Wordle Revisited

Last week, when trying to think of colorful stuff to take pictures of for the You Capture project, I REALLY wanted to create my own poster featuring “colorful” words to hang on my wall. Not colorful as in red, blue, green, etc., but colorful as in $%#@*&^!#*. But that wouldn’t have been very PC and probably would have actually offended some of my readers. So I quelled that particular urge.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then I remembered Wordle.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

That text was lifted right from the Wordle web site.

If you don’t have a big block of your own text to plop in, or aren’t feeling inspired enough to type out a bunch of random words, you can use the URL (aka address) of your favorite blog.

The first image below resulted when I entered http://www.toadmama.com.

Make your own Wordle word cloud.

So, once I did that, I had to try a custom block of text. I just HAD to.

It was like being alone in a room all by yourself with a little red button and sign that says, “Don’t push that button.”

If you are offended by colorful text, don’t click on either one of the two images below.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 

 

It isn’t immature. It’s ART, people.

Immature would be going to sites like the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and typing in colorful words then hitting the little speaker button so you can hear the pronunciation.

What, you’ve never done that? You haven’t lived, my friend.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary is my favorite online dictionary. It can actually be quite useful for real stuff like looking up the meaning and/or correct spelling of a word. And, yes, the pronunciation feature is helpful, too. Especially when you encounter words like “slough” that you just don’t use in everyday conversation.

I’ll never forget being on vacation in Oregon. Hubby was driving and Eric, who was around 10, was in the back seat. We were driving along the coast and I kept seeing signs for SLOUGH. I thought it was pronounced like SLOFF. So I said something to the effect of, “What’s with all these SLOFFS everywhere?” Eric piped up immediately and very excitedly with, “Where? In the trees?” I turned to look at him, saying, “What?” His face was plastered against the window looking at the trees as they flashed by. (Remember, Hubby was driving.) That’s when I realized Eric thought I said sloths.

I have no idea where sloths live, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t the Oregon coast.

Anyhow… if you have some time to kill, make your own Wordle word cloud. And if you post it to the public gallery to share with folks, be sure to send me the link(s). Colorful or not.