OK: Explain your avatars!

[Avispa]

For the time I have been in this joint I have seen all kinds of Avatars come and go. Some are weird, some are nice.

Mine is a picture of my Vespa Scooter with a reflection of an iron gate that leads to my back yard.... So there!

Now, you tell us, if your avatar isn’t easy to decipher, what is it all about?

Thanks, cheers! :)

[Steve Hampsten]

i like sporty trikes...

[dave thompson]

My son is a Marine Corporal.

[Steve Hampsten]

Go Huskies!!!

(right, Dave?)

[dave thompson]

Go Huskies!!!

(right, Dave?)
Steve, Steve, Steve. Apparently all that rain you've been having for almost 40 days has made your brain soggy. It's pronounced Go Cougs!!!!

[Steve Hampsten]

And Dave, we are feeling mighty soggy. There's mushrooms growing in my car; front seat.

But I've had 3-4 great rides in the last week/10 days so I can't complain.

I'm more of a cat person myself, too, so I guess we have that in common.

[Dekonick]

how I feel riding my Hors Cst.

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[dave thompson]

how I feel riding my Hors Cst.

:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:
Your a$$ is on fire? :D

[Steve Hampsten]

But in a good way?

[vaxn8r]

Self explanatory...the world's best bike.

[Ginger]

Keith A dug mine up when I switched names due to too many people assuming I was male...wanted to make it obvious I'm not.

Ginger.

[ThasFACE]

Adult Swim. Check it out.

[manet]

i like pastry

[bcm119]

Mine is a little illustrator/photoshop deal I made by outlining the tree in the middle of an Oregon license plate, duplicating it a few times, and putting it over a gradient background. I wanted it to capture that misty northwest forest feel, without being too busy. This being teh internets and all, I thought an avatar with a bit of local flavor would be cool.

[gt6267a]

my initials are kow. high school nickname, kow=cow. i found a one that looks like it is having a good time.

[Bruce K]

My son and I on a Mini Owners Group rally a few years ago. The picture was taken in the Parking lot of Woodman's in Essex, MA, originator of the fried clam.

BK

[myette10]

I'm addicted to cyclocross & this is on of my favorite cycling photos (thanks hup united). Regretably, it isn't me.

[bostondrunk]

Mine is a picture of Eritchie eating a twizzler while fending off school kids selling chocolate bars with his torch.

[onekgguy]

I think mine is pretty obvious to most here but I've used it in another forum and people there weren't sure what it was. I held my camera down by my front wheel while out on a ride and tweaked the result in Photoshop.

Kevin

[zank]

mmmmmmmm.....frites

[Kevan]

most personable, most handsome, insightful, generous and generally great folk come from Welsh heritage.

Well, except for me that is.

'sides I'm a sucker for dragons.

[cycleman_21]

A silouette of my four children looking out over Boston from the top of the hub
(Prudential building). It was just about four years ago, WOW have they grown since :eek: :help:

Ron C

[catulle]

Mine is a picture of Eritchie eating a twizzler while fending off school kids selling chocolate bars with his torch.

I wonder what Mr. Rorschach would say about this answer, atmo... :eek:

[catulle]

Self-portrait...

[dbrk]

For the longest time I have displayed the flag of Belgium's Flanders as an homage to the great Lions who have come from this cycling-loving haven...but 'tis time for a change. Girasole! Zonnebloem! Sonnenblume! Girasol! Suryapushpa! (that's Sanskrit) I dare not use the French!!

http://www.sunflowernsa.com/all-about/default.asp?contentID=41

Next year we hope to plant a field of some ten acres on the top of the hill.

dbrk

[Grant McLean]

If the socks aren't Scottish, then they're crrrrraap !

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VRHgednljsA

g

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . obvious?

BBD

[ergott]

nm

[PBWrench]

I am a longtime Campy addict. First picked up and purchased a peanut butter wrench in 1972. Still have it. I pack my bearings in peanut butter.

