Explain your avatar choice

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HighMaintenance
Posts: 127
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:04 am

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by HighMaintenance » Sat Nov 05, 2016 10:34 am

My favorite place on earth and where I go to recharge my psyche. On the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lee's Ferry.
Last edited by HighMaintenance on Sat Nov 05, 2016 1:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Somewhere on a toilet wall I read the words 'You form a line to formalize the former lies.' And I finally saw the truth - Slipknot

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sc89
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 10:29 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by sc89 » Sat Nov 05, 2016 10:44 am

I love looking at the night sky. I took this picture while I was taking a photography class and an astronomy class at the local community college a couple of years ago.

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Lithium Sunset
Posts: 220
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 8:11 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Lithium Sunset » Sat Nov 05, 2016 9:03 pm

HighMaintenance wrote:My favorite place on earth and where I go to recharge my psyche. On the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lee's Ferry.
Glad you found the new site :) Hope you have been doing well! Looks like a beautiful place.
sc89 wrote:I love looking at the night sky. I took this picture while I was taking a photography class and an astronomy class at the local community college a couple of years ago.
This picture is amazing sc89! I love it.
"The real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong." -Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Vlad the Emailer
Posts: 169
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 1:03 pm
Location: Lower Midwest

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Vlad the Emailer » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:07 pm

Mine is just Vlad. Vlad the Impaler aka Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad Dracul, inspiration for Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula".

Some supernatural myths, legends, and lies are more amusing than others. :x
When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest. - Anonymous

Say what you want about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying. - Kurt Vonnegut

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FiveFingerMnemonic
Posts: 1484
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 2:50 pm
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Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by FiveFingerMnemonic » Mon Nov 07, 2016 4:59 pm

Mine is Reformed Baptist Restorationist Minister Walter Scott, hired by Alexander Campbell to bring in converts to his movement. He developed the unique pattern and order of the simple doctrines of salvation that are espoused by Mormons in the articles of faith (Faith, Repentence, Baptism by Immersion, Remission of Sins, The Gift of the Holy spirit) . He coined the term "plan of salvation" and developed a five finger mnemonic to teach these simple principles to children, and by so doing brought over 3000 people into the reformed baptist/Campbellite movement in 1827. He was associated with Sidney Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt which is how his teachings ended up in the LDS church (Parley is responsible for the earliest versions of the articles of faith). Scott also taught very interesting things about Adam living in a "terrestrial" existence before the fall. I feel bad for the guy getting his "intellectual property" hijacked and used by the Mormonites.

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Luther Heggs
Posts: 17
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:01 am

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Luther Heggs » Mon Nov 07, 2016 9:06 pm

Luther Heggs was terrified, but still found the courage to shine a light in the dark and uncover the truth in spite of his fear. Plus it's a hilarious movie. And some of us can't get the Mormon out, "not even with Bon Ami." :lol:
Lies are lies even if you believe them or think you are doing something moral - they are still lies.

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aerin
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2016 6:45 am

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by aerin » Tue Nov 08, 2016 9:14 am

My avatar used to be women in archery, but I changed to a photo of Alexandra Kollontai, whose name/pseudonym I've been using on former mormon interweb locations since 2000. :shock:

She was the first female ambassador to Finland from the former Soviet Union and a prominent Bolshevik feminist. Stalin and the party discredited her.

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AzCommando
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 2:09 pm
Location: within sight of Moroni the hornblower.

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by AzCommando » Tue Nov 08, 2016 12:50 pm

Commando is pissed and not taking it. Just like the characters Arnold Schwarzenegger played. (Cheesy one liners aside)
Commando also means ditching the polygamous underwear.
Last edited by AzCommando on Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Vlad the Emailer
Posts: 169
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2016 1:03 pm
Location: Lower Midwest

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Vlad the Emailer » Mon Nov 14, 2016 2:52 pm

Luther Heggs wrote:Luther Heggs was terrified, but still found the courage to shine a light in the dark and uncover the truth in spite of his fear. Plus it's a hilarious movie. And some of us can't get the Mormon out, "not even with Bon Ami." :lol:
Yes, that is a great movie.

