Friday Audience Participation

[shadesong]

envoy and I were discussing the physical appearance of someone he hadn't met.

Envoy: "Does [Person] has photo icons?"
Me: "Yeah, but they're hella airbrushed, don't look much like [him/her]."
Envoy: "Well, everyone does that. Everyone chooses the absolute prettiest pictures of themselves for their icons."
Me: "...not me."

This evolved into a conversation about my default icon in particular. This icon isn't the prettiest picture of me. It actually makes me look pretty severe, which I'm not in person. And the only thing I really like about my face is my eyes, which you can't see at all in this picture. (I look more like this and this, but with glasses, and my hair and face are thinner now.)

So why this picture as my default icon?

Because I'm writing. And therefore, I'm more me in this picture than I am in any other. So it suits me to have this as my default.

This is me at my most *me*. When no one's around, this is who I am; I curl up and the pen comes out.

And that's how I choose to represent myself by default.

So. Audience participation time. Why have you chosen the default icon you've chosen? What do you feel it says about you? If you don't have a default icon, why not?

Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

I pick a default icon based on its newness/shininess and its relative all-purposeness. This one comes from an obscure DVD cover and something about it appealed to me. Eventually it'll get cycled out in favor of a newer, shinier, all-purposier one.

'All-purposier' is a word now.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I'm all for word invention. Like "girlsex".

I mean both the invention of the word "girlsex" and the girlsex itself, of course.

[yendi]

Because I'm a ferret with a ring of cosmic power, so the icon was a perfect fit.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Well, you, I knew. I have to dust the damn lantern on the mantel every week.

[mangosteen]

I have no default icon, or for that matter any picture of me in my journal.

This is mostly because I don't want a picture of myself directly liked with my journal, and partially because I haven't found a good icon yet.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

D'you not want pictures of yourself online at all? Or just linked to your LJ?

[zhent.livejournal.com]

My default icon has more to do with my usual mood and expression than anything else. I always see myself as a kid, but with a different outlook on things... Hence Kalvin.

My sister actually told me that this was the first default icon I've used that actually fit me. So I've left it...

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Several of my LJfriends have complete Calvin & Hobbes icon sets. It's confusing, but fun. :)

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Well, I've used a ton in the past. I started with B.A., because I'm a GM, first and foremost. :) Then for a while I used me in the tux, which is not me, really, just a guy that looks like me wearing a suit, which makes him not me. :) Then me with the "joke-bottle" glasses on, which was just funny. And recently, this photo from my camera phone, which is just SHIT HOT. ;)

So I guess they're all me, and yet none me, if that makes any sense at all.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I like this recent photo. The joke-bottle one made you look much less attractive than you actually are; I was surprised by your cuteness when I met you in person! This one looks more like the you in my head.

Not that you should choose icons based on what you look like in my head; I'm just sayin'. :)

[brujah.livejournal.com]

I use this one because herpleasure has very persuasive ways of requesting things. *grin*

She hated my old default, which was a geometric design with my name in one corner.

So yeah. Such a simple request, when presented in such a wonderfully creative way was hard to deny.

Gods, I need kinky girlsex. >:D

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

This one is adorable. You're adorable.

I'm skating around flirtation with someone that may lead to kinky girlsex. Hm.

[storme]

I use this one because, well, I don't *like* photos of me. Heavily photoshopping the photos allows me to use an image which looks sort of like me but enough unlike me that I'm content to use it.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Sense-making. I know a few people who do that.

[corwinok.livejournal.com]

I've used this same image to represent my corwin-ness since I first scanned Corwin's trump from my copy of Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Castle Amber back in 94 or so. Looks nothing like me, which is also a plus :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

*nods* Given your net-identity, that's thoroughly sense-making. :)

[sparklymoon.livejournal.com]

I use the prawn cuz it's an inside joke that makes me smile every time I see it. Plus, I think that a prawn growling is quite amusing all on its own.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

You familiar with Pepe the King Prawn?

[zeyr.livejournal.com]

Because it is the only icon I have? :) It was made for me on a whim...

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Sporks rock.

[moment-of-me.livejournal.com]

Hi! New to your list! *waves*

My default icon is from a painting by an artist friend of mine. It's called "Flowing evolution" and the gorgeous bodies that you see in the icons are topped with fish heads. The artist said she wanted to show that women are evolving into more than chum. That we are growing to love our bodies, love who we are but there is still a deep-rooted fear in alot of us that we are just shark bait. I loved this painting, I love the meaning behind it. I love the artist. I love it so much, that my husband surprised me and bought it for me for my birthday. So, the icon was a logical choice.

If you're interested, you can see the entire painting here (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/Elocinoco/birthdaypresents013.jpg)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

What a lovely statement!

[celticfeministw.livejournal.com]

Urgh. Mine default is Ms. Alyson Hannigan/Willow. Why? My crazy obsession love for BtVS and Willow is one of my favorite people in the series. (She and Tara = Yum.) Plus, she's simply gorgeous and happy in this pic.

I have no icons of myself ... mostly because
a) very few decent pics of little ole me
b) prefer to use icons that illustrate a part of me/my interests/my life rather than me directly, per se.
c) have yet to perfect and entirely figure out the whole icon making thing (as you can see if you stroll through my userpics)
d) shy about posting pics of myself, unless I'm actually *doing* something (like learning to kayak or posing on a mtn.)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

She *is* so happy there...

Mine are a mix of me and just things that represent my moods. And most of my icons are made by my friends. I am Photoshop-less.