[AgilisMerlin]

my gleeful attempt at being hip. :no:


Amerlin


now it is time to pull the innards out of the turkey..........then go ride my singlespeed on the wet cold roads............then have my first toddy at noon.


cheers

[jthurow]

I never could find just the right one...so I've been puttin' album covers of whatever's striking my fancy at the moment. The one I have now is "Youth Medium" by a friend of mine from Davenport, IA who goes by the band name The Marlboro Chorus (http://www.marlborochorus.com) (I'm not sure if he did all the instruments or had help on this one). The artwork is by a friend, Pete Schulte (http://www.schulteprojects.com/).

jimi

[trophyoftexas]

I had never taken the time to do an avatar until this post came up...figured it was time to, as Ramsey Lewis would have said, join The In Crowd.

At first glance it would seem to be simply a Texas state flag, but it is something just a little different. When we started our toy soldier company we were importing soldiers only from Trophy Miniatures, Inc. Wales, Ltd. Since they were known through out the world as Trophy of Wales we decided that Trophy of Texas was a logical option. When searching for logo ideas we hit upon taking the Texas flag and doing sort of an "antique" twist to it. The larger size on the web site is really pretty neat and gets a lot of comments.

As for this being my new avatar, well, KEVAN had already taken the one I really wanted, that cool Wales flag! Hey Kevan, we make a pretty neat little Wales Dragon toy soldier carrying a Trophy Miniatures box, anyone running that avitar needs one of those little guys! We call him Taffy just for the heck of it, the Wales natives love it!

[pale scotsman]

Smoking is freakin' horrible.

[davids]

gestalt "r" us, atmo.

[Ozz]

Basque heritage...my grandfather was from a small town on the coast called Deba.

[Bradford]

Wally the Green Monster.

He lived in the the big green wall on Lansdowne St. for many years until he emerged to devote his life to annoying my good pals Morris and Eric.

I use it because it reminds me of a very happy time in my life.

[dirtdigger88]

I like green plants-

Jason

[christian]

I'm a professional rally co-driver and my avatar is an image that our helmet painter airbrushed on the back of my helmet, depicting me in a driving suit and helmet holding a Michelin map of France.

[Julia Hampsten]

A section of my collage called "Red Yellow 45th". Handmade pixels. . .

[Ti Designs]

Company logo from back in my artistic days. Now I mostly sit at the computer and make sarcastic comments on forums like this one.

[Ahneida Ride]

It's how I feel after a round with Uncle William. ;)

[davyt]

Dario's "Blop" paint scheme (what I thought I wanted on a bike until I saw his Responsorium)

[SoCalSteve]

A very, very small picture of my Ottrott (which I sold last week)...

Maybe I need to change it now.

Steve

[Sandy]

I don't have an avatar, since I have absolutely no clue as to how to do one. If I ever have one, it will be a picture of my daughter's lab (possibly lab/retriever mix), or a picture of some happy dog.


Sandy

[Dekonick]

Basque heritage...my grandfather was from a small town on the coast called Deba.

My family as well!

(Basque that is...)

:)

[Dekonick]

I don't have an avatar, since I have absolutely no clue as to how to do one. If I ever have one, it will be a picture of my daughter's lab (possibly lab/retriever mix), or a picture of some happy dog.


Sandy
Not a naked Kevin?

[Sandy]

Not a naked Kevin?

Not a naked Kevin or a naked Kevan. But the dog will definitely be naked.


Covering my eyes,


Sandy

[Bill Bove]

That's Whitey, our lead shop cat pedalling away on her custom Serotta. Normally during the day Whitey plops herself down on the counter and sleeps like she were dead. People would come in and say "That's a fat cat" hence the shops name.

[Sandy]

That's Whitey, our lead shop cat pedalling away on her custom Serotta. Normally during the day Whitey plops herself down on the counter and sleeps like she were dead. People would come in and say "That's a fat cat" hence the shops name.


Did I just read the name Whitey for your cat? I would have thought the cat would be pink and named Pinky. :)


Cutey Sandy

[victoryfactory]

A while back it was popular for the young, flexible, skinny, racer set
with no spacers under their stems and no back problems
to refer to us old guys as riding in the "Circus Bear" position.
I thought that was funny.

VF

[William]

My avatar is a Haida (North West Coast Indian) design of the Raven by Don Yeoman. The Raven (holding the sun in his beak) is inside a circle making it a near-abstract design. The Raven was the "transformer, the cultural hero, the trickster, the big man (he took many forms to many peoples) who created the world." Even though he gave the people fire, water, fish and Cedar trees to sustain themselves, he could also be greedy and loved to trick, cheat, and tease.

