A Hearty Thanks

I can’t let this day end without saying thanks to all of you who have made this such a place of pleasure for me, and of course thanks to Richard Armitage for being the perfect foil, which I mean in the very best way. Yep, this is the darndest (sp?) thing I’ve ever done, but I’m glad.

I also have great thanks for my family who puts up with me, and despite all of the trials this year, I’m glad to be alive, glad my family is alive, and glad we love each other no matter what. Enough cannot be said about that. So much to be thankful for, and I give God all the credit.

And now a somewhat Thanksgiving looking scene although this look passed almost a month ago. It’s what I pretty much looked at every day until the snow hit:

When I wasn’t looking at this LOL:

Photos courtesy of me and a local.

November 24, 2011
Categories: Timeout . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 14 Comments

Are You Ready?

I’m talking to all of you budding geeks who have been recently schooled by bccmee. :D Here’s your chance to make some awesome screencaps and gifs. The short videos in HD from the Project Magazine shoot, which was previously available only on iPad, are up. Three so far.

One:

Two:

Three:

:D

Look forward to seeing what some of you have, and a hearty thanks to bccmee. She’s a great teacher.

November 24, 2011
Categories: Interviews . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 11 Comments

Tangent — It’s Hard to Stay on Topic

It’s especially hard to stay focused when I read crap like this:

Saudi women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover even them up, if resolution is passed

By Mail Foreign Service

Women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover them up under Saudi Arabia’s latest repressive measure, it was reported yesterday.

The ultra-conservative Islamic state has said it has the right to stop women revealing ‘tempting’ eyes in public.

A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia’s Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, said a proposal to enshrine the measure in law has been tabled.

Read more

I’m disallowing comments on this one since it could stray into something that’s not appropriate for this blog. But I had to get this off my chest. You have something to say, send me an email. See left sidebar labeled “CONTACT ME”. And yes the article is from the Daily Mail which majors in sensationalism, but this mentality is alive in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, or should there be reminders of the barbaric thinking. It’s sad to me there is not more of a hue and cry about it. Pitiful.

November 23, 2011
Categories: Tangents . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: Leave a comment

The Next Post

Didn’t I say this was the upcoming post? Yes, I’m feeling a bit cheesy, which is good for this blog. It’s when I don’t feel cheesy that I can’t really get into it.

So where was I? Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about Lucas North. No, it doesn’t matter that you’ve put that unpleasantness behind you, I haven’t. For about a year now I’ve been crafting posts to deal with my “issues” with Spooks. The problem is that more than half of them are rants, but bear with me as I decide which ones to inflict on you and give Lucas his due. I owe that to Richard Armitage and his wonderful ability to develop a character.

In the meantime, a little teaser from the Spooks 7 set:

For those who have been following this blog for quite a while, this isn’t a new one, but I had to post it again for someone, somewhere who is an Armitage lover and might have missed it the first time ’round. This picture about takes my head off. Seriously, I think I would swoon if I saw someone that good looking standing in front of me. If you don’t feel the effect, click on it to zoom in, and click again to really zoom in. Go ahead; you’ll be glad you did. :D

Okay, onto a new teaser for the rest of you:

How interesting to observe him at work and that closely. If I’m being honest, and I like to think I’m very honest, I would love that. It would be much more rewarding than having him sign an autograph for me that I would merely place in a box somewhere and probably never look at again. But these pictures? These are fascinating. And do I have to make the disclaimer that I would not post anything that was in a private setting? Apparently I feel compelled hence the question. :D Obviously, these aren’t private, and I appreciate Richard Armitage allowing himself to be photographed at work. He could have precluded that, but he didn’t. I know it might even have been irritating since he is a hyper-sensitive person. As a graduate of the Institute for Advanced Armitage Studies, I believe I’m qualified to make that assessment of him, and it’s immaterial if this is a manifestation of CW. It feels good. :D

Off to figure out how to get closure on Lucas.

Behind the scenes photos of Spooks 7 courtesy of Kuchinggirl. More of her lovely work coming up.

