heh.

this is from XKCD. for some reason, you have to click on it to view it in entirity. wth?

I've now reduced

With the end of my icons series of posts, I have reduced the number of icons at my other blog to the requisite 30. Most of the ones left are the moving ones or the sparkly ones. And the ones that I use the most or those with special meaning. But at least they're all saved here now. Someday, I can always add them back, or cycle them through.

all my icons, Part VIII

Icon stories... the final part...

Where's My Sanity? Oh, THERE it is!

This icon is one of my favorites. (a) It's Gary Oldman. (b) It's from The Professional. and (c) It accurately conveys a feeling I have quite frequently these days.

Made by chukolate_icons.

Memememememememememe

I like memes as much as the average person, though I try not to do them TOO often lest my presumed readers get irritated and tune out. But when I do post memes, I use this icon (made by enriana at obsessiveicons) as a warning.


Dangerous Beauty

I don't know where I found this picture -- probably IMDB or something -- but it just seemed so beautiful. And it's one of my favorite movies.

all my icons, Part VII

Icons, icons everywhere and not a post with substance...
Sorry, but it's one of those weeks where, when I do have the presence of mind to post anything, this is the best my brain seems to come up with...

Play Dead
Corpse Bride was a great movie and I'll readily admit that one of my favorite parts was the skeleton dog (seen in this icon by porcelainveins). I don't know why, but it was just so sweet and funny at the same time, the character stuck with me. Maybe it's the fact that it makes cuddly something that others would consider morbid.

I Refuse To Answer That Question

Righto, so I'm a smart-ass. And I generally appreciate other smart-asses. And I understand the value to society of occasionally being a smart-ass. It's for the public good, you know. We smart-asses perform a valuable service. Thank you, Douglas Adams (channeled by enriana). And everyone should go read Last Chance to See; while it has not a lot to do with smart-asses, it is a very important read. Go on, try it. It might make you a better person.

Grover
This is Grover (aka grover_rover2k). He is my husband. He took this picture using his camera-phone while skiing in the Alps. And this picture demonstrates reason #234 that I love him: he's a goof. just like me :)

Confused

Remember "sexpot"? This is a cousin. It's also related to "bibliophile."

From one of enriana's series of icons on words.

The Palm

With her permission, I turned this photograph by my friend Stacy into an icon. I love the "old-style" quality of the image. (Taken by stacyinthecity with her cameraphone.)


Strange Tall Man

Tall, dark and handsome, he is not. Tall, goofy and odd, he is. I really, really like the work of artist and comic/graphic novel writer Tommy Kovac. I particularly like his evil-looking acorns. This icon is one I made from his work, "Tall Underpants."


Mousecatfish and Rubrchick

I met Rubrchick in 2003. To write anything about her or our friendship would probably take a long time to write, read, and edit... Suffice to say, she (and my mother) are my best friends.

These pictures were taken at my birthday party at BJ's in 2005 and started a trend between us -- there's always a cannibal picture if we're together and if we're apart, there will be a picture of one of us biting the air where the other would be. Yeah, I know. We're weird :)

NIN Mirror

Lady_talon did a series with NIN lyrics. I don't know what song this one originally came from, but the idea that life exists on both sides of the mirror and the difficulty in sometimes recognizing which side you are on... it's a big symbollic situation for me, in life and in my writing.

Anubis

I'm not Egyptian. But some days, I wish I was. One of my favorite images from Egypt and Egyptian mythology and belief is that of Anubis. I don't think of myself as morbid, but I'm intrigued by the relationship between the living and the dead and how this relationship differs from culture to culture, across time and space. And, also, the line of dogs in this icon (made by skellorg) is also just plain cool.

all my icons, Part VI

I start to think I might never finish this post series...

Leonard Cohen

I like Leonard Cohen, more as a songwriter than a singer. And these lyrics, combined with the image jiatra picked, just really send me...



Sleep and Hug

Someone at obsessiveicons made these, using original artwork from Kurt Halsey Frederiksen.



Mathematics

In college, I was torn between studying math (because I was good at it and liked the orderliness of everything) and English (because I was good at and loved it). Eventually, I settled with English, but math still retains its attraction. The beauty of the balance is no different than that of the tightest sentence obeying all the proper rules of parallelism. [Made at obsessiveicons.]
Crystal Ball

I made this icon from an image I found at www.asmussenfoto.dk.

Someday there will be a story from this one...


Rousseau's Tiger

When I lived in London, I went frequently to the National Gallery. Every time I visited, I stopped to see the Rousseau painting from which this tiger is taken. I am amused that the tiger is scared of the storm. I am amazed by how the artist made areas where the rain was falling darker than the others. And partly, I like to stop by and tell the tiger that, really, it will be okay. [Made by feathered]

Dancing

I made this icon from a photograph of M. Fonteyn, taken by Beaton.


Trust
Of all the icons most important when it comes to actually writing, this is the one I should treasure. There is so much pressure, mostly generated by myself, to write something amazing every time I write...

[Made at obsessiveicons.]

Quiet

Everyone has voices in their heads -- maybe "normal" people are the ones who realize that the voices are just them, thinking to themselves?

But sometimes, it's hard to focus, to fall asleep, to relax when there is so much going on in one's head. So much being worked through. And too much to work through. [Icon by enriana]

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

This is a picture of me.

Icon by enriana at obsessiveicons.

all my icons, Part V

For those just tuning in, welcome to a series of entries about icons from my original journal. This is more as a way for me to remember what the icons are and why. I'm hoping to expand on these brief snippets sometime later. For now, I'm trying to get it all down...

Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk

One of the few Rufus Wainwright lyric icons I've found, I particularly loved this one because, well, the same is true of me. It's hard to limit oneself to a "portion" or proper "serving size" of jelly beans... [Made by enriana.]


