Ryan Cannon Ray

Valentine’s 2010

Ryan Ray — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:49:41 +0000

Happy BELATED Valentine’s Day! Yes I did rent a car and drive about 14 hours round trip to see my beautiful girlfriend Mindy Merenghi for a late Valentine’s Day. Do yourself a favor and read her post all about our belated Valentine’s Day weekend if you want the lowdown. We hung out, watched movies, made jiffy pop, had good mexican food, drank alcohol free wine, cuddled, and just spent time with each other. It is just a little rough managing a long distance relationship, but when you are able see each other it makes all of the waiting seem trivial.

I’m very thankful to know and also to be in a relationship with Mindy. She’s a smart and strong girl, and brings a lot of fun to my life. Otherwise I would probably sit on my butt and learn about photography, web design, etc… and only get outside to play ultimate or skateboard for a little bit. The whole separation through distance hasn’t been fun, but it definitely teaches you a lot. Patience and appreciation are definitely keys to our relationship, if I can speak for the both of us. You couples who get to be with each other every day better realize the luxury you have. Thanks to modern technology a lot of the walls of long distant are worn down, but it still just isn’t the same as being physically there!

I know that this is definitely true for me and many others I’m sure, but Valentine’s used to be one of the least important holiday for me. It still isn’t that cool by itself, seems to be a waning trend amongst young kids. It just so happens to be Mindy and I’s anniversary date though. This now makes it something very worth celebrating, and I think it’s important and nice to have points like anniversaries where you can look back on where you came and also look forward to where you want to go. I wish I could celebrate love and life everyday, but I’m thankful to have someone to love and to love me.

So you tell me now…What do you think about Valentine’s Day, love, long distance relationships? Leave a comment!

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The Who Wins The Superbowl

Ryan Ray — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:22:44 +0000

The Who really did a great job last night at halftime of Super Bowl 44. If you don’t agree… well… then something is seriously WRONG with you. I watched their performance last night and loved everything about it. The song choices, lights, stage, the custom Who cymbals…Maybe it’s just that I love good, classic, rock and roll. I noticed many people’s dissatisfaction with the halftime show and thought, ok that’s fine but why? What could have made it better for SuperBowl 44? Then I heard it driving back from my internship today…The final straw in my frustration.

The Black Eyed Peas… WHAT! While listening to Ryan Seacrest complain about the halftime show some lady called in and said, “I don’t understand why The Who, why didn’t they have someone like the Black Eyed Peas come in and get everyone excited?” From what I heard lady, the people at the game were singing loud and The Who was very entertaining. The thing Ryan Seacrest said was that they aren’t from my generation, a lot of people didn’t get it. If that is the truth than I am very saddened for today’s music industry. Pete Townshend was my favorite part of the performance, his signature guitar windmill is classic…CLASSIC. Then I hear Ryan Seacrest say, “That old guy up there stiff arming his guitar…”

This is the first time I’ve been so outspoken on something like this, but I just know the current state of the music industry STINKS. The Super Bowl is about man and man things, how manly are The Black Eyed Peas? Now I also understand there are other worthy acts, and they NFL may be playing it safe since their Janet Jackson debacle. Just why all of the uproar? Please help me understand and let me know what you thought of the halftime performance, and if you were in charge how your show would have went. Before that check out a comparison between The Who and The Black Eyed Peas… Thanks for reading.

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Google Calendar and iCal

Ryan Ray — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:00:00 +0000

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted something new. I’ve been busy, I’ll tell you all about that in another post. But I wanted to give you something that could help you be productive today. As the title says it’s a quick tutorial on how to setup Google Calendar with iCal. I’ve been using it for awhile now and really love that it works and syncs as it does. It’s definitely something for you to consider if you have a small group or organization to keep everyone up to date on new events and etc…

So first check out the video to see how easy it is done. The video is right around 5 minutes long. If you still have questions or issues I’ll type out the steps, and you have leave comments or email me or something and I’ll help you out.

The Best of 2009

Twitter and Facebook

Ryan Ray — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:11:07 +0000

This may be nerdy, but I’ve been thinking lately about the way I use Twitter & Facebook. Before all of these thoughts I had been using Twitter as my main stream of everything. Whatever I tweeted therefore updated all of the social sites I was a part of, and I liked it. It was the ultimate social networking convergence. One simple update to feed them all. Like I mentioned that was until now. I asked myself, ” Is it important to give each network it’s due respect?” Read on to see…

I’ve been toying with the idea of separating all of these feeds and from that catering to each site as it deserves to be catered to, and starting right now I’m going to try it out and see how it works. I’m curious to see if this idea is worth anything. I will interact on Facebook how it wants and how the culture of Facebook demands, and it goes the same for any social network I am on. As long as Facebook doesn’t try to copy any more of Twitters features we will see how it works out, just ignore that Facebook’s new feature that is similar to retweeting.

