All about YOU
Oct. 25th, 2013 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdsofshoreI 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 isunless 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 ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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 ♥
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
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 ♥
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:35 pm (UTC)The default icon is me. One day after getting my hair highlighted I was trying to take a picture of how damn brassy it was that time, and I just... liked how it came out. It's a picture of me that doesn't show my face and doesn't make me feel fat. *wry smile* Or old, for that matter.
The name... er... don't laugh. I made it up for a D&D character, ages ago. I created the character in my junior year of college (we're talking in the 80s) and I played her for two years, and when I was online for a group talking about gaming, I used that as my handle. My normal handle for a very long time was "d-singer" and folks called me "D." which was handy since it mimicked parts of my name. But as folks went online, people who were actually named "D. Singer" started to use that as a username, so I switched to tryslora full time. The best part about it is I know that if I see it anywhere, it's me!!
My "name" used to be "ALL WORDS ARE AWESOME WORDS!!!" because I kept shouting that at people during word wars. :) So I guess it's sort of my catch phrase, and it's been borrowed by others at hdw which makes me really happy, because all words ARE awesome words. I decided that I was tired of the capslock and exclamation points, though, and changed it to "call me trys" a while back.
My titles are sort of an ancient in-joke, I guess. I used to be a part of a community which did this kind of RPF roleplaying. It was a strange cross between characters and real, and I ended up naming my brain. Yes, because I was "me" but fictional, I decided that it was all happening inside my head, where all the characters/voices in my head were reflections of me, thus, it was the Hall of Mirrors. It stuck, and I refuse to get rid of it. :) My actual domain is hall-of-mirrors.com but it's sort of non-existent and I need to fix that someday and move it to a new hosting service. My best friend at the time had the um... crap, I can't remember what hers was called, but the space between them (since we shared a brain) was call The Corridor and there were spaces for all our friends along it. Thus my friends page is the Corridor.
See, it makes a weird sort of sense, even if it all makes me sound a bit insane, I'm sure. And it isn't at all exciting.
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:40 pm (UTC)I like your Hall of Mirrors line. I never wondered what it meant exactly, it's just evocative and intriguing.
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:51 pm (UTC)I don't even know.
I've grown to love it though. :)
I don't have header words or anything. I used to have 'Hi, I'm Nox and I write things.' because I'm Nox and I write things sometimes. :)
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:54 pm (UTC)Now you were one of the people I wanted, but you've changed your layout AGAIN. I wanted to know about all those frilly petticoats and things you had. But they've gone.
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:55 pm (UTC)It's usually Draco because I like him and I have feels for writing things in his persepctive. Also I was tired of seeing 'Draco's' with dark blond hair and black eyebrows. He is white blond! Everywhere. His eyebrows, too!! His pubes! Everything. :D
I have a white blond kink, maybe? But I like to just put my Draco head canon as my icon whenever I find a good one :)
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Date: 2013-10-25 07:59 pm (UTC)Userpic - found at I can haz cheezburger. Has cats and Harry Potter reference. Liked it. Kept it. Use it.
Journal layout - I like summer and the beach. Was the closest one I could find. Too lazy to look for anything else to possibly change it to.
Journal sub-title Worst Case Scenario Girl - pretty self-explanatory really. I expect the worst. If it doesn't come around all the (surprisingly) better but at least I can try to be prepared.
Oh. The Marching to the Beat of My Own Drummer title - my mom described me as that to someone once.
My profile page has some of my world views also.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:05 pm (UTC)I had sort of guessed that part :D
That's funny you feel so strongly about Draco's all over white-blondness. That would be an albino person rather than a blond person, maybe? Most blonds have darker body hair, in my experience. Or have I just been hanging out with FAKE BLONDS? :D
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:12 pm (UTC)Well maybe me. I haven't shared much personal info on LJ, but it's not a huge deal. I do have a family, and a professional life, and a very active volunteer life where I have a leadership position. So I keep my fanfic stuff pretty anonymous. But if anyone recognizes me from all of this info - Hi! And say hi back!
