Random Thoughts About Avatars

Do avatars change the way you feel about other posters?

Example: SC, I love ya man, but I seriously wanted to punch out your other avatar. Now that you have Brad I'm not feeling the same animosity. Could be just that I've grown to like you too, I don't know. Is it weird? Is it Toose specific?

Your Frank Frazetta pic only makes me think back to when I was sixteen and the kinds of posters I had plastered over every inch of my walls and ceiling, listening to Zepplin, not doing my homework - ah, sweet misspent youth! But it doesn't make me think of you any better or worse in any way.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

toose, your two avatars couldn't be more different......yet you're distinctly you. i think an avatar suggests the poster's self-image in some way-it speaks to the public for you. it's kinda like a signature.......but signatures can vary greatly from regular handwriting....
aside from an initial effect unique to each poster.........your personality comes through via your comments.

__________________
on dance seul, on dance seul.....

That's a really, really good question. I think our avatar does indeed change the face we put forth here...it's inevitable. The comments do more for that perception, no doubt, but I cannot say that the avatar plays no role. It MUST. Even if that doesn't hold much weight to some of you, surely the fact that each person CHOOSES an avatar to display publicly means something? What a person chooses to let everyone see as a sort of representative image of themselves has got to mean something, even if they choose something goofy.

Hell, I say we expand this thread: why'd you choose the avatar you have? I'll kick things off: I chose Yoda because he is, simply, one of the coolest muthas of all time. He's calm, collected, wise, but very powerful and sharp. He's a Warrior Priest, man.

Ok Chris... I like your slant.

I chose the Frazetta because the warrior looks like I feel at this point in my life. I have principles that I will bend for no one, I am midway through my career and I have fought hard and bloody battles to get to this ground I stand on. I am a survivor, I come out stained, but I come out whole. I have no fear of other people at this point in my life either. I am experienced, I am stronger than ever and when I bring it, I bring it wicked. I love the confidence of being my age. You get to the point where you realize that if you believe in your convictions and you don't f*ck with the gifts that God gives you, you are untouchable. In other words, show me love and I'll give it back tenfold. Show me anger and hate and I will crush you under my bootheels.

Me likey smiley face.

I like Yoda and your previous avatar Toose. I'm afraid of Firegods.
Yoda is not cool, he just looks good in that pic.

Have you lost your mind, boy?! Yoda's beyond cool. Look at what he can do! He can beat the crap out of anyone, but he doesn't want to fight. He's the smartest guy out there, but can't put a sentence together to save his life. WARRIOR PRIEST! Peace, understanding, and wisdom...but when someone threatens the tranquility of the world, he puts a stop to it.

Agree with you I do, knows the ways of the force he does

Matt- Great thread idea (even if Chris moderated it)
I totally understand where you're coming from on your avatar choice. I've always wondered about it a little...now it makes perfect sense, of course.

Chris- you own the Yoda.

I chose Betty Boop for a couple of reasons. One: I've always loved her. I think she's so super cute. Two: People always tell me I remind them of her. I guess I have a disporportionate head and large eyes, or someting.
and Three: She just is a good representation of me. Sex Kitten/Goof. That's me...in a nutshell.

ah, it has arrived.

toose - i liked your old avatar (the first) best, because it was so cute and silly and goofy. and rotund. i wanted to squeeze it and see what sound it made. then, the second, the furious bull ... i understood, because, you were um, on The Path. I think your third avatar just shows the same, this time using a humanoid.

but it was clear you were changing representation of yourself. it's like, clothes. our avatars are the "face" we greet folks with and our personal choice does impact how others view us, from intrigued to unmoved to irritated.

i've always thought holden's was cute and oddly didn't fit the nature of his posts yet, his tagline does. a strange cocktail that seems to fit him.

the yoda thing man - he looks like such a GQ macdaddy there, chris, i know i've said it before. like he's turned to the camera and raised one sexy eyebrow to say, in a Troy McClure voice: Hello? Can I .... help ... you? on a side note ... a company i know, which is huge and which i can't name, has a system they use internally called YODA ... acronym for something, but ya wonder whether the techie nerds who developed it had anything to do with the name ...

