Just a thought (careful Kick don't strain yourself). I have just changed mine and I thing it adds a bit of life to the forum, rather than that image of a drag queen that seems to be doing the rounds. Not that hard to upload tbh, if you keep it under 39Kb that is, which does make selection a bit limited but still plenty of ready made ones out there.
So where/how does one obtain these snazzy Avatars and do you just upload the same as a standard Piccy?