Icon meme

[pne]

There's been an icon meme going around and I thought I'd participate—partly to explain a little what my various userpics stand for.

Now may be as good a time as any to do this, since my extra icon space expires next week :)

Default icon. Keywords: Martin.
This has been my default icon pretty much ever since I got an icon, with only short breaks. I didn't particularly like the look of comments etc. without an icon, but I didn't want an icon of myself on my journal. This is a picture of one of our many stuffed animals (Martin), taken by a co-worker of mine a while back, cropped by me. FWIW: Martin is a duck, not a platypus.

Keywords: Animated Martin.
I played around with Animation Shop for a little bit. Sometimes used when I feel a bit wacko, but not very often.

Keywords: Christmas.
I'm not sure who made this one for me… I think it may have been boredinsomniac. Someone from the UPI team, at any rate. I asked them to make something Christmassy for me based on my default icon, and they produced two pictures of which I selected this one. This was my default around Christmas, predictably enough.

Keywords: baby, by swelegant.
swelegant made this for me shortly after I announced publicly that we're expecting a baby in September. I thought it's really, really cute, and I use it now when I'm talking about our baby or preparations we're making.

Keywords: Kermit.
I use this mostly for posting in codesharing communities, especially invitecodes and codesharing. This started because the maintainers of invitecodes specified that each top-level entry offering codes must use a Muppet-themed userpic. (I really liked this community, especially after it went moderated, because there were some interesting code giveaways and contests, and none of the pleading "I desperately need a code; I'd love you till the end of my life well at least until this evening, lol" or the you-have-made-the-house-of-my-Father-into-a-den-of-thieves "I have three NP codes one DJ code one IJ EA account will trade for four LJ codes OBO" stuff.)

Keywords: bus.
Used when talking about the bus-girl. Those posts are filtered, and there aren't that many of them. You're not missing much, anyway.

Keywords: dolphin, happy.
Used when I'm feeling happy or congratulatory. I tend to use the "happy" keyword more than the "dolphin" one. Also often used when commenting on a privchange entry. This is a picture I made from a cross-stitch pillow-case Stella made—one pixel per cross-stitch, laboriously entered one by one into Paint Shop Pro.

Keywords: (none)
This is also from a cross-stitch design, but from a little framed picture rather than a pillowcase. I don't use this one these days, and it hasn't got any keywords.

Keywords: kitten, sad, transparent kitten.
The "kitten" keyword used to belong the icon above, but I use this one for that keyword now as well since I like the transparent effect better. Used when I'm feeling a little sad about something, since I think the kitten looks a little gloomy. Or sometime when I'm not feeling sad, in which case it gets the "kitten" keyword.

Keywords: barcode.
Typically used when I'm talking about geek stuff, and when posting to milixograke about my weight. Also sometimes used when I don't want to show any specific emotion.

Keywords: peony.
Used when talking about support, or when posting in support-oriented communities. I have a peony icon for this since volantwish first called me peony (from pne).

Keywords: pony.
Used occasionally in support contexts. Several support volunteers have this as one of their icons, from the preponderance of some users to wish for all sorts of things, especially if they have a free account, and the common reply by support volunteers, "Yes, and I want a pony, but I'm not going to get it, either."

Keywords: opsl?.
Used occasionally around support when I want to confuse people, since it's similar to a userpic of opal1159's. This strategy was considerably less effective when she adopted different default userpics (including one that looks very similar to khalidz0r's default), but she's now using the userpic this one was based on as her default again.
The whole thing started when someone pointed out that somebody who had submitted a support request (or maybe a screened response to one) had a userpic that was the same as, or confusingly similar to, the one used by a support volunteer. So I had the idea to copy someone else's icon. This was my default for a while, and confused a few people (including myself!) while it was :). See, for example, http://wunschzetel.de/pics/othersupport/spot-the-difference.png which features responses by Opal and me; if you go only by the icon, it's hard to tell at first glance who wrote what.

Keywords: Stella.
Used occasionally when talking about my wife Stella.

Keywords: by rouk, dilbert, hijack.
I don't use this one much, or for particular purposes. Maybe sometimes when talking about chaotic or illegal things, or activism, or when I feel that something is bad.

Keywords: angst, depressed, goth, lemon, pain and emptiness.
I use this when I'm feeling really depressed, typically in entries of my own rather than comments. From a Goats episode (cookie points for anyone who can find the episode the picture is from).

Keywords: avatar.
Used occasionally for no particular purpose.

Keywords: by allymckeal, squee.
Used when I want to go "squee!" at something, when I'm happy about something, or when I feel like using a picture of Hermione :)

Comments

avatar

[pne.livejournal.com]

http://www.dookyweb.com/?seccion=avatars
(or go directly to http://www.dookyweb.com/avatars.swf to see the Flash applet full-screen)

Re: avatar

[positivenothing.livejournal.com]

okay... now how do i get the picture to save?

Re: avatar

[pne.livejournal.com]

Follow the instructions (in Spanish :D) on the first URL above the Flash generator.

Basically: hit "Print Screen", then open an image editing program such as MS Paint, PaintShop Pro, or PhotoShop, and select Edit | Paste from the menu. Then save the image.

Re: avatar

[positivenothing.livejournal.com]

thanks