Is there anything harder than choosing a profile picture to succinctly represent your entire existence to the world at large? Well at least I struggle with it. Especially when my actual pictures are not on the table to be featured.
Can any one picture truly represent your entire being? Show what you’ve learned on your time on Earth however long that may be? Of course not. Yet choosing usernames and these icons are nevertheless a source of personal agony wrought with indecision and constant start-stops in filling out the dreaded profile settings that have come my way over the years.
For once, Twitter and Facebook were easy. I had my pick of the litter of pictures of my face from various social functions that would suffice for the limited interactions I would have found useful on those sites anyways. But everything else? The choices needed to make sense to my presence on Discord and YouTube. That is, of relating to my username. Eventually I settled on some minimalist icons that fit (that may be a story for another time).
I very much like using these minimalist icons. They were simple and recognizable from a distance. Using profile pictures of comic or anime characters seems useful in maybe relating your own character or at least a preference for certain qualities that particular character embodies. But alas! The space required to fully portray the character widely varies from site to site. And honestly the act of using this type of artwork seems unoriginal. A sort of digital kitsch.
Not that I have anything against anyone doing this. At least they don’t waste as much time as me making this damn profile. In fact, I have a lot of respect for those that are able to do things faster than me. And if that includes finishing a profile page faster, well so be it. GGs.
I like the idea of using photography for profile pictures. Stock images are nice (especially the royalty free ones). But it’s even better if it’s personal photography. I like pictures of architecture and art sculptures. I’ve used those before as banner pictures. But even a simple image taken of a work desk can be really nice if framed and leveled correctly. They suggest an earnest life lived with an appreciation for the things around us in my opinion. It often takes even longer to go down this route for me personally though. I’m quite picky.
And finally we arrive here. It took me months to finally make my Vivaldi account. I just couldn’t decide what to choose as a username. Or a picture. But I thought long and… well actually I only thought about it for about 12 hours. I’m getting a new phone soon and I’d like to easily transfer my settings ASAP. In the end, necessity was the key to get my ass off the proverbial ground and think up a couple of loose concepts that have been in my mind for a while to get this thing done.
If you’re wondering, my username, Tecpiltic, is sourced from Nahuatl. It means something like “Courteous”. It has a similar meaning to my real name. Nahuatl is not a language I know, but it interests me enough to know a few vocabulary words here and there. The Axolotl is a salamander indigenous to Mexico and has an English name which is a direct Nahuatl loan word. That is, the creature’s name is Axolotl in Nahuatl.
Plus the thing is cute as all hell.
Here’s an attribution link I’m obligated to share for using the profile icon, which to be honest, is the point of this entire thing.