Anyhow. My username is one that I use all over the net, and I added the 2010 because Geneva was already taken, and that was the year I joined LJ. The name is not mine, but a family member's (not really close family), and I love the name because it's a bit unique, but feminine, and also that the city has connotations of "Peace" associated with it.
My main icon is a piece of H/D art by moonlitdark, used with permission. I love her graphic style, and I think this piece is just brilliant. LIght/Dark contrast is SOOO Harry/Draco! I've had lots of comments from people who think it is sexy stuff.
We've talked about it before, but I share your love of birds. I learned all of the common birds in my area, Southern California USA, and can pretty much ID them by sight and sound, at least enough to go "what is that?" when something unusual calls or I see something weird. I used to be quite obsessed with it, and we have a lot of birds nearby and great habitat variety, including coastal shorebirds, and I learned a ton. I carried binoculars everywhere for years. Now it's a bit more in the background, and I have a camera more often. We spend a lot of time outdoors, and knowing the birds and the plants and the other wildlife by name makes the experience so much richer to me. I love to share with other people, too, but sometimes it's hard to do without coming off as a know-it-all!!
I never really got into chasing rare birds around like some people enjoy, but I do have a funny story. One time a co-worker was talking about Calliope hummingbirds, which had been spotted in our area (very rare for us). She asked me about how you would ID one, and we looked out the window at the feeder to talk about how they might compare to our usual local hummingbirds, and RIGHT THERE AT THAT VERY MOMENT was a Calliope hummingbird. Amazement all around.
Another bird story - I am paranoid about bird poop. My mommy taught me that it was the germiest, dirtiest thing ever, and I don't like it! I would never have a pet bird because of that.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 08:17 pm (UTC)Username: It's a completely made up name and doesn't mean anything! I put blue in there because it's my favourite colour. I have another internet name, which I love, but I wanted my LJ to be separate.
Icon: When I set up my LJ, I googled 'indyonblue' and this icon popped up so I thought perfect! I have another user picture which is a bird saying 'tweet tweet' - that's my twitter icon and is actually a picture of my pjs (my husband bought them for me, saying they were apt!). One day, I may go back to my pjs picture.
Title: An ex-boyfriend once commented that sometimes, if I don't know what to say, I say 'Sooooo'. I couldn't think of anything better to call my journal so that's what it became.
I'm still getting to grips with LJ, it's a monster of a site in some ways. I'd love to be able to design my own journal template but have no idea how you'd go about that!
And that's my (rather boring) story! Sooooo....
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:23 pm (UTC)My eldest can be a bit worst-case scenario-ish, and me too, I think. I say that I prefer to be pleasantly surprised when things go right, but I think it would really be better if I wasn't expecting things to screw up so often.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:23 pm (UTC)My username is Melusina for the mermaid Melusina. For a long time I participated in mama/parenting communities and my username always had something to do with Girl. On the night I became pregnant with her, I woke up suddenly from a dream in which I found a baby mermaid on the ground outside after a flood. So she's my mermaid baby, and my username is in honour of her. The HP is because it's mostly an HP fandom journal and plain old Melusina was already taken. My usual default icon is the mermaid from the film of GoF.
My journal title thingies are: Flesh, Blood and Bone and Brain and Nerve and Bounding Heart. They are both quotes from HP, Flesh, Blood and Bone is the title of the chapter in GoF where Harry gets tied up and tortured and stuff and that was perhaps a memorable chapter for me and Brain and Nerve and Bounding Heart is part of what Harry thinks as he's walking to face Voldemort in The Forest Again, my favourite chapter of Deathly Hallows and possibly the whole series. Plus both quotes kind of define my interest and pleasure in reading and writing fic in fandom.