Just think about it for second. Often when I tweet something it’s formatted for the way Twitter works. It has RT, or hashtags (#), or @ in the body of the tweet. That doesn’t mean anything to Facebook, or LinkedIn, etc… Each network has it’s own culture and society surrounding how you use it, and I think what you are saying can be more potent if formatted for each network. I’m sure no one on Facebook needs to see your #ff tweets, and nobody on Twitter wants to see your Farmville updates, you know?

I think from the aspect of sharing things, you can still get the same message across but make it personable for each network. So tweet your friend with the @ reply feature, but hop over to Facebook if you want it updated there as well and use their mention feature. This still get’s what you wanted to tweet across to all of your Facebook friends, but it’s formatted in a way that everyone on Facebook understands. This in theory could increase the awareness of your status updates, as many people on Facebook that see your Twitter jargon probably will ignore what you say. Who knows, but I just had the idea as of late to separate my networks and update each one separately.

This doesn’t mean you can’t share links and whatnot, but think of your audience when you do. I know in my case the people that follow me on Twitter are for the most part different than my friends on Facebook. On Twitter I have a crowd based around technology and photography and religion. Most of my friends on Facebook are from high school, or college, etc… people I’ve actually met in person. The dynamic is quite different. Especially once you throw in people on the LinkedIn network and anywhere else that you can update your status.

What do you think about this idea? Should you just stick with letting Twitter update everything or customize your updates for each network? I’ve already done one, so now I’m trying the other. I’ll get back with you, but I just wanted to share these thoughts in a short post. Let me know what your ideas are.

Chasing The Sun Pt.1

5 Reasons Why I Own A Mac

Ryan Ray — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:11:54 +0000

This is meant to be a fun post, I’m not trying to start a Mac v. PC flame war. I’ve been on both sides of that fence. I used a PC for the first half of my life, since they were hand me downs from my Dad. I got my first Mac as a Sophomore in High School. It was a Power PC G4 Mac Mini, the first day that Tiger came out I ordered it. I’ve been converted ever since, but like I said I’m not going to bash anybody who uses Windows out there. All operating systems have their merits, heck this website is run off a Linux server. So here is a quick run down why I continue to use a Mac everyday.

#5 – Style

Everyone has to admit it, Macs look great. A big thanks to the help of Jon Ives for creating such beauty. Even on the inside of a Mac they are meticulously crafted into shape. They have to be. The engineers have to come up with creative ways to fit the actual computing power inside those thin and sexy outer cases. I used their laptops for the last 4 or so years of my life, but now am really hooked on their iMacs. The all in one is awesome and the power that sits tucked behind the 1080p monitor is great to have. I love using Macs because Apple creates both the hardware, as far as the outer shell goes, and the software.

#4 – Reliability

You have to admit it again on this point. Macs are super stable. This comes from Apple having control over both a lot of the software on a Mac and the hardware. Apple doesn’t use a lot of different hardware, and only their Mac Pro is expandable. This leaves only a few different pieces of hardware to test all of their home made software on. Windows and Linux users don’t have this stability from the ability to rapidly expand their computers. For me though, I need the stability and can easily do without expanding my computer. My iMac has all I need in it. Dual 3.06 GHz cores, 8GB of RAM, and 500GB internal hard drive. I love using Macs because of the stability. I depend on it every day.

#3 – Viruses

Macs for the most part are %99.9 free of viruses. To the best of my knowledge there has only been two major Mac bugs. Calling them viruses would be a big stretch, they weren’t malicious and were only slight annoyances. I don’t run any anti-virus on my iMac and still don’t feel the need to. Perhaps someday in the future, but as of right now it’s all clear. Macs don’t have a lot of viruses because for one the user base isn’t as great as Windows. This means that people that create viruses know that their work won’t be as successful as it could be on Windows. It won’t infect as many people. Viruses also don’t exist because of my number 2 point below. The developers!