"The Ghost and Mr. Chicken". Supposedly it can be seen free online, but I haven't tried watching it that way yet.
When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he will either cease being mistaken, or cease being honest. - Anonymous

Say what you want about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying. - Kurt Vonnegut

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shadow
Posts: 154
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 4:07 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by shadow » Mon Nov 14, 2016 10:41 pm

I don't remember exactly how I picked "shadow" but I feel like the name has come to represent how I often present myself--like I'm really only projection a shadow of who I really am. That the real me is hidden. This is particularly true with the church. I've had some other shadow people as images, but once I found this one, with the black shirt and tie, it stuck. They may see me in a white shirt and tie, but it's really just a covering, a shadow of the real me.

The artist who took the picture had this to say about the series (there are a lot of other moving images):
Juha Helminen wrote:ABOUT THE INVISIBLE EMPIRE -SERIES:

In 2006 I witnessed the so called Smash ASEM “riot”. There I
personally saw the dark side of the Finnish police. How young men hid
behind their uniforms and hoods and anonymously committed misconduct.
Later I witnessed the reluctance of the justice system to punish those
in uniforms.

Uniforms create unity and through them we can separate a soldier from a civilian.
But sometimes we hide in them when we do something that is really bad

We wear clothes described by religion, profession, political thoughts and
tradition to communicate and represent authority, where we belong and
how we see the world. Often this hides our true persona and creates
walls between ourselves and between the people that we meet.

The characters in my works are the prisoners of these traditions and
walls that we’ve created for ourselves. How close can we, the viewers,
get to the characters that have so much of their personality taken
away from?

http://immanuel.deviantart.com/gallery/ ... ble+empire
"Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creates to the feast of Creation." --Wendell Berry

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Snowdrop
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2016 12:13 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Snowdrop » Wed Nov 23, 2016 10:40 pm

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded on a sleep."
-William Shakespeare, The Tempest

The idea that we are the creators of our own paths is becoming increasingly important to me. I don't know if there is a grandmaster of the universe, but I know that my dreams and imagination can give meaning to life regardless of such a being. My new avatar is a photo of myself merged with one of a galaxy-the stuff of dreams. It is a reminder to myself that I am the one with the story to write, it has not been written for me.
I don't believe we were born to be sheep in a flock
To pantomime prayers with the hands of a clock
- Paul Simon

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mooseman
Posts: 153
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:30 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by mooseman » Fri Nov 25, 2016 5:17 pm

Sam winchester pretends to be something he's not, ask too many questions, and only the king of hell sees him for what he really is.....
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It's frustrating to see the last resort in a discussion of facts be: I disregard those facts because of my faith. Why even talk about facts if the last resort is to put faith above all facts that are contrary to your faith?

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Liberated Me
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:17 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Liberated Me » Tue Nov 29, 2016 1:38 am

My avatar is significant to me because I am now feeling confident and liberated enough to show my true face. I lurked in 2012 and joined in 2013, at that time I felt suffocation from church culture and needed anonymity (my old username was " Liberateme". Now I feel enlightened (notice the light overhead) and liberated!!! The new name reflects the progress, "Liberated Me"
“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.” ~Nelson Mandela~
"Judging others does not define them, it defines you ...."
~Wayne Dyer~

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sparky
Posts: 176
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2016 8:47 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by sparky » Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:39 am

Mine is an artistic depiction of neurons by an artist named Greg Dunn (see more of his work at gregadunn.com). I'm currently doing research on ion channels, which are basically the molecular switches in neurons that allow them to sense and propagate stimuli. The subject of my avatar is a reflection of my research interests and my post-Mormon, materialist belief system; the artistic side of it represents how a scientific understanding of the world can be just as rich, beautiful, and complex as any mythical religious tradition.

One more thing: you'll notice that there are a lot of branches outward from the lower part of the neuron that lead to its main axon (the part that looks like a tree trunk). Neurons take information from all those little branches and integrate it in the axon, where it is passed along to the brain. This is a good metaphor for my current life philosophy: I try to take good, useful knowledge, practices, and perspectives from many different sources instead of relying on a single organization or faith tradition to make sense of the world.

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Newme
Posts: 863
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2016 12:43 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Newme » Sat Dec 10, 2016 5:50 pm

I feel like I'm exploring new territory within myself - a new me.
And "Narrow is the way" - to me, the middle way is not really a set path but unique to each.
Today I read, "There is pleasure in the pathless wood."
Mayan Elephant wrote:I didn't choose this avatar. It chose me.

The avatar didn't specifically choose me. But when I was trekking through what was once the Land Bountiful and stepping over the corpses, well not literal corpses, but ya know, a metaphorical corpse bridge, a light descended upon me, not a light light, but a thing that's like a light and it said, "be mine," or something like that.
:lol: I desperately needed a laugh - thanks, whoever you are.

ulmite
Posts: 142
Joined: Sat Oct 22, 2016 2:28 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by ulmite » Thu Dec 29, 2016 7:07 pm

I don't have an avatar so that I don't look so laconic when posting single lines.

