Yes, I’ve Been Somewhat Silent

My lack of commentary isn’t because I don’t have any or don’t care although some things in RA Universe I don’t care about. But rather it’s because I’ve been sick. I’ve gotten sick more times in the last almost two years than I did the entire, uh, I’d rather not say, but it’s decades. I simply have seldom gotten sick. My mother kept me home from school one time for sickness in the 7th grade. That’s when I got the Hong Kong flu. It lasted for two weeks. I also got a case of walking pneumonia in college that took about a month to get over. I’ve had the flu one other time since then, but it didn’t last but a few days. I’ve had a few ailments along the way but nothing major.

In fact, I’m one of those people who if I feel myself getting sick, I say to myself, “I will not be sick.” I just refuse to cave into it! This almost always works. But lately, it’s not working, and part of the reason is that I have not been taking care of myself. I stopped taking vitamins and drinking enough liquids and it’s caught up with me. So yeah, I’m to blame for the state of affairs.

But back to commentary. I almost always have commentary. It’s a curse that I’m so full of opinions. SO’s take on that is why does anyone want to hear everyone’s opinions all the time almost non-stop including mine? Don’t people get tired of incessant editorializing? He’s right to some degree, but he’s wrong that you can run a blog and not come with opinions and come with them a lot. It’s the nature of the beast, and I’m still full of opinions about Mr. Richard Armitage and associated people, etc. I can’t help it. If I’ve spent this much time paying attention, dammit, I’m going to have some opinions. :D

Yep, that’s right, Rich, I’m still going to give my cussed opinions about some of your moves. To which SO says, “That poor guy. I hope he doesn’t read all that stuff.”

Now for a picture:

Richard Armitage in Strike Back

This is an expression of my opinion about the virus I have. I would like to shoot it in the ass.

Other than all of that, I need to get my dwarf pieces done, but I’ve got time. I have 12, and they just need to be done by the wide release of Battle of the Five Armies. Then again, if that doesn’t happen, I’m not too worried. Researching these guys has been such a pleasure, I think you will enjoy hearing what I found no matter when I put them up.

November 25, 2014
Categories: Strike Back, Tangents . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 15 Comments

There’s a New Addict in Town

A new Richard Armitage blogger describes the addiction as “Armitageitis,” and the description is so apt for many of us who are RAbid fans:

“Armitageitis” – (pronounced “Ar-me-tij-eye-tis”) – is an addiction to the actor Richard Armitage . Symptoms include – smileyness, excessive giggling and sighing, insomnia, and a noticeably increased usage of Twitter … oh, and the need to create your own Richard Armitage based Blog!

Would Richard Armitage do all of that to us?

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 21.12.12

Oh yeah.

And if you’re wondering how much you are affected, ask yourself: since I discovered Richard Armitage, do I feel compelled to talk about the experience? Do I feel the pull to blog? Or write a guest post? Or hell, maybe I have a book in me? Or do anything something to express his effect on me?!!

Come on in the water is fine, and in the meantime, you can assure yourself of being right where you should be by reading Antigone’s blog.

You can also catch up with Antigone on Twitter.

October 23, 2014
Categories: Fandom . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 2 Comments

2011 Posts are Up

425417d8My kid is learning HTML and CSS (and eventually PHP and JQuery). She’s been hand keying my posts into archive pages, and boy is she learning how to move around with HTML. Phew! But I’m not about to tell her she can do this dynamically. If I do that, she’ll want to jump ahead when she needs the pain of doing links and other stuff manually. MUHAHAHAHA.

The point of this is not just so she can learn these languages but so you can easily look at my old posts. I’ve had countless questions about that and quite a bit of email from people venting their frustrations in trying to find something. Well, I’m trying to make it easier. 2010 went up a few weeks ago, and 2011 is now available. Look under ‘Archive’ on the menu.

The best part about going through these old posts, besides my kid learning something valuable, is my laughing and crying and cringing and being encouraged by all this crap I’ve written. I’m currently going through 2012 and so far, this is my favorite post from that year, and just may be my favorite on this blog. It really speaks to the spirit of this place.

And yes, I will put up a category and tag page. That’s when we’re going to jump to some PHP. :D

September 20, 2014
Categories: Fandom, Housekeeping . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 1 Comment

You should write about The Crucible. EVERYONE should write about it.

Reblogged from MeandRichard

I couldn’t agree more — even if you don’t publish it for the world.