P.S. My boy got All-American. Sorry, I couldn’t help but sneak that in since I’m so proud of him!!

November 23, 2011
Categories: PHWOAR!, Spooks . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 23 Comments

Giving up the Ghost

Note: more Richard Armitage in the next post.

Sorry to stay in geek mode, but that’s who I am, and this article is so good, I had to share it. For those who are on WordPress, you may have already seen it. If not, hopefully, you will trip over it here:

Fortune contributor Brent Schlender shares some of the stories and personal photographs he collected during more than two decades as Steve Jobs’ chronicler and confidant.

Jobs’ scribe: Schlender (left) interviewing Jobs at a Next company picnic

FORTUNE — Most of us who wrote in depth about the brilliant career of Steve Jobs sooner or later came to realize that we were complicit in the making of a modern myth. You simply couldn’t avoid it. And while it is true that Jobs was as charismatic as Clooney and as manipulative as Machiavelli, the legend we helped him construct served many purposes beyond pumping up his own ego. He was an irresistible force who knew that in order to bring to market the amazing technological wonders that bubbled in his imagination, he also had to become the Svengali of the digital revolution that was to be the hallmark of his generation.

Nevertheless, Steve was merely mortal. And his storied life was one of dissonances and contradictions. He proudly flouted authority, yet he embodied extreme self-discipline. He wouldn’t suffer fools, but that wouldn’t keep him from turning on the charm to woo a “bozo” who had something he needed. He was the ultimate nano-manager, who also could limn the grand strokes of a big picture that others rarely could fully perceive without his help.

Read the rest.

October 27, 2011
Categories: Tangents . Tags: , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 3 Comments

Tangent — Does It Matter? Really?


I readily admit I might be a bit jaded. When I see something like this, it’s hard not to think it’s a bunch of people who are in need of meaning in their lives, seek out a “noble” cause toward that end but are drawn mostly in a visceral fashion and often ignorant of how the situation came to be. And in their ignorance, they are vulnerable to being manipulated by forces beyond their kin. Yes, this can describe all of us at one time or another. LOL!

Okay, I’m going on the record that Washington shafted us with the bank bailout and was done by both parties. Those guys aren’t up there for you and me. Maybe half dozen are really up there as advocates for the people. The rest are up there for their own asses, and I doubt these protests are going to do much to change that. The protests will serve little more than to move another group into power.

When I see a real grassroots movement of Americans that is not politically motivated, I might sing another tune. I would so love to sing another tune.

Until then it’s a shame the bad guys on Wall Street usually look like this:

instead of this:

At least with the latter, you would enjoy the view while you were getting screwed.

Brownie points if you can name the top two guys without looking them up. :D

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

October 12, 2011
Categories: Spooks, Tangents . Tags: , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 21 Comments

Remembering Steve

Yesterday, I was grumbling about information technology, but really, I love it and have had a passionate love affair with it since my early twenties. That love affair would have started sooner, but IT wasn’t readily available to the masses when I was a teen. Other than the ham radio culture and all the goodies found at Radio Shack or through Heath Kit, there was almost nothing highly technical for kids to indulge their inclinations. Thankfully, that wasn’t going to be the end of it.

When I graduated from college, I went to work for IBM, and this was about a year after they had started selling the PC. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was getting paid to play with this stuff! The only problem was the staid culture. These were the days when any man who wanted to get ahead at Big Blue did not wear anything other than a white shirt and wingtips with his suit, and most of the women were more sedate. I lost track of the number of navy suits I had. Boring as that sounds, it worked well for IBM because the key was to look sharp but not so snazzy that you drew attention to yourself. You only needed to evoke trust from the customer. Sadly, the clothing was indicative of the mindset, and with that much restraint, it’s no wonder they missed out on what’s essential to existence in the tech world — creativity.

Although I’d read about Steve Jobs for years, few inside the company took him really seriously. Everyone knew he would get somewhere, would enjoy watching it, and the company would reap the benefit, but a big threat? No. Of course this was before IBM fully realized it had shot itself in the foot with its understanding of the PC and especially of Microsoft’s role. I’ll spare you that story. Suffice to say, IBM didn’t see that one coming either.

