The Generation One Autobot icons below appeared in the cartoon series from 1984 to 1986. Their names have a double digit after them indicate the year of their debut. History and most of the artwork were courtesy of Adam Botch the Crab’s Transformers Box Art Archive. More information on each Autobot can be found at the archive or Wikipedia. In the latter, there a pretty good sized entry for most of the Transformers! It’s all very fascinating if you love the franchise, though rather violent with the comic book sagas where Transformers have their heads blown off, literally!
I have added a bit more punch to most of the artwork scans (i.e. a tad more contrast and saturation). I have also converted them to 256 pixel square pictures, with the graphic as large as possible, for use as avatars, buddy icons and profile pictures. You can use these pretty much for any application, including blogging avatars, since most don’t need a graphic as large as 256 pixels. Facebook and MySpace tend to max that out.
To get an icon:
Click on the thumbnail you want to get it at full size (there is NO grey trim on the downloadable picture).
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Upload it to your Facebook or other profiles.
Click the Back button on your browser to come back to here or click the thumbnails below the picture to move on to the next picture.
Come back another day whenever you feel like using a new one, or download them all now!
According to Wikipedia, the most sold video game ever is Super Mario Bros, whether alone or in all its subsequent upgrades. Even if you have doubts in Wikipedia, the numbers are so staggeringly wide in gap that they can’t be wrong in terms of order. Regardless, this Facebook tagging picture meme is for those fans of Super Mario Bros. I didn’t label the characters because if you play the game, you have to know the characters, whether they are friend or foe, what special powers they possess and how you can nullify or put it to use to succeed in the game. If you generally know all that, labeling the names is just wasted space.
Here’s how to get this graphic for your Facebook fun:
Click on the picture below to get it at full size.
Right click on that picture and save to your computer.
Daniel J. Levitin wrote an absolutely brilliant book called The World in Six Songs, supported by a great website with the many music samples referenced, among other great related material.
My basic paraphrasing of the concept is this. All the songs in the world could be fit into at least one of six categories providing an evolutionary benefit to humanity, often ultimately tied to our social nature.
The book and website offer far more detailed interpretations, of course, but I will expand on my paraphrasing with each post and the associated topic.
In a series of posts, I will describe each of the six categories in brief, one at a time:
I will describe what the categories are about because they are not as limited in scope as the category names suggest. I will then supply one of my choices and ask all readers to do the same if they so wish. In the seventh post of the series, I will offer the chance to put the song choices all together so readers can read the entire set on one post. I do this because it would be a long post to describe all six categories at once, but to have all the answers in one place might be nice.
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This post focuses on Songs of Comfort
July 30th add-on in italics, from Dan Levitin in a summary article
This category of song provides comfort in times of loneliness, stress or heartbreak, along with the classic comfort song, the lullaby. Music written about loneliness and stress can provide us with comfort by assuring us we are not alone in our grief or misery, aiding the recovery process. Lullabies mutually calm mother and child, and may release prolactin, while at the same time providing a bond between the two, which is beneficial for the child.
These songs make us feel more comfortable, whether by easing us into more comfort or relieving us of discomfort. Often, it is the latter, and often through letting us know we are not alone in whatever predicament the songs are trying to relieve us of, that we have a place in the greater whole. Sometimes, songs of Comfort may overlap with Friendship / Bonding category, but should only be considered as such if they were also motivating one to bond or forge direct relationship. If one truly wanted to fit a song into only one category, should the encouragement to bond be present, then consider the song a Friendship / Bonding song, not a comfort song. Encouragement to bond in a way related to “love” will be dealt with later but that also trumps the Comfort category if there were two possibilities and one only wanted to fit a song into solely one category.
Sad songs are the most common form of Comfort songs, but so are lullabies and blues. Comfort songs’ benefit to our evolution is that they cause the release of prolactin, a tranquilizing hormone that comforts us, among many other purposes. Obviously, comfort during times of stress, or even just more comfort in good times, benefits our survival.
Audio sample of songs from the Comfort chapter in The World in Six Songs can be found on the website. No direct link was available, but click on the Songs menu option and appropriate page number range link carrying pages 111 to 136. Please note that not all songs are meant as samples of Comfort songs. Some are just referenced material in the book text.
Written by Eddie Delange, Irving Mills, Duke Ellington, this bluesy jazz standard talks about a person in solitude longing for her (or his) lover who has left her/him. However, because the singer sings it like it’s happening to her, the listener regards it as someone else going through the same situation. As for my insistence upon the Billie Holiday version, well, let’s just say there’s nobody who knows how to make a song sadder than Billie. She’s got an album titled Lady Sings the Blues, for which she wrote the title track, for a very good reason. I could actually listen to any Billie Holiday song, sad or happy, and I would feel better if I were feeling sad. She’s got that “honest signal” quality in her singing to persuade the listener she knows what she’s talking about rather than faking it. “Honest signal” is discussed by Daniel Levitin in the Love chapter as being regarded as superior to speech because it is more challenging to fake singing an emotion than talking about it.
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What is your choice for Song of Comfort?
Please leave your choice as a comment.
Lyrics and YouTube/audio link would greatly enhance your answer so readers can know more about your choice. They are not necessary, though, and not possible if no lyrics or version exist.
I did not create these Facebook picture tagging memes, but I improved their quality and optimized their make-up for Facebook usage. I do not know from where they come so there is no source link.
These memes involve well known cartoons. Included below are
In a series of posts, I will describe each of the six categories in brief, one at a time:
Digital Citizen 