Need your help to choose a new avatar
Need your help to choose a new avatar
For a long time I used this one, because all my life in Canada I maintained close relationships with First Nation people
But then my Canadian roots became questioned, because I was living in China. Since I will not post my Canadian birth certificate or my current Canadian passport (my only citizenship) on the internet I changed my avatar to the Canadian flag to make it perfectly clear I was a Canadian.
That wasn't good enough, because I was getting accused of parroting the CPC line, when all I did was indicate not only that that was not correct, because I have criticized the CPC where I thought it was wrong and provided another side of the story if I thought that the critics were too limited in their opinions, so I posted an avatar of Devil's Advocate, because I don't use only half my brain as others do but know for reasons I've related many times that there can be another side to the story that they refuse to acknowledge.
Now, since I don't toe the line, am not a follower of the fold, am not a "commie", don't profess loyalty to their MAGA nation, or comply with what they accuse me of being, but continue to persecute me instead, would rather believe Barabbas than believe me, I need a new avatar. I've come up with a few choices and would like your help by providing your opinion as to which is most suitable. But be careful for I will delete immediately without explanation any offensive comments.
1. Buzz crucified for his beliefs? There are members here that actually demand that everyone share THEIR beliefs, or they can't possibly be right.
2. Buzz lynched for being different? There are members here who cannot tolerate a person who has a differing opinion.
3. Buzz being shot at dawn for not being loyal to God's only blessed and "EXCEPTIONAL" nation on Earth? (Everyone knows which one THAT is.)
4. Buzz being tortured (verbally at least) by NT members, pretty well all of whom have never stepped foot in China so only know China from the demonizing propaganda about it, for not only living, but actually ENJOYING living in China?
And I've never even BEEN to Guantanamo Bay.
So please let me know what you consider the most suitable and relevant avatar for me to use on NT. If you have a reasonable explanation for your choice, please state it, but do not bother if your comment is offensive, because....
Political comments are off topic and will be deleted. Any comments that I deem to be offensive will either be flagged in order to earn the perpetrator points towards suspension or immediately deleted.
Comments are subject to the Confucius group RED BOX RULES which may be accessed by clicking on this link -> https://thenewstalkers.com/buzz-of-the-orient/group/240/confucius or by clicking on the Confucius group avatar at the top right of the article above.
Political comments are off topic and will be deleted. Comments deemed offensive will either be flagged to earn the perpetrator points towards suspension or immediately deleted without explanation.
Originally on here, I used a picture of me looking through a telescope (one of those 50 cent varieties) in Palo Duro Canyon. To me it represented me looking into things. I use my current one because I believe history is important and has much to teach us. History is important in determining how we got to 'here' and how we use that knowledge to not get to 'here' again.
I use this same avatar on almost all sights to which I post because it represents my state of thinking currently.
It's good to use an avatar that tells a personal story.
None of the above, this is my choice.
Man of Many Faces, Pietro Moschino.
LOL. Thank you.
I'm with Kavika
I like it too. Once in my life I saw a real face-changer. I was sitting in a theatre in Nanning, watching a dance program and this guy walks up to me (I was sitting at the end of an aisle) and passes his hand over his face - and wow, a totally different face appeared. He did it a few times, and each time a totally different face. I was astounded - it was perfect, a genuine face-changer.
I like your new one
You just like the sexy silhouettes,
I had a truck with mud flaps something like that
There are some members on this site who could use mud flaps on their mouths.
The devil made me do it.
Anoon Buzz.. none of them..I would go for a Beaver..🦫🦫
Tough, hardy and don't give a crap what anyone else thinks or wants them to do.
🐨🐨🦘🦘
Honey Badger !
That's a good one!
Yep that's the one...hmm could do with a few of those badgers on our snakes..
I just watched it on Youku - that is one impervious creature. I wish I were that impervious to the thrashings I get here now and then. However, I really have no taste for cobras.
It would be quite patriotic, but my denture would never stand up to it.
Tai Chi
Good grief-- definitely not!
Tai Chi is one of many specific eastern martial arts forms.
The symbol's meaning you (incorrectly posted) is the Ying-Yang. An important principle of many eastern philosophies.
Actually, Nerm_L was NOT incorrect. This from the internet....
Interestingly, a couple of years before I even DREAMED of going to China I took a summer course in TaiJie from a Chinese Master, along with about 30 other people. At that time I lived in an area in the north of Toronto where many Chinese people also lived. One Sunday I took an early morning walk in a local park and found about a dozen elderly Chinese people doing TaiJie to the music-backed instructions from a boom-box, so, with some knowledge of the skill I joined them, and they were really welcoming and happy to see this Caucasian doing TaiJie with them. I joined them every Sunday morning after that for a long time. None of them spoke much English, but I did learn from them how to say in Chinese hello "nee how" and goodbye "sigh jeeyan". Now, almost two decades later, I can hardly remember even one TaiJie movement. With hindsight, I should have kept it up - it's an excellent exercise for elderly people.
