A really really really dumb question about avatars

[blacbird]

I've been around here for 432 years, and as some may have noticed, have never used an avatar. None of the built-ins ever interested me, and it kind of seemed unnecessary.

But it's near year end, and I have a hankerin' to put up my own special avatar. And don't worry none, it won't be salacious or offensive to anyone. In my real life I work with microscopic fossil plant remains, pollen, spores, algae, that sort of thing. Recently I took a photograph of a really artistic fern spore that would just be cute as an avatar.

But I don't have a clue how to make that work. It's a standard jpg. Other than that, how do I make it work for an avatar?

[MacAllister]

Send me the jpg, Blac?

Or if you'd prefer to do it yourself, you can just crop the specific bit you want and shrink it in a photo-editor (photo-bucket actually will auto-size it for you) and under your user-cp you should have an option to edit your avatar. (Mine's a detail from a Columbia Valley pictograph photo)

If you have trouble uploading the av from photobucket, try saving it to your hard-drive and uploading from there.

[blacbird]

Danke, dank, gracias, grazie, spasiba, Mac. I'll get at it over the weekend. The thing really is purty, in a paleontologist kind of way.

[MacAllister]

No worries - and drop me a note if you have any trouble.

[blacbird]

No worries - and drop me a note if you have any trouble.

Okay. I have a shitload of trouble. Just this week my oldest cat (age 11) was diagnosed as diabetic, so now I have to give her two insulin shots a day. My son (age 22) going to school in Fairbanks, Alaska, had a flat tire last night at -30 F and had to be towed, which required me to pay, via credit card, both towing and tire-fixing charges over the phone at around 11 PM. A moose crapped all over my driveway last night just outside the garage. I have 42 final English papers and 22 final Geology exams to grade this week. My favorite college football team lost their last three games and completely ruined a really good season. John Boehner is about to assume the position of third in line for succession to the U..S. Presidency. We in my town are predicted to have snow with 70 MPH winds over the weekend. I'm out of dish soap. My car's oil light came on driving home tonight.

So if you can help with those things, I'd be very grateful.

[MacAllister]

Wow. You can practice giving shots on an orange....but insulin for a cat is generally a sub-Q shot. Are they having you check her blood sugar, too, I hope? But having to do that's almost worse than having to give her an easy sub-Q stick with a tb syringe and fine-gauge needle.

and maybe leave the moose crap as a sort of anti-skid surface? I always like to use a little lighter-weight engine oil when it's below 0 degrees F -- but you should probably put a couple of quarts of something in your car's engine, real soon.

Beyond that, I got nuthin'.

[blacbird]

The cat is handling the insulin shots in about an A- manner. You do it through that loose skin on the back of the neck and shoulders, and a little distraction with a kitty treat of some kind is all that seems necessary.

The moose crap will biodegrade. I have experience with this. My car engine I'll check the oil of in the morning.

There's nothing to be done about my son. I just have to accept.

Now, if you can do something about the 70 MPH wind and snow we're expected to get this weekend, I'd appreciate it.

[Matera the Mad]

On a sunny day, there's nothing like mouse crap for melting snow and ice fast.