Monthly Archive for October, 2011

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Therapy

Recently, I’ve engaged in a rather intense round of reflection and self-assessment. I had to be honest with my self as to what I really want out of my life in terms of joy. It’s my therapy. And, after having a good conversation yesterday about dating and relationships, it made me even more absolute in my current thinking.

I’m NEVER gonna be THAT GUY.

There’s nothing casual, in my mind, about dating. Relationships are too vital to the overall human experience to just think we’re gonna simply happen upon a great one casually. And, I don’t want to be that guy who jumps from relationship to relationship, ever seeking, never finding never seeking to find. I’ve always said, that it is so important, I don’t want the feeling to be diminished. I want my I love you to feel as genuine as possible. I do not want to have said it to a multitude of women. I’m selfish like that.

And, that’s why I’ll wait. I don’t want a lover-friend, or a jump-off1, or anything else remotely close to that; It lies in direct contrast to my faith. That, and I want the maximum effect of love. I want it in its most pure form. I want it the way God meant it to be. I don’t want my heart to be overrun with too many emotions based on past experiences. So, I can’t, in my mind, settle for some simplified emotion. I don’t want to simply pass the time.. It isn’t fair. I’d rather wait patiently for something substantial.

I’ve decided that moving on, for me, doesn’t need to include dating. As I conversed, I became increasingly disheartened that my friends continue to tell me to get back out there and start dating. I know they mean well, and, to be honest, I’ve given it some major thought myself; but, the reality is, I just don’t have a real desire to date at the moment. While I don’t wallow in self-pity on a daily basis, I do still feel a lasting effect of the relationship, and I don’t want to simply date – for dating-sake. I’ve always believed that we only get so many genuine experiences in life when it comes to romance… and, I don’t want to waste one of those simply trying to prove to myself that i’m over someone.

So, I move forward….

Even if it takes a lifetime….

I want to be grabbed by love. To touch, and taste it’s goodness.

  1. Watching a ton of Basketball Wives these days, and taking random trips to the Urban Dictionary… Yeah, I’m not hip. [↩]
Published 7 months ago in ZoNotes. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Never Too Busy – Day 13

Day Thirteen: Get me bodies! Dance to your favorite song.

I don’t know what it is about this song… It certainly doesn’t apply to me in any way; but, I LUH it.

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Published 7 months, 1 week ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Never Too Busy – Day 12

Day Twelve: Introduce yourself to someone new. Start a conversation with them.

Well…

I think it’s the weirdest thing to see people have to attach the word friend to every greeting to the opposite sex these days. It’s, “Hi, Friend!!”, or “How’s it going, friend“, or, my favorite, “I miss you, friend“. It’s weird because, of all the things… for you to take the time to post a message on someone’s wall or send a twitter message or reach out in any way, there’s a direct implication that you all are friends..

I don’t know what it says about our state of affairs that people can’t be cordial without it being mistaken as flirting.

I’m more at ease with the process these days. Guys introduce themselves to each other much different than guys introduce themselves to girls. I think I held an entire conversation the other day on Herman Cain and at the very end, “Bro, what’s your name?”. With girls, I think there’s an inherent need for the exchanging of names at the very beginning of a conversation. I have no clue why, but, it always seems to be, “Excuse me, what’s your name?” somewhere in the first few words exchanged with each other. Lame. I know.

Hey, I like being friendly. I think we all need to be more friendly. But, friendships and meeting people goes sideways when dealing with the opposite sex. For me, it got weird and I stopped reaching out to people via social media for a short while. I think I’m mature enough to handle it, and, the other person is mature enough to handle it, but, it’s always a third part out there… for a while, I swore that the only way I’d be communicating with people was through email or, if need be, the occasional facebook inbox message. Didn’t work out either… There’s something sorta creepy-old-man/stalkerish about sending emails to people you don’t know.. and, for people you do know, well, it’s kinda informal.

So, I’m just back to being Don. Trying to be a gentleman.. Cordial, yet, cautious. And, in an effort to step outside of my comfort zone, am trying to be more social, sans the media. I want to meet new people Face to face.

That being said… I did reach out and introduce myself to someone new… It was weird and awkward [the way all great introductions should be] and it was simple. I’m sure there was nothing about it that said, “Let’s get married”, so, I think we’re good. And, I think I made a new friend. Good Times!