Thank you, Nerm_L for having posted the yin-yang symbol as a suggestion. I like the idea of the balance it represents to be symbolic of the person I consider myself to be.
No, yin-yang, very Taoist, and actually a really good idea.
From Dictionary.com:
And perhaps even more than that.
Simply stated, in the west we see opposites as being different.
For example, we see "hot" and "Cold" as different-- opposites.
But the eastern view is that they are the same-- i.e. hot and cold are similar in that they are both about temperature!
(This is difficult concept at first for westerners to grasp. So to put it another way: on a temperature scale of absolute zero to, let's say several hundred degrees-- where does cold stop-- and hot end?).
Can't be explained "in 40 characters or less"...to coin a phrase.
To further elaborate> Notice it doesn't just have a Black swirland a White swirl-- but each swirl has a dot of the opposite colour within. This is a symbolic representation of the concept that each "opposite" energy contains the other within.
Finally, more to the topic-- for a while this was my avatar:
This represents Winnie-the-Pooh. From the book "The Tao of Pooh".
While I will never follow one spiritual or philosophical path, after I read that book I realized that Winnie the Pooh was basically a Taoist-- and then currently my own "spiritual" beliefs are closest to Taoism..
I stopped using that avatar because I realized that many people might not be familiar with Winnie-the-Pooh... and even if they did, not know much about Taoism.
And for those who knew even a little re: Taoism, by referring to my "believing" in Taoism I might open myself up to personal attacks based on the fact that the teachings of Taoism cannot be proven scientifically!)
Which brings up another point. Over the years I've seen so many avatars which have an obvious meaning. For example, the graphic on "Devil's Advocate" and the inclusion of the words make the meaning obvious.
But I've also seen avatars where the meaning was unclear to most other people. (Something that obviously had great significance for the user-- but no one else would know what if signified).
An example being the Pooh avatar I had used for a while.
IMO, its more effective to pick an avatar for which the meaning is pretty obvious,because I believe most users want people to know what they are representing by the avatar. Although occasionally I suppose some people might not realize that most people don't know what an avatar is supposed to represent. (And in my experience most users of socila media sites are not a particulrly curious group of people..).
Another example-- for a while I used this flag on NT as an avatar-- but also stopped using it because probably almost no one here would know what it was (not that there's anything wrong with that):
Actually considering the current situation in Ukraine it may be resurrect it as my avatar..???
Ah yes, Canada's famous Bluenose. Nice to see it. I'm seriously considering adapting Nerm_L's suggestion - the yin-yang symbol but overlaid by me with the word "BALANCE", an aspect of yin-yang, and what I try to provide to balance a lot of the nasty and insulting bullshit posted on the Home (Front) Page. Like so.....
Balance-- on a social media site ?
That might leave you open to attack.
Although I suppose some of the purists (mentally challenged "grammartarians"?) might argue that using that word on the symbol for balance and harmony might leave you open to accusations of using a "repeating redundancy" (?)
Might it not be better to steadily stick to stick to something less controversial-- for example the Ying-Yang symbol for balance and harmony with the words "Let's Go Brandon" on it? That way you could show how smart you are-- and also how clever you are because you're letting the mythical "Brandon" live rent free in your head?
GENIUS
/sarc
Actually it might provide a nice touch of irony if you used an avatar that said "Let's Go Brandon" (but while that's the sort of mischievous irony that a typical ENTP might do-- its not one a more serious type such as a lawyerly ISTJ might use.
LOL. "MIGHT" leave me open to attack? Did you read my article above? It's the very reason I posted it.
As you well know, often times such is a necessity, and a lot gentler than using a pile driver (and yes, I understood your witty repeated synonymous description).
Now that I think I'm settled on an avatar, I was wondering if I should change my name to something more descriptive of my style. How do you feel about the word DIVERGENT?
Well that might diverge from what is generally considered politically correct on NT!
For the time being I guess I'll remain consistent. It was almost always my opinion that NT should require that members be consistent either with their name or their avatar to avoid confusion. However, I think it's pretty obvious that my views diverge from most others here anyway. I don't think you've ever changed your user name, even back on NV.
I may change mine (The Cheech Wizzard) to Grumpy Cat as I have been more contrary than a pig on ice lately.
LOL. I know exactly how you feel, and fully understand why you would do so. What's been happening on NT and the comments pointed at me prompted what I did.