Bio

I have been attending Gaston College for the last two years. I am planning to graduate in May 2009 with a 2 year degree in Medical Office Administration. I recently finished a co-op at Gaston Urological.

After working at Stabilus for 11 years, I was laid off due to alot of our jobs being sent to their Mexico plant. I was a final assembly lead for the majority of those 11 years. I was fortunate to be able to attend school to help me begin a new career.

I live in Gastonia with my husband, Ed, and our two dogs, a yorkie named Hailey and an Akita named Keiko. We have two grown children, Jennifer and Daniel, and three granddaughters named, Michaela, Bayli, and Rayvn.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking software is the premier product for large-vocabulary continuous recognition of natural speech. With Dragon NaturallySpeaking, you can create documents quickly and easily with your voice, without being slowed by typing on your keyboard.

You can dictate, rather than type, into any program that accepts text. Dragon NaturallySpeaking recognizes natural and continuous speech and converts it to text on the screen.

This software can be very beneficial for someone who is not an efficient typist. It would also be great for people who have to type documents. I have recently heard commercials on my favorite radio station advertising Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

PhotoStory and YouTube

Microsoft® Photo Story 3 for Windows® helps you create exciting video stories from your pictures that you can share with family and friends. For example, you could create a video story that features narrated photographs from a family vacation or a video story that includes pictures and sounds of your new baby.

In a few simple steps, you can import and edit your pictures, add titles, record narration, add background music, and save your story using the optimal quality settings (profile) for the way your story will be played.

YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.

Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

This is a great way to share narrated pictures and videos with friends and family. Its alot easier than trying to download a large file over and over again. I would have loved to have software like this when my chilren were babies.

PhotoStory movie posted on YouTube

SurveyMonkey

Intelligent survey software for primates of all species. SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily. Find out what everyone is talking about... SurveyMonkey is flexible and scalable enough to meet the needs of a wide range of people: whether you're managing HR for a multi-national organization, or you're simply trying to gather feedback for your blog.

I wish I'd have known about SurveyMonkey during my English 114 class! I had a very hard time trying to format a survey. With SurveryMonkey its easy to create a survey.

Animoto

Animoto is a web application that, with the click of a button, produces videos using images and music that a user selects. Using their patent-pending Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor & director, the resulting video has the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video.Animoto will analyze your images, feel your music and then customize your video! No two videos are ever the same.

I think this is one of my favorite web applications. The instructions are simple and easy to understand. One of the most unique things about Animoto is you can use the same pictures and get a different effect every time.

Campus Buildings

Facebook

Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.Millions of people use Facebook everyday to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet. Sharing on Facebook isn't just about family news or vacation pictures; it's also about your favorite stores and restaurants, helping you and your friends find great new choices and resources. It's also an important part of how a young business gets established.

I think Facebook compared to MySpace is more appropriate for people my age. Facebook is a good way to meet new people who live in your area. It is also a good way to keep up with friends and family.

Sound Recorder and Switch Audio File Conversion Software

Using Sound Recorder, you can record, mix, play, and edit sounds. You can also link or insert sounds into another document. You can modify an uncompressed sound file by:

• Adding sounds to a file.
• Deleting part of the sound file.
• Changing the playback speed.
• Changing the playback volume.
• Changing the playback direction.
• Changing or converting the sound file type.
• Adding an echo.

With Switch you can convert your sound files into the formats you need to compress for storage, create ringtones, add to a presentation, listen on your portable device and much more. In fact, the possibilities are endless using this powerful audio converter.

I think this would be great way to do a PowerPoint presentation for someone who is uncomfortable speaking in public. It is a simple way to narrate your pictures or add music to the background of a video. Mixing music for for home videos is easy to do with this software.

Box.net used to post converted audio file

Founded in March 2005, Box.net is a leading provider of tools for managing and sharing data online. The service enables users to share, access, and collaborate on files of any type from anywhere. Box.net is the first web-native system for access and collaboration which allows a broad array of functionality. With over 2 million users, over 1 million files served every day, and more than 1000 developers in the Box Enabled Network, the service is used by individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 1000 companies.

Hypothyroidism.mp3

Flickr

Flickr is an image and video hosting website and was one of the earliest Web 2.0 applications. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. Its popularity has been fueled by its organization tools, which allow photos to be tagged and browsed.

I have used Flickr to send pictures to my friends and family. The instructions are simple and easy to understand. My son has started using Flickr to post pictures on his MySpace page.

Flickr slideshow

I'm special

HPIM0774
Originally uploaded by ginaroll1

This is Hailey, my Yorkie. She's very friendly and loves attention.

Del.icio.us

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.

del.icio.us can be very beneficial for someone who uses more than one computer. It can be a very useful tool for people who surf the Web. del.icio.us is a more efficient way to keep things organized than using folders.

Skype

Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Skype created a little piece of software that makes communicating with people around the world easy and fun. With Skype you can say hello or share a laugh with anyone, anywhere. And if both of you are on Skype, it’s free. Skype is available in 28 languages and is used in almost every country around the world.

I have noticed that Oprah uses Skype for alot of her interviews this season. Skype was also used during the results of the presidential elections on at least one television channel I was watching. This is a very good alternative for people who make a lot of long distant phone calls, especially international calls.