What's Up With the Latest Issue?

Phuket Post: People, Places, PastimesRobert Pratt works as associate editor of Phuket Post. Find the latest issue here, as well as an archive of recent editions showing changes he has made to one of Phuket's leading English-language publications.

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Where're the Best Beaches?

A plate of Thai sweet potato in red curry sauce.Most of the places we've visited during recent years have had magnificent beaches. The sands of Robert's hometown of Santa Cruz, Calif. are pretty nice, too.

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A Few Words of Explanation ... or 3,000 (Part III)
Written by Robert Pratt   
Sunday, 24 August 2008 07:24

After leaving the Golden Princess, I drove from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, where I stayed for two days before leaving on my way to Thailand. En route from Los Angeles, I stopped in Santa Clarita to see Via Ramon, the street where I grew up. My family's house was the second one on the right, though it was brown when we lived there.Puerto Vallarta is a gorgeous tropical resort--and Mexico's gayest city. The gay beach, known as Playa Sillas Azules, is at the far end of the sand from this view, about 50 meters beyond the small fishing pier.The most fun I had in port during my time on the Golden Princess was without a doubt one cool early December day at Mazatlan's Isla de las Piedras beach, where I body surfed in small waves for nearly three hours.At the very tip of Baja California, Cabo San Lucas's Playa del Divorcio is a gorgeous, rocky beach that feels a little like the end of the world.I taught a few days at government schools in Rayong Province, Thailand, as part of a course to get certified as an English teacher.Newly arrived in Phuket in March 2008, Duk and I visited the Two Heroines Festival, which honored two revered women from Phuket history.

(Following is part three of a three-part series.)

A Few Words of Explanation ... or 3,000 (Part I): Changes
A Few Words of Explanation ... or 3,000 (Part II): The Grand Princess

Somewhere North of Hayward it hit me. I was driving along Highway 680 to Auburn to visit my Mom and sister Cathee. It was a warm, clear morning on Jan. 16, 2008, and I had left Santa Cruz without feeling a twinge of emotion. I was headed away from the city I called home for more than 18 years, and a few days later I would leave from San Francisco International Airport on a flight to Thailand, where I hoped to live and work indefinitely. Forty minutes into the drive, I started to cry.

I managed to pull off the highway at the next exit to let all the feelings out. So many things had changed during the past year. My husband in all but legal documents was not my husband anymore. My home on Market Street in Santa Cruz was not my home any more. My cozy if mostly unrewarding business no longer operated. But the feeling wasn’t one of overwhelming sadness. Yes, I felt sad that I couldn’t say when I might see my friends and loved ones again. But the emotion had a lot of relief in it, as if I had changed for the better, as if I had taken off a leaden coat and could move freely wherever I wished. As with most tearful purges, the flood of emotion ebbed after 10 or 15 minutes. I composed myself to drive the rest of the stretch to my mother’s home in Auburn and a moment later returned to the highway feeling peaceful and alive.
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A Few Words of Explanation ... or 3,000 (Part II)
Written by Robert Pratt   
Sunday, 17 August 2008 07:44

I took my first steps outside the North American continent shortly after the Grand Princess docked alongside the quay in Punta Delgada, Azores Islands on May 31, 2007.During a gorgeous day in Rome on May 14, 2007, I stumbled upon the Coliseum and spent a magnificent afternoon photographing the ruins of the ancient center of the Roman Empire.I cried as the Grand Princess sailed away from Venice on May 27, 2007, leaving behind the most beautiful city I've ever seen.After climbing the acropolis to visit the famed ruins of ancient Athens during the morning of May 31, 2007, I climbed a neighboring hill to find a magnificent view of the Parthenon and the Theater of Dionysus below.Looking at the Rock of Gibraltar during an overcast afternoon June 14, 2007, I felt that I could gaze across the Mediterranean and see not just a broad sweep of distance but also a few millennia of history.During my time on the Grand Princess, the ship sailed nearly to the top of the world, reaching Aalesund, Norway on June 27, 2007. The ship eventually went further North, well above the Arctic Circle, but the city there wasn't nearly so beautiful as Aalesund. 

(Following is part two of a three-part series.)

A Few Words of Explanation ... or 3,000 (Part I): Changes

As always, I had taken time to decide. I spent two sessions with my therapist going over the idea of leaving Santa Cruz to work on cruise ships. Stuart and I talked at length about the idea. And, as usual, I swung quickly into action when I made up my mind. I did the paperwork for the cruise line contract, got a passport and a certificate of good health from a local doctor, closed down my internet consulting business and said my goodbyes to family and friends.