My header image is some gorgeous Harry/Draco artwork by Marikart. It kind of encapsulates everything I love about H/D in one image.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:26 pm (UTC)My username is a variant (specifically, the available-on-LJ variant) on "Gamma Orionis", which has been the basis for most of my screen names ever since I started out with fandom. Gamma Orionis is the scientific name for the star Bellatrix, so my reasons for choosing it should be fairly obvious. My default icon is connected to that, of course (being a picture of the constellation Orion), because I like when usernames and icons match up. Because obsessive compulsive tendencies :P It was just the first, clearest picture of Orion that I could find, and I've become rather attached to it... it's my icon for most things.
The title on my journal ("Good Evening Starshine") was inspired by something that vaguely bothers me about the song "Good Morning Starshine" from the musical Hair (which is my favourite musical, like, ever) - you can't see stars shining in the morning! You see stars coming out in the evening! *Tsks* these are basic observational skills, songwriters! I like that it keeps up the theme of stars in my username/icon, though I've been pondering changing it... I probably won't, though, because I'm lazy and I can't think of a better title. And hey, because that's not nearly enough star-related stuff, I was also drawn to my theme because of the GLORIOUS NUMBER OF STARS IN IT. STARS EVERYWHERE. STAR BULLET POINTS. STAR HEADER. SO PRETTY.
The only thing not star-related about my journal (besides, you know, the content) is the little banner picture thing I made for my intro post, which I had the idea for when I was waiting for a bus next to a graveyard during a rain storm (kind of an eerie situation, which is exactly the sort of situation I love!) So I spent a very long time searching out and splicing together appropriate images until it was something like how I imagined I looked at that moment (only, you know, prettier. And minus the weird way I was hunched over my book in an attempt to prevent it from getting too wet).
So. The moral of the story is that I have a meteorology fetish, I think.
P.S. Congratulations on the nomination :)
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:29 pm (UTC)I love your hummingbird story! Amazing (to me) that you get ANY SORT of hummingbird. The rarest thing we have had in our garden are waxwings. We had 10 last year, and at the time, there were estimated to be only 1000 in the UK, so I'm calling 1% of the country's total population rare enough for me.
I try to learn birdcalls but I am not very good at it. I know a few, but my knowledge doesn't seem to increase much over the years. Mr Birds bought me a set of cds but I hardly ever make time to listen to them. One day....
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:32 pm (UTC)I really admire people who can do layouts and are at ease with html. It sends me spare, it really does.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:34 pm (UTC)I like your name. And the being-obsessed-with-birds thing is sort of refreshing since everyone else on the net seems to obsessed with cats! My favourite bird is an albatross by the way. In large part because of the Baudelaire poem.
Anyway, I started off as mayfly on many fanfic archive sites. I was exclusively into HP and I thought it would be more unique if I chose a name that had no HP references. I chose that name because I was very into Belle & Sebastian at the time, and I always identified with their song Mayfly. I think I interpreted the lyrics a little how I wanted to. For me the song talks about someone on the outside looking in, wanting desperately to be included but never being judged worth-while.
When I opened my LJ account I wanted to use the same name, but someone else beat me too it - and abandoned their journal soon after, I checked up on them - I tried out may_fly, but it was also used. My friend who's laptop I was using at the time - I set up my LJ account in a hurry while on holiday because I wanted to take part in a fic writing thingy on the now defunct two_broomsticks - got fed up, typed mayfly_78 in - from my date of birth - and that was that.
On DeviantArt I go by Lazylinepainterjane. Also from a Belle & Sebastian song. Also about a rather sad and pathetic girl. I also Foxinsnow on flickr and for a blogspot blog I no longer use. Also from a Belle & Sebastian song - but also a reference to Virginia Woolf's Orlando.
For my online shop I chose Inkdoodles because I wanted something that expressed my style - until I got obsessed with block-printing, I primarily did ink drawings - and was whimsical. I refuse to take myself too seriously.
The title of my blog is "ramblings of a disjointed mind", because I harbour no illusions about being coherent or consistent.
My banner is one I made myself. It's a collage of some of my fanart.