I've been a big fan of Northwest Coast Indian Designs since my childhood days in the PNW. I spent a lot of time studying them and learning the forms and elements that are characteristic of the style.


William

Can you make out the anatomical elements of the Raven?

[trophyoftexas]

My avatar is a Haida (North West Coast Indian) design of the Raven by Don Yeoman. The Raven (holding the sun in his beak) is inside a circle making it a near-abstract design. The Raven was the "transformer, the cultural hero, the trickster, the big man (he took many forms to many peoples) who created the world." Even though he gave the people fire, water, fish and Cedar trees to sustain themselves, he could also be greedy and loved to trick, cheat, and tease.

I've been a big fan of Northwest Coast Indian Designs since my childhood days in the PNW. I spent a lot of time studying them and learning the forms and elements that are characteristic of the style.


William

Can you make out the anatomical elements of the Raven? VERY cool avatar, have wondered exactly what it was!

[hypnos]

Favorite cartoon.

[Kevan]

IAs for this being my new avatar, well, KEVAN had already taken the one I really wanted, that cool Wales flag! Hey Kevan, we make a pretty neat little Wales Dragon toy soldier carrying a Trophy Miniatures box, anyone running that avitar needs one of those little guys! We call him Taffy just for the heck of it, the Wales natives love it!

Do you have a photo of the little guy?

Avatars come and go. Can't see myself being pinned down too long with this one. Let me wear it for a bit longer and he's yours. Dare I steal dbrk's now that he's moved on? Much as I like it, I think I'll hunt for something new and unusual. And I can assure you that doesn't mean a photo of a naked Sandy.

[gary135r]

Go Pats!....

[Korn Julio]

The funniest facial expression I caught with my camera during Notrott 2006.
Thanks again for the ribs sir! :banana:
Hope you don't mind me using you for an avatar. :beer:

[dbrk]

Skip this one if you are averse to pedantic professorial prolixity...but I promise no more alliteration (that being Sandy's great forte).

I thought someone should explain the word "avatar" since, well, that'd be up my particular alley and I'll soon be retiring to grow sunflowers (likely kidding about that...).

The word we've received is from the vernacularization of the Sanskrit, hence it drops the final "a". The Sanskrit is "avatara"; in Hindi, Gujarati, Malwari, Bhojpuri, etc., "avatar."

The prefix (called an "upasarga" in Skt) "ava" generally means "look down," "towards," "forward", "into" and may be familiar to those who recognize the name of the celestial Bodhisattva who reflects as the Dalai Lama: Avalokiteshvara (lit., the "lord who looks down or towards us", in Tibetan Chen-re-zhig; you'll notice this bodhisattva---won't you take me by the hand, show me the shine in your Japan, etc.---gazes demurly into his palms).

The "-tara" bit comes from the verbal root /tr, which means to cross, to traverse, to bridge, and is related to words for pilgrimage and pilgrimage site (tirtha). The sense is that of a ford, a threshold, a liminal crossing. (There may be an Indo-European connection that draws together etymologically the Skt "tirtha" and the English "traverse" but I think not. I'll check, Catulle will be interested in that.)

Hence, "avatar" is that by which one "crosses into", "fords towards", or bridges down and into somewhere else. The notion is that the divine incarnates---sometimes by crossing into the world from its heavenly abode and sometimes by making the bridge between this/that (existence), here/there (space), now/then (time). The term is most famously used for the avatars of Vishnu (particularly Krsna and Rama) and, interestingly (no one who has read this far will not laugh at that adverb's irony...), never to Shiva (who has manifest forms, millions of them, but not "avatara"s). As for the IT industry's adopting this term and melding it into its jargon, I would only say that no language in human history has been more adept or more eager in its ethos to borrow, adopt, and use words from other languages than English. Sanskrit, in comparison, is far better at generating new words than English but has none of its capacity to assmilate those from other languages.

So, all you divines, that's more than anyone needs or cares or likely ever wanted to know. Clearly, I'm having a morning coffee and waiting for a little warmth before my post-Thanksgiving ride.

