ryann.ca

Ye Old Birthday Wishlist

Ryann — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:56:44 +0000

I always treat my birthday like the epic holiday it should be and proudly post my birthday wishlist. I’m employed this year, and although I won’t get the luxury of calling in ‘older’ into my new job I won’t be asking for money! Okies so down to business – my birthday wishes in no particular order and no concern for your budget!

1. Sewing machine – The Brother Project Runway Special Edition
2. A chest of drawers (6 or 9 depending on size or configuration – cherry)
3. Art supplies, canvases, acrylic paints, acrylic paint brushes
4. A small photo backdrop (smooth plastic curve), necklace presentation stand, a foam head
5. Owl Stuff
6. Fairy Stuff
7. Drawing Books, Fantasy Illustration Books (Kustom Kulture has some cool ones), 3D Modelling / Texturing
8. Sweaters all kinds – its fall there’s lots of selection – dark colors please!
9. Socks (we can always use more)

That’s it for now – my ocd won’t let me add 10 because my bullets will cease to left align – and with that I bid you adieu!

Florence & The Machine – Dog Days Are Over

Ryann — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 01:13:54 +0000

The commercials for Eat Pray Love have been airing for a week or two and the music caught my ear. The song from the commercial is Florence & The Machine – Dog Days Are Over. I’ve linked to this version on youtube because it lets you have a listen and the video version is blocked from linking and/or contains advertising – but the video is pretty cool too so its worth checking out if you’ve go the time.

They’ve got a pretty groovy website too: http://florenceandthemachine.net/

WordPress Login Not Working – False Redirect

Ryann — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:31:37 +0000

So I had this problem occurring on several wordpress sites I was maintaining. I would access the admin login, enter the username and password, the site appeared to accept them, but instead of directing me to the dashboard, redirected me back to the login page. It would often take 2-3 login attempts before it finally “caught” and i was able to access the dashboard.

I did a bit of googling and determined it has something to do with the plugins (although I have no idea what exactly) Anyhow, eventually I found a tiny snippet which finally fixed the problem. Add the following line to the bottom of the first group of definitions of your wp-config.php file.

/*added to try and fix login loop*/ @define('ADMIN_COOKIE_PATH', '/');

WordPress Admin Login works like a charm now.

Little Girls

Ryann — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:10:44 +0000

First week at the new job was pretty good! I think I’m really going to like it there! It’s a little strange to be able to pass the buck on the database interaction portion – but that’s what I wanted – I suppose I should get used to it.

Anyhow, on to the purpose of this post. For those who know me know that I these days I listen to the Indie Pop Rock genre, which in layman’s terms pop & rock music released by bands that are Independent i.e. aren’t played on the radio 24/7. There is a station on somafm.com that caters to this group conveniently called Indie pop rocks where I get my regular fix. While listening to Indie Pop Rocks they played the song “Youth Tunes” by the band Little Girls which I instantly fell in love with.

After humping the song on YouTube for about a week today I decided I wanted to listen to more music from this band. I found their myspace page and an article about them on wikipedia which describes the songs as “combination lo-fi distorted surf rock with layers of haunting, and melodic walls of sound.” Right up my alley – I know, and Canadian!

There was a brief moment of butthurt when I tried to buy the mp3 album from Amazon.com – apparently mp3 albums are only available to U.S. customers, and Amazon.ca didn’t carry the album despite having a Canadian music section, but I digress, I decided to check their labels website and low and behold I was able to download the mp3 album in full via their website for only $10!

Shop Little Girls @ Paperbag Records – I’m listening to it now and I love it.

Christ and now I’m looking at their other bands and they’ve got Woodhands on here too, you’ll have to excuse me, I have to go check my Paypal balance!

