Unbelievable! After one night of wild thunderstorms that knocked out much power in the area, tonight it happened again, but for about 8 hours straight! I am sure there will be many photos in the local paper: much flooding and there were many many streets closed. More than I've ever seen before. I hear that a town in Indiana was completely under water - back during the day to add links.

Wild!

Here is today's photo from the storm: this one also from the local paper. It must have been THAT lightning bolt that scared the bejesus outta me. The photo was taken just 3/4 mile from where I was!

Here is a post just entered into the Lockergnome forum at http://www.lockergnome.com and on another blog at http://firedup.blogspot.com. Thought some of you visitors may be interested:

1.Fast fast fast! The sites come up quickly onscreen.

2. There are few bells and whistles - this helps the speed of reception and who needs all the graphics anyway when you are looking for content.

3. The links - best sites I have found have come from the blogs. When you find one you like, check the links and permalinks they feature. Sure way to come on to similar blogs and topics of interest!

4. When you make changes to your blog, they rely on very simple host-supplied templates that are easy to use.

5. Most hosts provide templates for your blog. To change your layout, color, font, etc. there is a simple template to mess about with.

6. Blogs often have comment features. This is interesting when you can quickly give your feedback or others can comment to you on your post. Again, with the blogs, the comment feature and linkbacks are instantaneous.

7. Blogs are not easily accessed by folks that wish to monitor your blog site. The posts are so fast to update, that it is incredibly easy to speed your post along and refer to other breaking news from around the world. And just as quickly, publish the post and delete it. No record! Whilst the intelligence communities watch the bulky websites, they are not able to keep up with the sheer volumes of blogs and posts to them!

8. Bloggers often have a pared-down sensibility that allows them to focus in on subjects, provide their comments and a link - like a good editor perhaps?

9. RSS newsfeeds are easily used with blogs. Plain text in blogs helps this along.

10. Most blog hosts provide a "referrer" log for you: you can see who visited your blog within 24 hours and also how often your blog is "read" by others. Can be an ego boost!

11. Blogs provide quick ways to get photos online using the "add image" feature. This enables you to link a public URL to a posting forum quickly if you want to post a link to an image.

12. Archives: Most blogs feature the capacity to acrchive all your pages weekly or as often as you wish. Nice to store the past posts and comments and quickly access them if needed.

13. Blogs are great to store links for your "Favorites" and "Bookmarks". Why? When you are traveling, you've got your links right at hand when using another computer away from home.

14. Bloggers tend to be very personable folks who answer (gasp!) comments and emails right away!

15. Most blog hosts compile lists of other blogs that are recently updated. This is fun to explore.

16. Blogs are often a quick adjunct to a regular website - check them out for more current posts than the full website. You will also find that many folks have several different blogs for different reasons.

17. Blogs for me are a convenient record of my daily life and a journal of sorts. While I am not a diarist, I find that copied posts every-so-often from my blogs provide a great record of what is important to me.

18. Photo blogs are fascinating to surf! Try this one for an example: fotolog
http://www.fotolog.net.

19. Blogs are easy contact sources for shared family and friend information.

20. Blogs provide an intimate approach to the cyberworld - what many of us bloggers are so happy to have. You are in touch right away with real people, not just passive viewers.

21. Blogs are the fastest way to find breaking news from around the world. While so many were on CNN or Fox, I chose to go through technorati's current events to get the fastest updates in digest form, and link where I wished to follow further. This leads to a global perspective on world issues. Here is the URL:
Technorati Current Events1
21. Blogs are the fastest way to find breaking news from around the world. While so many were on CNN or Fox, I chose to go through technorati's current events to get the fastest updates in digest form, and link where I wished to follow further. This leads to a global perspective on world issues. Here is the URL:
Technorati Current Events
Technorati

This give some ideas? Actually, I was glad to sort out my favorite reasons for becomming an avid blogger - "one of those" as my brother says.

This was certainly the most destructive thunderstorm I've ever experienced. Just as I was complaining about the heat, here comes a doozy to add to the wretched heat wave in Central Illinois. Here is a photo from David Proeber in our local paper - an image I will not forget:

The link to the local articles is here:
http://www.pantagraph.com/

Storm Articles and more photos