You should write about The Crucible. EVERYONE should write about it.

The reason that I have been trying to link every longer fan reaction to the play that I have found on a blog or site — and I look for new ones every day — is that I’m trying to create a broad record of the reactions to the play by non-professionals. No one should take my decision to write about the play myself as a signal that I think others should not write about it. I will continue to search for other reactions and link them here in order to do what I can to assure that more people see them. Everyone will have a different one — because really, everyone is seeing a slightly different play — and we should rejoice in that, in finding as many as possible.

If you do want to publish something and you don’t have a platform, I hope you know that there are plenty of blogs (including this one) that would be happy to do it for you.

A little inspiration:

John Proctor

edit:

If you want to start a blog and need help, I’ll help you, and no, it does not need to be a Richard Armitage blog unless that’s what you want.

September 1, 2014
Categories: Fandom, Stage Productions . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 3 Comments

Sorting Out This Place

SH3_093For a long time I’ve been unhappy with the navigation on my site and in particular the method for finding old posts. A few weeks ago I got so frustrated I decided to do something about it. I thought about moving the site to another host where I could do what I wanted with it and put all sorts of nifty functions into it. But I honestly don’t have time to do that, so I decided to build an archive instead. It’s under the prosaic name of ‘Archive’ on the main menu.

I only have 2010 posts so far because I’m still wondering if I even like this system. Not sure yet if each month should have its own page or if all the posts for a particular year (divided by month) should be on one page. Maybe you’ll try it out and let me know what you think. If so, then I’ll adjust accordingly and add the other years. I will also be adding tag and category pages at some point, but I may wait until I move to a self-hosted site before I do it.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy what’s there and don’t judge me too harshly for some of my posts. I was a budding writer, and in many, many respects, I still am. I like to think I’ve improved, but I don’t deceive myself that what I’ve done here is anything for posterity. What I do know is I’m glad I did it. It has helped me find a voice of sorts, and frankly, I laughed and cried and smiled as I went through some of these old posts and seldom had a regret as I read even when the writing was awkward. I know it was part of the process, and I’m entirely okay with that.

Given all of this, I hope you will let me know if you have issues finding something, or there is a bad link.

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com

August 28, 2014
Categories: Housekeeping . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 3 Comments

I Made It to R

A-to-Z Reflection [2014]

Obviously, April’s Blogging A to Z is over for the year, and I made it further than I ever have. Kind of fitting I ended on R. I did have other posts ready for the remaining letters, but as I said in my last post, I got busy. Those were such good letters too! I’ll have to use them at some point in the near future. Maybe the next post. :D

As for that photo above, I’m not sure I can officially use it. I haven’t read the rules that closely. If I can’t, they can ask me to remove it, and I will. But in the meantime, my reflection of the event is that there were a few communications that could have been done better (but no biggie). Mostly, it was fun to be held to the challenge; however, the best part was discovering new writers and maybe rediscovering some I already knew. Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out the series on the Philippines done by Morrighan’s Muse, it’s definitely worth looking at. And I’m still in love with this blog even if the author may think I’m a complete nutter. This dude has something, and I hope he keeps cranking it out.

May 7, 2014
Categories: Tangents . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: Leave a comment

Expectations

EA long time ago, I knew a girl who was eccentric. Her name was Jan. As with most eccentrics, she always did her own thing, and it started early. When she was 10 and I was eight, she got her ear pierced. Yeah, just one. Often other girls would look at her one earring and their faces would get screwed up before they asked horrified, “Why did you only get one ear pieced?!” To which Jan would deadpan reply, “Arr.” Sometimes she would flick her earlobe as she said it.

Being her close friend, I also asked her about it and if it had hurt so much she couldn’t do the other one. I hadn’t been around at the time it was pierced, but in those days, it was usually a barbaric procedure performed by another kid with a needle, a cork, a piece of ice and maybe some rubbing alcohol if there happened to be some in the house. Despite the presence of the ice, girls usually whimpered quite a bit when the needle went in. I doubt Jan whimpered. That wasn’t her style. She told me she always wanted just one ear pierced because deep down she was a pirate and didn’t want anyone to forget it. I never did.