Published 7 months, 1 week ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

CAMA Planning – Week 1

In that it’s now October, the weekend is starting to come together the way it was initially envisioned. Time now for the planning and development aspects of the Christian Acappella Music Awards. We’ve already decided upon the Event Weekend Performance parameters.

Event Logistics

As has been decided, the 2012 Christian Acappella Music Awards will be held in Nashville, Tennessee. My choice was Miami, Florida, but, ultimately, the feeling was that the market could sustain a program of this size and the overall location was central enough that our ticket-purchasing base would be enticed to attend.

Pricing is always a major concern for any event. CAMA, because of its nature, requires extreme care when dealing with pricing. So, in preparing to develop a revenue model for the 2012 weekend, here’s where we are in terms of weekend pricing.

Event2010 PricingPercentage2012 Pricing
The 2010 Christian Acappella Music Awards$35.5052.593%$39.44
CAMA Friday Night Live$9.0013.333%$10.00
CAMA Saturday Matinee, presented by Trinity One Studio$7.0010.370%$7.78
The CAMA Pre-Show$6.008.889%$6.67
CAMA Friday Matinee Concert$5.007.407%$5.56
CAMA Thursday Kickoff Concert$5.007.407%$5.56
Totals$67.50100.000%$75.00

Branding

I’ve finished a first drafts of the promotional logo for the 2012 Awards.

We’ll see how those look in a week or two as we begin to develop our first promotional campaign for November, 2011. That’s where we are after some initial planning for the 2012 show. Pricing and Branding are always main points for us, and hopefully we’ll be able to settle on a couple of ideas soon.

Published 7 months, 1 week ago in CAMA. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Never Too Busy – Day 11

Wow. I just went and skipped right over Challenge 10.

Actually, I was being quite busy being creative… After putting it off for the entire summer, I decided it was time to begin the task of planning the 2012 CAMA [Christian Acappella Music Awards]. That, and it was my Mother’s Birthday.. So, we had to hang. That left little time for writing on yesterday.

But, I’m back in the swing of things.. On to today’s challenge!

Rent a funny movie and laugh uncontrollably.

I love funny movies. I LOVE funny movies. So, this shouldn’t be a problem. I already have it queued up… ready as soon as i’m done with the days remaining tasks.

Published 7 months, 1 week ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Never Too Busy – Day 09

Day Nine: Make a new dish.

No, I really was going to attempt this challenge….

It’s just that It happened to fall on Sunday, and Sundays are reserved for family dinner… This Sunday especially, since my sister was in town and she’s getting married soon and there aren’t going to be too many more of the Sunday dinners of just Myself, my parents and my sister.. So, I must defer. I WILL complete this challenge, because, I am never too busy for a new dish… just, not this today.

To Note // Pratt Family time translated means Time for my mother and sister to pull out the box o’ pictures…

Gotta Love Family.

Later Days!

Published 7 months, 1 week ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Never Too Busy – Day 08

Take a silly picture of yourself and explain how you were feeling at the moment.

I’m feeling silly….

No, I’m feeling blessed beyond measure, so much so that I can take time out to appreciate Silly Photo Challenge day..

This week, I received my diploma from Florida Gulf Coast University. It was exactly 7 years ago TODAY that I lay in the hospital, so sick that I thought I would never get well.. It was 5 years ago that I got too sick to continue on with school, a mere 6 credits away from completion.. And yet, here I am, October 8, 2011, alive and Well, Diploma finally in hand. God is definitely GOOD.

That said, i’m not really into silly photos… It’s not even the silly part of it, as much as it’s the photo part. I HATE taking photos!!! I don’t know why, I just never have been into the practice. My parents home is littered with photos of My parents and my sister… Me? There are 8 photos of me in the entire house; 5 taken before I was in Middle school, and the other 3 from my Senior Photo shoot.

Yeah, I need to change..

Now, Generally, the photo you would get would be this…

And, Of course I didn’t comb my hair… IT’S SATURDAY!!!!

But, I’m remaining faithful to the challenge……

Later Days!

Published 7 months, 2 weeks ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Never Too Busy – Day 07

Day Seven: Take one thing off your “to do” list that you’ve been avoiding.

It’s time to make a move in my life.

I’ve been in this holding pattern for far too long and I’m ready to make something happen.

So, today I’ve crossed a few things off my list

  • Decided on my new company name, Pratt Communications.
  • Secured a main domain, prattpr.com // Empty right now. Gonna work on it this evening.
  • Secured a second domain, prattpr.info // pointing to a tumblr account so I can do some mobile blogging.
  • Set up an email account for my new company through Gmail.
  • Set up a twitter account to communicate with the public.
  • Designed a placeholder Logo.. Working on something more substantial as I write.
  • Decided on a color scheme and some other branding elements that I’m gonna work on tonight and this weekend.

