Avatars

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Why did you select your avatar? What does your avatar say to you?

Mine says "perspective" to me and serves as a reminder that there are many ways to look at things. The spider was quite large, but it looks larger than the treetops because it is closer in the picture. It looks like the spider is closest, then the trees, then the clouds, then the sky - but actually the sky goes all the way to the ground (perspective again), and the spider's web - which was what first caught my attention in the back yard, is mostly not even visible in the picture. We are so aware that clouds are not solid that we, as adults, just realize that looking at a picture, but to a child who does not know better, they would look quite solid. We also know the sky is not solid, but to one who didn't know better, it could look like something solid way off in the distance - but the clouds and the sky we have a different perspective on because of our understanding.

David Q., I am particularly interested in what your avatar is because there seem to be so many ways to interpret that. Was that your intent?

[HUNTEDvsINVIS]

I've noticed that many of the avatars available on the internet are quite disturbing. I think they might even begin to fall under "insanity art". The ones used on this forum are quite mild, which I am grateful for. Those "flashy" ones are the worst, they nearly send me into a coma when I see them. If I had an avatar it would probably be one with Ettore Majorana or a chess piece on it or something.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

If I had an avatar it would probably be one with Ettore Majorana or a chess piece on it or something.

Why though? What would it say?

[Matt Gregory]

Why did you select your avatar?

Because I like clouds with the sun shining through.

What does your avatar say to you?

It says, "I am clouds with the sun shining through."

[Matt Gregory]

Yours looks like a spider that's about to jump on my head and bite me.

[Matt Gregory]

Leyla's looks like something that came out of someone's right nostril and is hanging on a tree branch.

[Matt Gregory]

I don't like it when people put faces in their avatars. I always feel compelled to look directly at it for some reason.

[Matt Gregory]

I didn't mind looking at Leah's avatar, though. She's pretty hot.

We should all use hot babes for our avatars. That would be funny. I bet it would attract more radical thinkers to the forum. I think the more thoughtful people are, the more perverted they are. Their energy level is higher.

[Matt Gregory]

I like Bryan's picture the best. There's something very majestic and peaceful about mountains.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Yours looks like a spider that's about to jump on my head and bite me.

I didn't realize anyone would take my avatar personally.

[Matt Gregory]

That spider's about to jump right on me. I bet it's poisonous.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

I don't think it's poisonous, but I'll admit that I couldn't work up the nerve to get the camera as close as I wanted to.

[Matt Gregory]

Oh, is that a Florida spider? They got some nasty critters down there. Those fire ants hurt when dozens of them are biting you.

[Leyla Shen]

Leyla's looks like something that came out of someone's right nostril and is hanging on a tree branch.

Wow, I didn't quite see it that way---though I reckon it looks a lot more phallic sized down than it does otherwise.

It's an amazing Leafy Sea Dragon, in actuality.

.

[Elizabeth Isabelle]

Those fire ants hurt when dozens of them are biting you.

Agreed. I forgot they don't have those up north. You don't have sand-spurs either.

I was amazed at the changes of critters just by moving across the state. On the east coast we didn't have to worry about poisonous spiders, but here I have to work to keep down the black widows and I have to be concerned about brown recluse spiders. I've even learned to welcome wolf spiders because they will eat the poisonous spiders (I'll get one in the house and just name it - those suckers are like 5 inches across, so they deserve a name). On the east coast there were a lot of land crabs, but on the west coast instead there are 'possums and scorpions too. On the east coast I understood why manatees only gathered in certain places, but I was surprised at all the specifics of the ecosystems of the land animals only less than a couple hundred miles away. Nature is amazing.

[Matt Gregory]

It's an amazing Leafy Sea Dragon, in actuality.

I've been trying to figure out what that was ever since you put it up. Yeah, that's a pretty amazing fish! Really makes me wonder about evolution.

[Diebert van Rhijn]

The heron is one of the few animals that appears to portray quite a few characteristics that could be regarded as wise often more in a symbolic way. And I don't mean wise as in nature's 'blindly stumbling into working solutions after millions of years' kind of way.

Some big or wild cats would be another close call.

Time perhaps to change the scenery as spring cleaning and prey stalking are apparently in the air.

[Katy]

I didn't realize anyone would take my avatar personally.

Great. I wasn't 'till he said that. Now I am. Thanks Matt. :p


I'd been wondering about Leyla's as well. I thought it was the end of a branch of a tree, actually. But leafy sea dragons are cool. They have a few at the aquarium here and, indeed, they make me marvel at the vast diversity that came out of what was once nothing but a few single cells in the ocean.

Speaking of which, manatees are awesome too.

opossoms scare the crap out of me. When I was little we used to leave our bookbags hanging in the garage and one night we left the garage door open. The next morning I picked the thing up and when I went to school I opened the bag and SLAP! There was an opossom in my bag! On the other hand, I had the best excuse ever for not having my homework... "opossom peed on it"


As to my own, it's a character from a TV show that has to fight for her sanity, and in the end succeeds, which is my hope. That and I thought the perspective was kind of cool.

[Cory Duchesne]

The only good pics I can find on google images are over 6 kb.

Is there a way of doing some sort of conversion/pixel reduction to reduce the KB's of a picture?

[Diebert van Rhijn]

Upload the picture to a site like http://www.picresize.com/ and resize to 80x80 (if square otherwise crop first to square dimensions). Save it to jpg. Many pictures look crappy when so reduced though.

[Cory Duchesne]

Thanks Diebert

[Carl G]

I like Dan's: a man and woman carrying an infinity sign.

Also, his old one, the man and woman walking in the woods.

[Trevor Salyzyn]

What does your avatar say to you?

My avatar says: "hi, how are you doing?" all the while being too busy thinking about his fantastic reflection.

[Katy]

I like Dan's: a man and woman carrying an infinity sign.

Also, his old one, the man and woman walking in the woods.

you know, I never saw any of the characters in either of Dan's avatars as female.

[Cory Duchesne]

I picked mine because I like how the symbol includes: infinity, circle-ness, duality, interconnectedness, and snakes - all at once.

I also like how the symbol is from the movie 'the never-ending story'.