One day a few years ago, I went to Hotmail.com to create a new e-mail account, after my old one had been lost to the ravages of time. When prompted for a username, I realized that I couldn't think of anything unique that wasn't already taken. After a bit of thinking, I decided to use a somewhat disused computer-related term for my 'name' - Ascii. However, that was taken as well, so I thought of ways to extend the name that didn't involve things like "Ascii74". After a bit more thinking, my love of Star Trek kicked in, and I went with the name "Captain Ascii".
A while later, when signing onto a message board, I found that I needed another username. Being at an utter loss, I decided to use my Hotmail name there as well. After that, I began using the name everywhere, and it soon became my official online pseudonymn.
Thus did Cap'n Ascii come to be.
When it came time to design an avatar for myself, I created the "A" logo as my personal insignia. It was the perfect way to lend visual identity to my name without putting my real face up there on display. I've taken to branding just about everything of mine online with it. Repressed egoism, I suppose.
That 'guy' is who I like to call Avatar Ascii. He's the Internet visualization of my online self...that is, he's what "Cap'n Ascii" looks like in my mind.
I create my avatars through a process called "spriting"...a (loose) form of Internet art where artists take sprites (low-res graphics) from video games and alter them to make new characters and images (or sometimes make new sprites from scratch).
The first Avatar Ascii was an altered image of Roger Wilco from Space Quest 6. The larger next-generation version you see here is a modified sprite of Hawke, a commander from the GBA game Advance Wars 2. I really like this one; I'll probably keep him for quite a while.
Want to know more about the man behind the proverbial mask? Click here.