And, we’re off!!

I’ve decided that now is the time to make things happen. I’m genuinely excited and ready to meet this new challenge in my life. Having previously toyed with the idea of Pratt PR, I want to finally do things the right way.. We’ll see what happens!

Next up: Time to make some connections and sign some clients!

Later Days!

Published 7 months, 2 weeks ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Wedding Collateral

Love is in the Air!!

I just got the wedding invitation materials I designed for my Sister. I’m happy with the way they turned out. Digital Lizard did the printing; and a wonderful job they did. If you need same-day printing, give them a try… and, tell them Aldanzo Pratt sent you. =)

Anyway, it was a simple project with 6 different pieces:

  1. Official Wedding notice w/ Reception note
  2. Official Wedding notice w/o Reception note
  3. Response Card
  4. Wedding directions card
  5. Gift Registry Card
  6. Envelope Sticker

It was a pretty simple color scheme of Chocolate and Sage (interesting combination..):

KP_Wedding
Color by COLOURlovers

Update: Hat Tip to Shalonda Hill of Shalonda Hill Photography for the beautiful photo on the wedding announcement. Need Great work? Check her out!!

Later Days…

Published 7 months, 2 weeks ago in ZoNotes. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Never Too Busy – Day 06

Day Six: Brainstorm/strategize. Write out your future.

So………. where do I go from HERE?

You see, up until a few months ago, I knew my future; I was going to get married, move to Atlanta, and live happily ever after… Had the ring, planned the proposal, sought the job and apartment in Atlanta.

Funny how life goes sometimes.

It’s never been about planning my future; I’ve spent my entire life planning. My future is the one thing I’ve always been aware of; and, most of my problem.

I’ve always lived with the notion that i’ll be ok… things will be fine… i’ll be happy… In the future. It’s what drove me in college to spend all my extra time in the library. It’s part of my ambition. I’ve always associated happiness with task completion; that, i’ll be happy when I finally reach my destination. But, on the path of least resistance, you realize that, since everything works out in the end, you may as well enjoy the ride.

Of late, my days seem to be filled with conversations with my father. He continues to tell me how I need to just get away, finally move to D.C., or Orlando, or Houston, or, my personal choice, Atlanta… Why Atlanta? Well…

It’s always been Atlanta…

From the first time I visited Atlanta to now, I’ve always said, I want to live in Atlanta. It’s a dream of mine. And, the reality is, there is nothing holding me back accept me. I have no baggage, I have talent and skills to apply in the workplace, there’s Georgia State Law School. I just have this overriding feeling of anguish when I think about moving. And, it’s not even about being away from home; I spent most of the past 10 years away from home. It goes back to the idea of deferred happiness. I have this horrible habit of going through life looking to the conclusion, while never actually enjoying the process.

My future? For the first time ever, it’s clouded by indecision.. I simply don’t know what I want to do anymore, and that hinders me from doing anything at all. But, even that’s not a real problem. I’m aware of my options.. I just need to set my sail to some distant port and get there. Even in my lack of clarity in terms of what exactly I want to do moving forward, today I’m even more sure of who I want to be, and how I want to govern my life.

My future? It’s about understanding that I must not allow the onset of Entropy in my personal life. That, even with an abundance of blessings from God, that, somehow I must continue to work on becoming a more sufficient Aldanzo. That, going forward, the preservation of self must be above all, a standard of living. Concern over whether others will approve of my decisions is no longer really something that matters to me. Likewise, I feel like I’m in a different place in terms of how I view people in their response to me.

What people say and do is a projection of their own dream, their own reality, so, don’t take anything personally… Because, nothing others do is because of you.

I’m hesitant today to map out my future because, I’ve always been about planning my future. Of all the things in my life, I’ve always been about looking ahead… But, today, I’m of the mind that I just need to enjoy the ride. I think i’ll be the person I want to be once I get to the point where I no longer wait for the future and simply start making moves today to ensure that later today is even better than right now. I don’t need to plan… I’ve planned enough. Now, I just want to live.

Tomorrow is ever elusive… All we’ll ever see is today.

Later Days…

Published 7 months, 2 weeks ago in ZoNotes. 2 Comments Tags: , , .