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MrsGeorgeMiller
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 7:33 am

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by MrsGeorgeMiller » Fri Dec 30, 2016 4:35 pm

The name says it all. I'm George Miller's wife. I figured it would be easier to ride his coattails into this group rather than try to establish who I am independently.

Like many historic figures, the real Mrs. George Miller does not have a likeness that we are aware of. I found this random picture, however, of a woman from roughly the same time period. I liked how cavalier she is, surrounded by strict social protocol and yet sipping tea with her skivies showing, relaxed within the comfort of her own home. I like to think history is like this, formal by the official accounts but much more subversive, chill, and human in reality. I am a literature professor by trade and a historian by default, so I am always aware of the dissonance between what authors of other time periods want us to see and what life was like beyond the text. I like to think of our ancestors like this woman, prim and proper in many ways but totally bucking social norms on a regular basis. I'm a lot like this lady, capable of navigating the straight and narrow, but more at ease in my own spaces where I say "screw this" and do what I want to do to live a happy life.
"It is the greatest honor in life to bear witness to the breadth and depth of the human spirit." ~ Me

"Some people are rods, and some people are liahonas." ~ Unknown

"Not all those who wander are lost." ~ Old Saying

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No Tof
Posts: 382
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2016 8:54 am

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by No Tof » Sun Jan 01, 2017 10:11 am

I heard someone say once that drinking coffee was a bit like giving the mormon church the finger. I love the members, I like the good they do. I don't have much to do with the corporation of the president.

I used to be In but not of in 1.0..... now just No Tof :D
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.
Rumi

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Abinidied
Posts: 100
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:39 pm

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by Abinidied » Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:51 pm

Sorry I'm such a newbie, but I just realized I posted what could have gone here in my introduction. I'll repost the segment here and hope it's not weird to repost part of another post.

I chose Abinadied as my user name very purposefully. Abinadi was by far my favorite BofM character. In fact, from the time I was a small child, I was quite mesmerized with Arnold Frieberg’s interpretation of him. I have viewed his depiction of a frail old man (from the neck up at least – seems to be propotionally over built below the neck) as a profound representation of the power of wisdom that comes with age. For me, when my shelf came crashing down, Abinadi died in a very powerful way and not at the hands of King Noah et al. He didn’t pass away into exaltation but rather passed from truth to fiction. He represents my transformation from believing (really nothing more than hoping) the church was true, to discovering it’s doctrines were covered in duct tape. I cannot see the Book of Mormon as anything more to me now than a book of fiction comparable to the Lord of the Rings trilogy which, to my knowledge, JRR never claimed to be the Word of God.
Last edited by Abinidied on Thu Feb 09, 2017 4:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cum omnia defecerunt, ludere mortuis. (When all else fails, play dead.)
--Red Green

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RubinHighlander
Posts: 1906
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 7:20 am
Location: Behind the Zion Curtain

Re: Explain your avatar choice

Post by RubinHighlander » Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:18 am

Rubin and Ed is a favorite classic cult film for me from the early 90's. I love the film because it's super quirky, funny and much of it is filmed in Utah in a lot of places I love, some close to home. In the downtown SLC shots I can see the building where I currently work in. The water skiing footage was at Pineview Reservoir, a favorite local spot. Rubin's vision quest across the desert, where he finds his true calling as the King of the Echo people, is filmed in Goblin Valley State Park. We go to Goblin Valley at least once each year; I have so many awesome memories with my kids in that park. The hotel is downtown Ogden, my hometown.

Image

I think this is Crispin Glover's best film!

My avatar picture shows Rubin dawning his makeshift hub cap hat, as he journeys across the Utah desert to find an appropriate place to bury his departed best friend (his cat). The movie was only on VHS, but you can watch it on YT. Here's the preview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5eLYzltZPU

Here's the full film:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVxOXvzfgaI

You might curse me and question why is it you spent an hour of your life watching it...or you might watch it several more times and then curse me for getting you hooked on it!

Success!
Last edited by RubinHighlander on Mon Feb 20, 2017 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
“Sir,' I said to the universe, 'I exist.' 'That,' said the universe, 'creates no sense of obligation in me whatsoever.”
--Douglas Adams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzmYP3PbfXE

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