Ryan Cannon Ray » featured

My Lady Is A Fox

Ryan Ray — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:01:52 +0000

As you can see over at Mindy’s blog, I gave it a fresh coat of paint. I just wanted to prime it up and make it look the best I could. Her previous theme wasn’t my best, but now I’d say she is blogging in style. To go a long with that she decided she needed some fresh head shots to put up on her blog.

Of course I’d never say no to taking pictures of my girlfriend, nor the chance to practice shooting on an easy “client.” So we did that too! Web design and photography has been two hot hobbies of mine this summer, but that’s all for another post in the future. For now check out the pictures we got of Mindy and let me know what you think!

Summer Pt.1

Ryan Ray — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 23:55:39 +0000

This summer has been a wild whirlwind of AWESOME. Starting out I helped launch the BourgeaTEA website, and got ready for the release of Origins from John Tibbs in the very first days of summer. Outside of what you could call “work,” Mindy and I bought bikes and concocted a list of things we wanted to try and accomplish before the summer fades away. We’ve done pretty well too, I’ll update that list with a new post soon so you can see what we’ve done.

We’re getting ready to tackle more of that list now that I’m back for a bit from traveling with my buds in the ‘John Tibbs’ Worship Experience’. Jokingly that’s what we like to go by, or you can call us ‘John Tibbs and the Lamplighters.’ It has been one of the best experiences of my life to travel with such great people, then on top of that we get to meet a ton of new people, live for a week with hundreds of campers, and worship with all of them! I loved going to church camp in the summer as a student, and now I’ve been able to do that for about 6 weeks. It’s just like being a camper but as “the band” we get to roam around and do just about whatever we want. It’s great! So with that said checkout part one of our summer so far. More about Mindy and the list later!

iPhone 4 My Thoughts

Ryan Ray — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:26:44 +0000

There is exactly 13 days until the new iPhone 4 comes out, but who’s counting right? I’ll be at a camp in PA, so I don’t know if I will be able to get one on day one but I definitely plan on getting one! Last year I was on my way to the same camp when I got my 3GS the day it came out. If you are wondering right now what the iPhone 4 is, I don’t want to just repeat what you can find on Apple’s website so get every detail you need about the iPhone 4 there. Be sure to watch the video and don’t miss where Scott Forstall says, “The display on the iPhone is blow away.”

Now that you are all caught up, what do you think? Good, eh, or bad? Personally I am really pumped for this iPhone, which means I’m already selling my 3GS if you are looking for an activated, jailbroken iPhone. Why am I pumped for the phone you ask? That’s exactly what I was hoping you would ask, let me explain below my reasons for getting the iPhone 4.

New Design

The iPhone 4 has a brand new design that is akin to the original iPhone, and I like it. It seems like they have actually had a cross between the metal of the original iPhone and the plastic of the last two iPhone revisions. The back and front are all glass allowing better reception, hopefully! The sides actually serve as the antenna of the device and are stainless steel. Combined the new iPhone looks really sharp and sturdy, I can’t wait to hold one just to really see. It’s THINNER too, just check out the side by side comparison below.

Better and MORE Camera W/ 720p Recording

That’s right, the camera has been improved not only in megapixel count which isn’t that important but with a new sensor. These both allow for better shooting in lowlight. It also has an LED flash for extreme night time pics. Don’t forget now that it can shoot 720p HD video. This is what I’m really going to have some fun with. I’ve already got ideas and am very excited to see the possibilities with that. Oh, let’s also not forget the iPhone has a front facing camera now and can video chat over wifi. I’m a little more hesitant on this, just because of the wifi and does it only work with other iPhone 4s? We’ll see what the future holds for that.

This picture below is actually from the iPhone 4′s camera roll, just check out the nice quality. According to Apple it hasn’t been retouched or modified or anything!

Retina Display, Multitasking, Folders

I’m wrapping these last three together so I don’t go on too long. This new display is supposed to be amazing, effectively quadrupling the pixel count in the iPhone’s screen. Again, I’m going to have to wait to see this thing in person. The last two belong to the actual iOS, as it’s called now. Multitasking has long been sought after on the iPhone, and Apple finally delivered with their own solution to the problems multitasking brings. Battery drain, slow phone, etc… Without going into details, I can’t wait to use it! Lastly the new folders capability is going to save a lot of swiping through screens to get to my favorite apps. You can now start putting apps in what they call folders, which can now take a whole screen of apps and put them into one little app icon. Whew, what a weight lifted off of my screen. You can organize them how ever you want!

So that’s it, these reasons and more are compelling me to get the iPhone 4…whenever that may be…

What do you think of the iPhone 4? Will you be getting one?

From R to M

Ryan Ray — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:19:42 +0000

Remember one of my summer goals was to shoot more pictures and video with my camera. Well I put it into action…I had this idea the other day for a short video, nothing too fancy and actually quite simple. I just wanted to film my view as I drove out to Mindy’s house to hang out. I actually went to fix the faucet and help move furniture for carpet installation, hah.

I drive this path a lot, and I’ve actually biked it 3 times in the last week. It’s only around 4 miles, nothing big! I had good timing luckily and the sun was just setting as I drove across town. It’s about a 10 minute drive depending on traffic in the big town of St. James, it also only takes 16 minutes on bike according to my rides. But to spare you sitting and watching 10 minutes of footage, I’ve sped it up in a mock time lapse fashion which is always fun to do, so check out a quick glimpse into the beautiful sunset drive as I go across town.

