AndrewB's Pictures
Ok, I plan to update my avatar for major events, and have something relative to the event. As you saw, my Xmas tux was my first one.
This was due to it being december, and it was to celebrate the holiday season.
This months is a picture of a haggis. This is to celebrate Robert Burns birthday.
Robert Burns (January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796) was a poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is the best-known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a 'light' Scots dialect which would have been accessible to a wider audience than simply Scottish people.
You should all check out his work, if you have not already read some of it.
In Scotland on Burns night we all do typical Scottish stuff. Eat haggis on oat cakes, sing Burns poems, spend time with family and friends, and best of all drink some whiskey.
It's like a bit of cultural sharing through user avatars. Not a bad idea.
I think I didn't hear about Robert Burns, until now.
Thanks
I will try to be as open as possible on events, even if they do not concern me. If I hear about them and I am not already celebrating another
then it is likely I will try to get a avatar to match.
As for not hearing of him, check out some of his writings here.
The new one is to celebrate Chineese NewYear
I am not sure if the date is correct.. but I tried my best to get it correct.
Happy new year to all Chinese!
Thanks for reminding us Andrew.
This week we celebrate Valentine's Day. I don't have a clue if this is worldwide, but it is certianlly in the UK. So here is my pic for it.
Well, chinese new year hasn't been yet, but it's coming. As far as my calendar is telling me it'll be on 18th to 20th this month (here in HK, as far as I heard it's a whole week in mainland China). That's nearly a month later than it was last year. So the year of the dog more or less had 13 months. ;-) Well, I'm looking forward to a prosperous and successful year of the pig, since this year some changes will happen in my life.
CNY (Chinese New Year) is a pretty big and busy thing. As some of you might not know there is no fireworks here for the western new year but a really big one on one of the CNY-days (I think the last, but I'm not totally sure). Also there's the flower-market, which is really really crowded (it's just pushing each other from one stand to the next, even fuller than any techno-party I've ever been to) and the big street-parade, which is also a really nice thing to see.
Since I'm at least going to see the parade and the always amazing fireworks (I'll try to skip the flowermarket this year since in my oppinion it's mostly pointless pushing around (although it's still nice to see that once), and since helium-balloons are not allowed on the trains you can't even take home the real fun ;-) ) I'll post some pictures for your impressions.
So Andrew, I guess you can get your CNY-avatar out again later this month. ;-)
As for the dates of Chinese New Year, that varies, I don't really know the rules, but since it's also called the Lunar New Year (since it's based on the Lunar calendar) it somehow follows the moon. I wouldn't be surprised if it'll be some full moon, since there's also at least one other pretty big festivity which is on a full moon.
That new valentines avatar looks so cute!
Chinese have really complicate things for themselves, did they?
Anyway, I guess it adds to the fun, sort of, and probably has some astronomical meaning if it follows the moon. 
bloody hell, another date system ?!
I propose the following system:
New year is when the sun is directly above the equator, coming from the south (that would correspond roughly to March 22 AFAIK). The Year has 4 dividends (name to be decided), starting/ending when the sun hits the Tropic of Cancer, the equator, the Tropic of Capricorn, or the equator; These may be denominated with the Greek letters άλφα, βήτα, γάμμα or δÎλτα, respectively. I am not sure where to position year 0 (it exists as such.) If I abitarily call 1945-03-22 0Α:1, today (2007-02-11) would, if I am capable of the math, be 61Δ:51.
btw, I think the French should have stuck to the calender of la révolution
reptiler I plan to put it up after the 14th
Then I need to find the next big thing after that for my display pic...any ideas?
Well, there is easter after that, which is also international AFAIK. It comes from catholics, but has become a sort of a tradition for some agnostics as well I suppose, so it might be somewhat relevant.
Oh yeah! Easter! I don't even know when that is this year..
how about carnival ? It starts on Nov 11 at 11:11 AM, but its height is soon I believe.
[easter] comes from catholics
Actually it is a pagan tradition that was hijacked, just like "Christmas". Hence the hares and eggs.
Right, forgot about that for a moment..
fz, that is miles off
remind me closer the date. 
nah I was thinking like the real carnival celebrations are soon aren't they ?
edit: I'm talking about Shrove Tuesday, on Feb 20 this year
You NEED Feb 22 though - B-P's 150th birthday
So, Valentine's day is over; you could now go for Thinking Day (Baden-Powell's birthday on Feb 22, this year is the 150th) or start with carnival, which is all over the place right now ;-)
Or since you already prepared one for chinese new year (as far as I understand) you could switch over to that one.
I'm curious to see that.
By the way, the year of the pig will start tomorrow.
Wow, really nice Avatar.
Tomorrow's gonna be the parade. Propably one of the very few parades with more people than Love Parade. ;-)
Of course I will bring along my camera and then post some pictures so that you can have an impression of the festivity and the masses of people.
Day after that will be the fireworks, where I will also bring my camera. I guess I'll just put in the 2GB card and set it on auto-fire. ;-)
That would be great to see reptiler. And above all. Have fun.
More people than on a love parade? Uh that's huge, but that's China.
Have fun!
Well, I don't think there have been more people than during the high time of Love Parade, which I consider being '97 and '98, where over one million visitors joined the party. But it has been pretty full.
I just connected my camera to the PC and will pick out a few pics, shrink them (the original resolution is 3000something X somethingelse) and post them here.
And tomorrow I can post a few pics from the fireworks display that'll start at 8pm tonight.
Okay, I've uploaded a couple of pictures in the topic Chinese New Year 2007. I hope you like the impressions.
As FZ pointed out.. today is Baden Powells 150th birthday so there is my display pic showing my love for him.
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB (22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941), also known as B-P, was a Lieutenant-General in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scouting Movement.
More info
Scouting has been alot of my life, I have been a member of the scouting family for just under 13 years.
Kudos!
I would like to add that this year is not only B-P's 150th birthday, but also 100 years of scouting: the first boy scout camp was in the summer of 1907 on Browsea island.