maaaah. The spaceship Defender. Greatest craft to ever grace the skies. Although she was known to drop a humanoid or two every once in a while.

Ha! I'd forgotten about that one

Greetings!

I like that idea!!! Changing my avatar again - Wizard needs food, badly!

Since I do know what it is, and a search on it doesn't show anything, either you and Tony are wrong or the search is broken.

Incidentally, I believe that yours is Lucifer falling from heaven and I believe that that particular image is from some Led Zeppelin something-or-other -- cover art or liner notes art or something; I can't quite put my finger on it.

It is Led Zeppelin. The image refers to the flight of Iccarus. This was used as the symbol for their Swan Song label.

It's a picture by William Rimmer entitled:
Evening or The Fall of the Day

Zeppelin reference:

The famous Swan Song symbol that Zeppelin adopted as the logo for their record label was borrowed from an 1851 oil-on-canvas painting by William Rimmer entitled "Evening Fall Of Day." The figure in the painting is the Greek sun god Apollo. The painting is not, as some people would have you believe, of Icarus or Daedalus. These two are also figures from Greek mythology. Daedalus is, according to legend, supposed to have crafted a set of wings from feathers and wax for himself and Icarus which they could use to escape from their prison on Crete to freedom in Greece. Unfortunately, Icarus being the younger of the two thought it might be a lark to fly a little higher, and flew too close to the sun which melted his wings and he plunged to his death in a sea, which is still known as the Icarian sea. Icarus' first flight was also his swan song. Daedalus also designed the labyrinth on Crete for King Mino's minotaur, which was the reason for his imprisonment, because he alone knew the secrets of the labyrinth.

Another reference Here

Grendel:Cycle

Dark Horse Comics, Matt Wagner.

Published in October 1995, 64 pages.

Very well done, you're on a roll, there

I think that's the same image I made mine from. I don't think it's the same page, though. I was on SUCH a Zeppelin kick back then. I don't think I listened to anything else...

Perhaps this time

So, did you know that or did you just base a search on the filename? Regardless, 5 points! When you get up to 10000, I'll give you a nickel!

Oh, all right. Here you go.



Guess

pca

Please. I wish I could say I knew... but.... Anyway, who needs brains if you've got batteries?

did i told you that i´m a photographer?!

I got bored...


-Greg

Private Paula in da house

I like this one better... I think i'll use it. Yes, indeed.



-Greg

Oui, moi aussi!

It was a great week, just a shame we couldn't see anything, anywhere, for most of the week. Ah, the fun of schussing when you can't see where you're going - our policy was to send the best skiier off first, and if we didn't hear a scream, follow! Lots of powder, though.

Not the dreaded 3D simulator thing you and rob built

Nope.

pca

Okay don't know why this popped into my head, View from a remote controlled plane with a camera on it ?

Cyber Sex???
15240 RPM for an vibrator is not bad

That's unlucky - it's a beautiful area when you can see it, something that I miss in the Eastern US ski areas. (Predominantly below the tree-line).

But that's mountain weather for you...

That reminds me of a story from my stay with a couple of friends in Val Thorens. (For those who don't know, VT is the highest resort in Europe, and is about 500m (vertically) up the valley from Les Menuires.)

We'd spent the morning skiing down to and in Les Menuires, and had eaten lunch there. In the early afternoon, an unpredicted storm suddenly moved in, and lifts started to shut down. We obviously started to panic about getting back up the valley, and hotfooted it to any lift that was going vaguely in the right direction for us to be able to traverse back to VT. We did very well for an hour or so, until we got to the last lift that we needed to take, whereapon it shut down whilst we were in line.
At this point, we (and a few hundred other people in the same boat) realise that we're 'only' at the wrong end of a red run (US - single black diamond) from being able to ski a blue run down into VT. Like sheep, we start following the herd, walking up this bloody steep red run with skis and poles slung over our shoulders. At some point the snow started to fall and get blown about by the increasing winds. It's probably difficult to visualise, but there were literally hundreds of people laboring up a mountain during a snow storm.

After about 30 minutes of this I was knackered. My back was killing me and every step was painful. And I could work out that we were only about 1/3 of the way up the run. My doubts started to grow as to the sanity of our adventure, and more I thought about it, the more nagging they became. So I shouted at my 2 friends to stop. At this point, I should mention that we were all Scout Leaders at the time.

I observed that we were making slow progress up a steep mountain during a snowstorm with dusk approaching. And that we were at about 8000 feet altitude, with no torches, no emergency sacks, no e-rations, no compass, no decent map (only a piste map), no water etc. And that if any of our Scouts even *thought* about attempting such an endeavour under such circumstances that *we'd* kill them.

It really was an epiphany. We took a couple of minutes to get our breath back, during which time we watched hordes of people continuing their crazy ascent, including some people whom we'd befriended in our hotel. We suggested that they were going the wrong way, but they continued on up the mountain. Then we put on our skis and went the other way, back down to Les Menuires.

We had about 30 minutes of the best skiing all week. Although visibility was reduced and goggles were necessary, the piste was covered with a couple of inches of virgin powder, and we had it all to ourselves. Even the notorious 'kamikaze' bowl entering the resort was empty.

So we get back to LM, and discover that the local bus company is contracted to give free rides up the valley when the lifts get shut early. There was obviously going to be a long wait, so we went and warmed up in a bar for a while, and eventually got on the bus about an hour later. 45 minutes after that, just after we've finished storing our ski gear in the locker room, our friends stumbled in, looking like Death. They had just got back, nearly two and a half hours after we'd last seen them. It turned out that when they'd got to the top of the red run, the wind had been against them, and they'd had to push themselves all the way down the blue run too.

When I think back, I still can't believe just how crazy a horde of people can be. I'm amazed that more people don't die in such circumstances.

Ok, I've found a suitably embarrassing image.

Hmm...it appears as though I can't force a new avatar to show on an old post..

Close. A view from a radio-controlled plane with two cameras on it. how else would you get stereo imaging?

Actually, it's a picture of me with the VR headset on, with the instrumentation display overlaid with photoshop. Normally, the image would be of the outside, it's easier to fly the plane like that

pca

Do i win a free tuner ?

I agree, it's a beautiful place, and 650km of runs (the largest skiing area in the world, apparently) can't be bad! I have very fond memories of that area - my first year of skiing was in Val Thorens, when we had beautiful weather all week. After that week, I was hooked.

However, I don't think Les Menuires is that great for beginners (one of whom we had with us this year), since the only blue runs seem to be the, as you put it, "kamikaze" bowl and the Vallons run at the other side of the resort. It struck me as being even worse than Val D'Isere, which when I was there seemed to have only had one blue back into the resort, and that was closed! Since it was only my second year of skiing, I generaly took a lift back down, oddly enough.

Still, we managed some stupid distances this year - all the way to the far end of Courcheval and back by early afternoon, despite the weather. I may even forgive Ian for his map-reading balls-up, when we found that after an hour of hard skiing from our morning break we had ended up back at the same restaurant, instead of being in a totally different valley for lunch!

Sorry, just wanted to try my new one out.

This is my first time showing my face on the net, I feel so special ;-)

Cris.

I recognize that and can almost hear the voice "Elf needs food, badly"
Isn't it from the Hero Quest PC version?