My New Trek

Ryan Ray — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:23:01 +0000

Check it out. Click on the picture to the left and see my new bike, oh and Mindy’s too! For the last year I had been planning on buying a bike sometime. I’d talked with Todd Liles about what I should get, researched online, watched videos, and in general just watched other people and their bikes. I knew nothing about buying myself a good bike, except for how much I was looking to spend. All throughout the last year of school at AU I rode from Fair to classes on my longboard. A very fun option, but I also wanted the option to bike it! Usually it’s much safer and faster. Plus with buying a bike I wanted to be able to stay somewhat fit over the summer, and beyond. There isn’t a lot of ultimate happening around here, nor people to run with that could help keep me exercising. Speaking of running, it’s not really my favorite thing to do. While it kept me in somewhat shape, it was no fun for me. I’d be very reluctant to run when other guys love doing it.

So then what, I was left with two choices long boarding and biking. I figured it would be hard to longboard this summer given the terrain around my hometown. There are some nice hills and getting off the road there are some sweet bike trails. No longboard could easily handle these, so I was off to the local bike shop. Route 66 Bicycles seems to be a shop run by two young guys who are very knowledgeable about any kind of bike, and really helped seal the deal for me on what I was looking for and what bike in my price range fit the bill. I owe them many thanks for giving me brochures and answering all of my emails full of questions.

To my surprise along the way my girlfriend Mindy decided she’d join in and get a bike too! I was at first a little surprised, I didn’t know she wanted to start riding too?! I love it though, now that I have someone to ride with it’s made it 10x as fun!

My bike is a 2010 Trek 7.1FX in a white duotone silver sparkle, and Mindy went with a Trek 3500 in a paint color called Onyx. Mine was already built for the road, but Mindy’s wasn’t quite ready. Her bike is a hardtail mountain bike originally but a quick swap out of tires and a different seat and she was ready to cruise the roads with me. We bought our bikes on a nice rainy Monday and were confined to riding circles in her garage for that day, but yesterday the sun was out and we finally got to go ride. We did 6.2 miles on our first ride, even after Mindy almost passed out! It was a lot of fun and I’m definitely looking forward to more biking! Is anyone else out there a fan of biking?

Welcome to RCR V2

Ryan Ray — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 01:25:02 +0000

If you can’t tell I’ve redone the site again, but with good purpose not just because.

As time has gone on I’ve realized that for my website I want 2 uses out of it. One as a blog, simple enough right? That’s what I’m doing right now. This will always be a place to collect my thoughts. I just want to be able to easily share all of the things I think are cool. (quotes, videos, pictures, links) It happens to look pretty good thanks to the themes from WooThemes. Which is awesome!

Second I want to have my portfolio of pictures, videos, etc… on the same site. In previous versions I had two installations of WordPress going to manage this. One for the blog, one for the portfolio. With this new version I’ll be combining them into one with a simpler way to view the pictures, video, and anything else I create.

On one last note, I finally found the perfect script for my personal branding. I’ll be sticking with this one as I graduate and market myself to employers, for hire, etc… Given all of that, I needed to refresh the site to serve how I want it to. I’d rather do that than let it sit stagnant as it was. So now that we’ve got that out of the way be sure to friend and follow me up on all the social networks you want, and check out the rest of the site. Let me know what you think of it all!

Get The iPhone 3.0 Software Here & Now

Ryan Ray — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:34:24 +0000

I wanted to share a quick little tip/secret before it’s too late. It’s true that the GM of iPhone 3.0 is out in the wild, and if you want to play with it about 12 hours earlier then anyone else then follow my example. Or you can just wait until tomorrow and hopefully get it from iTunes‘ servers, that is as long as they stay up/ Below are the two links that will take you first to the site to download the iPhone 3.0 software.

IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOU USE FIREFOX TO DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE, FOR SOME REASON SAFARI SCREWS UP THE FIRMWARE. USE FIREFOX.

iPhone 3.0
iPhone 2.2.1

Once you’ve downloaded the firmware go to the second link to get the 2.2.1 incase anything goes wrong and you need to downgrade. To install the software open iTunes and connect your iPhone/iPod Touch. Back it up and sync it, I repeat back it up and sync it. Otherwise you’ll lose apps, music, etc… if you haven’t got the most recent backup & sync on your computer. Once you’ve done that, hover over the RESTORE button. Before you click that hold down the alt/option key and click restore. That will allow you to choose the 3.0 firmware from wherever you saved it. Let iTunes do it’s thing and keep your iPhone plugged in until it shows back up in iTunes, DON’T UNPLUG IT. Now that the new software is on it go ahead and sync your stuff back to your iPhone. Once that’s done and iTunes says it’s ok to disconnect, then do so and enjoy the new software. MMS, isn’t enabled in this but you’ll at least get voice memos, copy and paste, iPhone wide search, etc… I’ve been playing with it and so far love the ability to mail more than one picture and copy and paste. I can’t wait until MMS is enabled.

Finally the iPhone is a fully featured, fully functional phone. Welcome to the year 2002 iPhone 3G of 3008.

Leave comments if you have questions or problems