#2 – Developers

The developers for the Mac platform are fantastic. Seriously, any third party software you get will, for the most part, have so much detail put into it and be a great piece of quality software. The developers for the Mac community don’t feel like harming us and creating viruses. They make fantastic programs to help enhance our computing lives. This is something I really appreciate about these people and companies. Apple makes a lot of great software but a lot of developers see needs not met yet by Apple and create software to help fulfill those needs. My desktop Twitter app, read more about it HERE, is an excellent example of 3rd party developers. The Mac community is picky about software and we hold our developers to high standards. I love using Macs because of the great software developers.

#1 – Interface

This has to be the number one reason on many peoples list of why they love using a Mac. The interface is what really really separates the Mac OS from any other system. Apple has created guidelines for their interface, and although they don’t follow them to the T, for the most part this helps create one unified experience no matter what application you are using. And to start with I believe the way you interact with the Mac OS much more thought out and more intuitive than any other OS I’ve experienced. This has helped me become more efficient knowing, in general, what to expect from any Mac app. The dock is also one of my favorite things about Macs. Thank you Xerox for selling us the GUI, and thank you Apple for really taking care of it.

That’s it, these are my top 5 legitimate reasons why I own a Mac. I could talk about a few more reasons, but I’d really come across as a geek. I’m trying to save what little cool I have left. Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment and let me know why you love using the OS you do. Mac, Windows, Linux. I’d love to hear why and talk about it!

Thanks for reading.

Get The iPhone 3.0 Software Here & Now

The {365} iPhone Photo Project

Ryan Ray — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:12:23 +0000

When 2010 was fast approaching I started to wonder about New Years resolutions. Many made and many never completed. Personally, I know I hate not being able to finish something I started. Setting lofty goals and not pursuing them with everything you have will bring you right back to square one. Besides wanting to be healthier, more active, and become a better person than the Ryan of 2009, I wanted to push myself with something fun, creative, and light. I chose to do this {365} iPhone Photo Project as one of my resolutions this year. Many people take part in doing these {365} projects. Some do it with self portraits or others will pick a subject, etc… My only requirement for my project is to take a picture everyday with my iPhone (any camera phone will do really) then edit it with only apps on my iPhone, and upload with the Flickr app. THAT IS IT.

I’m currently on day five and have already posted my picture for today, http://flic.kr/p/7tqB87 , The project is off to a great start. It’s fun and keeps my eyes fresh. I wake up each day looking for that shot. The one that doesn’t rely on fancy equipment or expensive glass. These are solely up to my eye and the best composition I can do. I’m really enjoying that challenge because eventually I’ll start seeing things from different perspectives, I’m forcing my own eye to grow. With doing so I can only hope I become a more creative individual and definitely more appreciative of some simple photography. You should join in with me and start now, you can still do 365 days straight of pictures. It doesn’t have to be from an iPhone, or edited, etc… Just share what you are seeing. I for one would like to see!

If you have comments, or just thoughts and ideas, let me know with the comment form below! Thanks for reading, here is my daily growing Flickr set for this project.

The Best of 2009

Ryan Ray — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 19:14:03 +0000

I know it’s been a few days since 2009 ended, but I still wanted to compile a list of my favorite stuff from 2009. For my life, and from my perspective, it was a great year. Somehow I continue to be blessed by good health, great friends, and awesome opportunities to do what I love. 2009 didn’t always go the way I wanted. My girlfriend for the most part is always about 386 miles away from me. My family situation is always frustrating, I got a few bad grades, etc… But those negative things of the year didn’t keep me down, and they sure didn’t outweigh the positive. I turned 22, a wise old age… got to travel quite a bit with John Tibbs and company, made our own cd, t-shirts, etc… He’s got a lot going for him. I continued to be able to film and take pictures, exploring more and getting to push my creativity to new ends. You can see that soon in my porfolio that’s being built at the moment. Met new people from all over the country and am glad I can call them friends. Growth is happening continually for me, and I’m glad I haven’t become stuck in a rut physically, spiritually, mentally, etc… I thirst for all of these things. So what encapsulated me in 2009? Read on to see.

I wanted to sum up the year in music, film, photos, events, trends, etc… I’ll post all of my favorite things of the year 2009, and I expect for you to comment and agree or disagree with me on these topics. Here’s my best of 2009

The Best of 2009

Album : Fun – Aim and Ignite

Easily album of the year for me because it really is all around fun. I’ve been following The Format and their lead man Nate Ruess for a long time. I was saddened at their end, but excited for what could come from new beginnings. The Format was my favorite band, now of course Fun is. Their bright and light pop sound and fantastic melodies sealed the deal for me. In fact I’m going to listen to this album right now. Thanks guys for getting their songs stuck in my head again! Be sure to check out their music video HERE.