sades avatar: well duh! hehe.

mine: um, i think this is my first and only avatar, no? i couldn't be arsed to try and find one that suited me at first. nothing came to mind. then i thought - my queen, my goddess, my badass female, i need a pic of her! and so i hunted. the hunt was hard, the chase fast. i finally found her - sketched by a fan in such simplicity. the others were too much, this, this was bliss. and so i shrank her ... it was a struggle, she lost some of the edges but i sacrificed those tender parts for the crowning glory - her face.

she definitely represents what i wish I were, had, could be. brilliant, wicked, enigmatic, witty, a sense of humor, fiercely loyal in her own way, sexy, knows what she wants and goes after it, dominant, submissive switch who loves as intensely as she hates and can kick your ass with love as well as with the coldest, unflinching ease. she is the epitome of a modern woman, in my book. oh, and, she's beautiful. heh.

__________________
life without movies is like cereal without milk. possible, but disgusting. but not nearly as bad as cereal with water. don't lie. I know you've done it.

No, but they do tell a lot about a person:
Sades is just like betty boop
TWT reminds me of yoda
Toose umm i got nothing
BUT HOLDENS! thats him in a nutshell: omnipotent master of space and time, hes just like that

the only person it works for is LB: he looks a lot scarier with the other avatars (the pictures of him)

__________________
"Who comes at 12:00 on a Sunday night to rent Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid?"
-Hollywood Video rental guy to me

Why don't I have an avatar?

Well, there's a few reasons.
The very first avatar I ever had was of Felix the cat. The thing was my username was Felix and so it made perfectly logical sense. It was also a bloody fine avatar, okay? Nice size and everything. I was quite proud of it. I like my avatars to make sense, I guess. Mine name is the Silver Bullet. It should be a bullet, or a water pistol or something of the sort. It should make sense. And yet I don't mind you guys using one's that don't think to names or anything. It's just me. I am an anally retentive person, it seems.

I'm getting a new one made up for IFN and so I might end up using it here also.
Either that or I'll find an avatar with a silver water pistol or something on it....

__________________
www.esotericrabbit.com

Logical sense from an artist? Why the insistence on being so literal? My av represents a mood... a feeling specific to me, it needs not be a picture of me as "Toose" is a family nickname for me. SB, why "Silver Bullet"? Something had to trigger that username. You probably went into it already but I don't remember reading it.

Are you saying I should go back to my Mr. Potatohead avatar?

I'm always up for change so I'll stick with mine for a while, change it and continue the cycle.

__________________
"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

You should.

Dood, Yoda can't fight. He's too little. I'm like 50 times stronger than him. Sure he'll block my light saber but the force of the blow will send him flying across the room like he was hit with a baseball bat. And he's so short, it's like, hmm.. is he gonna swing at my belly button or swing at my belly button? He could swing at my feet but I don't even have to jump up, I could just lift my foot and kick him in the head. Not to mention the reach disadvantage. My arm is like, I don't know, 2 1/2 feet long, his is like 8 inches. Ha! He can't even turn out the lights to use the force to his advantage cuz his light saber glows in the dark.

Come on man! Yoda wouldn't even have to get near you to whup your butt! Didn't you see him raise the ship out of the swamp! You don't think he could throw a rock at your head without batting an eye?!?

As for my avatar... well not only is it fitting given my name, but it also describes me as a person... I'm always there to help people out, I believe in truth, justice and the American way (to borrow a phrase, LOL), and I don't let the bad guys off light!

In short... I'm a bad a** mutha who don't take no crap off of nobody (but I love to help out my friends!).

Oh yeah... I took the old school MightyMouse b/c I am a bit old school myself... I'm fairly conservative in most things and I love things from the past, be it movies, books, or anything!

Sun: are you high?! Yoda would beat you senseless. It wouldn't even be remotely close. Allegedly we'll see the chief of the Warrior Priests himself in battle in AOTC, so maybe then you'll see what he's capable of. Until then, I leave you with one of his immortal quotes:

You want me to get an avatar to suit my mood?
I can. It just will feel wrong to me. And yet I look at yours and they all make perfect sense....

....I think too much into stuff.