On that other current thread about love and money I can say with a straight face that someone pays me to know stuff like this. And no one pays me to know anything about anything else. Now THAT beats workin'...

dbrk
prof of dead and irrelevant languages at TK's alma mater

[Lifelover]

Just because I like bananas. It also reminds me of my favorite T shirt qoute.

"Time flies like an arrow but Fruit flies like bananas"

[Sandy]

Just because I like bananas. It also reminds me of my favorite T shirt qoute.

"Time flies like an arrow but Fruit flies like bananas"

I am a lifelover of :banana: :banana: . They are my favorite fruit and one of my favorite foods. We sometimes have 20-30 :banana: :banana: in the house and somehow we eat them all.


The :banana: man.

[Chris]

Skip this one if you are averse to pedantic professorial prolixity...but I promise no more alliteration (that being Sandy's great forte).

I thought someone should explain the word "avatar" since, well, that'd be up my particular alley and I'll soon be retiring to grow sunflowers (likely kidding about that...).

The word we've received is from the vernacularization of the Sanskrit, hence it drops the final "a". The Sanskrit is "avatara"; in Hindi, Gujarati, Malwari, Bhojpuri, etc., "avatar."

The prefix (called an "upasarga" in Skt) "ava" generally means "look down," "towards," "forward", "into" and may be familiar to those who recognize the name of the celestial Bodhisattva who reflects as the Dalai Lama: Avalokiteshvara (lit., the "lord who looks down or towards us", in Tibetan Chen-re-zhig; you'll notice this bodhisattva---won't you take me by the hand, show me the shine in your Japan, etc.---gazes demurly into his palms).

The "-tara" bit comes from the verbal root /tr, which means to cross, to traverse, to bridge, and is related to words for pilgrimage and pilgrimage site (tirtha). The sense is that of a ford, a threshold, a liminal crossing. (There may be an Indo-European connection that draws together etymologically the Skt "tirtha" and the English "traverse" but I think not. I'll check, Catulle will be interested in that.)

Hence, "avatar" is that by which one "crosses into", "fords towards", or bridges down and into somewhere else. The notion is that the divine incarnates---sometimes by crossing into the world from its heavenly abode and sometimes by making the bridge between this/that (existence), here/there (space), now/then (time). The term is most famously used for the avatars of Vishnu (particularly Krsna and Rama) and, interestingly (no one who has read this far will not laugh at that adverb's irony...), never to Shiva (who has manifest forms, millions of them, but not "avatara"s). As for the IT industry's adopting this term and melding it into its jargon, I would only say that no language in human history has been more adept or more eager in its ethos to borrow, adopt, and use words from other languages than English. Sanskrit, in comparison, is far better at generating new words than English but has none of its capacity to assmilate those from other languages.

So, all you divines, that's more than anyone needs or cares or likely ever wanted to know. Clearly, I'm having a morning coffee and waiting for a little warmth before my post-Thanksgiving ride.

On that other current thread about love and money I can say with a straight face that someone pays me to know stuff like this. And no one pays me to know anything about anything else. Now THAT beats workin'...

dbrk
prof of dead and irrelevant languages at TK's alma mater

Hey Douglas,
How many words a minute do you type?

[Tailwinds]

My baby, Symba. :)

[ClutchCargo]

always liked his 'bicycle guy' and it seems appropriate for this forum!



Ride on!

[flydhest]

Best dog and best bike in the world.

[Xyzzy]

Mine reflects how I feel since I injured my knee earlier this year.

I'm praying the few months I took off from riding and the therapy I have been working through pays off for next year.

:)

[Tom]

Blue Hungry Rat.

Sums me up.

[PanTerra]

The funniest facial expression I caught with my camera during Notrott 2006.
Thanks again for the ribs sir! :banana:
Hope you don't mind me using you for an avatar. :beer:

Who was the girl with her tongue sticking out in the one you had before? That was one of my favorites, very distinctive.

As for mine, just some cat gif.

[Korn Julio]

Who was the girl with her tongue sticking out in the one you had before? That was one of my favorites, very distinctive.



You mean this one? Ah yes, that was my orginal icon. Had it for almost two years.

