All about YOU

[birdsofshore]

I love talking with you all here each week / day / hour / insert own level of addiction, but I often think I don't even know basic stuff about your LJ , like what your username means, what your icons are, etc etc. Come and tell me everything.

Why did you pick your username, and what does it mean? What's your default icon, and does it have any significance? If it's a famous person, please don't assume I will know who it is - I never know who anyone is unless I have the hots for them. What about those other things we can personalise on LJ - the quotes or messages at the top of your journal, and that odd little thing I've never worked out how to change, for instance who_la_hoop's says "I can see your house from here", which always makes me laugh. Do you have special art or graphics on your header? What are they all about?

I will start you off. My username is from a poster that I have in my living room, which says "Birds of shore & sea", with, er, drawings of different birds. Of shore, and, indeed, of sea. "Birdsofshoreandsea" is more characters than LJ allows, and besides, the shorebirds are the ones I like the best.

My picture is probably self-evident, but it's a curlew, which is my absolute favourite bird. I live quite near to plenty of these glorious creatures and they make me very thrilled and happy whenever I see one. They're just so ludicrous and beaky. They look like they shouldn't exist, and they seem to have really fabulous personalities. I can watch them for hours, just mooching about and digging for worms. They also have subtly beautiful plumage and the most wonderful song. I'm not actually OBSESSED with birds in real life, but I can verge on HIGHLY ENTHUSIASTIC about birds on any given occasion, so apologies if you just glazed over there.

The quotes on my journal are from one of my favourite books, The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving. "You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed" and "Keep passing the open windows" are pieces of advice from the book on how to survive whatever life throws at you. If you haven't read it, it's a big, insane, sexy, sweet, funny, tragic romp of a book and please don't tell me if you don't like it, because I have adored it since I was about 15 and bought it to impress a boy I fancied who worked in a bookshop (my rec for Frequent Patronage will be along any day now, by the way). Fandom is definitely part of my plan to remain sane and to 'keep passing the open windows' (in other words, to avoid falling into depression and self-harm), so both quotes seemed apt when I was picking my layout.

I have only got a standard LJ header thing - it was the one that seemed least offensive when I looked through. I'd love fancy graphics or some beautiful art up there, but OMG, how hard to choose, plus, if I'm being honest, I don't have a clue how to do such things DD:

Please come and do all the sharing. I really, really want to know.

p.s. A very big thank you to whoever nominated me at HPfanficpoll thingy, if you are on my flist. I was very flattered indeed that you liked my fics, and touched that you took the time ♥

Comments

[sassy-cissa.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll play.

User name: When I first started my LJ - I used most of my real-life name as my user name, since I never, ever in a million years intended to read, let alone write...slash. Enter stumbling onto slash and becoming hooked. After posting fics for a bit under that name and ensuing fiasco that was involved when my then 19 yr old find my journal *which involved a fight in the Louvre in Paris - a story for another day* - I decided to change my user name. Around that same time I became a member of an RPG called Beyond Seven Years and I played Narcissa. I was in it for several years, playing some other characters *Theo Nott and Severus Snape* but Narcissa has always been a fav character of mine. After I read HBP I knew Narcissa would whatever it took to make certain Draco survived the war. Anyway - because I was "Narcissa-obsessed" I put a request to my flist and sassy_cissa was the user name they came up with for me. *wipes brow* whew - that was a butt-load of info for such a simple question.

Next my default icon is Michelle Pfieffer - who I believe to this day would have made a perfect Narcissa....if they hadn't had that stupid everyone must be British rule for the movies. Not to mention she'd never have allowed her hair to look like a skunk!

My header...it changes seasonally. "Spring into Summer" "Fall into Fandom" and "A good fic warms you on a cold winter day".
The designs generally vary and are created by the mulit-talented femmequixotic. I'm using last years fall one, though, because she is buried in Graduate work at Harvard and I didn't want to bug her for a new one this year. My journal motto is from a song by 3 Doors Down called "Let Me Go". On my main joural is: In this world there's real and make believe and on my friends page it's And this seems real to me.

Oh and I can code a basic layout, but when your bff is a graphic designer...who "lives to code" why bother!!! ♥

And if you read this to the end...congrats. :P

[birdsofshore]

Yours is one of the userpics that I remain convinced must actually be you :DDD And I must hear the Louvre story sometime, please!

The autumn banner is glorious! I agree you need to take advantage of femme's skills.

I read every bit. These are all fascinating, I'm loving it.

[sassy-cissa.livejournal.com]

I look absolutely nothing like my user pic - although I've often been asked if it's me.

I sigh and say "only in my dreams"

This is from said Louvre trip - pre-LJ outing...



And you can see....no resemblance whatsoever. And it's about 7 yrs old - so imagine me older. :(

[birdsofshore]

I think being outed as a slash fan by my family in the Louvre would INSTANTLY age me about 7 years :DDDD

That's a lovely, happy family pic - are those your boys?

and you have a touch of the sassy Michelle P about you, definitely!

[sassy-cissa.livejournal.com]

lol...well it was only outed by my oldest son - but it was quite a scene. One day soon I'll go through the details. Trust me - I remember like it was yesterday.

And yes, those are my "3" boys - they look much the same, although Jeff - youngest - has much shorter hair these days. I'm hoping to get a new family photo at Thanksgiving.

And the only thing Michelle P and I have in common is blonde hair and blue eyes. lol

[capitu]

Thanks to you I always think of Michelle Pfieffer as my Narcissa. When I see her in a movie or just a picture it reminds me of you. :)

And your layout IS gorgeous. I've stopped by and admired often. *nods*

[sassy-cissa.livejournal.com]

*waves*

Michelle Pfieffer is my absolute Narcissa. And that's sweet that seeing her reminds you of me. lol

My fav layout that she did was last spring's. It was lavender fields in France and it just took me back to the time we spent there every time I looked at it. *sigh* I should have taken screen caps of them.*smacks self* lol