Would an avatar by any other name, smell as sweet?

It is one of those things that you either find and love or keep messing with and changing until you find one to love and keep…it’s your avatar. I started with my first being a picture of me from an older board of directors website (I know, though I’m really not lame, I play lame on the vine a lot!), but quickly got tired of it. Then I noticed that a few of my friends were beginning to change their avatars more and more often. When I asked them their reasons for this, the list was long, but what it really boiled down to for most of them (and me as well) is that it is extremely difficult for some of us to find that one true image that not only interests us, but more importantly one that inspires us to achieve greatness, to find our true altruistic inner-being…oh, ah, sorry, got a little carried away. But in all seriousness, NOT, I have been struggling with what makes a person choose their avatar. I’ve been paying special attention to those of my friends lately and I’ve noticed that they seem to boil down to a few categories.

First, I see the usual (though often times quite off-center and unusual) self portraits. These can either be innocuous or, more often than not, bizarre and/or self-deprecating. I think my favorite picture avatar is one that made me look very tan and happy, though I was quite pale and not very happy to be having my picture taken.

The second type of avatar I find in increasing numbers is of the spoof or comedic genre; the funny movie star snapshot or the cartoon character funny-face image that makes us smile. Though I have not come across the Laura Croft avatar, I still hold out hope that she exists out there…somewhere!

Whatever the reason for your choosing your avatar, I’d love to hear from you. Hopefully I will garner some knowledge from each of you to assist me in my quest for my holy grail of avatars soon…until then “I fart in your general direction!” (Monty Python cracks me up!)