oloriel | A meme? During NaNo?!

Yes, you're seeing right. And who's surprised really? Work replacement, and all that.

Snatched from

kali921.
Reply to this post and I will pick six of your icons. I will request explication of same. Then make an LJ entry, talking about the icons; rinse and repeat for an epic cycle of icon glee.

1.

When I went to Japan, a friend told me that she'd heard about an unofficial Silmarillion manga and asked whether I might find out anything about it and, if at all possible, obtain a copy to bring home.
I did not find it, but I did find an awesome Japanese artist who is in the process of drawing a manga fanfic (and she's already finished a lot of pretty, pretty fanart). Unfortunately the teaser manga for the actual long story was sold-out, but she promised me to let me know when the whole thing is finished. :D
Aaanyway,

ladyelleth loved Loma's art just as much as I did, and she sent a mail and asked whether she might make some icons from her art. Permission was granted.
This one was originally a scale drawing she made so she'd have a reference for the drawing of the manga.
There's seven Fëanorians (not counting third generation and adoptees ;)), and they're magnificent, so voilá - the Magnificent Seven.

2.

This one was inspired partly by

littleshebear's "Manwë is my homeboy" icon, and partly by Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and partly by a chat discussion. Basically the the idea was that if old gods need to adapt to modern times or perish, and somehow we got to talk about the Valar too. And, well, as these things go when you're in a silly mood and the evening is late, you get all kinds of silly ideas. Like Vairë keeping herself "alive" as a web admin (because obviously the Weaver would be the one responsible for all webs, including the World Wide one)...

3.

Not much to say about this one. The text means "Only a dead language is a good language", in reference to "Only a dead pirate is a good pirate". The joke being, of course, that Latin is a dead language.
... linguists have a weird sense of humour.

4.

We all know that I am ridiculously fond of Fëanorians, despite all the ugly business. So you can imagine my delight when I was reading the Silm yet again and realised that actually the Teleri had started the Kinslaying. No, seriously, it's right in the text! The Noldor were just peacefully boarding the ships when the Teleri started to shoot them and shove them into the sea. The Noldor just overcompensated after that. >_>
...
Anyway, I found that sort of amusing in a twisted way, and

ladyelleth was kind enough to turn it into an icon. I think I have never so far used it. >_>

5.

Ah, Firefly. And Serenity. And River, innocent-looking smallish fragile girl, the walking weapon.
This is for moments in which I am really, really, really pissed off. River, in the corresponding movie scene, has just slaughtered a whole army of Reavers (the Orcs of the Firefly universe), one little girl against a horde of murderous killing machines. When I feel the urge to take on the world and kick some ass, it feels like a good choice of icon.

6.

Oh look, it's another evil Tolkien in-joke!
In some Tolkien Day quiz (which is always evilly difficult) there was a question that went something like "If Sauron's Ring is the conspiracy of the European Union, where is Pippin?" The answer was, apparently, that he was the spleen, because there is some kind of amazing esoteric book out there that links things from the LotR to all kinds of things.
I did not know that esoteric book, nor did I know the answer; but I did know that the quiz master was in the habit of giving bonus points if the answer was wrong but creative.
So I wrote down, as an answer: "Counter-question: If George W. Bush is Ar-Pharazôn, who is Sauron?"
He did laugh, and think, and eventually said "Huh. Rumsfeld, perhaps."
- Long backstory aside, at that point the phrase "Akallabêth Now!" (as in "Apokalypse Now!") was coined.
The graphic in the icon is from the film The Day after Tomorrow.

- - -

And

kali921 gave me a bonus icon:

This one is from the wonderful, brilliant Harry Potter Shoebox Project fanfic. The idea was basically that Remus Lupin found a shoebox under his bed, containing old letters and doodles and photographs from his teenage years at Hogwarts.
Now the Marauders era is the only HP thing that interests me, fanfic-wise (although I still fully intend to some day write that Maglor/Neville Longbottom fanfic someone on my flist requested so long ago that I do not even remember who it was), and the Shoebox Project is quite possibly the most awesome thing in the field (although the latter instalments were a little weaker than the first posts).
In one of the early chapters, the Marauders were sending each other letters in class, and one of them had this doodle of a skull and crossbones (= Marauders) with a hoofprint (for James Potter, who could turn into a stag), a paw print (for Sirius Black, who could turn into a big black dog), a moon (for Remus Lupin, the werewolf) and a rat's paw print (for Peter Pettigrew, who could turn into a rat). Underneath the artist had crawled, "Tonight's the night! Marauders ride again!"

green_queen made the icon. It was a good thing to use whenever I got to express my joy about a new Shoebox instalment, or post about all things Harry Potter in general.