I'd Rather Eat and Not Wear Clothes

Word.

One-liner icon series by jiatra.


SQUEEEE.

For all those squee moments (yours or someone else's). This is another one of those icons that Tamnonlinear had and I thought was so cool. And another one where she gave me permission to yoink it and use it shamelessly.


Bubblewrap

During one particularly stressful theatre production during college, a couple tech colleagues and I unrolled a bit of bubble wrap from the huge spool of it that the art department kept on hand. And then we stomped on it for about twenty minutes. It's amazing how much better we felt afterwards. (Icon made by jiatra.)

Grinning, Laughing Cats

Unlike my evil, laughing cat icon, this is a happy laughing cat icon. Sure, they do look like they're high on something (have you ever seen a cat smile like that???), but they're still cute.
Thanks to enriana.

Gauze

I don't know what series this icon came from -- obsessiveicons has so many and, while I record which artist makes the icon (in this case, wingedfigment), I am out of habit of recording the series source. But this one just captured my imagination. And like pictures from a Chris van Allsburg book, it's just waiting to become a story.

Ruby Lips

This icon, from icon_goddess, is another that's waiting to become a story. Sometimes, in indescribable situations, an image works where words don't. And that's the added benefit of icons that many people don't realize -- sometimes a picture can express what words cannot adequately.

Bibliophile

Enriana's icon would have also been accurate if it had my picture in there, but I don't know that many people would have found that arrangement as entertaining as I would...

Oh my!

Good? Bad? Who knows! Could be both. I like useful icons like this. Plus, the mouse is pretty bloody cute. Credit to jiatra.

all my icons, part IV

I don't know if I know enough Roman numerals to continue this!

Nine
Nine lives, nine cats...

I'm just glad it didn't say "every woman should have nine cats" because then I would have had to pass up on it and it's a really cute icon. From amura.

Girls Can Be Geeks, Too

This one was made for me, by request, by lady_talon at obsessiveicons.




Open a Vein
This is one of several writing-themed ones I have for my journal. The original intention was that it would be used for entries involving personal writing, but most of my writing in my blog tends to be very essay-style or rambling or personal. Which I should remedy, though I might not keep such writing in a place where an icon would be of any use.

By skellorg.

Rubrchick's Cats
Meet three of rubrchick's cats. The orange one is the coolest -- because he's orange. And the one on the right is really invisible -- one can come and visit 100 times and never see him.

The Vagina
I love The Vagina Monologues. I don't have a favorite quote, but when a series of icons with quotes from the show appeared on obsessiveicons, I had to take the one that was my favorite (little lemming that I am).

Icon by jiatra. Play by Eve Ensler.

Barefoot

I'm not sure why I like this icon (by enriana) so much. I don't go barefoot on the sand much because, well, I don't live near sand. And I am scared to be barefoot in large bodies of water because things might nibble on or brush against my toes and I can't see what they are. BUT I hate wearing shoes and avoid it whenever possible. I'd rather be barefoot.

Just One More Row

I say this all the time ("I'll be right there, just let me finish this row." or "I'll leave to go home, but just let me do one more row."). This is my first and, so far, only knitting-related icon. Given how much knitting I do, though, I should probably have more of these...

By lady_talon.

Useless Information

I love useless information. And Oscar Wilde was a dangerously funny man.

Nice combination for an icon (this one by enriana).


Figment

I'm not sure exactly what this means. Maybe it's that whole "man dreaming of being a butterfly or butterfly dreaming of being a man" thing....

A skellorg creation.

Alabandical

Great, great word. Like masticate and defenestrate, I think I should use this one more in daily conversation. Now I just have to practice pronouncing it...

An icon for a woefully underused word by feathered.

all my icons, part III

How about some ones without words?

Chess Queen
I know this one wants some text, but I can't figure out what text that would be. I don't play chess. But the symbol of a chess queen, arguably the most powerful piece on the board, is a interesting one to me. Maybe it's overflow after reading The Eight (Katharine Neville)...

By jiatra, without alteration, from obsessiveicons.

Bookslut?
The history of how I came to obtain this icon is convoluted: Rubrchick (who gave the icon it's name) saw it on a friend's blog (one Rosefox) and yoinked it. She then passed it on to me, as she felt that my journal had a notable absence of library- and book-related icons.


Captain Jack Sparrow
I have a bunch of different Pirates of the Caribbean and Jack Sparrow icons. This is one of the few that doesn't blink or have any words :) It was born, the offspring of unen2gemismasin in a community dedicated to the movie and, above all, Jack Sparrow.

Stone Angel

I really haven't the faintest idea where this picture came from, let alone how I found it. But I like it, so it's remained in my journal for several years now.



Woman and Camel

Another one without a source, and only a piece of flavor-text that I wrote to describe it: "And now for my next trick -- a woman and a camel... on a highwire!"

Tattooed Back

At one point, there was a collection of icons posted to obsessiveicons. The subject: the human back.

This one is from enriana.

His 'n' Hers

Another from the set of icons on the theme "comparisons." This is comparisons3 from enriana...


Skulls
... and this is "comparisons76", also from enriana.




Jellies
I don't know what it is about jellyfish that makes one intrigued, more than frightened by them. I know they can hurt me. But I still try to rescue them when they beach themselves and stand, transfixed, at the aquarium glass, watching them bob around.

"jellies 2" by enriana.

Booksleep

Remember the icon "Bookslut"? I think I decided to avoid spaces that day because I seemed to have given this one a name with a similar structure. From feathered at obsessiveicons, this just seemed perfect. That could be me... except that I'm careful to not fall asleep on my books, lest I damage them.