I can no longer remember where I got my user-pic from. I came across it somewhere on my meanders on the web, before I opened my journal and before I realised it would be best to keep track of where I take things from. I used it because I liked how simple and light-hearted it was. And I think it goes with my tag-line. My ramblings are as inconsequential as soap bubbles. I like to think it makes me easily recognisable which is one of the reasons I don't change despite having a number of other user-pics too.
I think that's all.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:34 pm (UTC)I love your name and I have always wanted to call a daughter Melusina or Melusine. I only make boys, though!
Your header art is so striking and very 'you'.
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-25 08:41 pm (UTC)Raitala is the name of our holiday place in Finland. It means 'place in the willows' or 'willow place'. Its pronounced 'rye'(as in the grain) 'tala', but I know a lot of people think of me as 'ray'. Ray of sunshine, me!
My journal name is Pureblood Princess, which, you know, is all ironic and such as a nod to fan girls who take themselves too seriously as gothic Mary Sues in swishy coats. We will not examine how far this is true *swishes coat*
Journal used to be titled "The Great Procrasathon", but I don't actually think of it as procrastination any more. I have owned my fandom life more fully in recent years. It is now called "weirdly identifying with Draco Malfoy since 2005", which is self explanatory.
My icon is Stuart Broad, England cricketer, from a fashion photoshoot. He was bowling a ball in a sharp suit and I loved the focussed intensity of his expression and his whisps of blond hair. Broady is not my head canon Draco, but this picture is, and he is my icon because of weirdly identifying with him ;) When you meet me, you may notice that I look a little bit like the Dracos I draw and you should feel free to call me a freaky narcissist.
X Rai
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:42 pm (UTC)My username comes from a Brazilian book Dom Casmurro. This book is about a man who is absolutely convinced his wife Capitu is cheating on him with his best friend, however, the book isn't about infidelity, it's about Bentinho (the main character) being jealous, distrustful and obsessive, with very little evidence that Capitu was ever unfaithful to him.
We never do find out for sure if Capitu cheated on him, she's in theory an exotic woman, with gypsy eyes who is tormented by the jealously of her husband.
However I picked the name because I love the name Capitu. I mean, I love the character, too, I do fell in love with her through the novel, but if she had been named something like... I don't know, Beatriz (a perfectly good name) I wouldn't have used it, you know? lol
I always thought that if I ever had a girl, I'd call her Capitu, and since later in my adulthood I realised that I didn't want to have children I decided to use it as my username when I was first invited to livejournal. :D
My default icon isn't me. :O People are always thinking that's me. It's not. When I went to my first (and only) Harry Potter convention (Terminus) and I introduced myself as capitu people said to me, hey, you're not your icon! Well, yeah, no, I'm not. I wish though. Isn't this woman lovely? I AM in love with this icon.
This icon was the first icon I got. The person who invited me to livejournal (back then you needed an invitation and a code) made me a beautiful layout and this icon (my name included because I never hid my real name) to go with it. I loved the woman in the icon, and I grew very fond of how it looks. I like the whiteness of it (and yeah, the ankles XD), and have been using it ever since.
Sometimes I feel, having my name on my icon, I'm saying, hey, that's me, and I'm lying, but then I think, other people have their username in plants and actors and stuff, and I think, maybe that notion is on my head. Anyway, I think my flist know me. I post pictures of myself, well, once in a while, so they know what I look like, strangers, well, I can honestly say I don't mind them thinking that's me. :D
The "Welcome to villa cariño" I have as my title is... it sounds rather like a cabana party. I like the idea. Villa Cariño is not a real place. But if it were, it's be carnaval all year round, and people would be dancing and having fun and celebrating all the time. (I can link you to what carnaval in my neck of the woods looks like, I have pictures!)
