So I'm waiting for a report to run in the oft-times uber-slow financial system here at work. Rather than twiddle my thumbs in sheer boredom, I decided to make a word cloud. (Thanks to girasoli for introducing me to this cool idea.) I tried to make a cloud of my entire blog like girasoli had done - entered the URL in the appropriate box, but got an error message that it couldn't pick up the feed (assume that is related to the problem of the SlowTrav blogs not updating in various Atom and RSS feeds, or whatever...I don't know much about feeds and such. I just offer heartfelt thanks to those like Kim and Marta who do know what they are doing when it comes to blogging technicalities and help the rest of us out!)
Anyway, since the URL attempt didn't work, I cut and pasted a single entry, the one from last month when I created my first ever written prayer, and made a word cloud of just those words instead...I think it looks so cool!
(If you click on the above image, a larger version will pop up in another window.)
Comments (11)
Hi Anne, very cool! I had not heard of a word cloud. I must have missed that post by Girasoli. Your first prayer makes a very beautiful word cloud. I like how the colors and sizes vary.
Hope you have a great day today.
Posted by Kathy (Trekcapri) | January 6, 2010 10:02 AM
Posted on January 6, 2010 10:02
It DOES look very cool!
I hope that our blog update problems get fixed soon. It's over my head too!
Posted by Annie | January 6, 2010 1:16 PM
Posted on January 6, 2010 13:16
Beautiful, Anne -- I love it!
Posted by sandrac | January 6, 2010 3:00 PM
Posted on January 6, 2010 15:00
Very cool! I really love this word cloud thing. It is always so interesting to see which words are used the most.
Posted by girasoli | January 7, 2010 3:19 AM
Posted on January 7, 2010 03:19
Kathy, there are a bunch of different options for colour and font, etc. It's really cool, you should check it out! The word sizes are driven by frequency of use. (So makes sense that "God" is so prominent since this cloud was based on a prayer!)
Annie, I hope it is fixed soon too. I don't like seeing blogrolls that say I haven't posted anything in 3 weeks!
thanks Sandra, I am quite taken with it myself. Reminds me of concrete poetry. If I could have added a tail somehow, it would look like a fish (which would be quite in keeping with a Christian prayer, I think!)
girasoli, I'm so glad you posted your own word cloud, it is so fun! I'll try it again with my whole blog, if our feeds ever get fixed!
Posted by Anne | January 7, 2010 8:12 AM
Posted on January 7, 2010 08:12
Yes, the blogrolls bum me out too. I haven't been blogging a lot lately but they show that I haven't posted in 4 weeks!
Posted by Annie | January 7, 2010 12:47 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 12:47
Very, very cool! I have yet to figure out how to upload a word cloud. And, yes, what's up with Slow Travel? I've tried to note your blog to mine and can't....hmmm..m
Posted by menehune | January 7, 2010 10:13 PM
Posted on January 7, 2010 22:13
WOW, that really looks great. And how wonderful that you have created a written prayer. A word cloud sounds intriguing...your prayer word cloud looks inspiring. Thank you for sharing that.
Posted by Eden | January 8, 2010 4:23 AM
Posted on January 8, 2010 04:23
menehune, it's really annoying about the blog feed not working! I've seen some discussion on the ST forum about it, but still not sure what's causing it, or if will be fixed soon. At least we can actually post entries though (even if nobody knows about them! lol)
thanks Eden, I found it very uplifting to write the prayer, after I got over my initial "what? I can't write a prayer" reaction! And really love how the word cloud turned out :)
Posted by Anne | January 8, 2010 7:59 AM
Posted on January 8, 2010 07:59
When I did mine, it only caught words from the posts shown on the first page (think I have 6 posts displaying). I am not sure how to get it to work for all blog posts, but that certainly would be cool to see.
Posted by girasoli | January 17, 2010 1:18 AM
Posted on January 17, 2010 01:18
I must try the cloud site again now that our feeds are working. A wordcloud of my front page stuff would be fun!
Posted by Anne | January 17, 2010 7:47 AM
Posted on January 17, 2010 07:47