Story behind your avatar

[SirAndrewD]

My avatar is the look on my face when I play wargames.

Really though, does anyone not know the story behind my ava?    It's Hugh Laurie as a leftenant in WWI, from the pilot episode of Blackadder Goes Forth.  I managed to get just the perfect still image when he's looking at Blackadder's painting, and haven't had the desire for any other avatar since.

Your cunning plan was perfect.  It's almost the ideal avatar.

[JasonPratt]

Mine is actually me, jade katana(ish) sword and all! -- shot by my Dad using one of those newfangled digital camera things in our back yard. Yard and garden still there, trees too, those specific flowering shrubs not. Also a lot more white in my hair now. The katana isn't officially real, i.e. by an actual forge smith trained in the art, but it's a real sword with a real sharp blade, basically a Chinese knockoff. {g} My parents gave it to me for Christmas one year, after finding it being sold at a kiosk of curiosities at a now-defunct mall on the Ohio River at Paducah KY (where they liked to go visit.)

I designed it as an author promo for when I was trying to get my novel series off the ground. It looks cool and reminds me of when I used to teach fencing, so I still use it. Also it reminds me of my late Dad, who found the sword for me and took the photo.

Ghosty from the old Wargaming forum used to have an (even more!) epic comedy version of it which he made to look like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was a little odd considering my name fits better with Friday the 13th -- but then the mask would have concealed my face. This led to me paraphrasing Gimli's famous line "and my axe!" as "and MY chainsaw!" on occasion.

[Gusington]

^And all this time I thought it was a rose you were carrying.

[JasonPratt]

The hilt does have thorns in a way: it's a cheap plastic mold of a very detailed fight between two water dragons, with lots of pointy bumps -- and pointy points! It's practically impossible to use the sword in fighting without tearing up my own hand(s). That might have been an intentionally designed effect, to make a visual poetic statement. Or just bad hilt design for show-offy-ness without regard for functionality. But the blade and scabbard are very well made, so, I lean more toward the former theory; certainly I use its meaning!

[Gusington]

Very interesting and not surprising reading your posts after all these years.

[GDS_Starfury]

Joe Strummer and Odd Ball.

have you read my posts?   

fuck you and be groovy man

[jamus34]

Mine doesn't tie to my user_name at all; always thought the Backfire was one sexy mother of a plane. To equate to relationship terms, the US makes planes you want to marry, the Russian's make planes you want to take out to Vegas for a 72 hour coke and sex filled bender.

[Windigo]

What the hell is my avatar?

[Windigo]

What the hell is my avatar?

nm....     quit laughing at me!!!!

and get the fuck off my lawn

[MikeGER]

The avatar is a generic Teutonic Knight impression.
I grabbed the pic from the internet in 2005 or so, when i had to chose one quickly for Wargamer Forum and just kept it since. 

My male ancestors trace back to East Prussia to the area around Gumbinnen in the years of 1730ies according to free databases.(place actually still occupied by Soviets, who call it Gussew for the time being)
An area where the Teutonic Knights were active in the 13th century.

I was born and raised in a street which is named after a famous Grand master of that Order.
Always felt a love for the military (but never took a profession in that field cause of bad eyesight and beeing rather small to hump around 50kg of gear at ease for miles and miles) also military history, tactics, strategy and weapons.

...there must be something in my blood