[Korn Julio]

And here's the "whole picture". The lovely lady sticking her tongue out was none other than Mariah Rice, Miss VA 2004. As the designated photog for Miss VA Pageant week (10 years and running), it's tradition I take "funny face" photos of all our contestants at the Miss VA Golf Tournament. The other three ladies in the pic all made it into the top-10 that year too.

[Fat Robert]

i started feeling fat when i passed 170 this summer

i know i'm not fat

years spent keeping myself below 160 made me:

1) prone to injury

2) prone to illness

3) thinking that 172 is "fat" even though only 6% of it is

and hey, i like hamburgers. hamburgers rock. tonight, i'm trying the horner recovery method and eating a few of them before bed so i'm ready to do stupid stuff on my tt bike tomorrow

[Keith A]

Mine is of my other passion in life. The icon is actually on image from a comic strip surfer named Wilbur Kookmeyer (http://www.wilbur-kookmeyer.com/index.html) -- he's a "kook".

[Lunar Probe]

My favorite Kitty, properly accessorized.

[Sandy]

i started feeling fat when i passed 170 this summer

i know i'm not fat

years spent keeping myself below 160 made me:

1) prone to injury

2) prone to illness

3) thinking that 172 is "fat" even though only 6% of it is

and hey, i like hamburgers. hamburgers rock. tonight, i'm trying the horner recovery method and eating a few of them before bed so i'm ready to do stupid stuff on my tt bike tomorrow

Did you just say 6%?? My goodness. I think that I am going to hide under a rock, or should I say a bunch of rocks. Make it a bunch of boulders.


Some mutiple of 6% body fat,


Sandy

[Serpico]

sandy needs an avatar, I'm gonna find him one

[Dekonick]

sandy needs an avatar, I'm gonna find him one

Nekkid Kevin!

[Elefantino]

Florida tag "SVN LFT"

Started with nine.

Bike accident...

Car accident...

[saab2000]

I have never been good with computers but did get this avatar to work. It is a picture of a sunrise from about 29,000 feet flying towards Chicago O'Hare in the summer of 2005. I think we were only on the short flight from Lincoln, NE. I love flying in the Midwest!

[PanTerra]

And here's the "whole picture". The lovely lady sticking her tongue out was none other than Mariah Rice, Miss VA 2004. As the designated photog for Miss VA Pageant week (10 years and running), it's tradition I take "funny face" photos of all our contestants at the Miss VA Golf Tournament. The other three ladies in the pic all made it into the top-10 that year too.


That's the one, oh and nice gig you got there. FOr a few years I shot the Bank One PGA Seniors Tournament in Dallas, but all I got was a bunch of pictures of old men. :crap:

[Erik.Lazdins]

FWIW,

Tilts is bridge in Latvian which is down the line from Sanskrit.

Erik

Skip this one if you are averse to pedantic professorial prolixity...but I promise no more alliteration (that being Sandy's great forte).


.............
The "-tara" bit comes from the verbal root /tr, which means to cross, to traverse, to bridge, and is related to words for pilgrimage and pilgrimage site (tirtha). The sense is that of a ford, a threshold, a liminal crossing. (There may be an Indo-European connection that draws together etymologically the Skt "tirtha" and the English "traverse" but I think not. I'll check, Catulle will be interested in that.)
.............................
dbrk
prof of dead and irrelevant languages at TK's alma mater

[The Spider]

It's a very cool chair. Aggressive and yet very comfortable, a true classic that has been re-interpreted to work in modern environments...

sounds like a good steal bike doesn't it!

and it's in my line of sight whilst typing!

[keno]

I hired a caricaturist to draw pictures of all of the guests at a birthday party for my wife. When everyone had been drawn, I put Sophie, the Wonder Cat, on my lap and had the artist draw her.

keno

[oracle]

.























.


















.











my avatar is invisible




















.





























unless you are a fellow oracle

[dave thompson]

Invisibilty rules!

[catulle]

.























.


















.











my avatar is invisible




















.





























unless you are a fellow oracle

Tabula rasa...?

[Fat Robert]

.























.


















.











my avatar is invisible




















.





























unless you are a fellow oracle

drunk chicks are ok



blind soothsayers are better

[oracle]

drunk chicks are ok



blind soothsayers are better








.













blond soothslayers?

