Meme: Iconic

[nebroadwe]

Coming late to the game, but here's a meme that's making the rounds:

Comment on this post. I will choose seven userpics (or, if you are limited to six, two) from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are using them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so others can play along.

evil_little_dog picked out two of mine:

Ah, my very first icon. I wasn't even sure I wanted any to begin with (it took some little time for me to "get" the culture of LiveJournal) and I didn't know how to claim an icon of someone else's making. So I got out my very primitive drawing software and built my own, in honor of all the harassment I was then inflicting on c_b_syndrome over their FMA epic Balance of Power (which reminds me that I owe them some comments on the latest installment, as soon as I've survived my Japanese midterm, eek!). I'm not a professionally-trained editor, but a professionally-trained reader-of-text -- and attempting to edit other people's work has made that difference very clear to me. Hence the implicit disclaimer (none of us ever seriously believed that actor fellow's recommendations when it came to over-the-counter medication, now, did we?)

and

I am a tremendous fan of Lois McMaster Bujold's work, particularly her Miles Vorkosigan books, so when I wanted an icon to mark fun and silliness in my blog, I modified the punchline to this moment from the incomparable Memory:

Miles came up out of the all-too-familiar colored confetti and blackness to find himself still lying on the examination table, head clamped in a scanner half the size of the room, body wired every which way. The three alert techs stationed around him had perhaps been placed to keep him from spasming off the table, but more likely to keep the monitors correctly adjusted. Colonel Dr. Chenko, the neurologist, and Captain Dr. D'Guise, the cryonicist, were bouncing up and down and chortling, loudly pointing out fascinating readouts to each other. It was apparently the best show since the bicycle-riding bear had come to the Hassadar Fair and spooked the horses.

This is another self-created icon on a program not intended to produce such, which explains why the text is slightly foggy rather than nice and sharp, but since it's an invitation to pleasant reminiscence, set against a background of blue sky, that formatting bug becomes a feature, doesn't it? (If anyone can recommend some free- or shareware icon-creating software that works on the MacOS platform, I'd be happy to hear about it.)

Thus me. Anyone else, or have you all been caught elsewhere?

BONUS: For a previous meme, I explained my default icon and produced a drabble in its honor, archived here.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Awww, thank you for playing. And it's fun to know where the bicycle bear comes from.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. I love Bujold's ability to turn a phrase.

And hey! You commented! You know what that means ... [evil laughter] ...

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[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

- I found this on the thriftshophorror page - someone commenting about something and I fell in love with the icon, 'cause I've had Schnauzers since I was eight. I whined politely and was granted use of said icon. *grin* I really wants the huge version of Schnautzi, since I love the little versions and that would certainly be a German War Machine. *grin*

- Oh, what a feeling! This is for sheer silly, as many of my TOS icons are. What delightful overacting Mr. Shatner is able to produce.

- Used specifically for responding to Winry-centric posts or when I'm making a comment to myself that things could always be worse - but I'm going to believe they could get better.

- Momiji! I luffs Momiji...though I'm not necessarily a big Furuba fan. Really, I kept this icon because I have friends who find the wiggling bunny ears disturbing and it's fun to creep people out. *laughs*

- Pretty self-explanatory. From BtVS episode, "Hush", when no one could speak.

- A running joke between mjules, cornerofmadness and myself. mjules made a trio of icons for us to use for fma_ot4 and we've been using them ever since.

- One of my actual German War Machines, Cassadaga Rogue Marie, in her default position - sunning her belly, staring at me.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

This is for sheer silly, as many of my TOS icons are. What delightful overacting Mr. Shatner is able to produce.

And the iconographer manages to pick the perfect shot/title combination [giggles].

From BtVS episode, "Hush", when no one could speak.

Oh, duh. Y'know, I couldn't remember that at first? I have the "Do I look that fat?" picture/gesture joke too firmly at the front of my memory of that episode.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I can't remember off the top of my head if the Flashdance icon is from nevada_fighter or mrs_spock but they're both superbly funny iconographers. *grin*

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I really must find me some icon-building software so I can play this game, too. My paternal grandfather was an artist -- I missed the "drawing things that look like things" gene, but I did get the "arranging things well" gene. Even if I only have six slots at a time, it would be fun to swap things in and out.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I likes being able to swap things. Even though I've got over 100 icons, I switch a few out every couple of weeks.

[haleysings.livejournal.com]

Being one of the icon-addicted members of LJ, I'd love to take this meme. XD

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Happy to oblige:

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[lyricnonsense.livejournal.com]

I don't have many left, but if you want an explanation of any of the ones cornerofmadness didn't hit, go ahead and call dibs on them. :)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

Sure! How about these:

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[lyricnonsense.livejournal.com]

This is a frame from one of my favorite webcomics, XKCD, and involves the main characters discussing what it means to be a grown-up. Full explanation here: http://www.xkcd.com/150/
And I just think that one frame is so cute. :)


Another webcomic one, this time from Megatokyo. The character is suspected of being an emotional vampire who feeds on negative/chaotic emotions. For some reason she's my favorite, and when I found a pretty scene with her, decided to use my limited Photoshop skills to colour the picture for an icon. I just love the way she's staring/beckoning with her eyes.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

And I just think that one frame is so cute. :)

It is, and I'm glad of the context: I was thinking things like "Fibber McGee stores Skittles in his closet?" which couldn't possibly be the case. (As if anyone under thirty these days even knows about Fibber McGee. It's on a par with that Alphonse and Gaston joke I snuck into "Ubi Sunt Gaudia" that nobody but my mother actually noticed.)

Another webcomic one, this time from Megatokyo. The character is suspected of being an emotional vampire who feeds on negative/chaotic emotions.

I am justly served for not having read Megatokyo yet (though I suspect I will be soon). I kept seeing this as a vaguely demonic version of Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket. Oops. Though I suppose somebody has done an FB vampire 'fic at some point ...