On some vague level, I understood she was a fighter and wise beyond her age. I’m not sure exactly what brought about this wisdom. It doesn’t appear to be her parents. They were very close friends of my parents, and great as they were, there never seemed to be anything about them that stood out as exceptionally wise. Jan was simply an anomaly among her peers. She was funny and original and had an innate understanding of people. She also didn’t suffer fools, and fools to her were the people who lived their lives at the whim of others, at the tyranny of societal pressure. None for Jan thanks, and she often used her tongue as a humorous sword to fend it off and which often made those on the receiving end a joke. In particular were the attacks from other females who could not stand that she was her own person. And because she was completely unruffled by what others thought, she was a threat to them. But I never once saw her cry or whine about it. She just seemed to accept there were foolish people in the world who would go along with others and obliterate who they were.

But something finally broke Jan. Something happened, and I’m not sure what. Maybe society’s pressure finally taking its toll? Could be. I’ve speculated a lot over the years. Whatever it was, it put her normally sunny self into despair, because three weeks before her 18th birthday, she killed herself. And everyone was shocked. Her parents never got over it. And I still grieve it and most of all on her birthday, which is today.

It’s like I’m stuck in a time warp, and I keep wanting her story to change. But it can’t. It never will, and I hate it. She was the person who brought light into a room and made people see things about it they never had. What more could she have done?

One of these days I may consign her to the past, but for now, I write about her every year on this day, which is also the day I started this crazy place as a sort of backhanded tribute to her. She would have loved it and goaded me out of any bouts of circumspection, which I’ve had all day today and almost didn’t post. It seemed embarrassing to think I’ve done this for four years. Then I thought of Jan, and here I am.

April 5, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 Comments

Crazy People, Gotta Love ‘Em

CWhen I was a kid, I used to laugh about the crazy people in my family. Their trips to mental institutions or barricading themselves in their houses was a source of almost never ending mirth. Everyone in the family laughed about it including those who had been afflicted. At family reunions the joke was that the family crest should be three guys in straightjackets.

Then adulthood came with a vengeance, after college sometime, maybe 27, and I got serious and self-conscious about the very real nuts with whom I share a bloodline. Eventually, I also became afflicted with a good ol’ full blown nervous breakdown.

For the uninitiated, there is no such thing clinically as a nervous breakdown. Usually all sorts of other diagnoses are assigned to a person’s condition. Things like bi-polar with recurring anhedonia and occasional paranoia. Such fun and it comes with lots of medication too, and I’m not saying I’m down on medication. I’m glad I took it ’cause as the doctor said, it pulled me out of the hole I was spiraling further into, and once I was out, I was able to deal with the real issue of why I went there in the first place.

And may I tell you that coming out of the hole, out of the other side of a mental breakdown and yes, I’ll say it — insanity — is empowering. Yes, I’m saying this made me stronger, and it fascinates me how this kind of intense pressure and almost decimation of something that then survives and thrives more heartily afterward is reflected in nature.

One of the best things about the experience is that it made me lighten up about life and my family although sometimes I can start walking down that road again. The good news is I usually recognize the road after a short time instead of years later. Mainly, my experience allowed me to realize I had been too serious about myself. Let me put a fine point on that. I was too self-aware, too self-absorbed, too self-centered, and there is nothing more miserable. It’s also boring after a while.

I’m not saying everyone should have a nervous breakdown in order to gain strength, but if you have recently had one, don’t be ashamed. Learn from it and use it. And for the record, I do talk about this as my real identity and have absolutely no shame about what happened. I made a mistake. I had beliefs and habits that needed to change, and they did. It would have been great if I hadn’t suffered, but that’s not how it was going to be for me, and now I don’t care.

Speaking of crazy, yesterday, I highlighted a blog with ‘crazy’ in the title, and today, I’m going to highlight a few more:

Mad Scientist. Crazy Mom — very interesting person and blog. I will be spending more time there.

The Crazy Thing about Hugarians — isn’t that redundant? No, I’m just kidding. I’m learning some interesting facts from this blog.

youmuttonmeeecrazy — oh yeah, this guy is talking my language although I’m not quite as jaded as I used to be. Thank God.

My Richard Armitage segue: I would love to see him playing a character who is losing his mind or has lost his mind. Maybe we’ll get a taste of that in The Hobbit: There and Back Again. This screencap is from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but it could hint at some of what we may see in the next installment:

HobbitAUJ-218[Click to enlarge]

Yes, I would love to see him play insanity with more subtly and layers than Thorin has, but for now, I’ll run with this one.