[Fat Robert]

.













blond soothslayers?

constance bennett fixation

[konstantkarma]

Snapped this pic at the Natural History museum in Taipei, Taiwan while there to adopt my son. Best trip I've ever taken without a bicycle.

Kostantkarma represents an allusion to the old bicycling proverb...."what goes around, comes around"..........and around...and around....... :bike:

[William]

constance bennett fixation

atmo

http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/%A5Artist%20GIF%20Images/Invisible-Mans-1.jpg

[Skrawny]

My avatar is either:

Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes) comic strip. He is my favorite 6 year old angst ridden philosopher.

or...

... me at a desk!

-s

[aj4e]

My avatar is a Haida (North West Coast Indian) design of the Raven by Don Yeoman. The Raven (holding the sun in his beak) is inside a circle making it a near-abstract design. The Raven was the "transformer, the cultural hero, the trickster, the big man (he took many forms to many peoples) who created the world." Even though he gave the people fire, water, fish and Cedar trees to sustain themselves, he could also be greedy and loved to trick, cheat, and tease.

I've been a big fan of Northwest Coast Indian Designs since my childhood days in the PNW. I spent a lot of time studying them and learning the forms and elements that are characteristic of the style.


William

Can you make out the anatomical elements of the Raven?
I always thought yours was a cross section of some sort of muscle or bone, this makes much more sense!

Mine - "all she's gotta do is just gimmme that wink"

[William]

I always thought yours was a cross section of some sort of muscle or bone, this makes much more sense!

"
Cool. :cool:

Hey, no problem, I used to think the Jerk's avatar was a picture of a ti frame from behind. Turns out it was Mrs Jerk in Titanium pants doing the rock and roll salute. :rolleyes: :crap:



William

[sspielman]

Avatars haven't been the same since the departure of Roy Munson(s)....

[shinomaster]

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=21611&highlight=time+travel

Mine is a close up of this image from an old Medieval illustration of knights killing one an other. I have, ever since I was a small child, been fascinated with knights.

[petitelilpettit]

My avatar is either:

Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes) comic strip. He is my favorite 6 year old angst ridden philosopher.

or...

... me at a desk!

-s

Maybe you should find one of Calvin attempting to ride his bike, but the bicycle attacks him. I think that would be appropriate :) Or one of his Spaceman Spiff moments.

I've yet to decide on putting an avatar up. Soon...

Pettit

[ClutchCargo]

Avatars haven't been the same since the departure of Roy Munson(s)....

Roy Munson(s) ? ? ?

[gasman]

[QUOTE=ClutchCargo]Roy Munson(s) ? ? ?[/


Roy was asked to leave.

This thread made me grab an avatar of my passion since '69-rock climbing. The climber is at Smith Rock here in sunny Oregon ;)

[bluesea]

http://forums.thepaceline.net/showthread.php?t=21611&highlight=time+travel

Mine is a close up of this image from an old Medieval illustration of knights killing one an other. I have, ever since I was a small child, been fascinated with knights.

Me too--the Japanese kine.

[Keith A]

bluesea -- Your avatar is great :banana:

[crossjunkee]

Mine is a female elk taken last fall in Rocky Mtn. National Park.

[Skrawny]

Maybe you should find one of Calvin attempting to ride his bike, but the bicycle attacks him. I think that would be appropriate Or one of his Spaceman Spiff moments.

I couldn't find one with the infamous "killer bike" but I thought this might be topical...

[Ti Designs]

Roy was asked to leave.

I now have a new hero...

[jckid]

My mini schnauzer...lost her last May :(

[bluesea]

bluesea -- Your avatar is great :banana:

I thought you'd like it. I've been watching Hollywood surf movies lately.

For those who didn't know, its the poster from The Endless Summer.

[Russell]

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (also known as JTHM) is a black-and-white comic book series written and drawn by Jhonen Vasquez. It began as a series of short strips in the goth magazine Carpe Noctem, and was later published in seven issues by Slave Labor Graphics between August 1995 and January 1997. The series later had two spin-offs, called Squee! and I Feel Sick.

The comic is a black comedy laced with irony and social criticism. It is in part a satire of society’s fascination with violence. Despite this, the comic itself has been criticized for glorifying violence, and has sparked some controversy.


Jhonen also did the Invader Zim animated cartoon series.