Yeah, the internet as a whole is a little wonky.
Actually, that reminds me, fairly often (at least once a day, when I'm on BG, basically, beginning a few weeks ago) I get an issue with BG where I basically get a white screen (it comes up with a page nor found message or something [I don't remember which message I get since I get different ones from different sites T_T]) and I can only proceed to the page by inserting www into the url address (note: this doesn't help at all if I was in the middle of making a post since the post is not... well, posted). Also, even adding www doesn't always work, particularly for threads in sub-forums (I can always view the main forum index, but sub-forums and threads usually give me the error).
EDIT: I tried the Photobucket route. I set my profile picture to the link. It does not show up...
I still can't get an avatar.