My avatar is not me, no. It's never been me.
I am self-conscious about not using a picture of me in my avatar. I don't want people to think I'm some gross blob hiding behind my computer and using a picture of a hot guy (or, in this case, statue of Achilles) to make up for my own personal issues. I'm in pretty good shape, if I do say so myself, and am not embarrassed at all of how I look - which took years of work on my self-image for me to be able to say. So, were this a perfect world, I'd have loads of pictures of me up here, including my avatar. Especially my avatar, to be honest. I'm a shutterbug, and when no one else will pose for me I do it myself. However, I've had my image...ummm...
misappropriated by others enough times, and in a callous enough manner, that I'm reluctant to use it here - or on any of the other forums I frequent, for that matter.
And there's my life story.