I never thought I'd come to the day when I'd be glad of buying a dictionary. After being frustrated of using my old American Heritage Dictionary while writing my stories, I finally bought the latest edition last Sunday. Was it worth it? I haven't been using it enough times in the past 24 hours to know.

Actually, I've always been interested in reference materials ranging from thesauri to encyclopedias. What I'm trying to save up for now is DK's Visual Encyclopedia. It's really useful when you need to know the anatomy of the human body, ships, guns, and anything else you can think of. Of course it also happens to cost P1000+ so it might be awhile before I get one.

Danton Remoto, my fiction teacher, told us as writers to throw away our thesaurus. While he has a good point to use the appropriate words in describing a scene rather than just a synonym, there are times when you just don't know what to call it. Or if using the same word dampens the atmosphere. Whatever the case, having access to more words is never a bad thing for me. He has a point though. You shouldn't overuse the thesaurus. The words there should only be a guide. There are circumstances when using them is appropriate, and circumstances when using them is not advisable.

Hmmm, what else do I need? I already have a new dictionary, I wouldn't mind getting a new thesaurus. Microsoft Word's built-in features always seems inadequate. Oh well, don't mind me. These are just the musings of a lonely writer.

Oh yeah, did I mention I finally finished writing my story for fiction? And Benj, I don't have the time to sort out through your entire archive which spans one year.