Dumbledore said that the Hog’s Head attracts more interesting clientele than the Three Broomsticks, and Hagrid famously said, “You get a lot of funny folk in the Hog’s Head.” Now you can prove it. The Hog’s Head has been invaded by monsters and images. If you don’t have your own image, you’ll have a monster assigned to you automatically.
You’ll notice there are now images next to every comment. You can upload your own image by going here. You sign up with a certain email account, and every time you use that email in your comment form, your uploaded avatar will appear next to your comment. (Like usual, your email address is still kept private).
Travis Prinzi on 
Arabella Figg on 
SPT on 
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{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, I already have one but I decided to add some more to my file and then I changed it. However, it looks like it’s still recognizing the original one that I had.
So, this is just a test to see if the new one shows up.
Pat
Nope, same old one. Sorry for spamming, Travis–you can delete both of these if you want–I was just testing.
Pat
I think it takes a little while for a new avatar to replace an old one (in my experience). Give it a couple days.
Awesome to see some faces or personal interest pictures with the name, it gives such an extra dimension. So, hello people, this is me !
To change the tone from lovely-looking ladies, here is me.
My picture went through apparantly instantly. No waiting at all.
Here’s the best I could do.
John,
I thought this might be more like your style.
Everyone can see my ugly mug on the “About” page. I decided to go with “Jack” smoking a pipe.
Travis,
I think yours is cool. Striking out against the politically correct anti-smoking crowd. How many coughin’ nails do you pack a day?
“A day” isn’t a very good time descriptor for my smoking habits. I’ll sit down with friends and have a cigar once a month. Occasionally I’ll have one when writing, especially if my mind is everywhere and I can’t focus and settle down on one train of thought.
I intend to try pipe smoking in the near future, but I don’t plan to increase my frequency of smoking.
I have a couple of pipes. One I inherited from my father who had it from his time in the Vietnam war. Its quite an art, smoking a pipe as you’re supposed to keep the tabacco on the verge of going out. It is better to re-light than to smoke the pipe too hot. I love the old pictures of Lewis and Tolkien puffing away. I loved all the pipe smoking that Holmes and Watson did in the series starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke (who played CS Lewis’ brother in Shadowlands). Inspirational stuff.
Well, I “signed up” with Gravator approximately 36 hrs ago, and no confirmation yet. And I’ve been checking my spam catcher, and it’s not there either.
In the meantime, I have to put up with this 2D site-assigned avatar. Its only advantage is it looks like I’m wearing a paper-bag over my head, which is what I want to do everytime I see it.
Travis, who are you supposed to be, Edward R. Murrow?
I’d forgotten how totally hot Spock looks with his moustache and goatee. Some men are meant to have facial hair.
Red Rocker, I had a weird experience signing up, too. I never got a confirmation or anything…what was exceedingly odd was that I put in my email address, it said that address was already taken or in use, so I just logged in with my usual password…and it worked. But I had never signed up for Gravatar before.
I’ve had problems with it, too. First signed up but didn’t get anything from them. Looked at it again & saw that I had to actually put their address in my contacts. Then I got all the emails & stuff. Signed up & submitted a picture but haven’t had it go through yet or even show up in my Gravatar account. Will wait some more & then see where I go from there.
I’m also testing to see if mine if showing up. It doesn’t seem to be working on Twitter.
I think you have to upload separately at Twitter. I don’t think Twitter syncs with Gravatar.
Already done Travis…thanks! Congratulations on your book! I’m looking forward to you being more active with the pubcasts.
I’m a bit shy putting my picture up for everyone to see but here it is.
Where’s the beef!?
You know, a bull really is a frightening animal. Somethimes I have caught myself thinking that dangerous animal = carnivore. It just ain’t so. I’d loved to be able to see an auroch or a Procoptodon goliah – a 10ft tall kangaroo.
Red Rocker reyhan,
You’re right. Spock does look… hot. That’s him from the Mirror Mirror episode. It was one of the best, in my opinion. Kind of a “its easier for the civilised man to act like a barbarian than a barbarian to act like a civilised man” type story.
Spock- “Terror must be maintained!”
Mirror, Mirror is on my list of top three Star Trek episodes. The other two would be Metamorphosis (ST) and Tin Man (from ST:NG)
Speaking of ST, I saw Star Trek: Insurrection for the first time this week-end. Yeah, I know, only 10 years after its release. Riker’s on-camera shave only confirmed my earlier point: some men are meant to have facial hair. Might have done something different for those who think Sirtis is hot.
