Lucky, as I am I don’t have to bother with the decoration of the apartment. That’s the domain of my girlfriend and she does not like my interference. That leaves me with more time to think about the decoration of my desktop. I am, of course, talking about the background image of my computer desktop.
Have you ever tried to find the perfect background picture? It’s almost impossible. Of course you can google the word “wallpaper” and switch to the picture search. In the top row: A Rihanna wallpaper. No, thanks, I’ve never met that lady; I don’t want her on my screen. It goes on with big cars, big boobs, little anime characters, animals of all sizes; a wide selection of crap.
Next try: One of the big wallpaper sites. On wallpaper-area.to, wallpaperbase.com (who is Bai Ling?), etc., etc., I find nothing satisfying, but plenty of ads for ringtones (anyone who has met me knows that I am not so fond of ringtone ads).
Well, let’s move on and give Flickr a try and search for “wallpaper” there. Basically, that’s a good idea, Flickr brings up photographically appealing images; with almost no celebrity worshipping and star cult. Have I mentioned? I don’t want Rihanna on my screen.
But still: Close but no cigar. (By the way; where that expression comes from?) Of course, I am extremely picky. I want a beautiful, fascinating shot. It needs a good deal of abstractness; since it should not distract too much. It should not have loads of tiny details, because that makes it hard to locate the icons “above” the picture. It should please the eye, but not be kitschy (why are that many Flickr people trying to copy the look of Microsoft’s original XP wallpapers by heavily processing them and boosting up the colors?). It should by inspiring and that effect should not wear off too quickly. And finally it has to match the proportions of my display. (Don’t buy a wide screen if you are looking for the perfect background image, it makes the search much harder!)
If you have been reading in the expectation to find me presenting the perfect background image in the last paragraph, I am deeply sorry to disappoint you: This post has no happy end. I have not yet found the perfect background image. My search goes on for a little while… Maybe, it’s my destiny to shoot that image myself. (I will allow me a decade or two for this task.) Or someone creates the image with a tool for image generation. Or I have to stare at the “Light Auras” from Microsoft for the rest of my life. Let’s wait and see…
