Hey Joe,
Thanks for posting. I was hoping you would. That way I can ask you about your avatar without seeming too forward. Of the many avatars, yours really strikes a chord with me. It is my belief that one's choice in avatar says a lot about the person, and if that is true, we are going to get along like gangbusters.
Choosing an avatar is tricky thing, isn't it? It's like trying to put out a cliff note's version of your personality.
I choose mine for a few reasons:
1) I adore Freaks and Geeks. By far my favorite television program, and it does my heart good to see those actors still working (even if it is on stuff like ER).
2) My avatar is from an episode where the 13-year-old protagonist, Sam, makes his plunge towards popularity by buying that powder-blue disco suit and feathering his hair (the series is based in Michigan in 1980, so he was trying to be genuinely cool- not ironically retro). After a great opening where Sam struts down his school hallway to the tune of a BeeGees song, he is inevitably met with derision and spends the rest of the episode trapped in the very thing that he though would make him cool.
I have had similar false-starts and pretensions towards coolness throughout my life, and I completely relate to his failure.
3) There is something apropos about using a picture of a nerd trying to make himself look cool as your avatar. I fear that it will both backfire on me-- "Isn't that the kid from that show with Geena Davis? You suck!"-- and that I will be stuck with it forever.
4) My other choice of avatar-- a panel from Dave Mazzucchelli's graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster's City of Glass-- wouldn't size right.
So, I don't know if we're still gangbusters-- a nerd trying to be cool isn't far from a hero trying to be Pooh, is it?
BTW- If you don't know Freaks and Geeks, I (obviously) highly recommend it. Even if you didn't like Knocked Up or Superbad (which has a lot of the people), and especially if you didn't like Unaccompanied Minors or I Am David (movies directed by the show's creator, Paul Fieg), you should still check it out. It's very different in tone from any of those.
And thanks for the book club invite, VmSoze. I just perused it and it looks like fun stuff. I'll definitely check it out; if I ever get caught up, that is.