Hello, my name is Pat Hammons & I live in Louisville, KY. I am a senior grad student & senior (age 61) at U of L. I have been working on a 1-year grad project that will become due at the end of April or 1st of May, that has been extended into this year also. I started this project last year & my class is an IS/RP (Independent Study/Research Project) so I am working on this solo project myself & check in with my teacher either by phone, 1 monthly on-campus meeting or SKYPE.

My project is all the Homicides & Shootings that have happened in Chicago, IL., that seen over 750+ Homicides & over 4000 Shootings last year alone. What I am doing for a project is a massive Power-Point presentation that the minimum is 50 slides & Max is 80 slides & will be presenting it to 2 classes, 1 undergrad & 1 grad class, plus getting a final grade.

I have amassed a lot of photos on either Homicides or Shootings in the last year by using 2 main sources: CT-Chicago Tribune or CST-Chicago Sun Times that I receive online thru their e-newspaper each day thru my e-mail. I also have been following both of their web pages for Homicides & Shootings where they will track this by numbers & where I can tap onto it that talks about a specific story.

What I have done is saved many of these images by doing a "Save Picture As" under such things as: Crime Scenes, Homicides, Shootings, etc., and want to incorporate them into my PP under different titles for each category(ies). So at school, U of L, one of the people I talk to on a regular basis asked me if I had Photoshop - I do not. So then they said, well you can "download" GIMP & I had no clue what they were talking about. Since I sometimes get a discount on software, I had to have them tell me a little bit about it. So now I'm turning to you all for a better understanding of GIMP & if you think I can use it at all for my grad school PP presentation I am getting ready to start putting together.

What I do have that may be similar to this is for my camera using EasyShare Software when I download my pictures that I can resize, crop, red-eye out, etc. **But I do have to advise you of a medical condition I have that may help you to understand why I need some extra help. As I said, I am 61, senior grad student - but I also have MD-D which is Macular Degeneration-Dry, which is an inherited eye disease I got diagnosed with 2.5-3 years ago. My mother had it for the last 15 years of her life & she died in 2012 at age 95. They thought I had beaten the odds on not getting it & it was misdiagnosed as being part of my migraines I have had since my early 20's. Come to find out it was not & that is why I was having trouble reading my textbooks or taking tests, I could & cannot see stuff clearly anymore. My mother had the "wet" version & never "dry" and she went Legally Blind, which what I have is 1 step below going Legally Blind. So I am taking (4) horse pills a day & (2) Fish Oil pills trying to save my sight & going to the eye doctor every 6 months. I have to read my textbooks now as a PDF. So everything in my life has changed & I need to see if your program would be worth download & will I be able to learn it & see if big enough?

I know this is a lot to unload on you guys here, but school suggested it thru my counselor at the DRC-Disability Resource Center that helps me with a lot of my schoolwork on getting things like my textbooks (now PDF's) or taking tests to where say a 30-minute test online for me is extended to 1-hour because it takes me long to read the Q. I don't get extra help on tests, I just get extra time, since I either know it or I don't kind of thing.

So in closing, if you can please get back with me, I would deeply appreciate it very much. I have a lot of ideas in my head on how I want to do this massive project, but I want to make things "pop" in a way so that the class is not bored looking at all numbers & spice it up a bit using extra stuff if I can or like using animation icons, etc., but all dealing with police themes that use Arrests, Homicides(chalk outline, crime scene tape), Shootings (guns, etc.) and stuff like this. So I know it is a challenge but I just need some extra help. **I have Windows7 on my laptop which is an HP Pavilion G7-2017 Notebook PC if this helps you in any way. Otherwise, I don't know what else to do to maybe help me & someone suggested that I download your program. So I thank you in advance & hope that you can help me in some way. Thanks, Pat Hammons.