I am testing a post to all bogs feature in Bloggar.

Sears block

pave paradise, originally uploaded by douglemoine.

The Giant Oak

The Giant Oak, originally uploaded by twileen.

Emo

emo, originally uploaded by douglemoine.

"This hamburger stand is called emo's. there's a really scary-looking clown -- presumably named "emo" -- to attract customers. and to kill them once they get inside, probably."

Note: Now that's mean. Emo is an ice-cream stand, and it's a famous Peoria landmark. -- Bill Dennis.

"Low-budget christo"

low-budget christo - 2, originally uploaded by douglemoine.

Note: It's actually a pic of the Murray Baker Bridge while it covered for painting during the Upgrade 74 project. -- Bill Dennis

Moss Avenue home

MossB&W, originally uploaded by Vote for Pedro.

Sterling Grade School

Sterling Grade School, originally uploaded by TomLA.

Note: It's amazing how green Peoria looks from the air. -- Bill Dennis

Monkey

Monkey, originally uploaded by cdw9.

Note: A monkey eating a carrot at Glen Oak Park. -- Bill Dennis.

'Old building with weirdo spiral thing'

old building with weirdo spiral thing, originally uploaded by Jeniveev.

Note: I might be wrong, but isn't this 401 Water, before it was fixed up? -- Bill Dennis.

Wildlife Prairie Park

HPIM0043, originally uploaded by rudeyak.

Bridge2

Bridge2, originally uploaded by Darksky54.

Note: This photo of the Murray Baker Bridge was taken from the Riverfront. -- Bill Dennis

Inside Out

Inside Out, originally uploaded by TomLA.

"This picture was taken from inside one of the elevators in the previous shot."

Note: It looks to me like it was taken from the Methodist Medical Center's Atrium building. -- Bill Dennis.

Katy Bowling

Katy Bowling, originally uploaded by TomLA.

"Katy and I went bowling this afternoon. It has been a long time since we did this. And now I know I am getting old. Not only did Katy beat me 2 out of 3, but now I am sore. Oh well, it was a great time anyway."

Note: Can anyone identify the bowling alley here? -- Bill Dennis.

ADM

peoria, originally uploaded by robinh1973.

"America's post-industrial heartland - Peoria, Illinois. I grew up here. To rob a few words from Bill Bryson, somebody had to."

Note: That's the Archer Daniels Midland plant on Southwest Washington Street, with Vanna Whitewall in the foreground -- Bill Dennis.

'Keeping the workers happy 24/7 x 365...'

Keeping the workers happy 24/7 x 365..., originally uploaded by robinh1973.

The Uniroyal tire girl, Peoria, Illinois, winter 1994.

Note: Actually, they are calling her "Vanna Whitewall" now. She recently broke her ankle after being hit by a car.

Grandview Drive I

Grandview Drive I, originally uploaded by Blex.

This drive is simply amazing during the Fall.

Graveyard in Autumn

Graveyard in Autumn, originally uploaded by gunga din.

Springdale Cemetery, Peoria, Illinois, October 1998

A cheap and nifty image tool for bloggers

It's a Web toolthat lets blog users resize their photos before they post them to the Web. Look at this image: The original, which I found via a Google Image search, was four times the size. There was no way that I could have used it on my site. It simply would have been too wide. Normally, I would use some image editing software, like Adobe Photoshop Elements, to reduce the size to something manageable. But not all bloggers have access to this kind og software, and my goal is to make it possible for people to blog without having to spend one single dime. Of course, I could have simply inserted a comment into the image tag to limit the width to something that wouldn't exceed my template width. But that would still have slowed down how long it takes for visitors to upload the image. The image would still contain the same number of pixels, but visitors browsers would simply resize them for viewing. Ugh. This nifty and free Web tool allowed me to upload the too-large image, and then select how large I wanted the copy to be: 25, 50 or 75 percent of the size of the original. The 25 percent option resulted in the image that would fit. I saved this new, smaller version on my PC, then uploaded it to my free Photobucket account. Picasa and Hello! are options that work well for Blogspot hosted blogs (since they all are owned by Google, I imagine they would be). But they require the user download software onto their PC, which often isn't an option for students or other people who are blogging from a computer not their own.

Santa's Sleigh

Festival2 This float is the last one in the parade and kicks off the Christmas Season.

East Peoria's Festival of Lights

Festival1 Every year the City of East Peoria celebrates the Festival of Lights Parade the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day.

At Richard's

Nymph Two pints of Guiness and a patron is already getting friendly with the nymphs.

Latin Music in Peoria

Salsa Picture taken during the Latin Music night at the Peoria River Front featuring the Puerto Rican/Chicagoan group Banda Rika.

Sunset I

Sunset A sunset as seen over the Illinois River from East Peoria's Fondulac neighborhood.