In 1984 Steve Jobs put something in motion with Apple’s first really serious foray into the desktop computer market. The hammer was thrown, and the imagination of my generation was ensnared. It doesn’t matter that Apple had financial woes afterward and Steve stepped away from his baby for a while. Creativity and thinking outside the box were now acceptable, and IBM and all others were forced to get in the game.

None of that would have happened if Steve hadn’t been different and persistent. He really was a visionary on a scale that the reverberations of it will be felt long after IBM, MS and the others have gone away. He was his own person, and most important, he expressed it and never stopped. Even though I was in the enemy camp, I so admired that. He came with his long hair and jeans and I loved him. He said the things I wanted to hear from someone who had some power. I secretly hoped he would level the playing field, and he did! Thank you, Steve.

Steve passed away yesterday, and I never expected to be this moved, but I am and write this with tears in my eyes.

My heartfelt condolences to Steve’s family.

If you would like to share your memories of him, you may email rememberingsteve@Apple.com

edit:

For those who haven’t seen this, I bring it for your edification.

October 6, 2011
Categories: Geek, Tangents . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 7 Comments

Felled By The Sexy Back

The best laid schemes… Oh how they can blow up in our faces. Thankfully, since I’m not a man, I must be a mouse. Not sure yet, but for a few minutes a couple of nights ago, I could have put my fist through a wall. This morning I’m still a little unsure of myself but less so as the clock ticks. And the clock ticking is what started all of this here. You thought it was Richard Armitage? Hang around, and I’ll disabuse you of that notion although there might be some confusion when posts like this appear.

I still can’t look at that picture without blinking my eyes and shaking my head to clear it. Ironically, that really might be his sexiest picture.

And since I usually muddle up the paragraph breaks in my posts not to mention all of my other grammatical sins, I might as well do it up right and just place them wherever I want and hope you understand my convoluted mind. Honestly, I never have known the best way to place paragraph breaks; topic sentences mystify me. So glad that hasn’t stopped me. Now for the awkward transition.

Sometime last weekend an item from RAFrenzy inadvertently posted on my personal Facebook wall, and if you need to heat some coffee or tea, you can place it next to my head where the steam is coming out. Previously I just disliked Facebook, now I despise it. This has jeopardized my anonymity to a degree it has never happened during the life of the blog. Yeah, I know some of you know who I am because I’ve let you know, and for all of you other RA fans who may have guessed, I’m not concerned about you. It’s the family I don’t want reading. SO and the kids are not so much the problem. I mean the extended family. They would not get it, so I don’t want them reading and possibly giving input. If I did, they would already know about it. Wait! Some of them now do. Damn Facebook.

So how did this happen? Oh, I’m going to tell you so I can give this rant full vent and also give you a heads up. It happened on my phone where I haven’t mastered the ability to control scripts so I only have running the ones I want. For the uninitiated, scripts drive the web page you’re on, and sometimes scripts include all sorts of nasty things that you don’t really want running. For me Facebook is nasty, and especially so when the Facebook mobile app will not let me log out, and I have to clear my data every time I want to make sure it’s not logged in, and even then it’s not a sure thing. Can you see that steam now?! Let me make this really plain. If you’re logged into Facebook, and you are on a site that has a link to Facebook, you can inadvertently post a “Like” to your wall. Given that links to Facebook have wormed their way onto virtually every site on the web, there is a vulnerability you might be posting things to your FB wall that you never intended [waves hand vigorously in the air while saying ‘choice’ words]. Same thing with Twitter, which I still like, but I may ended up despising for the same reason.

And I wouldn’t have been on my phone if I hadn’t been determined to work on my blog post about Richard’s back. Okay, enough of that rant, but just know that despite my irritation, I’m not letting this keep me from blogging. On to the good stuff.

I did promise some more pictures, which I really was about to post a couple of nights ago before I got rattled.

