for a long time. Hopefully Mt. Ranier and St. Helens don't decide to go go kaBoom! anytime soon as well, that good ol' ring of fire can be just a doozy! I want to leave Boone, sooner rather than much later (preferably in July), but the way of the economy, bills, college loans, and the job market are making moving on a path of dreams like swimming in syrup, I think soon it will turn to molasses. But Boone is great for climbing, great for the outdoors, and perhaps being here for a while longer isn't a terribly bad idea. Who knows, I suppose that exit will come upon the highway as steadily as anything else stuck on I-Time. 

Have not actually used this one yet, will 
just keep it in the bank for now.

Today I went back to the climbing gym on campus for the first time since it shut down for Spring Break this past week, must be nice, eh? It was good to see friends and get back on the... "rocks." A sopped and dreary week kept me company over what so many of my friends were able to call Mardi Gras, Florida, Spain, or intensely awesome rock climbing. We even got some snow as you saw in my last update. Hopefully the winter has hiccuped its last bout of sputtering snow and will now relinquish its grip to spring. Hopefully. 

In the meantime I have been organizing my photos, working on design, and continuing (as always) my photography. I have been doing a lot of poster and t-shirt work, to the right is some of what I have done for the Climbing Team. It has definitely been a good experience and I think I would really like a job doing Photos and Graphic Design, I think I would be good at it. Perhaps I will start a Coffee, Beer, Bread, Tea, Photography, Graphic Design, Local Art Gallery, Delicious Apéritif, and sometimes live music... shop.venue.restaurant.cafe.studio....place. It's going to be great!. Such a place would be a wonderful realm to study, read, look at cool local art, talk, get together, have good homemade foodstuffs, and work too! Oh to make that happen, perhaps I'll do some research. 

Things are going well with Melise and I. We are just doing the regular Boone thing; friends, tea, coffee, climbing, lazing, working (school/job respectively), hiking, photographing, and playing. We plan to begin learning Chinese soon, should be a good fun time. I hope to someday make it back there, aside from the experience and possible business opportunities (?), there is a massively large amount of great climbing. 

She's a great person. I am happy to know her. I hope you all can meet her at some point, I think the world'd be hard pressed to find a flaw. 

As I said, another day another dollar. Work is work, though its not terrible. I am getting paid to learn and navigate the topsy turvy world of Officeland and its quite a place. Drama, Excitement (usually grossly over exaggerated), politics, and projects. 

I am learning how to work Google's PayPerClick (PPC) advertising called AdWords. Its interesting, but I feel a little overwhelmed sometimes with my workload. I am doing AdWords advertising for 3 companies now, working on the website ( www.steelbuildinggarages.com ), learning organizational aspects, applications, and functionality quirks of Microsoft Excel (great program!), and the ever wonderful office coordination. Its a load, that's for sure, but never a dull moment. 

We have our old man Jim who forgets much, laughs much, and is just a great, large, enormous presence in the office, it would be a duller time without him. We have the recovering drug addicts, the continuing prescription pull abusers, the Alcophiliacs, the hard workers, the lazy smart kids, the know it alls, the abrasive high pressure sales people, the completely oblivious to reality ones, and much much more. I plan on writing a play about the place, I expect many awards. 

All in all its not a bad first job out of college. I love where I am, Like what I do, and have a great group of friends. Spring sends its roots through the thawing tundra and the sun coaxes shoots skyward towards yon summer. Life is good. 

NOTE: To post a comment, just click on "Post a Comment" at the bottom of any post that I have made. The posts are in reverse chronological order with the most recent being at the top and the oldest at the bottom. There is also a Chronological Navigation bar to your right where you can search for posts by month. I look forward to talking, sharing, and enjoying all that you might care to share. 

-CP

Melise climbing a problem called "Center 45" on the '45 Boulder' out at Blowing Rock
Boulders off of Hwy 221 just outside of Blowing Rock, about 15 minutes from Boone. 
It was a chilly but good night

at large

outside my apartment 3/6/2011

More Climbing, work, photography, and anticipation of an outdoors free from solid moisture. The weather is warming, but we're far from out of the storm completely. Just Sunday I awoke to a blustery horizontal snow blow (not quite a squall, not delicately falling flakes). After a great Saturday of climbing and well, perhaps, earned loot in prizes I was not too worried about the state of the outdoors. I spent the day relaxing, baking bread, and working on photos.  The sudden blast of snow after many of us had the tales of an early spring and hopes for an extended beginning to this year's green climbing season on our lips was a rude slap on the wrist from good ol' reality of Boone winters. Bipolar, Moody, Unpredictable, and sometimes bitter. 

New River Gorge (not my photo)

Soon comes spring, the beginning of an amazing climbing season I hope, very well, very well. A trip to far away and exotic climbing places such as the New River Gorge in West Virginia,  the Red River Gorge near Lexington, KY, or even down the road to the Linville Gorge is duly in order. I would love to get some shots out there, let alone climb the walls. I missed out on a great trip over Fall Break this past year and, now that I have some vacation time, will not be tendering the same unfortunate absence for some of the trips coming up amongst my friends in the not too distant futuredoms. 

My Sunflower Pumpkin Seed Wheat Bread with your choice

of butter, cranberry Wensleydale or aged white cheddar. So 

very good for sandwiches or warm yummy honey toast too! 