Song : Arcade Fire – Wake Up

This song by Arcade Fire is permanently burned in my head, no thanks to the Where The Wild Things Are trailers I listened to this song ALL YEAR. It never ceased to perk up my mood if I was down or increase my good mood if I was already in one. It’s raw and I like it. Watch their video HERE.

Movie : 3 Way Tie (Avatar : Inglourious Basterds : Where The Wild Things Are)

Why did I end in a 3 way tie? Obviously all 3 of these movies are great, at least in my humble opinion. I feel they also cover almost all styles that anyone could like. A Sci-Fi thriller, a Wacky WWII, and a great childrens story. I chose these three as my best movies of 2009 because I’ll be watching them again and again long into 2010. They are addicting, visually awesome, and fun to watch. I recommend you watch them all!

Photo : Foreclosure and Eviction

This pretty well summed up America this year to me. Financial problems everywhere, especially in the housing market. This is a police officer making sure the house is vacant. It’s often they find after evicting people that homeless people or drug dealers get into the houses, hence his gun is drawn. 2010 will hopefully turn this financial crisis around. It’s at least taught people to be more aware of their money. That’s never a bad thing.

Event : Iran Elections

This is the event of the year for me as it was and still is an ongoing issue. The worlds relations with Iran are all on thin ice, Iran’s people’s relationship with their government is on even thinner ice. That green color will always be burned in my mind during the summer of 2009. I don’t know how to help but I hope it all turns out for the good. Click on the picture to see more pictures from the riots. WARNING the few at the end are graphic.

Internet Trend : FML, People of Walmart, MLIA

These types of sites were probably my favorite thing happening on the internet this year. These sites aren’t complex, nothing fancy about them, but they provide hours and hours of entertainment. Also it’s a plus if they have an iPhone app to compliment their site. I love to waste time reading FML’s and looking at People of Walmart. Click HERE and HERE to check out those websites, as a bonus check out Awkward Family Photos HERE

App of the Year : 2Do

This app wins for me because it is the mother of all my life. It keeps my todo’s, schedules, events, alarms, notes, shopping lists, and more all together! Even better yet it syncs with iCal on my iMac. It’s beautiful but not free, well worth it’s weight in gold though. Whatever that means! It’s got a slick interface, and is password protected to boot. If you want to learn more about the app then here is the iTunes LINK.

That wraps up my 2009, great music, great films, issues relevant to me, etc… Let me know what you think of my choices, and also leave some of your choices. Different album, favorite movie, picture? Thanks for reading!

Tweetie 2 : MAoM

Ryan Ray — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:01:57 +0000

January is here and I am right on time with posting a new Mac App of The Month for everyone. Let’s get right into it eh? This months app is another staple in my everyday life on the computer. It actually follows me wherever I go since they have both a Desktop version and an iPhone version. Both of them are fantastic. What’s this app called then you might ask? Well read on for more!

The app goes by the name Tweetie 2, as if you couldn’t tell from the title of the article! Before we go any further go to their website and download it now, CLICK HERE. Developed by atebits software Tweetie 2 is a sleek and very mac like desktop Twitter app. My previous favorite had been Tweedeck, but since Tweetdeck ran on Adobe Air it just didn’t have that native feel to it that I was looking for. One of my requirements that if I was going to find a new Twitter client is that it must be made for the iPhone too. It may just be me, but I’m a stickler for going from my desktop to my iPhone and having my Twitter experience be the same. Luckily atebits developed Tweetie for both the Mac and iPhone. Their iPhone app is spectacular, and I’m just sitting here waiting on the update to their mac client to bring the two apps together in terms of functionality. The desktop app doesn’t have lists or anything built into it yet! Hurry atebits!

Why do I love this app so? It’s simple, check out some of the shots of the interface below as I explain them. For one, like I mentioned, the app has a wonderful interface and it is a wonderfully native feeling app. It fits right in on your desktop. It’s organized very well, and is sleek and modern. For instance I have 5 Twitter accounts setup in Tweetie and if you checkout the left sidebar you can see the icons for them. To access each account further simply click on the icon. Once you’ve clicked on the icon for an account you’ll see a chat bubble, at sign, envelope, and search wand. All of these icons obviously stand for your main twitter feed, your mentions, direct messages, and searches. I particularly love this part of the interface. In the preferences you can setup the dock icon to display a badge whenever you have any new messages from any of these sections. I don’t do the main twitter feed but for mentions and DM’s I do. Very handy indeed!

