Writing isn't the only way to play with words. Take them down a peg, look at them as just letters, forms on a page and you can make a different art with them. This isn't writing, its a whole new creation.

ASCII art is my personal favourite. But, there are other ways to get into the game of playing with your words. Typography is playing with fonts. What others have you found? Email me, I'd like to hear about them.

There is the whole riddle, puzzle, Scrabble issue. But, I'm looking at making plain ordinary everyday text into art.

Does anyone make ASCII art or am I the only retro geek? Someday, that ever illusive day, I want to make a whole website in just ASCII and ASCII art as illustrations/ graphics. I've seen one done in this way. It was very unique looking now. Back in the old days of dinosaur computers it would have been normal, if not cutting edge.

Anyway, this week take a break from fiddling with words and try something new. Play around and look at them in a whole new way. You and your keyboard will never be the same again.

What are your words? The ones you always have to look up and check spelling or meanings? Looking at a book with "the most common mistakes in English usage" I found a couple of my own.

Accept and except.

These even sound about the same. Do you know which is which? When do you accept and when do you except?

Lay and lie.

For me it's really the word lay. A chicken lays eggs. Do people lay down or lie down?

Then, there are common mistakes I see myself. Not my own mistakes but those of others.

They're and there.

They're going to the park on the way there.

Your and you're.

You're going too fast your speed is too high.

Where and were.

Where were you?

A lot and alot.

Alot is not a word. It should always be a lot.

Do you know which is the principle and which is the Principal?

When is it better to further your efforts to go farther?

No doubt those aren't glowing examples of grammar but sometimes knowing how words fit in helps you remember which one you need at the time.

Other confused words are anything with double "0's". Choose chose, too to, loose lose and so on.

But my personal worst mistake is its and it's. I still can not keep them straight. Sometimes I get lazy and just type 'its' regardless of correctness.

I can stick up for my laziness by saying that's how language is built, it evolves from laziness and a need for better understanding in communication. But, I know in the case of 'its' I'm just being lazy when I should, or at least could, be checking my handy dandy dictionary.

"It's time women stomped on a few feet (or inches) and took back our words: slut, bitch, hag, whore and all the rest of them. They belong to us. Words are our power. No man really has the same power with words that women do. I think that's why men have tried to throw words at us like darts. They chip at our glory with our own greatest tool and assets. But, the words are ours, still.

Think, what are women so well known for which men have never grasped? Communication. Men will even admit this if you catch them in a particularly honest moment. I've seen them post it, right here at Adult BW even.

Also, did you know most bloggers are women and the numbers of women rise dramatically when it comes to sex bloggers. Women talk about relationships, passion, sensuality and sexuality. Men are close mouthed. Or, they will talk about the crude basics like how well they nailed her. Sadly, they may be the only one who thinks that way about their skills. Which is another whole column I will write someday. I think I should have that third lover first though. Real versus cyber but still, I've seen some sad fumbling whether on my flesh or virtual.

Anyway, back to the words. I want women to stop thinking being called a bitch is negative. First of all, think how surprised people will be if you take the worst word they can hurl at you as a compliment. If you say "thank you". If you laugh while they stand there red faced, eyes still bugging out and looking amazed that their insult missed the mark so completely.

Don't think of Bitch as a female dog, think of it as a powerful woman. A woman who knows her own mind and is not afraid to use it. A woman who knows what she wants and goes out there and gets it. Ball grabbing and everything, just like those bags of mostly testosterone.

Slut and whore are no longer words to chip at our sexuality. Now they prove our sexual virility, our sensuality and our power over men, especially when it comes to sex. If they call you a slut you know you've done a really good job making him drool. Good for you! Let the dog lie there in his own wet spot and wish he could have a slut like you.

Hag, that's a word meant to hit us right between the eyes. We think of hags as old women, grey, washed out, worn out, wrinkled, ugly and badly groomed to say the least. But, a hag is not actually any of those things. The hag is the wise old woman, the woman of the woods, the witch, the midwife, the wild Earth Mother. Hags are powerful women too. Women of nature and power. Most of the less than complimentary words for women have come from powerful beginnings. The power of these words was drained away as was the power of womankind. As we stopped being matriarchies we lost our best words. I still would not like to be called a hag or a frump or any of those others. There is malicious intent behind the words. However, the words themselves are being unfairly (ignorantly) used.

It's time for us to make the words mean something else, make them positive and powerful. Then we will have all our best tools and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Call us what you will, it's all good. We are Woman!"

Originally posted to Adult BackWash: Saturday May 08, 2004  

I don't say the F word, I just do it. Why is it so bad to say fuck but not so bad to fuck? It's like that whole cock sucker thing which I have written about here before and will probably rehash eventually.

I give up on calling it the F word here. It's easier to type fuck and it does have that lovely shock factor. Are you shocked? Don't you like being shocked. The badness of being the one to shock and the tingling titillation of the one being shocked. Giggle.

No, I didn't just giggle. That would be beneath me. I am a dragon, dragons don't really giggle. We growl and grin a lot though.

Anyway, I've always been a good girl and I have always been select in my vocabulary. Not because fuck is a bad word so much. Mainly just because it's kind of crude and just not me. Or, not how I see me as being me. After all, there are so many words to choose from. Why say fuck when sex or make love will do?

But, there is something about saying fuck to your lover at just the right key moment. No, not eff off, not that kind of key moment. I mean the more flavourful and sensual... 'let's fuck'. The suggestion of doing something naughty, slightly forbidden and downright bad.

Still, I am select in which words I would use. I wouldn't say screw. I don't like tit or cunt. Those just sound so ugly and hard.

I have yet to say fuck in his presence, face to face. It is quite different to type it than to actually speak it. He's also select in his word use. I like that about him. Also, it makes the occasional fuck word extra noticeable, erotic and bad. It's fun to be bad sometimes. I intend to be quite bad on Tuesday when we will be in Ottawa. I expect there will be some doing and saying going on. I'm planning on it.

Even for nice grrls there are times when you just grin wickedly and say fuck it all.

When did you last buy/ get a new dictionary? How about a thesaurus? Maybe you splurged and got a rhyming dictionary too?

I especially like playing around with my thesaurus. But, tonight, I discovered how out of touch my trusty dictionary is. In fact, good old trusty is down right rusty. There is no ergonomics in my dictionary. Sure, I can spell check it with Lotus Word but it's just not the same. If you can't rely on your hand held print dictionary what is life coming to?

It's coming to the point where I will sacrifice a few (few dozen likely) bucks and buy myself a shining new, updated dictionary. Now, the question is which company to choose from. The current oldie is a Funk and Wagnalls I bought for college English classes. At the time it was the best choice between wordiness and thriftiness.

However, I'm not a college student any more. Now, I'm actually making real cash money every other week. I'll stick with paperback. It's easier to transport around and find space for. I can't imagine hauling out some hard, huge book every time I get the urge to look up something.

Another credential for my dictionary will be Canadian spellings. I'm Canadian and I intend to go on spelling like one. If anyone can't understand it they can just pull out a dictionary of their own.

While I'm dictionary shopping this weekend I'll peek at the thesaurus too. It's more fun than the stuffy old dictionary anyway.

So, how old is your dictionary? Can you find ergonomics?