spring, when young people's hearts turn to thoughts of new lj icons

[melannen]

So. I renewed my paid account. And now I plan to spend the evening doing a long-overdue cleaning up of my lj: finish the mood theme at long last, new layout, fix links, look over icons, etcetera, etcetera. And while I'm at it, it's been awhile since I did a comment-whoring post, so I saw this meme in somebody's journal, and hey, why not?

Which of your icons best matches your mental image?

The icon that best matches my image of melannen is . It's Princess Leia, from the pre-ESB, psychedelically illustrated Star Wars picture book The Mystery of the Rebellious Robot. Leia is Skeptical! Probably of whatever nonsense Luke is spouting off, the text doesn't really make it clear why she's rolling her eyes. Man, I could make a whole iconset just from that book, but this was the image that spoke to me loudest.

And here's my friend-of list, in roughly alphabetical order, leaving out only people who don't post enough for me to have a mental image:


My, you're a colorful bunch, you lot. So, tell me which icon I should have picked for you! Tell me which icon I should have picked for me! Ask why I think you are *that* icon, of all things!

Some of you were far harder than others. Actually, having looked at all those userpic pages, a) I wanna bunch of new icons! and b) there seem to be two philosophies of userpic-picking: icons that are meant to actually represent a person, and icons that are just things they like to look at. Often it's mixed, of course, but it's usually pretty easy to see which philosophy dominates.

Okay! Now, back to staring at Snoopys!

Comments

[siegeofangels.livejournal.com]

*cracks up*
*is glad she never did make the John Sheppard "Math class is hard!" icon*

I always see you as your sitting-hugging-your-knees icon. Although I hardly ever have graphics turned on anymore, so.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

That icon would be hilarious! You should! (It still wouldn't be quite as 'you' as flying monkeys, though.)

Ooh, that's one of the paper-doll icons. That's the one that's actually *supposed* to look like me! No fair, cheating! I need to make her a new outfit. With the new haircut, and a cooler hat. I wonder if I have the template still somewhere on this computer.

Huh, no graphics? Are you on a slow connection, or just sick of them? I didn't realize.

[antiscian.livejournal.com]

No, I identify with the Dumpling Man the most!

But seriously though, if I was forced to choose only one of my icons to represent me forevermore on Livejournal, I'd probably pick the smoking girl too. So over-the-top decadent, and therefore amusing. And the fact that it's from a cover of a lesbian novel about the "depravity of the bohemian lifestyle" is just the icing on the cake.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Oh, darnit, you have no idea how close I came to picking that one! (Have you actually eaten there? It sounds ... interesting.)

I honestly can't remember whether or not I ever met you in person on campus. If I did, Smoking Girl has totally overridden whatever image of you I had from that.

[melsmarsh.livejournal.com]

I think Mike (my default) is pretty close to how I see myself.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I was seeing that icon in sister's journal long before I knew anything else about you. I don't think any other icon could make a dent in my image of you.

[stellar-dust.livejournal.com]

That's definitely the one I'd have picked for me. If not that one, this one. I really wish I knew who made it. Sigh.

For you, of course it's your paper dolls, especially the one in the green skirt. Second choice, naked lily-pad fairy. ;D

[melannen.livejournal.com]

That one's also very you, but it looks more like my image of high-school you than now-you, so Scully won out, yay.

It's not a lily-pad! It's a venus's flytrap! It eats other fairies and slowly digests them over a thousand ... hours. It's vicious and capricious and you better Watch Out!

[zodiaccat.livejournal.com]

For myself, I'd probably have gone for either the Goomba or Zot.

For you, well jeez! Indian-style paper doll with the green cloak, definitely! (The Leia one comes pretty close, solely for the facial expression.)

For clarification of the meme, you take a look at each of your flists' icons, pick an appropriate one for each, and display?

[melannen.livejournal.com]

This one with the green cloak, or the actual doll one with the green cloak? This one's a watercolor I did; it's still my keenspot avatar, I think - it feels pretty close to me, most of the time. The indian-style doll with the cloak I don't really like that much, actually; I think I made it when I was depressed.

