"Write now is good."

How data flows, Peeps secrets revealed, and "The Addictionary"

Photo: "binary easter egg" by Rakka

A few sites of note I recently found while surfing:

1. FlowingData is a well-designed and -organized online locale which helps readers

...explore how designers, statisticians, and computer scientists are using data to understand ourselves better—mainly through data visualization. Money spent, reps at the gym, time you waste, and personal information you enter online are all forms of data. How can we understand these data flows? Data visualization lets non-experts make sense of it all.

A few entries I like:

-- "Little Red Riding Hood, the Animated Infographic Story"
-- "Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis"
-- "17 Ways to Visualize the Twitter Universe"

2. The Addictionary is a social word site. Users make up words, create definitions for made-up words, vote on other users' humorous wordy concoctions, and connect to others who enjoy doing the same. From their "About Us" page:

The Addictionary is a site for word lovers and those who like to see our beloved English language grow in serious or humorous ways. We built the Addictionary to empower word-play and to help lovers of word-play showcase and market their cleverness and creativity to the world...

If you add a word or definition to the site, drop a comment here. I'll post a link to it so other readers can check it out.

Members of the Twitterati may follow The Addictionary on Twitter. The site's "snowflakes" have a new book out, too—Addictionary: Brave New Words.

3. A view into the secret life of Peeps. Because I always wondered how marshmallow peeps were made, and this photo set answers it for me*:

"How Peeps are made" from The Chicago Tribune (via Chris Glass)

* A video of the entire factory process would be even more enlightening!

A city of books, media stacking, and making more room to read

 

Photo: "media stacking" by Will Lion

A few worthwhile finds from my recent Web travels are:

1. Are you a "media stacker"? Read this TimesOnline article "Hello? I'm on the internet - and watching the television" to find out.

2. "The Buzzwords of 2008" is full of overused, wordy gems. On this New York Times' list, you'll find digital cliff, staycation, and Phelpsian, among many others. The article is co-written by Grant Barrett, "a lexicographer specializing in slang and new words, ... co-host of the public radio program 'A Way With Words' and head of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society." Accompanying illustrations by Jessica Hische are witty and original.

3. "This is where we live" is a stop-motion animation of a city made entirely of books. Over 1,000 copies of various books from U.K. publisher 4th Estate were used to make it. From ViaComIT.

4. Make more room to read! Change This and 800CEORead are working together on an innovative benefit for Room to Read. The details:

For $30.00, we are putting together a Mystery Box of three business books. In this box you are guaranteed one title that either won, or made the shortlist for, the best book of 2008 in its category, along with 2 other titles from last year that were submitted for the awards. As a bonus, we will include a copy of this year's In The Books, our annual review of business books. 100% of the purchase will go directly to Room to Read, and we'll cover the shipping on all orders.

Room to Read promotes increased literacy in the developing world by establishing libraries, computer labs and even schools in communities with few educational resources. It is a powerful organization which makes real and lasting positive impact. If you're not familiar with the group, I suggest clicking through and looking at what they do; it is inspiring.

Still yet more online dictionaries

Photo: "1907 webster dictionary" by jbrownell

In my latest wordy quest through and across teh Interwebs, I have found an abundance of online dictionaries. As I'm still involved in much non-blog writing, I'll quickly post these and dash off to additional wordiness elsewhere online. More link posts will follow soon — I've been finding some very interesting writing, tech and media resources.

In alphabetical order:

1. Cambridge Dictionaries Online — From Cambridge University Press; a portal to five of their dictionaries: Advanced Learner's, American English, idioms, phrasal verbs, and French/English.

2. Double-Tongued Dictionary — It bills itself as "a lexicon of fringe English, focusing on slang, jargon, and new words."

3. Word Spy — An ambitious site which is "devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't 'stunt words' or 'sniglets,' but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources."

If you know of any helpful word resources, drop a comment and I'll post the links.