And watching Patrick Stewart as Picard almost made me forget his disgraceful fall from the pedestal as the licentious King Richard in Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
I gotta say, it’s really unfortunate that reyhan, “Red Rocker,” who requested avatars, still has a little monster up there. What’s the deal with gravatar failing for the person for whom I added it?
Yeah, it sucks to be me.
I just e-mailed the Gravatar support people, asking for help.
Balance of Terror is my favorite one. But there’s loads of others, mostly Original Trek ones. A few Next Generation ones & very few Deep Space One. No Voyager; no Enterprise. Gag me with a spoon for those two shows.
As for movies, Wrath of Khan rocks & also The Undiscovered Country, although I was rooting for the Klingons & was disappointed when they lost.
Balance of Terror was cool too, because of the interstellar game of wits between the two captains. I preferred Mark Lenard as the Romulon commander to his return as Spock’s papa.
I also loved the ST:NG episode which was similar to Balance of Terror: Darmok. Stewart’s rendering of the lines from Gilgamesh over the body of the dying Tamarian was truly moving:
“He who was my companion through adventure and hardship, is gone forever …”
Gravatar just sent me an e-mail with an activation link. I did the nickname thing (you wouldn’t believe the arcane names which are already taken) and the password thing and submitted a picture. Figured out how to do the “crop” thing. Not sure if it went through – no confirmation screen – so now I wait.
Darmok was kind of a cool episode. Picard was at his best when they tapped into Stewart’s Shakespearian roots.
Oh, I too finally got Gravatar to take a picture & get it cropped & I think even confirmed, but still no dice here yet. It’s not a very user friendly system they have.
It is rather slow. I notice that mine finally did change, so I decided to change it again. In a few days, or maybe a week, it should be my face there instead of a teapot. I’ll leave it for a bit, then I’m going back to Eeyore. I wouldn’t mind that y’all can see me all the time, but I’d rather not have it on other sites all the time.
Pat
Finally, my gravatar has gone through!
Is that Pablo from the Backyardigans?
Actually, it’s Tux the Penguin, the mascot of the Linux Operating System, dressed up as an outlaw, because it’s desktop paper from a podcast called Linux Outlaws.
Are those bandoliers I see? Is Tux packing?
Good thing Red is made of Dyneema SB61, a polyethylene fiber used to make ultra-thin bulletproof vests.
Yes, he is packing, & I’m sure he has high tech ultra armour piercing rocket propelled ammunition.
Here are some specs:
An RPG-29 is 70″ long assembled and weighs 25 lbs. The PG-29V, its tandem rocket, is 43″ long, and wighs 13.5 lbs. Combined weight of launcher and munition: approximately 40 lbs. The RPG is usually deployed by two people: one to load and the other to fire.
The Emperor Penguin, Aptendytes forsteri, the largest of the penguin species, is 44″ tall and weighs 60-90 lbs. The Fairy Penguin, Eudyptula minor, stands 16″ tall and weighs in at 2.2 lbs.
It’s hard to tell which species Tux belongs to, but the blue colouring suggests that he is a Eudyptula rather than an Aptendytes.
The PG-29V fired from an RPG-29 can penentrate a 5′ reinforced concrete wall, and should therefore take care of a Dyneema SB61 coated 6″ plastic robot with ease. The problem, however, is how the Eudyptula will manage to hoist the RPG-29 to its shoulder, and load it. Especially without opposable thumbs.
It’s a special kind of penguin, specifically bred with opposable thumbs & able to fire an rpg single handedly…
And Matthew thought that JKR had made it impossible for anyone to come up with original fantasy fiction!!
Feathers McGraw, the penguin in The Wrong Trousers was able to shoot a revolver without opposable thumbs. Surely your WMD toting version is a homage to him.
Try thinking up something new!
I would except I didn’t think it up. Like I said, the guys who do the Linux Outlaws podcast drew him up this way.
Wikipedia is clear that Tux and McGraw are not related, although they look somewhat alike.
Tux serves the forces of freedom and open sharing. McGraw is a thief and a criminal mastermind. Tux can wear different outfits, but he is totally not into red rubber gloves like McGraw. Tux can wear armour and wield weapons (an axe) but only in self-defense. McGraw invents sinister weapons technology.
Tux was based on a Fairy Penguin which bit Linus Torvalds on his visit to the zoo and aquarium at Canberra. The only way there could be a connection is if McGraw was doing time at the Canberra aquarium/zoo the time Torvalds was there.
Let’s see if this works
Nice!