kiya | Vast, Pathetic Vistas of Self-Expression

elisem asked what folks' icons are about. I figured I'd answer in my own journal because my vast, pathetic vistas of self-expression contain multitudes, and it would be likely quite long.

	My default icon is the rune icon -- I'm not sure entirely where the symbol came from. I've used it to sign letters and pottery for over ten years now -- I probably developed it after I acquired the name Darkhawk. I tend to use it when I don't have anything more specific to say other than "I was here" or can't think of anything better.
	The snakie icon I use for posts about Kundalini, my royal python, and generally domestic posts. Home-and-family stuff. The photograph was taken a while ago; he's a larger snakie now. (Mama used to use this userpic.)
	This icon is a fragment of a self-portrait sketch titled 'Self-Pooktrait' as framed by Elfwood when I snagged it for my gallery. It is for silliness and occasionally bounciness. (AC used to use this.)
	The hawk mask I picked up at the Crownsville, Maryland Ren-Faire a while back. It's very me. I use this for annoyance, anger, frustration. (Stormy, Frost, and Stalker used to use this.)
	This is Arthur (the stupid cat) and my old computer, Toy. I use it for writing-related entries (and used to use it for occasional computer entries). Also, sometimes, for Arthur-related posts.
	Arthur again, snuggling. Used for sympathy, emotional vulnerability, snuggling. (Silver used to use this.) Also more of the Arthur posts.
	This is my baseball icon; it's also used for some Lennon-related posts. Lennon being the smart cat.
	The Laughing Buddha icon is for generalised expressions of goodnaturedness or goodwill.
	This is a photograph of a cross-stitch embroidery that suzimoses gave me. The symbols are the astrological signs of the four members of the family (myself, teinedreugan, brooksmoses, and suzimoses); I use it for family posts.
	The bangles icon is a photograph of my original religious confusion (cross-and-flame, pentacle, and trisk; I've recently added a Khepri pendant and intend to add a sacred chao) with the sacred blue lotus superimposed over it. It was originally just the religious confusion; oneironaut added the flower for me when I coverted to Kemeticism.
	Boston userpic -- used for either the band or the city. Also for some musical posts. It's a fragment of the Corporate America album cover.
	Gaming icon: used for gaming discussion, session summaries, roleplaying, games night, and, apparently, SCA stuff. That's a selection of gaming books from my shelves and the black queen piece I won for pulling off a really cool plot in a running of ATKM. A cookie for anyone who can identify all the books. ;)
	Icon for Nameless: This is the first of my individual-self icons. Nameless doesn't say much, though, so it doesn't get used often. I also have it keyworded 'Wepwawet'.
	Bowerbird icon -- for expressions of "Nifty! Shiny!" Or possibly "want thingy!"
	Icon for the aspect of self called Silver or the Silver Lion. Fairly self-explanatory, really. Silver is not terribly verbal; most posts under this icon will be written down by someone else.
	Icon for Mama-Cat. Another self-aspect. Mama's sort of a slightly crotchety boggan, really. The drawing is from Hathor the Cowgoddess.
	Darkhawk's icon. It's a Le Guin quotation. Darkhawk is highly verbal, skeptical, distant, and overly rational, aside from beign a complete control freak.
	Weaver or Lightweaver's icon. Another distinct self icon. Patterns and connections and some religious content. Verbal.
	Stalker's icon. (Shadowstalker.) Weaver's sister. Verbal, but doesn't often bother with it, really. Often grumpy.
	Sisters icon. Dualisms and contrasts.
	AC's icon. (Altair's Child.) AC is the closest we've got in here to the obligatory child personality. ;) Yes, that photograph is of the star Altair.
	Headache icon. Used for headaches. I believe I've also used it for metaphorical headaches, pains, and some forms of grouchiness.
	Kiya icon -- for the explicitly integrated self. Don't know that I can unpack that more usefully.
	Salvia icon. Plant-related stuff. I wish my salvia still looked this healthy.
	Stormwolf's icon. (Stormy.) Not terribly verbal; posts are in translation. Inner Set kid.
	Songdragon's/SD's/Kira's icon. Semi-verbal; prefers to communicate in song lyrics, really.
	The icon for the Bonfire's Madness. Rarely used. This is good. He's not sane.
	Fuzzy gears icon. For geekery, mechanical stuff, time.
	Frostpaw (Frosty)'s icon. Highly verbal. Tends towards cold, cutting language when angry and puns when not.
	Znak icon. For ancestors, Slavic and Polish stuff, and some symbolism posts. These are "runes" probably most familiar to most folks as being decorative motifs on pisanki. This one, according to the site I got it from, means "perfection, divine will, fate, happiness, prosperity, life, hope, giver of light, sun, elegance, male influence".
	Misty's icon. (Mistdancer.) An awful tease.
	Egypt icon. I came to the conclusion that I needed something specific for Egyptiana -- whether Kemetic-specific stuff or talking about Egypt in general. This gorgeous flower is the sacred lotus.
	Tetris icon -- for thinking. Because my thought processes look like a multidimensional game of Tetris.
	Lennon's nose icon. Because annwyd asked me once if I had a picture of a cat nose for an icon yet at a time at which I was looking for a 'miscellaneous' icon. Though I have also used it for the meaning 'nose'. I think I had a cold at the time.
	Media discussion icon. Jewelry discussion icon. It's a heavily cropped frame out of the movie Help!, which may or may not explain the dual meaning.
	So all these people had these generated church sign icons, and I wanted one. And I wanted an icon for Khnum and making things. Sooooo. . . The text on the sign is standard praises of Khnum.
	This one gets used for, ahem. Inexplicable femme moments, scented stuff, and unreasonable calmness. I can't explain it if you don't recognise Kurama. The character pictured is approximately the only character in Yuyu Hakusho who I don't want to strangle. Though the short guy has his moments.
	Lotus Discordia icon. The image of the sun being born from the centre of the sacred lotus is focal in one of the Kemetic myths, you see . . .
	So sometimes I feel like an anthropologist from Mars trying to make sense of the strange customs and behaviours of Earthlings, you see . . .
	Computers icon, from The Suburban Jungle. Also for realisations.
	Words icon. For words and language. Everything there says some variant on words, writing, language, lots of words, wordiness. . . (I think it's 'words' in English and Spanish, 'wordiness' in Polish and Greek', 'heiroglyphs' in hieroglyphs, and 'words scattered all over the damn place' in Klingon.)

