redbird | Not worth a thousand words (Reply)

The "I will ask about some of your userpics" thing is floating around again, and

rysmiel talked about six of theirs, and offered to ask about six of other people's, "for values of six that may have error bars." I took them up on it, and rysmiel wrote:

"Many of yours are kind of straightforward for this sort of exegesis.

"I'd be interested in you talking about the arp32 one, the R and G "heads"one, "embrace your inner fish", the subway cars one, and I don't feel I quite have a handle on the distinction between the roadsign one and the Gorey bicycle one moodwise."

These are answers to rysmiel's questions, but include information rysmiel already knows.

Unlike rysmiel, I don't have tight associations between userpics and mood.

This is a section of a recent Astronomy Picture of the Day, which I turned into a userpic for no better reason than that I thought it would actually work in this size, and have yet to use other than in the GIP post. Arp 32 is the designation of the pair of interacting galaxies. Now that you ask, it might make a good "ooh, shiny!" image, especially when that phrase is an expression of delight at something someone else has posted.

"Heads" is, of course, from the movie ofTom Stoppard's Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are DeadHamlet. (If anyone reading this hasn't seen Hamlet, I highly recommend that as well, and R&K doesn't make a huge amount of sense without that context.) This is one I would delete if I needed to make room for other icons, though it probably wouldn't be the first to go.

"Embrace your inner fish" is a Ray Troll illustration of Charles Darwin hugging Tiktaalik, a transitional fossil that was so much what had been predicted that it should have convinced anyone who honestly doubted the theory of evolution, and is teaching paleontologists more about tetrapod evolution. I have liked Ray Troll's work since I first saw it, in an exhibit at a museum in Seattle that

alanro and I went to, probably about fifteen years ago. I have a cherished t-shirt of one of Troll's illustrations, lots of different sea animals (many fish, and many invertebrates, and I think a few non-fish tetrapods), titled "Planet Ocean." Those shirts are no longer available, and I'm not as fond of a bunch of his more recent stuff, which includes more skeletons and more specifically Alaska-themed items. Entirely his right, whether simply because he is a proud Alaskan or because the tourists like those, but it means I haven't been throwing more money his way. If I needed an evolution icon, this would be it.

These train cars were sometimes called "redbirds," because of the paint color. They weren't painted red when they first went into service (in fact, Lionel has just started selling model New York subway cars, and it's this model in the older dark green); I gather the red paint was graffiti-resistant and/or easy to clean. I like the subway system, and not just on practical levels: there are times when that sense of familiarity can be comforting. Given the nickname, this seemed like a good subway train picture for me to use as a userpic. I use this for a lot of posts that are about New York City in some way.

There isn't a sharp distinction between these, though if I feel as though I am successfully balancing in a tricky situation I'm more likely to use the Gorey illustration. If I wanted one to warn other people "proceed carefully" I'd be more likely to use the roadsign.