Thanks for the mention! I love that particular icon, and like the fact that people have told me that it does become part of how they think about me.

amqu uses a photo of Billie Holiday as her icon, and that's how I picture her. I clicked on the user info of archyena because of his smiling hyena icon, and that's what I associate with him -- but most of my folks on my friends list use such a variety of icons that I've never established one as "who they are." The one exception would be shellefly who changes her primary icon every few months, but they are so vivid, and she uses them so frequently, each in turn becomes my image of her.

A couple of my friends, gothic_coop and _storyteller_ use single icons that I simple can not identify with them.

Yes, loads of the time, people have icons that sum them up in so many ways. Suse, par example, just couldn't have pixelised text on any of her icons. It's not her.

I love Viv's death icons. They rock.

I loved the music icons you had for Seth. I wish I could find a music icon which worked for me. Ah well...

I should tell you the story of this icon -- it's actually John Thaw, who plays the character Inspector Morse on the British detective series, inspired by the Colin Dexter novels. In that picture if you could see the full thing I cut from is his vintage red Jag and he's standing outside an Oxford college, the one he attended but from which he did not receive a degree. So, you can probably also see where "morsefan" comes from!

I'll definitely keep him; in fact, even though I'm using the pic of me more often, he's remaining the "default." He and the username, etc. all go together!

I'm not surprised. I associate shusu with Shusu as well. The red is an anthurium for the subject matter; the woman is Benten, goddess of music and fine arts -- granter of desires and dragon / serpent. Her persona comes naturally to me now... and though the icon is layered and lovely, she's only an icon. It may seem more accurate because that's all and everything she is.