I was very close to picking Zot for you. Also the elefun, or cry, or Daria.

It's not really a meme; I just stole the idea from a random non-flist person. Improvise however you feel like it - I did!

[frey-at-last.livejournal.com]

Interesting, interesting! Are my icons more "representative" or "pretty"? I've always pegged them as the latter - but, to be fair, I usually try to get as close as possible to "iconic representations" of the things I *like*. So huhm.

For me, you are definitely the green fairy, the "basic me doll," or the mathnet one. I can't choose!

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Yours are definitely 'pretty' - which is to say, they're about things you like, not about you. You've no idea how close you came to being , just for lack of anything that felt like 'you'.

Then my eye caught the Prydain one, and somehow, yeah, that's what comes to mind as an image of you, really.

Mathnet? Really?

[enemy-anime.livejournal.com]

Okay, I am curious. What made you choose that icon for me?

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Because you don't have the Superman one up anymore!

...no, really, that's all it was. That was the closest I could get to Superman-Kevin.

[kaylarudbek.livejournal.com]

I suppose that you picked the "justice" one because that's my default and I rarely ever change it...
I am curious as to which icon I don't use that you think most represents me, though.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

Actually, I would have picked your original justice one with the frame, because, yes. It not *just* that it's your default, though. It's because she looks like a strong, beautiful woman wielding a sword, but she's wielding it not like edged steel, but like a nun smacking naughty boys with a ruler. And that's so you.

Other than that? I'd be tempted to say one of Didodikali's Snapes, but there are enough other people using her artwork that I can't really associate it it particularly with you, so, . But don't ask me why, 'cause I couldn't tell you.

[tarimanveri.livejournal.com]

So why'd you pick Sam? She's a recent addition, after all, although I love this icon to pieces because her expression is priceless. Also, which philosophy dominates my list, then? Anything else you want to tell me?

Cool post, BTW. And I'm way more excited than I should be about all my new icon spaces...

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I think I picked her because your icons definitely seem to me mostly the kind that are about stuff, not the kind that represent you. And her expression is priceless, and so you. And, I think, you've been using her on the sorts of posts and comments that make me associate her with default you.

I'm excited about icon spaces too!

[wild-thistle.livejournal.com]

Behold the Penguin of Death! I guess you picked this one because it was my defualt icon for random posts for aaaages. I probably associate more with the woman reading in the bath icon, though I hardly use it. I mostly use the penguin one because that way people will remember me.
My image of you is probably most strongly associated with the green caped angel with the plaits, or one of the paperdolls.

Interesting meme, and I've realised I'm only using 7 out of 38 userpics *off to hunt down some icon prettiness*

[melannen.livejournal.com]

... of Death? Yes, it was your default for awhile when you were posting a lot. But also, so you.

I probably associate the 'stay in bed' one with you more than the bath one now, though.

[kidzero.livejournal.com]

Okay, why did you pick that icon?

I always associate you with the Ice icon, partly because the dicussion of it at s_d, partly because it seems to match your personality (what I know of it so far, that is).

I see you have a pile of new icons, and I'm surprised I recognize a couple of them. Or that you even know of them.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

I don't really know, mostly because I don't know you real well and I mostly associate you with your persona on s_d. Plus, I don't actually recognize the superhero in the icon, so I've decided he's Kid Zero.

Wow, somebody actually picked one that was a photograph of me!

What suprised you? My icons, I thought, were a pretty good mix of completely obvious and so obscure nobody but me would ever get them..

[zodiaccat.livejournal.com]

That's odd; Firefox doesn't display the background color on your paper doll icons. IE does, though.

[stellar-dust.livejournal.com]

Probably because the background's *supposed* to be transparent and IE sucks. She made this icon for me that way and it does the same thing.

[melannen.livejournal.com]

They're all .png files; the backgrounds are set to transparent, but because certain (stupid) programs like IE have not yet learned to handle transparency in .pngs, you can pick a background color to set when the transparency isn't working. I usually just picked a color that contrasted with whatever was in the icon, but it's still not s'posed to be there.