okay, so lets print the thing in a square, and make it readable in several directions (theoretically)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

print 'What string would you like to twiddle? ';
chomp(my $twiddle = <STDIN>);

my $string;
my $oldString = "";
my $totallen = length($twiddle);
my @t = split(//, $twiddle);

for (0..$#t) {
    $string = shift(@t);
    print $oldString;
    for(my $i = 0; $i < (2*($totallen - length($oldString))-1); $i++)
    {
        print $string;
    }

    print (scalar reverse $oldString);
    print "\n"; # up
    $oldString .=$string;
}

while ($oldString) { 
    chop($oldString);
    $string = substr($oldString, (length($oldString)-1));    
    print $oldString; # print the first part o' the string (minus the 
+last character)
    for(my $i = 0; $i < (2*($totallen - length($oldString))-1); $i++)
    {
        print $string; #print each 'last' character up there enough ti
+mes to make the square
    }
    print (scalar reverse $oldString);# print the last part o' the str
+ing (minus the first character)
    print "\n";
}
[download]

hhhhhhhhh
heeeeeeeh
hellllleh
hellllleh
hellolleh
hellllleh
hellllleh
heeeeeeeh
hhhhhhhhh

I know the code is hacky, but it works...
_________________________________________
E-Bitch
Tempora Mutantur Nos et Mutamur in Illis
"The Times are Changed Even as We are Changed in Them"