Something changed in me on the very day I flew out of San Jose International Airport for Galveston, Tex., where I would join the Grand Princess. Of course, I felt sad to leave, and I felt a great deal of excitement at beginning an adventure. But I also felt a sense of peace, a sense that I didn’t have to keep up with life, to anticipate the many things that would be required of me as I encountered new situations. Instead I felt that I could let life unfold on its own. I noted in a journal entry I wrote while waiting for a connecting flight in Dallas-Forth Worth International Airport that I felt I had few things left to worry about.
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A Few Words of Explanation ... or 3,000 (Part I)
Written by Robert Pratt   
Monday, 07 April 2008 00:00

Two years ago, I was happily partnered with Stuart Ponder after a dozen years together, living in an apartment in Santa Cruz and operating a small internet consulting business. All of that changed in the space of a year.Music had started to become much more important. A visible sign was the collection of beautiful vintage saxophones I had started to acquire.By September 2006, I had landed a new gig playing with Jazz Birds, one of the first moves in my changing life.In October 2006, I wanted to have a series of artists portraits so I could highlight my playing a little more. I posed with my old Buescher tenor, which I had completely restored the previous summer. I was also at my peak weight of around 225lbs. It was around this time that my doctor said I had to lose weight.For Christmas 2006, we celebrated with a Yule log instead of a Christmas tree. I will remember that as one of my favorite holiday seasons. It was an appropriately dramatic change to our typical seasonal observations to mark some dramatic changes I was going through.By March 2007, I was ready to leave Santa Cruz and embark on a career as a cruise ship musician. Since I received my passport in the mail 18 months ago, it has been used often and now has many pages filled with visas and entry or exit stamps.

Surely a word of explanation is in order. Only family and a precious few close friends know the story of my life during the past two years. Many things have happened, and at times I think that everything about me has changed since the middle of my 39th year. I'm now five months into my 41st year, and I no longer live in Santa Cruz, Calif., U.S.A. Instead I live and work in Phuket City, Phuket, Thailand. I weigh 74kg instead of 220 pounds. I'm no longer married to Stuart Ponder, but I have a new boyfriend, partner and husband, a beautiful Thai man my age named Chaiyakorn "Duk" Pinprapaipong who lives with me in Phuket. I closed my web development business, did a stint as a professional orchestra musician aboard cruise ships, and now I have resumed my former career in publishing, working as sub-editor for the Phuket Post.

So, what happened?

To be honest, I'm still trying to figure that out. I know the events and the places and the people involved, and I know a lot about how I felt as all the changes were going on. But I don't think I know yet what caused all the changes--whether it was something inside of me that compelled me or whether I merely adapted to external experiences.
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What's Going On Here?

Over the past 10 years, Word and Sound has been many things. Most of the time it's been an online playground for Robert Pratt, a journalist, web application programmer and professional musician (see "Who Is This Guy?" above). Based in Santa Cruz, Calif., U.S.A. from June 1989 to April 2007, he now lives and works in Phuket in Thailand.

At present, this website is in the process of being redeployed using a new content management system (CMS). For those of you interested in such things, the new CMS is Joomla! The slick interface is a pre-baked design that I downloaded from Rocket Theme, which is a group that designs and implements interfaces for Joomla!

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Original Music

In addition to performing for something like three and a half decades, I've composed music from time to time. I've just started re-posting to the web some of the songwriting demos I made almost 18 months ago. Check 'em out if you're interested in one of the major parts of my life. (Jazz music, that it.)
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Flexible Content

ContentOrganize large amounts of information in easy to navigate tabbed panes and reduce the clutter and space needed to display your content. By default, User 7-11 module positions appear in the bottom tabbed module pane. You can also add more module positions if needed. Learn more...

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Easy Color Customisation

ColorsAll of Dimensions accent colours are CSS based, allowing you to change the colour scheme with just a few quick modifications to the CSS. Use any background image you want, and the top and bottom fades will automatically be applied for a seamless look.
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Time of Day Style Changing

ColorsStyles 1 and 2 have four different time of day stylesets which dynamically change throughout the day based on your users' time. Customize the existing styles, or create your own automatically changing background and color mods.
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The Perfect Background Image

BackgroundsWith Dimensions, you can use any background image you desire to give your site the character and style you want. Choose any image, set it as your background, and Dimensions will automatically apply top and bottom fades to your background image for a more seamless integration.

After you have set your background image, pick matching accent and text colors for your template to create the perfect match of color and style for your site. Learn more...

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Mootools Integration

Dimensions utilises the javascript library known as mootools to power special effects such as the RokMooMenu, RokSlide integration, and RokZoom features. Dimensions uses the latest development build of the mootools javascript library, but is also now compatible with the earlier 1.11 version of mootools as well for better integration and backwards compatibility.

Dimensions built in mootools javascript and functionality can also be disabled, should you need to use third party extensions which utilise other javascript libraries. Visit the RocketTheme Dimensions forum for more information. You can find out more information about Mootools on their website, located at http://mootools.net.