Do We Need a Picture?

I follow a stream on Twitter where all of the mentions of Richard Armitage or #RichardArmitage will scroll on my Hootsuite dashboard. Today is hilarious. Talk about the ripple effect? This user:

Has created quite a stir, and now the pictures in my head are out of control. I don’t know about any of you, but I need a picture just to keep me sane. LOL!

I would follow this guy on Twitter, but I feel like an idiot doing it. See, see I can be sane! But really, it’s my proud self that won’t follow his ass — at least not yet. But I can bring him to your attention, and while you’re taking note of him, check out his blog: Fugly. Of course my knee jerk is he is not fugly! The Doc Martens maybe.

Jacob,

Seriously, I like the Doc Martens, but they look like they would be a pain to keep clean. I suppose that’s not the point.

Will be interesting to see what you shoot, and I hope you don’t think RA’s fans are scary. I know I’m not scary, and several others I know are not scary, but man, we just know how this works on Twitter and other places. Isn’t social media great? Yes, I’ll probably follow your ass like a good little ripple. :D

Signed,
One of RA’s crazy fans thoughtful fans.

Wondering what kind of name is Kamara, i.e. its ethnicity. See how my mind works? I should be wondering what positions Jacob has RA in while he’s shooting pictures, video or whatever it is he’s doing. Okay, back to seeing Richard with a lion’s mane around him.

And I noticed Servetus has finally come to the darkside. She just needs a picture and a few tweets to keep from looking like a potential spammer, and never in my life would I have imagined the name Servetus and Richard Armitage in the same sentence let alone in the same name. Glad you joined us, Michaela.

Man, I love having a blog! :D

edit:

This just in — now we know who’s taking some of the pictures:

http://twitter.com/benjwm/status/80631736903536640

More updates here.

June 14, 2011
Categories: Fandom . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 Comments

Netflix Responded

I’ve been campaigning Netflix to give Richard Armitage a profile picture, and I must celebrate their response appropriately.

So Netflix responded today
And hopefully we’re now on our way
To seeing Richard grace
His profile page with HIS face
And not the gray blob of dismay.

Thank you, Netflix, for acknowledging my request. Actually, I was having so much fun that I hoped you would wait a little longer. LOL! I do understand about potential problems with photo rights. The photo below is the one on his IMDb profile page, so perhaps it might work, or do I need to lobby his agents for a picture?

Psst! This is the reason I’m anonymous. I would never do this under my real name. Are you kidding me?! No, it’s better this way. Plus, I’m blaming it on Nat. :D

Off to write an email to United Agents. Muhahahaha.

May 6, 2011
Categories: Fandom . Tags: , , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 25 Comments

Now That I Have Your Attention

I have just a few more things to say before my first anniversary of blogging passes. This was going to be at the end of my last post, but I’m putting it here to ensure it’s read. Not that people skip over posts. No, of course not. :D

So there are a few people I have to thank for being encouraging to me in blogging, writing, just general creativity, and joy.

Heather, Elvira and Angela (aka Spikesbint) were the first people in the RA universe to bring me such pleasure and spark something creative in me. They don’t know that, but it’s true, and I wonder how many people they’ve inspired. It must be legions. Might not be a bad idea for RA to pay them a fee for such great promotion. Oh, I know they do it as a labor of love, but what untold benefits it’s reaped for many of us. Bccmee is another who has challenged my creativity. It’s amazing to me that she was “never creative before” her encounter with RA, and she’s just funny.

For sheer joy, I have to give Iz4blue credit. She is an encourager. It’s just who she is, and that upbeat attitude had a great effect on me. Just when I was about to throw in the towel at six months, she continually made upbeat comments and made jokes, and well, here I am six months later. :D

Pi also gets credit for talking to me about writing and deigning to encourage a hack like me. If some of you haven’t heard me say it, I’m saying it again here. I love her writing and would be glad to read anything she writes — RA or no RA.

Servetus is another one who has been a great encouragement to me. She was one of the reasons I started blogging. I enjoyed reading her blog immensely. It challenged something in me that I had let go dormant. Most of us who blog or comment know that she’s upped the bar on how we approach a subject, and I for one love this. Aside from all of that, she’s just a sweethearted person, and I wish her all the best in the world.

But frankly :D, I would not be doing this blog if it were not for Natalie. She is an inspiration and like Richard Armitage, is obviously a class act. Yes, she’s really as funny and clever and sweet when you talk to her as she appears to be in her blog, and I cannot leave this post without saying that I suspect most (perhaps not all but most) of the current RA bloggers would not exist if not for her. At the time her blog popped up, there had only been one other RA blog to my knowledge. It was run by LuvDemBrooders, but had not been active in awhile. So glad that void was filled by Nat, and I hope Richard Armitage is smart enough (when he’s not too busy) to look at her stuff. In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that if he doesn’t, I might think him a fool (ducks). Not sure that I would indeed think him a fool, but I might. :D If he doesn’t look at it, I may really write him a letter. LOL!

