A few hours ago I did something simple but at the same time something momentous. I changed my Hive profile photo!

From this

to this

What do you think? Is it an improvement?

I thought for today's post we'd dive into this change a bit. Consider this a reflection on my previous face, a look at my new face, and maybe a bit of a dive into some deeper meaning behind this. Or maybe not. I'm not planning this piece, so read as I write and we'll see where this goes together.

I've been using that first photo since I signed up on Hive way back before it was Hive. It was kind of a random choice. I just picked the first photo I found in my photos folder.

I took that photo long ago when Google+ was a thing. iPhones were new and all the photographers were excited by the possibilities that smartphone photography offered, so we were trying new things, making strange creative edits with various apps, and so on.

Photographer and social artist Chase Jarvis coined the phrase "The best camera is the one that's with you" and that got echoed all over the internet, nowhere more so than on Google+. It fueled the excitement over the then-new smartphone photography scene. There was a pretty big local Japanese G+ community in those days; we'd meet up and do photo walks together, exchange tips, comment on each others' photos, and just have a good time.

This shot was from one of these group photowalks. It was a simple shot, just me looking down into the camera; it was then edited in a bunch of apps to give the effects. The only one I remember is an app called Percolator that would give a photo a "coffee brewed" look. I dug it at the time. I guess I still do, because I still use it sometimes. Go get it here if you are interested. Anyway, a Japanese buddy who I showed it to told me the photo looked like an alien, so for years I called that my "alien selfie".

The new one is a double exposure photo I took of Okazaemon, the Okazaki City mascot. That probably sounds like gibberish to most of you and leads to questions. Let me explain.

In Japan, they love mascots. Not only do companies have them but cities and prefectures have them as well. Some famous places also have them; most Japanese castles have a mascot, for instance.

Okazaki City, where I live, is famous for their mascot being an ugly mascot. The stereotype of Japan outside Japan is that all characters are cute. That's pretty much the stereotype within Japan as well. Okazaki was the first to break this model and make an ugly mascot. It started a new trend and a number of cities have since copied the idea. I know, I know—what a strange trend.

His head is made to resemble the first kanji of the name of the city, by the way. In kanji, Okazaki is 岡崎. Look closely and you can probably see that on his head is the first kanji and the second is just written on his chest.

Give each vowel its Spanish value, so read his name as Oh-kah-zah-eh-mohn. Pure vowels—none of this diphthong stuff that English vowels love to do. Also, the zah and eh kind of merge when you speak quickly, making it sound more like Oh-kah-zeye-mohn.

I figured that might make a more fun profile and give a better idea of who I am, a guy who talks about Japan stuff a lot. Plus Okazaemon is more interesting that a percolated alien selfie.

I actually did worry a little about changing it. I know I know, 'tis a silly thing to worry about. For over five years I've been using the alien selfie photo so I worried some people who don't remember names very well might have no idea who I am now with the new photo. I notice that happens in Discord often: someone will change their discord photo and there will be at least a few comments later from people asking who the new person is.

A profile photo is a far cry from a full avatar, such as we might adopt in a 3d space like the metaverse^[1]. An avatar would be a full representation of us and so people presumably would be just as confused if we changed our avatar as they would be if we changed our face (maybe via intense plastic surgery) in real life. That said, a profile photo does fill a little of the same role. I have shared photos of my real face several times over the years so regular readers may have an idea what I look like, but people who only interact with me occasionally may have my profile photo as their image for me.

But I decided, as they say, out with the old; in with the new. A few days ago was Setsubun (I wrote about it a few days ago, and gave some haiku about it a day or two later). On the old Japanese calendar Setsubun was pretty close to the New Years and was the day before the first day of spring. One of the rituals (or activities) of the day is mamemaki which is more or less about chasing away the bad luck of the previous year and pulling in good luck for the coming year. Well, there was more superstition in the past, but that's kind of the basic idea. Follow the link above and read my post about it if you are interested in hearing more. Or here is an excellent post from @aitommylr about the day in two parts: part one and part two).

Anyway, does that comparison mean my alien photo is bad luck then? Hmm... maybe I should throw soybeans at it just to make sure...🤔 Naw, but it's the old and let's bring in something new.

All this is to say, if you are confused by who this new guy is in your feed—it's me, dbooster. Same dbooster as the previous one, just in my new "ugly mascot" form.

... or maybe I could use my "rambling man" form, as I do on my @dbooster.spt account... 🤔 Decisions, decisions.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

1. I'm referring to Neil Stephenson's original conception of the concept in Snow Crash, not Zuch's recent endeavor which stole the name; I didn't try his creation nor did I read much about it so my knowledge there is limited. ↩