His size and vantage point scream masculinity, but that’s not enough to make these pictures so compelling. His attentive nature is still evident. Man, I really have a bad case of CWS. Who woulda thunk a set of pictures of his back would bring on such a bout?

This one really does make me think I can reach out and hug him:

This one almost looks like a kid trying to get the lay of the land:

It is amazing to me how he can still convey a purity without using his facial expressions. Yep, I have a raging case of CWS.

More candid shots coming, but no more backs.

October 5, 2011
Categories: PHWOAR!, SO, Spooks . Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 24 Comments

I’m Really Trying

May I beg forgiveness for not posting regularly and for teasing you all so terribly with the Spooks behind the scenes pictures? Yeah, okay, maybe I’ve really messed you all around. But do you really want to hear my excuses about why I haven’t been posting? Yep, I thought not, and really, I have no desire to rehash it. I think I’ve made plenty of excuses on this blog already. LOL!

Give me until Monday, and I will definitely post some of the photos, but in the meantime, just know that I’ve had all sorts of shit happening (yeah, I had to get one excuse in :D). The good news is that I’m still smiling, and SO is still smiling as well.

For those who have followed the trials and tribulations of the Frenz household, just know that we’re alive and things are improving. October 6th will be an especially important date for us, and I cannot wait for it to get here. For those of you who have no clue what I’m referring to, my apologies. I hate cryptic, but I must be cryptic in the interest of the family. This was just the quickest way to communicate with those who are keeping up.

I can’t stand it! I have to give you one photo:

Deep breath…..(sigh)….I think I may live.

No matter how many times I view this photo, it still gets me. Maybe because I don’t expect the back of someone’s head to be sexy. Oooh, how wrong I’ve been. Or is this just me who thinks he even looks hot from behind? And he still has all of his clothes on! The broad shoulders do help.

I wasn’t going to post anything until Monday, but I saw this tumblr and here I am. Love these kinds of comments especially since it makes me feel less insane. Richard Armitage aside, that’s a great tumblr.

Candid Photo courtesy of: I’ll tell you later. :)

September 30, 2011
Categories: Spooks . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 31 Comments

Just Can’t Leave Sugarland

Another post in the ongoing series about Musicilove.

Yesterday something happened that’s kept a smile on my face since. Imagine me typing this post in a rhythm. It’s the only thing alleviating the urge to get up and dance. LOL! Yep, I’ve been caught in something, and I’m just now figuring out what. Before yesterday I had heard maybe one song by Sugarland and thought it was good but then moved on. Enter Sheepa who came with the ‘Stuck Like Glue’ video, and I’ve become enthralled with watching and listening to Jennifer Nettles and her musical partner, Kristian Bush. These two are so talented that I don’t think they can move without something artistic gushing out. Kristian’s guitar playing is perfect, but Jennifer is a force of nature. If you haven’t already looked at that ‘Stuck Like Glue’ vid, go do it. Watch it more than once; it gets better each time!

As I watched it for about the 20th time, I knew that much energy and joy couldn’t just be that one video, and I’m happy to say it’s not.


Phew! “that girl can sang!” as it’s said in my neck of the woods. And she writes her own music. Yep, this is one talented chick. Sorry, but I can’t help but gush. She has something special, and those who love her saw it long ago:

I’m thankful once again for YouTube, Amazon and emusic. Last night I purchased ‘The Incredible Machine’ album and quite a few other tunes by Sugarland and was listening to all of it within a couple of minutes.

By the way, I wasn’t terribly happy with emusic when I first started with them, but they are steadily improving, and they have given me so much free music, that I’m stunned. Yes, this is a shameless plug. :D

One more ’cause I just can’t get enough:

Of all the musical pieces I’ve posted, this one reminds me of Richard Armitage the most. I realize he may not even like country music, but Jennifer seems so talented and creative and real that I couldn’t help but think of RA.

note: I have only used the word ‘gush’ one other time on this blog.

correction: I’ve only used ‘gush’ in connection with RA, but Jennifer is so talented, I can’t help myself.

September 24, 2011
Categories: Musicilove, Tangents . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 4 Comments

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