Just now the comm has been hacked, so I wouldn't reccommend going there. And DON'T click on any of the links there - it'll install some kind of keylogger!

- - -

Icon choices by

fusselbiene.

This one is a (rather low quality; I should overhaul this) screenshot from the wonderful Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, better known in these parts as Spirited Away. In the movie, Chihiro's parents are just about to enter the tunnel to the magic world in which most of the film is set; Chihiro has a bad feeling about it and wants them to stay back. Her parents say something along the lines of "Feel free to stay behind, we'll pick you up later", and Chihiro has the choice of staying on the "safe" side of the tunnel - alone, with the empty car and the friendly stone troll statue - or going with her parents into peril.
Like most other kids, she decides to go with her parents. I just love the contrast between the angry little girl and the grinning stone troll in this take.

lanyon and

applegnat wrote fanfiction with Tolkien Elves in modern times. Then the mortals with whom they had interacted got their own story, no longer with Elves, which was very strange and poetic and sad and amusing. It basically was about the members of a rock band, Arch. At one point there was a tracklist and the lyrics of their "latest" CD release. Icons were made, and I liked the "When I looked down I'd lost my foresight" line so much that I took this one.
I used it for moments of confusion, or when something turned out completely different than expected/hoped, or when I felt a little lost. I haven't used it in a long time, which however doesn't mean that I am no longer confused, disappointed or lost but merely that I have too many icons to remember each single one these days. >_>

Okay, okay, here's the Tolkien reference. The graphic was used on TheOneRing.net once for the heads-up for some Tolkien event in Canada. I could not go there, but I rather enjoyed the picture (an excerpt from the pre-battle formation of the final battle in the RotK movie with the Canadian flag photoshopped in). I love Canada, and whenever I get to post about Canada (which, alas, doesn't happen often) I get to use this icon.
The tagline, "the true North strong and free", is stolen from the Canadian national anthem.

This is an evil, tongue-in-cheek tribute to the aftermath of the 07/07 terrorist attack on the London underground. Afterwards it was discussed how cool the Brits reacted in the face of terror. Both black humour and the stiff upper lip are typical clichés of them Islanders, and indeed - from what you could see on the media and on the internet here, that is - there was no pathos but instead a certain fatalistic "Yes well, doesn't help anyone when we run around and panic, so who wants a nice cuppa tea?" attitude.
When that attitude was discussed on

metaquotes, someone commented, "I love those Brits. You're a bit cold? Have some tea. Your boyfriend just left you? Have some tea. You've just been told you've got cancer? Tea. Coordinated terrorist attack on the transport network, bringing the city to a grinding halt? TEA, DAMMIT!"
So, yeah. It was evil and black-humoured, but kinda appropriate.
I have not used it since those days though (and hope I won't have to use it again in a hurry...)

Oh ho!
In the olden days, when I was not yet used to my husband's (then boyfriend's, obviously) job (i.e. safety-oriented simulator training for the personell of nuclear power stations), my mind would boggle regularly at the amounts of state secrets that showed up on our dining-room table whenever he was preparing for a course. One day I asked, just for fun, "This looks nifty, can I use it as an LJ icon?"
His reply was "Oh sure, there's bound to be a Russian translation of this anyway", and that was that.
So there you go: It's a tiny glimpse at a circuit diagram of some system or other in a nuclear power station.
As I talk neither about secrets nor about circuits nor about power stations much, I hardly ever use this icon.

While in this country, thank Deity of your Choice, book-burning and -bannings are a thing of the past, there are less enlightened countries *cough* where there are attempts to ban books on more or less justifiable grounds. Huckleberry Finn for Racism, e.g., or The Golden Compass for its negative outlook on Christianity; the list goes on.
Said list is, on the whole, rather ridiculous, but as there are obviously people who're taking it seriously and who think readers are incapable of reading books without being indoctrinated in whatever direction, there is a Banned Book Weeks to remind people of the existence of such sad limitations.

juno_magic reminds slackers like me when it takes place, and made loads of icons for people who want to show their support on LJ. (In the end I didn't get to use it because I didn't write any lj entries that week anyway. >_>)

- - -

There we go.
Back to novelling.
(I am slowing down. >_>)