There will be at least one other icon in the future, for Jade, the only one of my aspects who is not represented here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Your "jewelry" icon is dark enough that I had no clue what it was until I poked it into the image editor and lightened it. May I recommend this revised version?

Gamma issue, I think. The original looks fine on my Mac.

Yup; it looks fine on

lilairen's Mac, too. It's probably exacerbated by the fact that I have my monitor set a little bit dim -- not only does it get a bit blurry at fully-bright settings, but it's, erm, rather large, and is thus a Very Large Very Bright Thing of +15 Eyestrain if I turn it up.

This post is really cool. REALLY cool. I always wondered on some of the icons-- this is like the Lonely Planet Guide to Lilairen. :)

Curious -- which ones had particularly inspired curiosity?

btw, I want to do this. How in the good earth did you get all your icons on the page like that? Are they remotely hosted?

It was a pain in the ass. Tables are a bitch.

Basically it went:

<table>
<tr><td><img src="http://userpic.livejournal.com/2770673/597781"></td><td>[ stuff about that icon ]</td></tr>

<tr><td> . . . etc. etc.

</table>

But I put size tags on the images.

I'm stunned that it came out looking right the first time, actually. :P

No, I meant how did you get the images there-- I didn't know if there was some LJ URL to them somewheres or if they were hosted on another site. Much poking around trying to answer this question led to the realization that their URL can be found under "properties." Ah, who knew? ;)

The table part's the easier bit, although I admit, having Dreamweaver makes it so much easier that my hand-coding skillz are probably a bit rusty.

As for which I was curious about, a LOT of them, since some I couldn't tell what they were pics of, like the gears one (that looks like a blurry gold mask). The one that I kept meaning to ask about was the quote on the church sign. Aha, praises to Khnum! Very cool. :)

I got 'em by going into my list o' userpics and loading each one in its own page. :} About midway through I got asked if it wouldn't be easier to hit 'copy image location' instead of going through all that -- duh. :}

The fuzzy gears is a nicely ambiguous blurry photo of my pocketwatch. :)

Excellent coolness, and most interesting. Besides all the other goodness, I really like your sacred lotus picture. A friend of mine has a lotus pond -- well, it's either a lotus pond with fish in it or a fish pond with lotuses in it. Either way, the lotuses are wonderful. I spent most of a day out there once trying to embroider a lotus that looked like a lotus. Didn't really manage it, but it was lovely to be floating in that bliss of looking deeply into a lotus for most of a whole day.

E,
happy for beauty and meaning

Comment added to demonstrate new icon.

This one is for . . . heading off into the dark and seeing what's there. Some specific parts of my life. Not sure how to express this better, so I'll just leave it there.

For the perfect beauties of the universe.

For things being exactly right.

For tao.

For Ma'at.

For stars!

Scotland. Clan. Tradition.

Jade's upic.

And this one for new perspectives on things. Such as Arthur.

Magic geeking and witchcraft discussion.

This is a highly entertaining post. :) If I had lots of icons, I'd definitely want to create something similar! (*am filing away idea from future reference*)

I was just reading

elynne's journal, and I saw your "Help!" icon, which I instantly recognized. I must have watched every Beatles movie at least 25 times, sad to say. I clicked on your profile info, and lo, here was a post explaining your icons.

Errr... for future reference, not from it!

Help! was my favorite movie when I was ten. I watched it constantly. This explains enough about me that my boyfriend felt a need to see the movie so that I would make more sense. ;)

I am deeply pleased that someone immediately identified it.

Help! was my favorite movie when I was ten. I watched it constantly.

Ha ha ha! ME TOO! I think the ages between 8-13 or so are the prime Help! years. Last year I finally got the DVD, and while I still like the movie, I was more than a little disappointed by the reality vs. my golden memories of it. I remember it as being hysterically funny and original, and nowadays it's more amusing and moderately silly. I can still quote from it at length, though. "You, bee AT tel!" :)

It's a thingy! A fieeeeendish thingy!

Vast, Pathetic Vistas of Self-Expression

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