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

[khalulu]

LJ ate my comment, so here's the brief version - khalulu means rabbit in Chichewa, a language of Malawi (southern Africa). Like the Harry in my fic Beekeeping, I spent some time there and studied the language a bit, and though I didn't see any rabbits there, I liked the sound of the word. (Sounds like kah-LOO-loo.) Icon is that word changing into the Chinese character for rabbit. Someone was offering such word-to-character icons in the Japan relief benefit auction just as I needed an icon for posting my first fic. I like animals and I like languages and I hope the plot-bunnies hop my way.

I only have one other icon, it's ancient Roman art of the god Triptolemus, a blond guy in a chariot drawn by winged serpents, and perfect for my story Abraxan Wings.

My journal header is standard LJ of snowy hills and trees on a starry night. I like it. The quotation is from a gently eccentric and adventurous poem by Edward Lear that I have always loved, "The Jumblies".

[birdsofshore]

I love your metamorphing icon, and very interesting to hear where it comes from.

I am an Edward Lear fan, so I knew your quote already. It goes nicely with your header.

[khalulu]

"He reads, but he cannot speak, Spanish,
He cannot abide ginger beer:
Ere the days of his pilgrimage vanish,
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear."

(To the tune of "Acres of Clams" in my head.)

Perhaps I should get an icon of one of his illustrations! I love his cat Foss.

Thanks for thinking of this interesting topic. I want to know why lettered has "it's lion turtles all the way down".

[birdsofshore]

Hee, did you ever see the terrible Lear parody I committed for saras_girl's wedding? There was even art O_o

Here: http://wedding-eels.livejournal.com/887.html

and here: http://wedding-eels.livejournal.com/2353.html

A Lear icon would be lovely, I think.

I also want to know about the lion turtles. Quite badly, in fact. I wonder if lettered might be persuaded to share?

[khalulu]

alas I was denied access to the Lear parody.

I once had a lovely set of greeting cards of Lear's drawings of his cat Foss.