My header is...well. I made that header a while go. I have to say I'm never very happy with my headers. >.> But this one has been there for ages because, if I'm honest, even if I don't like the graphics I made for myself this one is special. I like the blue. I like the round shades; they remind me of Harry. The original picture isn't like that, it was in colour and I had a good time altering them to look like that. I like the quote and the Hallows symbol I have there. Magic is everywhere, you know? I believe that. :) I'm working on another layout with another header, but I'm very slow with my own stuff. I always get distracted by something better. Like a new fic, a new art, a post, and I'm like... Oh, SHINY! until I remember and keep on working on it. Heh.
That's a bit about me. As boring as you thought it was going to be like! LOL
But YOU! I did think you were OBSESSED about birds. XDXD And, hey, there's a bird who always visits my backyard, well, I think it's the same, I'm pretty sure it's the same, and she's (I think it's a she) is not afraid of me! The other day I was sitting out, drinking coffee and the thing came really close, less than a half a meter, looked at me, ate an ant and left. I thought of you. Lol
You know, if you ever want to change your layout, let me know! I mean, I can edit a layout for you if you have a graphic in mind. :) I did icmezzo and eidheann_writes and mine, of course, and my community, so, yeah, I can some do stuff. :D I'd love to make you a layout if you have time to browse about and tell me more or less how you'd like one. Think about it. This offer does not expire EVER. :D
MAN I WROTE A LOT. *hides in shame*
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:42 pm (UTC)I love the idea of the Hall of Mirrors. I love the idea that there are all these reflections inside the mind, some slightly different, and some very different, and that they are all THERE and we can sort of navel gaze into them. Or sometimes just switch mirrors and let another one out. Er. We won't talk about how I deal with issues by picking random personalities to do it for me. *innocence* It's a really apt way of looking at my mind, and thus, my world, which my journal reflects, yeah?
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:42 pm (UTC)I like when usernames and icons match up. Because obsessive compulsive tendencies :P
NONO because COMMON SENSE :DD
I love all your starriness. It's satisfying when somebody has really thought about their name and their layout and it all has meaning. Of course, the random ones are fun as well.
Congratulations on the nomination Thank you very much. It was quite the surprise!
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:44 pm (UTC)Most Brits probably recognize Tamlane (or Tam Lin) from Child's Ballads no. 39. He was abducted by the Queen of the Fairies and ultimately must go through a series of transformations in order to become a man again. While he waits, he enjoys divesting blond maidens of their virginity. Which, ahem, has nothing to do with why I selected it for my username. >.>
My icon is the central figure in the west pediment of the Temple of Artemis at Corfu. I adore Greek art and architecture. And like all Greek Archaic sculpture, I like the Corfu Medusa because I can't tell if she's smiling because she's happy or because she's off her rocker. Which is how I feel most days.
Congrats on your nomination! ♥
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:50 pm (UTC)My username is a combination of my nickname (Isi short for Isabelle, pronounced as 'easy' in German -to avoid the awkwardness of having to say 'Hi I'm easy' I introduce myself as Izzy when talking to English speaking people-) and a Japanese anime series called Inuyasha that I used to watch when I was very small, 12 or something. Nowadays I don't remember anything about the series but the name stuck, so much that I don't want to change it. Sadly on deviantart I'm "Isi-angelwings" because, again when I was small, I thought that was "cool". Now I really wish I could change it to my LJ name but I'd have to have a paid account :D
My default icon is really what it says! My default mood is "I love you all" and it fits in most cases! Especially when I reply to comments on my art because that's exactly how I feel :D I have various other icons to either represent my mood or fandom :)
I think my layout is by
The quotes on my pages represent pretty much what I think about H/D, since it really is not only my OTP but also OTF (One true fandom :D)
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Date: 2013-10-25 08:53 pm (UTC)I hadn't picked up on all the Belle and Sebastian refs! And I didn't know the Albatross poem, but I do now! I'm not sure if it's meant to be tragic or farcical? I'm going to read it again.
Your banner is wonderful. It almost shouldn't work, because there's so much in there to look at, but it's so rich and vivid.