Icon Posting Project - Day 1

[byslantedlight]

I was thinking the other day about how I had so many icons, and yet I still seem to use the same set when I make posts. I use more when I comment, but I'm still definitely not using all 165 or so. And I love my icons! I've added every single one for a reason! Most of them were for Pros, of course, but I've got non-Pros ones too - in fact my first ever icon wasn't a Pros one (more about that below *g*)

So - I'm going to kill two birds with one stone (that must be a really old saying, I definitely don't really want to do that...!), and start a new posting project - a post for every icon I've got on lj! I'll use the icon, add it to my post, and write a bit about it and where it came from. *g* That way I use my icons, and I post to lj too - for 165 or so days, in fact!

(If anyone would care to join me, it might be kind of fun to see posts about other people's icons too... *g*)

I'm going to post the icons in the order they're listed as my user pics - in other words, the oldest ones first.



This was one of my first livejournal icons! It was the first one I made properly, anyway, and it was because all those years ago (September 2005!) when I first created an lj, I'd just got back to Alaska ready to get on with my PhD, and I thought that if an icon had my name on it, then perhaps it should also have the gorgeous northern lights on. I miss the aurora borealis! It was an actual good thing about having an outhouse for a loo - going out to use it at night meant that you were under the night sky and if you looked up, you just might see the northern lights playing in the sky...

After re-discovering my lads when I was living in Somerset (a bit further south than I am now), I spent all my first years with them in Alaska. Just me, a cabin in the snow, isotopes classes, and a thousand thousand pages of Pros fic to read... So lush! I miss those days too - *vbg*

Oh - and this kind of tells the story of my lj user name too. I'd tried all kinds of names, but the ones I wanted had all been taken, so I resorted to flipping through the books I had on a shelf for inspiration. Anyway, one of them was poetry, and I came across some Emily Dickinson:
There is a certain slant of light...
And I thought yes! The "slant" is like the slash in B/D, and I'm looking at our lads in that certain kind of light because I'm writing stories about them, and it's like the slanted auroral lights, because there I was in Alaska - perfect! Only, of course, "slantedlight" was already taken (and really annoyingly that person stopped posting to it in December 2005, and it's been just sitting there ever since. Why won't you purge it, lj?!!! Oh well.) So I figured that I was writing "by" a slant of light, and that also that would refer to my stories being by Slantedlight, so I went with that. Byslantedlight. *g*

So that's me, and the story of my first lj icon... *g*

Comments

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

And a gorgeous icon it is too. I've never seen the aurora, it must be breathtaking ... I'm probably one of the least icon-y people around, I expect - only got half a dozen or so, and practically only ever use one (which isn't even sized correctly, so that it displays all cropped and wrong - talk about a mess!). But you've always spoiled us with your beautiful photographs! I rather like the fact that your icons have a history to tell, too :-)

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

The aurora is really one of the best things I've ever seen...

I bet your icons have a history too, you know - a vague recollection of why you chose each one is all you need... *g*

[akin16sk.livejournal.com]

ooh, I loved this entry. I have always wondered about the name! :P Now I like it even more!

I used to have a really nice Bodie icon, one that I actually made and I think it was my very first one, but somehow lost it.....(maybe I deleted it), I have been thinking for days what happened to it. I would probably just have to create a new one, but I will keep thinking, I am sure of it, cool that you have been smart and kept all of your old ones!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well thank you! *g*

I remember you using Pros icons, cos I remember when I noticed that your icon wasn't Pros any more!

I actually had an icon that I used for my very first post - I think it had the sea on it - but that one really is lost. It might be on my big PC computer that's still in Alaska, but I'm not even sure of that... Its funny where these things vanish to, isn't it - and the number of computers I've had since then! Mostly I've tried to keep them somewhere though... the icons, not the computers... *g*

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about your username! And you icons are great. I miss the northern lights too. They were magical!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I soooo miss the northern lights! No matter how much I like where I am now (and I do), it will never be quite the same...