[elionwyr.livejournal.com]

Heh.
Currently? Because I haven't had the fundage to renew my paid status, I'm stuck with just a few icons. (For now.)

But I relate much too much to Gir, and have been told the little song I sing when, say, I "put someone on hold" sounds a lot like I'm singing 'doom doom doom'.

So, la! It fits. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I am way too much like Gir, m'self.

[eyewrist.livejournal.com]

This pic of me is about as close to "me" as you'll get. Anyone that spends any kind of time with me/my journal would probably agree :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Yep. That very much fits the you inside my head.

[blergeatkitty.livejournal.com]

I have a "writing" icon too, which would be a decent likeness if my hair was still that color. But I can't have it as my default because the photo of the spatula superhero that eilonwy made me for my 22nd birthday has been my default icon for the past four years and I'd feel weird about changing it!

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I like the spatula icon too. :)

[eyes-of-cyrene.livejournal.com]

I have no default icon because, sometimes, there just ISN'T an icon that expresses my mood or what I'm thinking at the time. Since I am Stoopid With Graphics, I don't know how to make myself a blank icon, and because I am forgetful, I haven't requested one of my Not Stoopid With Graphics friends make me a blank icon.

This icon, however, gets the heaviest rotation because, well, it's me, with the smile/grin/smirk that I most often have on my face.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

You're *very* pretty. :)

I couldn't not have a default icon. I'd always forget to select one.

[dougals.livejournal.com]

They've mainly changed based on my moods at the time.

Usually, I prefer something that represents me, but doesn't really show me. Like the SP one I'm using now and my Dooky one (http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/12678839/31570).

When I was feeling more isolated, I went with a drawing (http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/28442888/31570) of an old D&D characterof mine.

Most are from when I was feeling goofy. Like this (http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/2390468/31570), this (http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/9724410/31570), and even this (http://www.livejournal.com/userpic/14782467/31570).

[spikesandstuds.livejournal.com]

My most-often-used icons are all of me, and I like that. I don't write much (my journal's much more a record of events than any actual original thought, and the original thought stuff is invariably private), but I like attaching my head to it, if that makes sense. As for this picture, it's a pretty recent one, with blingin' blue eye makeup (kind of a new thing for me, the long hair and being girly), and you can see my relatively new transdermal implant in it, which was something I'd been wanting to do for about five years but only just did this year. I dunno. I like how I'm not smiling or frowning, really, just in repose.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I like attaching my head to it, if that makes sense.

It does. :)

[rosefox]

My default userpics have always been pictures of me. Recently I started feeling somewhat trapped by my expressions in those pictures; they didn't feel flexible enough. Now I don't have a default, because nothingness is vastly more adaptable than somethingness.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm hearing from people who don't have a default, as I've always been curious - and I know that you, at least, would have Given Thought to it.

Semi-long..

[kenakari.livejournal.com]

I'm better at telling a story verbally than writing it down, since the latter actually involves a lot more work. That habit drives my husband crazy.

When I first started being active online, I stumbled across a place called Elfwood, dedicated to fantasy art and writing. That got me interested enough to actually start to write the damn shit and post it in their Wyvern's gallery, much to the husband's joy.

The first piece I posted was the beginning of a tale about the grandfather of a half-bred, golden-eyed elf I called Nethra - in fact that story might still be there for all I know. Anyway, the site went down about a month after I joined, and the maintainers directed us to LJ to bitch about it. I met a lot of people through LJ, who are still on my f/list today. Just because of that story.

When Elfwood came back up, I asked one of my friends to make an icon for me based off of that character. Nethra brought me into contact with a lot of terrific people, even though I stopped writing her story when I found out Elaine Cunningham wrote a story of a golden-eyed elf in Forgotten Realms.

Re: Semi-long..

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I was wondering! I always wonder when it's obviously self-drawn pictures rather than something nabbed from a professional site.

[raptorgirl.livejournal.com]

I chose Amelie because I don't have any pictures of myself that I like at the moment. We have similar personalities (people compare me to her all the time), and I've even been told that I look a bit like her.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

You do a bit.

[auryn29a.livejournal.com]

But you _did_ use the best picture of yourself. It just didn't have to do with your appearance. I use mine because it's kind of gentle and ethereal and it has a cat in it. It's me.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I miss you. *hug*

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

My default icon is who and what she is in part because I liked the smile. The picture it's cropped from is not-work-safe, but in a playful way rather than a pornographic way. I tried to leave a hint of that in; the tittilation is also appropriate.

She also just looked happy to me, and even when I don't manage to be happy, I'd like to be.

Sumomo comes in a close second, and that is entirely not my fault. *grin*

I actually really need to find a Katchoo pose that'd make a good icon at some point here.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Hm. You're not Katchoo-ish in my head! But that's maybe partly because Monkey and I are, and you are unlike Monkey and I. (Still adored, but your brainmeats are different.)

[shugenja.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. Er, advertising maybe? Simple and identifiable, this icon most frequently is used when I'm replying from email and don't get to pick. Which is often on other people's journals. It's also nicely generic mood-wise.

I was using a dookyweb avatar because it suited my overall mood for about a year, but I hardly posted for that year so it matters not.

[heathrow.livejournal.com]

This is a picture of me from about 9-10 years ago. I was all guessied up to go out clubbing and I had just enjoyed a nice Guinness.

It's me back in my most free days. It's also a picture I like of myself. I hate pictures of me recently, so I use the ones I like.