Now, you know I like to pass along tips (like my tip of the day feature I do daily).  If any of you are food bloggers (and I know several of you are), you definitely need to check out Dragon Naturally Speaking (and the Mac version is called Dictate.  Since I have a PC, I own Dragon Naturally Speaking).  I know you are asking yourself why?  Well, this software has literally made writing posts for this blog ten times easier!

How many times have you found yourself writing yourself notes on recipes that you are making?  I know I do this all the time — especially when I am modifying a recipe for my family.  I also find myself writing notes that I want to include on my posts on the recipe itself.  Wouldn’t life be easier if you could dictate this recipe while you were cooking it?  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to add your notes when you were making the recipe instead of having to remember them?  I can’t tell you how much time I have saved using this software. Want to see how easy this is to use?

Now, if he can use it on a windy day, you can use it in your kitchen. I use mine with screaming children in the background with no problems (note: if you accidentally swear, because you burned yourself it, it will record those words down. Not that I know this from experience or anything). I am writing this post right now with Dragon Naturally Speaking, and my children are right here playing like they normally do. Now, I have a wired headset for my computer. I just keep everything right next to the stove, so I can keep the headset on and cook. However, you can buy Bluetooth headsets, and will not have that problem! Oh yeah, and instead of typing what you normally do (if you don’t know, check out Dragon’s typing speed test), you can be typing around 150 words per minute. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. Watch the difference:

Amazing, isn’t it? Now, there are so many more uses that you can use this for in your home. You don’t need a cooking blog to make use of this. I have four other blogs I use this on. I also am able to answer emails, IMs, and even making out my grocery shopping list! What uses for this would you have in your house?

Many of us have already seen the previews for the movie Blindness. If not, let me give you a short synopsis.  Blindness is based on a novel written by Jose Saramago. It is about how humanity acts when an epidemic happens. In this story, the epidemic is blindness. All those who are infected are quarantined into a mental asylum.  It is about how society can go a little wacky on itself in stressful times and how people truly do end up prevailing for the better of everyone.

There is a site dedicated to this film and its themes called i am blind.   It is all user generated content and has a very busy forum around the concepts discussed in this film.  They talk about what life would really be like if this happened.  However, they also have an excellent photostream of the last thing you would want to see if you would happen to go blind.  I am including this for my readers since the picture above is the only food picture on their photostream!

Image by chotda via Flickr

Now, there has to be a few more excellent food photos that definitely need to be included on there!  I’d like to see some cakes, ice cream, and even some chocolate.  Plus, if you think about, imagine how much better your food would taste.  There has been studies down about how if you lose one sense, they other ones get better.  I am sure the recipes on this blog would taste that much better!

What are some of the last things you would like to see if you were to go blind?

I love when I find services out there that truly make my life easier.  Scan My Recipes is one of those sites. It is super easy. You send your recipe cards, clippings, and printouts to them via UPS. They then scan your recipes and convert them to text. You then have several ways to access your recipes. You get a CD-ROM archive, you have private online recipes access, and you can even order your very own custom cookbook! My favorite part of this is that it saves me the time to organize all this information. I also hate having to check in four different books just to find the recipe that I want. Now, all of your recipes are organized on one easy to find place (well, more than one — you’ll have online and offline access).  This is such a great idea — I think I am going to start looking for all my recipes to send in.