Related posts:

° A basket full of eggcorns
° Free online graphical dictionary
° Build your vocab — for fun and profit
° The "now" dictionary
° Dictionary in there somewhere
° Dictionary.com makeover
° Help finding the right words

Thesaurus-loving zoo keepers make signs like this

Behold: eighteen different words used to describe how visitors should not interact with a zoo's animals. The keepers, and their zoo-signage team, earn points in my book for:

1. shameless use of their zoo's thesaurus
2. a focused passion for synonyms
AND
3. creative design incorporating a misplaced punctuation mark (That bold, eye-catching exclamation point, standing alone, gives a shout even BEFORE the sentence starts.)

Bravo!

I would love to see the other signs in this zoo. Does anyone know where this is from? This image has been posted and emailed and re-emailed so many times, its original sourcing (if it ever existed) cannot be found.

Image from GreenUpgrader's post "Sunday Funnies: Signs That Remind Us To Respect Nature", found via NOTCOT

"Write" is #930

Ever wondered what "the 86,800 most frequently used English words" are? The above screen snapshot reveals where "write" (#930), "page" (#931), "playing" (#932) and "independent" (#933) rank. The folks behind WordCount have put this information together in an accessible, fun format, making it easy to see the order of how often words are used:

WordCount™ is an artistic experiment in the way we use language....Each word is scaled to reflect its frequency relative to the words that precede and follow it, giving a visual barometer of relevance. The larger the word, the more we use it. The smaller the word, the more uncommon it is...

After plugging in a set of random words (which included "rabbit" (#5498), "chocolate" (#4204), and "astronaut" (#29,914), I typed in opposites: love/hate, peace/war, day/night. I won't reveal their ranks; in each pair, which do you think ranked higher? Go to the site and see if you guessed them correctly.

To learn more about WordCount, click here.

Found via a tweet from Digidave.

The shortest distance between two points is a...

Photo: Kake Pugh

This wording caught my eye—"desire path":

A term in landscape architecture used to describe a path that isn't designed but rather is worn casually away by people finding the shortest distance between two points.

Other possible meanings/uses I thought of for it:

1. It would work well as a novel title. It is both meaningful and vague enough to capture the imagination.

2. It is a near-synonym for "crowdsourcing". A sidewalk is set in concrete, yet everyone in the town feels there is a better route, so they make it.

3. It could mean what most of us are on in our life quest. Joseph Campbell understood this and encouraged others to "follow your bliss".

Sometimes a landscape architecture term is not just a landscape architecture term.

Out of curiosity, I went to Flickr in search of a "desire path" photo group. Here is the link to 201 photos tagged as such.

Thanks, [BB-Blog], who found it at Everyone Forever (which has additional photos of desire paths).

An idea generator

Need an idea? Click to this "Special Projects Idea Generator" from a group called The Directors Bureau.

After a few spins of the wheels, the SPIG came up with this homework to keep me busy:

- a comedic destructive concept
- an eco-friendly collapsible store
- automatic temporary food
- a nutritious musical vehicle

Word fun. Almost poetry. Surprisingly interesting ideas, some of which might be worthwhile to think more about. Random generators always get my thoughts moving in new directions.

Robot rebellions, dead letters, and mindmaps

Photo: "Jetpack & Robot B9" by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Looking for something to do this weekend? Check out the unique, wordy Web destinations I've discovered this week:

1. Read “Where’s My Jetpack: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Happened” by Daniel H. Wilson and illustrated by Richard Horne. He’s also the author of "How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion". These titles may sound silly, but according to the reviews, Wilson is a Ph. D., and his books are based on hard science. Be ready for an entertaining combo of real fact and humorous science fiction. I’m intrigued and am putting these near the top of my "must-read" list. (via NOTCOT)

2. Peer into the minds of others. Choose from 600 mindmaps (including bubble diagrams and spidergrams) about topics like brainstorming new ideas and creative intelligence. (via SwissMiss)

3. See if you know these 100 words, because this book says you should. (via GOOD Magazine)

4. Visit The Dead Letter Office —“A storage space for wisdom, regret and guidance”. Wondering what a dead letter is?

5. Help cure a horrid case of “artist's block”. Share your wisdom with a frustrated creative here. (via Notebookism)

Behind the words

Photo: Masks by kamoda 

This week's Sunday Scribblings prompt is "mask."

