Our Angst-Ridden Mascot

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Well folks, the polls have closed and the Blood-Smeared Polar Bear narrowly edged out the Unnamed Box Turtle to win the dubious distinction of becoming our Angst team mascot. It was a very close race (8-7) and I wanted to thank you for voting and doing your bit for the democratic system.

I'm going to put out a request to you talented visual artists out there: could one of you brilliant folks come up with an icon or a banner of our angsty polar bear? We'd like to use it when we want to intimidate the opposition, so images of Knut are out. We want something that says, "Life is painful and then you get eaten by a polar bear." A lot of the team members suggested using screencaps from sisabet's fantastic IceBound Stream vid (and look! She's got a blood-smeared bear icon of her own!), so you've already got something to work with.

Artists, I would love you forever if you'd do this! Err, scratch that. I will angst you forever! And I'm sure the team would appreciate it very much, too. Only they'd be all sad and reserved about it.

Comments

[brigantine.livejournal.com]

(redid this 'cause I accidentally spoilered when I posted yesterday. sigh. Harried fly-by posting from work can make for Ooopses.)

But... but Turtle! *clings to Turtle*

Oh, very well. I did watch IceBound Stream, and it's way good.

"Life is painful and then you get eaten by a polar bear." That could totally be our team motto. We could scrawl it in blood red nail polish on the backs of our black leather jackets.

Just so you know *glares accusingly,* this matchup thing is already starting to infiltrate my otherwise normalcough life.

Last night I read End of the Road by katallison, and The Art of Losing by china_shop. Aaiiiiii, the Owwwww! This morning woke up at 4:54 (yes that's friggin' a.m.) in full-on Must Comfort Ray!!!! mode, and what do I get from my clock radio at 6:00 (yes, still awake)? I get Bruce Springsteen at his mournful best, belting out, "Cover Me."

Oh. God. The Must Fix Ray's Life Angst!

And then! And then, I come into work and voiceless009 has posted her latest vid to ds_noticeboard, "Ring Around the Moon."

It took kind of a while for my Media Player to load the file, but it's worth the wait. An angsty must see.

Right, then. I gotta go try to do work stuff now. pfffttt. That'll happen.

*wanders off sniveling, and muttering darkly*

[sprat.livejournal.com]

I'm no graphics wiz, but I saw nobody'd posted a banner yet, so I put one together. Please, artistic types -- do not let this discourage you from making more!

Anyway, here they are (click for full-sized):

(http://crocolanthus.com/images/polar bears1-large.png)
(Large - 800 x 400)

(http://crocolanthus.com/images/polar bears1-medium.png)

(Medium - 600 x 300)



(Small- 400 x 200)

Plus a couple of icons:

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Sprat, this is SO awesome! The banner is perfect for the comm, and you did a great job on the choice of font and layout (it's an angsty layout!). Thank you sooooo much!

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I'm so glad you like 'em. If you do want to use the banner for the comm, feel free to hotlink. It's hosted on my server, which has plenty of spare bandwidth.

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Also, um...do you know how I'd actually put the banner on the comm page? Because I have no clue. I tried to figure out the layer/CSS style thing and I think I broke something. *weeps*

[sprat.livejournal.com]

Hmm, it looks like they may have reserved that for paid accounts now...but if you like, I can take a look and see if I can get it to work. You'll need to give me mod access, but I promise I won't use it for evil. *waggles eyebrows evilly*

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Will do! As long as you promise not to be evil!

And if we can't get it to work I'll just put it up as a pinned comment or something. It's not ideal but I really love the banner and I'd like to show it off.

[sprat.livejournal.com]

So I got it to work, but I had to change your style to flexible squares, and the image seems about a hundred px higher and about 100 px narrower than it should be, to me. What do you think? Should I put it in the userinfo and change the layout to the one you were using before? Or do you like it as is?

I can also try to make a better-sized image, but not tonight -- I'm beat. *g*

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I would like one of you, please, to make the font size bigger and/or the column width greater? The current layout is really hard for my aged eyes to read.

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Sure thing! I...I can do that, I think. Sorry - I use that NoSquint add-on for Firefox and it automatically enlarges text so that I don't even notice the small-size issues. Thanks for the reminder!

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Okay, I changed the basic font unit and the size - everything should be roughly 14pt, except for the subjects and footers which are at 11pt. And I widened the columns to extend 100% across the screen. I hope that's a bit better; my eyes are certainly appreciative of the shift, and I'm still a young'un.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

Wowie! A lot better! And if you want to narrow it a bit, so it's the size of the banner, that's fine. Thanks so much. (and I shall investigate the FF extension you mention!)

[nos4a2no9.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I love it! It's beautiful, and the flexible squares layout is *much* prettier than the other one. I think the image looks good, too, and the colours work nicely together. I think we can call it a win!

And thanks so much for doing this and saving me from css-induced hell. I am totally going to give you my firstborn (which will naturally cause significant amounts of angst). You are made of awesomesauce!

[brigantine.livejournal.com]

Eeeee, you used Nos's "Life is painful..." quote for our motto! \o/

In spite of my affection for the slowly flailing Turtle concept, I am filled with a sharp-toothed sort of love for this.

*practices evil laugh*