Another thing I love about the app is it’s ability to open images without going to the web browser. You can open them in the browser if you’d like, but I like to open them right up on my desktop. The screenshot of the wine is one example. While we are mentioning favorite things, there is the option to open URL’s in the background. I love this ability because as I read through my Twitter feed I’ll open and link but not want to read it until after I’ve gone through all of my feed. This simply opens it up in Safari in the background and I can do read all the links I clicked on when I’m ready. Beautiful idea and implementation.

So what are you waiting for, please take my advice and grab Tweetie 2 for your Mac, and if you have an iPhone fork over the $2.99 and get it on your iPhone. It’s the best Twitter app out there right now. Stylish and functional all in one!

Alarm Clock 2 : MAoM

Can iPhone Photography Be Good?

Ryan Ray — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:40:35 +0000

Yes! Of course it can be good, it can be better than good. Many of the shots I see are fantastic. It doesn’t always have to be photography from an iPhone, try shooting from any camera phone. Phones with cameras on them are so ubiquitous these days that everyone owns some form of a camera. I know I may preach a lot about Chase Jarvis but he’s been a great inspiration for me to constantly have my eyes open, ready to shoot that next shot. If you read below about my 7D, you’ll know I have a great camera, but I’m not always out walking around with my 7D. I am with my iPhone though, and the same thing has inspired Chase Jarvis. He’s even made an app and a book and a website all for the iPhone photography. So what’s so awesome about iPhone photography? There’s more after the jump.

The iPhone has a wonderful advantage that for one in it’s latest iteration it has a pretty good camera built into it, secondly it’s all about the apps! Seriously the photo apps out there are insane! I’ll talk about the few I love to use but I’m positive there are more than I can account for just chilling in the app store. The iPhone’s camera is a great tool and the best thing about it is that it’s always with you. This is the mindset Chase has put me in. His motto as of late is, ” The best camera is the one you have with you.”

It means just that… if you see something you could shoot, why wait? For example when I’m walking around campus going to class and eating lunch I’m probably not going to be carrying my 7D around with me. Perhaps sometimes, but not ALWAYS. My iPhone is ALWAYS with me! The point of this is to slightly ignore the technicality of shooting photos and just shoot. You can compose, and edit, and upload instantly from the iPhone. That process is so awesome. Just for once don’t worry about what lens to use, what ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc… There are moments out there that can be captured everyday by the iPhone. What other choice do you have if you don’t have your “best” camera with you? You wouldn’t want to miss out on a perfect shot.

I’ve started a Flickr Set to share my iPhone photography and will be updating it regularly, probably daily. If you are a photography fan I recommend you start getting into any camera you have with you. Hopefully you will unlock a new world of possibilities. Share your thoughts with me after checking out my Flickr Set. Below in no order are the apps I use.

Color Leap
Night Camera
Photogene
Mill Colour
Camera Bag
Best Camera
Photo Curves
Tilt Shift
Pano

My New Drum Set

Ryan Ray — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:12:01 +0000

I know a certain SOMEONE will love to hear that I bought a new drum set, and I think it’s funny that it’ll be a “surprise” through my website. But I did indeed buy a new drum set. For those who care it is an OCDP kit. Orange County Drum & Percussion, they’ve been my dream drum set since I’ve started playing. It’s weird to finally own one because at the time I was in Junior High watching people like Travis Barker, and Adrian Young play on their OCDP kits. I loved their sounds, especially snares, so I was excited about their drums until I noticed their price tags… OUCH. Now that I’ve gained employment and have been playing a lot of drums for John Tibbs, I thought it time to upgrade my kit. I haven’t told any of my band members that it’s here, so SURPRISE to you as well.

The kit was on sale, I splurged, it’s arrived and it looks fantastic! There are a few pictures of the rack tom below. The sizes are in order; 10×8 rack,16×14 floor tom, 22×20 kick. I listed the size of the heads first then depth of the drum, I’m not sure if that’s the correct way but now you know. I can’t wait to get some different heads on it and start getting the kit broke in. I need to also get a second snare stand and hi hat stand for the kit to be complete. Now I’m off to put my old kit together and sell her off! Check out the pictures below and let me know what you think.

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