You have used words as a mask.

How do I know this? If you're a human reading this (1), then you have used words to hide some part of yourself.

Your co-worker asks, "How are you?" as part of his daily morning greeting.
A certain Monday, you feel his friendly inquiry is intrusive, obnoxious.
Lemon juice in your eyes, not lemonade in your mouth.
You say, "Fine, thank you," even though you woke up late, missed your train, stepped ankle-deep in a puddle, and mistakenly received decaf instead of your usual rocket fuel.
You feel the exact opposite of "fine," but you don't like to use other four-letter words so early in the morning, or so early in the week.

Sweating, you wonder why you ever came to the pool.
"Ha! You don't even know how to swim!"
Your face burns as the kids around you, including some who are years younger, snicker.
"I do, too!" you shout back, hoping the force of your voice will silence them, especially since your accusers are correct.
Because you doth protest too much (2), the mob ups the ante.
"Oh, yeah? Prove it!" they reply.
You wonder if drowning would feel better than eternal neighborhood humiliation.

Flashing lights coming closer always indicate trouble for someone.
"Do you have any idea how fast you were going?"
You stare straight ahead. So many answers overwhelm your tongue, even though only one is right. You fish around to catch one of the wrongs.
"Uh, uh, no?" you say.
The mirrored lenses reflect unconvinced. You know they will soon see that you're one of the county's most diligent speed demons.

I could go on, but I'd be writing this post until late October (3), at least.

Notes:
(1) The androids and extraterrestrials among us, I cannot speak for. When they're ready to drop their masks and say something, I'll welcome them to the conversations here. ;)
(2) Apologies to Wm., who may — or may not — have written while masked.
(3) I've promised not to wear a mask this year, as they are "too scary."

For more takes on "mask", visit Sunday Scribblings.

Told? Added? Warned? No — just said.

When in doubt while writing dialogue, use "said" most of the time. I recommend using it all the time while writing a first draft, and if its usage becomes too repetitive, edit it in rewrites. Use "asked" when a character is asking a question, and if a situation really calls for something like "yelled" or "shouted" then that word choice will fit without it distracting from the storytelling.

I find the key for me is not using too many dialogue tags at all. There are ways to fit dialogue into a story fluidly, and too many tags can seem like speedbumps on a newly paved superhighway. Which brings me to some appropriate, resource-packed linkage:

Nienke at The Writing Life has a couple of interesting posts about dialogue.
1. Dialogue tags not to use
2. On using dialogue: 16 links to dialogue resources

Here's a solid summary on "the rule of said" from "Writing Good Dialogue":

• Don't get overly creative with the mechanics of dialogue.        

The old standby — "he said/she said" — is still the best way of crediting dialogue, which after all is the purpose of dialogue tags. Getting creative with the dialogue tags ("he expostulated" or "she expounded") draws attention to the tags, not the dialogue. If you want to add vividness to your writing and choose strong verbs, do it elsewhere; I find I use "said" and "asked" almost exclusively. Vary how often you employ a tag based on the situation (if there are only two speakers and their mode of speech or emotional take on the scene differentiates them, you don't need many; if you have a cocktail party and the voices are all but interchangeable, you might need a lot). Vary the placement of the tag in the sentence a bit so you can add some variety to your style. And don't worry too much that there seem to be too many dialogue tags or that they're too repetitive, since readers will tend to read over them. It will probably be apparent — maybe even ludicrous — if you're overdoing it or becoming too repetitive with your dialogue tags.