Desktop wallpaper

[Not A Communist Shill]

How do you choose your desktop wallpaper (if at all)? and how often do you change it?

I find it is a real drag to choose something, because it never feels like I will stick with one if I ever choose one, and thus revert to a default and/or generic wallpaper. Such wallpapers leave me feeling very cold...they can even affect my mood: the one I currently have that is mostly blue and is a stylised Windows logo with lines reaching across the screen especially has that effect, because of its dark blueness in combination with the starkness of it all (I like blue...more sky blue though). An image of someone swimming in water with much of the depths visible makes me imagine a drowning...even a suicide, for example.

Having icons on the desktop means that the image must be fairly centralised, or be some pattern of some kind where the periphery is not necessarily important for the whole. I'd really like a wallpaper with something going on (whether with people, or as a general landscape, or some especially good pattern (it would have to be especially good).

I remember reading of someone who believed they changed their life by simply having a password like "forgiveher" which he had to enter many times a week...it helped improve their state mentally and helped them move on...and I think gave them a more balanced focus on life (at least that was what the person wrote). It would probably work for exercising more or for losing weigh or whatever...as I think I've said before I really do think that walking into rooms with a smile on your face can be highly important, and similarly, something like inadequate desktop wallpaper really bugs me!

[anndelise]

How do you choose your desktop wallpaper (if at all)? and how often do you change it?

Initially I look through what's available on the system to try to find one that's not cluttered, and gives a feeling of calming, soothing, relaxing. My icons tend to be a cluttered mess, so the background has to not add to it. If I don't find one available, then I start looking around the web, punching in keywords that might trigger a picture that'll suit me.

This is my current one, and I love it! It helps that the icon folders will take on some of the color of the background, to help them blend in a bit better.
image.jpg

Once I find a good one that suits me, I don't tend to change it unless I happen to come across another image that is better suited for me.

[ouronis]

These are my go-tos if my current one is getting stale and I haven't found anything interesting for a while:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryTechnology/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ImaginaryLandscapes/

I choose based on what is something that I can stand looking at every day and makes me a little bit happier than I was before. I tend not to go for overly diffuse or abstract, I like a picture to have both message and content.

[April]

I have my desktop set up to rotate my favorite space photos every minute or so. I know space can leave some people feeling cold or small, but it strikes me with great wonder. Some favorite photos include Westerlund 2, Hubble Ultra Deep Field, Carina Nebula, and Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

[Adam Strange]

I have my desktop set up to rotate my favorite space photos every minute or so. I know space can leave some people feeling cold or small, but it strikes me with great wonder. Some favorite photos include Westerlund 2, Hubble Ultra Deep Field, Carina Nebula, and Jupiter's Great Red Spot.

I assume you're familiar with Astronomy Picture of the Day? http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

[strangeling]

Honestly?
I had a long experience of being homeless (was somewhat of a choice to escape a previously abusive situation) and had to decide whether or not I wanted to even bother continuing to live. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I took the idea of suicide very seriously and wanted to be sure. So when I had some sort of system down for how I was going to survive, I had a fair amount of time to myself away from the static of other people's expectations/desires/opinions/noise/etc. and I realized I was very angry at the idea of a reality that birthed me and then so seemingly rejected me with full force. I have this anger now inside me that people don't see; it's not fiery, it doesn't explode. It's just there. It's like a drive to live and thrive in a reality that doesn't want me because it doesn't want me, just say fuck you to everyone and everything that doesn't factor me into the equation of reality. And it's quiet and cold because that way I can still calculate and make "my" moves.

So my wallpapers, although no one understands them except to say that they are creepy or scary, reflects this anger. Seeing them helps center my emotions and remind me what it is that underlies just about everything I am and do.

//tangential thought
It reminds me about Jung's concept of the shadow and how it's kind of an evil quality, but something that is also a part of ourselves and that accepting it is probably a good thing. It's kind of the same and although it's also kind of crazy because I probably would be considered mentally ill when I was homeless and all this was going on in my head (and perhaps even now), I do wonder if that's what he meant by neurosis teaching people to grow. I don't suppose I can answer that though, since it feels too much like a dissociative split between the sensitive nice person wave of my ego and the underlying abrasive and angry violent undercurrent. Jung was a probably a little crazy too, but maybe that's a good thing. I'd rather accept spiritual guidance from a like-mind than from one that labels what they don't understand as insane or mentally ill.

[The Exception]

I just choose whatever strikes my fancy. Either intriguing pictures I find or cute pictures of my nephew.

This is what I have now. It's my nephew swimming with his cousin. My nephew was 8 months in this photo. He just had his first birthday last week.

Screenshot (203).png

[PistolShrimp]

My wallpaper is usually a picture of Iceland, or something from a show I'm watching or a movie that inspired me. I change it on a whim when I'm getting sick of looking at it, maybe every few months or so. Currently it is this one from Oyasumi Punpun:

[Roro]

I don't change very often, usually just when something really stands out to me. More often than not they are black and white images of some sort. This is my current:

Screen shot 2015-11-05 at 8.00.54 PM.png

[Waster]

Space, hobby or philosophical.

[Emmym]

My desktop background says "this copy of windows is not genuine" and it looked that way when I got my computer, ahahahaha.

[yeves]

liking some from this album http://imgur.com/gallery/dZ1FB

[Chae]

Super exciting topic Primarily, I choose it to fit the arrangement of the icons + visual gratification, so there are always aesthetic principles involved when selecting. It has to display a horizon line, maybe a golden mean, color contrasts are there, a guiding element - often diagonal, like trees/clouds, house, maybe a person standing in the midst of it... I usually end up with a landscape (My SO last is coming out, these wallpapers display places removed from dense population)

The last candidate:

Iceland | "Jokulsarlon"; this one is fantastic, you have many direction "hints"--> ice, clouds, and the tiny sun directly sitting on the horizon line. Also, colours: the entire range of blue+ red. The pixel-ish reflections on the water surface kind of intrigued me, and the layers of background mountains, plains and so on. Despite being a extremely cold environment, the bits of yellow and red radiate warmth, I liked the discrepancy of that. There's plenty of space for icons above and below the ice so yeah, those are my two cents right there (:

[Pallas]

@yeves Yeah, there are some cool ones in there. The one you posted is kind of awesome, there's a city with a fortress on a giant squid, a symbol of safety and human civilization resting precariously on a wild monster, like it's all just waiting to get dragged into the abyss, and no one can tell because the squid looks like an island.

[Not A Communist Shill]

The computer I use most has a Windows OS, I have the desktop wallpaper set to the "Windows spotlight" option, which typically rotates between photos of scenic places (every few days I guess, or weeks, I'm not especially observant (it's easier to say that you've seen an image around for a long time, or have seen a new one, not so easy to say how long the images have been around for - I think sometimes, they bring old ones back too).