In the meantime between work and climbing, I am baking bread. I have really been enjoying my bread making experiments. From whitewheat, to sunflower pumpkin seed whitewheat, to Cranberry Pumpkin Bread, to some sort of French style baguette. I am currently in the process of drawing out a delicious recipe of whitewheat that incorporates sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, amaranth, and buttermilk. The first loaf was good, but a bit dense and I think the Amaranth needed a bit more soaking. My revisions to the recipe should be yet another step closer to the delicious concoction I know is hiding just beyond the tip of my nose.

The wild card, Amaranth, I chose because of its deliciously healthy healthums. Not a particularly delicious grain, it does add a little something something to the bread. I think, for hearty wheatwhite v3, I will soak in a pot the buttermilk mix of goodness the Amaranth for a medium sized bot longer, around 10-13 minutes I believe. Softening them up may help digestion of the little guys and also may impart more of their flavor, if there is any within them, into the bread. We'll surely see.  

Melise climbing on the Cereal Butress at 

Rumbling Bald in Asheville, NC Winter '11

Many of these activities have been shared between myself and another, my girlfriend, Melise. We have been dating for about a month now, its been great. She's fun, laughs a lot, loves the outdoors, camping, and climbing. She likes to and is a good cook, we bake together. She is independent and intelligent. We share a lot in common and I look forward to spending more time with her. At the moment, she is out of touch on a service learning project leading a trip of volunteers working at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana... middle of nowhere Indiana. It's an ASB (Alternative Spring Break) thing, students go on volunteer community service trips rather than heading out to Panama, Mexico, Spain, Florida, or just Wilmington. It's raining all over the southeast's rocks, so scrapping the service for climbing wouldn't have done much anyway, its going to be a wet spring break for a lot of people. 

History Lesson (Post #2)

The words escape me sometimes. I hear such interesting monologues in my mind at every turn, yet when thought goes to type it seems to adjust itself as red on red magnets. I suppose thats what makes a writer, everybody can think (one assumes, though we all know the tale of assumption), its the writing part that brings on the talent. But me, I'm lucky I suppose. I'm not here to write for the top shelf at the airport bookstore, I'm not here to feed any sort of hunger for long nights at the keys and wasted days sleeping up the next chapters of my story, I'm here to tell, talk, and enjoy my family, far as they (you) are.

My story is nothing more or less, it is not labeled, it is. I figure that's good enough for me and I know it will be good enough for you. We certainly have the corners covered it seems. Florida, NYC, Washington, Arizona, and somewhats in between. I suppose a nation wide journey of photography and adventure should be easy enough to plan out!

The spring is coming, in Boone it seems to have rushed in with one of our famous winds, spreading its weather into the 50's in nearly no time at all. We're ready for it, surely so, and I can say that the seasons' change has a stabilizing quality about it.

We have, my friends in climbing, begun our night excursions into the surrounding rock gardens. Night bouldering is exciting and most absolutely fun.

Surrounded by friends, the warm glow of gas camp lamps, and the inky blanket of night that seems to wrap around the rocks and protect our ragged band from the distractions of the world, eyes become wide with adventure, spirits high with our numbers. It's truly a special thing, night bouldering, and the accelerated season has really put us all in the mood.

Photography has really started to move into a different realm for me. I know I am getting more experienced, though I imagine with time that is only unavoidable, but more than that I am seeing exciting new things come from my camera, and my mind as I focus, that are really pushing me to explore, learn, and dive in to more and more in this realm. Some new equipment has allowed me to try out some new styles involving off camera lighting. Super neat stuff. It's most definitely the kind of stuff that makes for great portraits and can absolutely make bouldering shots look very nice.

My main goal right now is to organize my photography collection, get all of those photos in well labeled folders (something I'm supposed to be doing right now), get in contact with photographers in a variety of fields (adventure, portrait, professional, whatever) and get my name and networking out there, learn a thing or two, and figure out a way to get people supporting my habit. At least its a good habit.

While I continue my updates on where I am, where I have been for the past number of years, and where I'm going... I want you to help fill in the beginnings and the leadings up to. As my family you have seen me grow up from tot to teen to today and perhaps we can  share stories of eachother here on this blog when the conversations spark that way. I would love to hear things about my childhood that I have surely forgotten, and throughout I will be intertwining stories of you all from my memories. We'll bounce back and forth, filling in as we go.

 The tales need not be long, just snippets of here and there.

As you add in the past, I will intertwine the present of my self goings on here in Boone. Hopefully here and there I will see you do the same with what's going on in yours.

Prologue (Post #1)

In an effort to connect with his family at large, Christopher Pratt, in the year of our lord 2011, began the first web log he was able to keep up with. A compilation of pictures, stories, music, links, existential smatterings, thoughts, ideas, videos, and tales from, for, & of beyond, Pratt(as he is known by many and few) began to detail his daily life, to dictate unto.... certainly not paper... unto 1's and 0's the flesh, bone, and otherwise parts that made up his life.

The web log was a way for him not only to share his life with his family so spread across the highways, freeways, tollways, trainways, airways, and anyways of America, but unlike email the web log was a way for him to share conversations with the whole family, thus connecting them to them to him to them in turn.

The digital age speaks wonders to the fable of distance; the information age is profoundly smaller than the world of yester..... something, and to Him, to Christopher Pratt, it was time to span the rank and file of mile after mile and bring himself closer to those doors he could not rap upon.

This is his him, this is his tale. Epic? No. Perfect? Yes. One foot beyond the other taken by one of the anonymous many who have snatched a spark of life no more or less than could or couldn't be.