[cim3745.livejournal.com]

Living in Alaska, how exciting is that. I've never seen those northern lights nor a great deal of snow you are talking about.
 
I am newbie in the matter of icons, thanks to the icon project I will be learning a lot, I hope.
So, I am curious about your icons and the story around.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, you must go and find the northern lights one day - they are properly properly magical!

The icon project is a fun idea - I might try and make some more for the next ep. It's kind of relaxing, in a slightly stressed way... *g*

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

What a lovely, original idea! And your memory's amazing as I can't remember a thing about any icons I created (mostly) from years ago - there was certainly no method in their creation but it's great reading about the background to your icons.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't promise I'll remember about all of them, but then again, it's the sort of useless thing that I do remember...! Glad you like the idea of the posts, though!

I remember when you didn't have any Pros icons, and I made you some - it was after you'd changed your user name, because I put Shooting2kill on them. And then later you exploded with moody icons! *g*

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I don't even remember changing my user name! But I do remember starting up another journal (minesapint) and then quickly abandoning it. And I do remember my first userpic which you chose and put my name on (a very nice pic, the one of Bodie lying on his back holding a gun) and then someone nicked it (still with my name on it) and used it at that awful place, the TV Lounge, and where one male writer (who shall remain nameless) on one occasion was quite rude and bullying towards me. Which. I.didn't.like.one.bit.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, well that's what I mean then, you started another journal. I basically just remember that you were Minesapint and then you became Shooting2kill... I don't remember ever asking why you decided to abandon Minesapint though - do you remember? I'm curious, because I thought it was a cool name!

And ohmigodbastardos! I had no idea that someone from the TV Lounge stole your icon! Sadly it doesn't surprise me that one of the blokes was rude and bullying - I never liked the atmosphere over there, so I didn't often go over. I just remember the mods being homophobic, and "banning" talk about slash - although they were allowed to make comments about the female agents and actors, of course. Yuck, yuck, just yuck.

And here, do have your icon back... *g*

I remember making some other shooting-themed ones with your name on, but I think this was the one you liked... *g*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

So, I finally know where your name came from! *g* Quite an interesting story, and really original. And, of course the icon is quite lovely, too, but I'm surprised that you don't use more of your icons.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Lol for being original when I pinched my name from someone's poetry! *g*

I think I tend to use icons that match my post somehow, so I guess if I'm making fewer posts about similar things, like books or photos or whatever, then I end up using the same ones... So I'll make posts to match my icons, instead! *g*

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Lovely icon! I'd like to do this too, but I have (between lj and dw) something like 420 icons!!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And you know, that would just mean you made lots of lovely posts... *g*

[paris7am.livejournal.com]

I love this idea! Thank you for posting and sharing the origins of your name and your first icons. I don't know how many I have, but I'll join you. It seems like a perfect way to try to start posting on lj again after a long absence.

I will forever associate this picture of them with you because it's always been your favorite. Also will always associate you with Alaska, no matter how far from it you are!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Hello! And oh yes, please do join me, that would be brilliant! I still remember your old default icon very fondly, too... *g*

Oh, and I have to admit that I always associate me with Alaska too - and I really do miss it! I almost can't think about it too much, because there's a bit of me that aches for it... I must save my pennies and go back to visit (and collect my belongings, which are still over there in my friend's basement...)

I'm going to keep an eye out for your post now, you know... *g*

[freetraveller15.livejournal.com]

Oh I love the history behind your screenname!
And the northern lights are so magical... I love seeing aurora borealis photos on Instagram, probably the category I love the most, together with sea/beaches and sunsets 😊

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

I still remember sitting there, flicking through the book, so vividly!

It was a photo of the northern lights that got me to Alaska in the first place, because I'd read that Denali National Park was one of the best places to see them - so that was my aim when I went off travelling in North America for a year! *g*

That said - seas and beaches and sunsets are pretty high on my list too... *g*