See your tomorrow

April 3, 2014
Categories: Movies, Tangents, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

So Many Blogs and Not Enough Time: The A to Z Challenge So Far

[note: My “official” A to Z post for today is here.]

A2Z-BADGE-0002014-small_zps8300775cAs part of the A to Z April Challenge, bloggers are asked to visit at least 10 other blogs a day. Yesterday, I visited more than 10 because I had the time. We’ll see what happens today.

As for blog selection, I’m not quite sure of the protocol (need to read the instructions again). In the meantime, I have been going with whatever jumps out at me.

Sleepless in Singapore — a blog by Peter Heppo. I had never heard of Peter Heppo, but I knew he was a pro before I looked at his ‘about’ page or glanced at his sidebar. He’s an Aussie too. Love their ability to take the bark off the tree. This is definitely a must read.

The OCD Squirrel — whose first post was about getting over her fear of the avocado. We need to talk.

Where the Mind is Without Fear — definitely caught my eye, and guess what? It is not what you think it will be. Hint: Nia Vardalos

Bench with a View — what’s on the tin.

California Dreamin’ Squirrel — a nice photo blog, and no, I don’t get the fascination with the name squirrel, but it did make me click the link. (note to self: don’t overlook the obvious).

Crazy Town in Looney Land — an interesting place where people share about their struggle with mental health issues.

April 2, 2014
Categories: Uncategorized . Tags: , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: Leave a comment

B, B, B, B, B, B, B

BThink the ubiquitous Barbara Ann, and for those too young to know, to wit.

It was hard to decide on a topic for B. There are probably a week’s worth of topics in my draft posts about this letter. Actually, I’ve struggled with several letters wanting to take over and be posted on more than one day.

Since this is nominally a Richard Armitage blog, it seemed natural to post something related to him and B, but I can’t do it because I have always made this place safe for work, and the only B that comes to mind in regard to him is his performance in a piece that would take us into waters potentially not safe. No, it wasn’t porn. Wait. That’s not entirely accurate. For the British, it isn’t porn. In the US, it would be considered soft porn and frankly, I realized from learning of this that I may well be a prude. No, I am a prude. AT least about people having sex in front of me. I admit readily. But using some foul language to adequately describe things that cannot be described with more pristine words? I have no problem. Watching someone’s bare bottom in flagrante delicto? Nah, that’s not my thing, because I’ve never thought of sex as a spectator sport and don’t plan to start. A provincial American view? Yes, I’m a bit provincial at times, but hopefully none of that equates to boring, which is another word I thought to post on.

Boring is the shark that nips at a blogger’s heels. To be boring is to bring death, or so it seems. So how to prevent it? Be yourself, take chances and if you have to be anonymous to do this, then do it. Frankly, the biggest obstacle I’ve seen to blogging is that people think they have nothing to say. If they’re trying to sound like everyone else, then they don’t have anything to say that can’t be read at thousands of other sites. Boring.

But this is easily solved with a practical solution that doesn’t require you to undergo a head change before you begin. Merely keep an idea log. I used to carry a very small spiral notebook around with me to jot down ideas as they came. That got to be an obstacle because I got my best ideas while driving. I bought myself one of these, and it was revolutionary! These days I use my phone, and I’ve thought many times what in the hell did I do before I had these devices? Lost a lot of great ideas.

Now for the really important part to remember if you start collecting ideas. Don’t think too big. Yeah, I said think small. Some of the best ideas come from something seemingly small and fairly mundane such as seeing a dad carrying his small son on his shoulders, and then the dad turns around and you notice he (the dad) is wearing something at odds with what you would expect dads to wear while carrying their sweet little ones on their backs. If it’s fall or winter, a nice plaid shirt would seem apropos, or if it’s spring or summer, maybe a polo shirt. Not a t-shirt with a picture of a dog trying to lick himself in unmentionable places (notice my pronoun choice). I started laughing to myself about that when I wasn’t grossed out, and I was eating at the time too. Yuck. It occurred to me that my thoughts about this were probably shared with others, so I wrote a piece about it. Maybe I’ll post it before this challenge is done. Not sure yet.

In the meantime, a photo of Richard for your edification if you’re so inclined:

ep4_260

Oh heck, a couple more, and no, these aren’t from the piece referenced above. These are all from a show called Strike Back:

ep4_261

ep4_262

See you tomorrow.

April 2, 2014
Categories: Strike Back, Uncategorized . Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 9 Comments

« Previous Page — Previous page Next page — Next Page »