New Job

Ryann — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:45:08 +0000

Well after job hunting for 2 months I finally found a job. I’ll be doing graphic web design for a non-profit organization on a one year contract. Of all the things I can do, it focuses on one of the things I *like* to do, which is exactly what I was looking for. While biding my time I had set up a freelance website at http://www.nodedesign.ca – I won’t be using it now and will probably let the domain lapse eventually (I loved the concept but nodedesign can be confused to easily with nodesign which is well, ya know..) but you go ahead and have a look now in any case – no sense in letting a nice design go to waste.

Blog Fail!

Ryann — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:54:49 +0000

Well regularly scheduled blogging has clearly been an epic fail. Perhaps micro-blogging from here on out eh? Dad had his bypass surgery a few weeks ago. In and out of the hospital in 5 days – the amazing mysteries of medicine! Still looking for a job – but I got a good lead on Friday so keep your fingers crossed for me. I’m doing a bit of contract work right now to pay the bills, a couple of website redesigns, takeout menus and business cards so I’m not just effing around in Second Life all day, okay? lol

Hello World Again

Ryann — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:06:02 +0000

It’s been a few years since I committed anything significant to this blog – but I figure I’ll dust it off again – give myself a goal of blogging every Saturday (if not more) – there I said it, now you can hold me to it.

OK, so whats new? Well I’ve just (and I mean as of this Friday, just) finished a 2-year diploma program in Graphic Design from Red River College. I have to admit it was tough going back to school for 2-years, I did learn a lot. You can see check out my graphic design portfolio online at http://www.ryanncallaghan.com. Yay me!

Our open house was this past Thursday night, we had Robynne Raye from Modern Dog Design come to speak with us, she was really great, and super funny!

I went back to school for different reasons than most of the students there. I have a few hobbies that render me a small income, but not enough to live off of – the problem that I was having was in the presentation layer – although I have what I still believe to be sound concepts, and good software skills, my skill as a artist & designer were lacking. I have to say I’ve definitely improved in those areas.

I was really hoping to revitalize these projects while in school but unfortunately the course load didn’t allow for that. Presently, I’m starting to look for work, something 3/4 to full time, permanent that is a good fit. In the mean time, I’ll be updating them, hopefully increasing their profitability – and telling you about them here! One of them that I tackled earlier this week is the Faerie Cards website.

FaerieCards.com

I’ve updated the site structure with my updated understanding of css-based design, can gave it a new look & feel. The database was out of date so I went through and updated all my merchants, fixing broken links where I found them. At the time this site was originally set up, Cafepress only sold greeting cards in packs of 10 which is what all of the products featured in this website are – however, since then, they’ve also added individual cards, and sets of 20 – so the database definitely needs a revision – which means it also needs an upgrade so expect future updates on this one!

Things in the home life are going very well. I’ve developed a serious bad habit of wedding planning, despite the fact that Ben hasn’t officially asked me if I wanted to be his wife. We did set loose plans that after I was done school and back to work that we’d probably get married or something like that lol But the thing is, i would come home every day from school and watch this show on TLC called “Say Yes To The Dress”, and quickly became addicted. This show is like crack for me – and now this girl who always said I’d be happy getting married at city hall – well I still think that part is ok, but now I want to do it in a $3500 dress! And then there is Cake Boss, how can you NOT get an awesome art cake? You see where this is going… heheh I’ll share the details in future blogs.

The other benefit of being home right now is that I have a bit of time to concentrate on myself. I’m just coming into the realization that I am probably on track to develop heart disease. My dad is going to be going in for bypass surgery next month (keep him in your thoughts), and my grandma died a few years ago after having a major stroke that severely impaired her ability to take care of herself for a number of years. I’d heard my aunt was recently diagnosed with type II diabetes, and I believe my grandfather may have had that also. My doc said I have a teetering thyroid which is going to put me on medication for one day, but not until it finally sputters out – so until then I still get to deal with the side effects, including mood swings, slowed metabolism, and weight gain. So I’m looking at this deck of cards i’ve been dealt (and not to mention the $3500 dress I want to squeeze into) and I want to make the changes required in my lifestyle to make sure I’m around for my family as long as possible.

Okay that is more than enough rambling for now. Have a good one!