Oh, and Nat, I love my Stick Figure Richard t-shirt. Need to get a picture in it.

There are so many other people who have been a delight along the way, but if I named everyone, you would be here quite a while. Suffice to say that I would not be here without so many of you. Thank you so much.

And of course thank you to Richard Armitage, who may never know anything about this blog or any of the rest of us. But does it matter? Yeah, I didn’t think it mattered. :D

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com, who has made this process of blogging exponentially easier. Thank you!

April 6, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Sparkhouse . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 12 Comments

Moving Too Fast


Yeah, there’s why I’m blogging.

And time really goes quickly when having so much fun. This time last year seems like a couple of weeks ago when I was over half a day into running this blog. I posted my first piece a few minutes before midnight on April 5th. Didn’t have the courage to do it in the light of day as I wasn’t sure anyone would ever read it, and if they did, would I really want them to? LOL! No, seriously, I knew I was going to have fun with this no matter if only a few of you read it. It’s been much more fun than I conceived, and a little more than a few of you read it. Thank you for that.

So some statistics, which frankly, I’m mostly posting for my own encouragement.

233 published posts and almost that many in draft. I’m most proud of that number. For someone like me to write that much is astounding. I really didn’t think I could do it.

115,519 (avg. of 9627 a month) as of a couple of minutes before midnight on April 5, 2011, and a healthy percentage is unique. But lately I’ve been getting closer to 30,000 hits a month.

Busiest Day:

March 30, 2011 — Doing the Hongi was the featured post.

Not much surprise on this one. LOL!

Top search strings:

rafrenzy
richard armitage
armitage army
richard armitage girlfriend
richard armitage captain america
richard armitage nigella lawson
richard armitage girlfriend 2010

That top one tells me a significant number of you found my blog by word of mouth; otherwise, who in their right mind would type in rafrenzy? Okay, yeah, I know there’s a game by that name but doubt all or most of those searches were done by gamers. I’m surprised at the second string because months ago I inhibited the Google bot. Oh well. Still not up to speed on how to do all of that.

I never thought ‘armitage army’ would end up being one of my top searches, but then I did wax on about it quite a bit. As a result, the blog ended up on the first page of Google when the string ‘richard armitage army’ or any variation was used. That’s when I quickly inhibited Google bot, ’cause I’m fine being on the 18th page. More freedom that way. :D

Man, ‘girlfriend’ is hot! Yep, I knew that would be a top search, but I had no clue how much so. Kick in the head is that I’ve only used the tag ‘girlfriend’ or the word itself in four posts, and the first time used was done just to mess with people. LOL! Amazing, and it’s brought me tons of readers. Sorry I don’t have more about it but doubt I will have much in the future either. I hope those of you who landed here by searching that string were not too disappointed at my lack of coverage.

As for the other two strings, I had no way of anticipating them, but I’m so glad I got lots of hits for Nigella Lawson. I love those posts where she’s mentioned, and surprisingly, it’s only four again.

In case anyone might be wondering, no, I don’t have the ability to see who searched on what. The software is only configured to filter the search strings.

Top referrers:

Armitage Fan Blog
Me+Richard
Twitter
Facebook
C19
Wordpress
Mail
RichardArmitageNet.Com
Spooks Fan Blog
An RA Viewers Perspective

These stats also tell me that most of my traffic is word of mouth with only a little being from searches, i.e., WordPress, Twitter and Facebook being mostly indicative of searches. I didn’t even want to make a Facebook page, and I forget now why I did. Still not a fan of Big Brother Facebook. As for Twitter, that is my only concession to anything high profile, but I’m having so much fun there, I can’t stop. Oh, and thanks to you, Natalie, Servetus, Phoebe, Ali, Skully, and Mulubinba for making my place easier to find. And the ‘Mail’ are subscriptions.

Top Ten Posts:

What Would You Do If You Were Checked Out by Richard Armitage?
Being Richard
I’m Scaring Myself
Doing the Hongi
I’d Have to Shoot Them
Maybe It’s True?
Who the Hell is Richard Armitage?
CW Breaking Out All Over
The King May Have Been Dethroned
Diary of an RA Fan — Part 8 I Sense Trouble

Duh! on the top one. Actually, I’m not sure this one really is a duh. I think this might have something to do with the blogger in question making this known on Twitter and her friends possibly coming over here to check it out. ;-) Interestingly, the common thread running through all but three of these posts is they either concern an interview with Richard Armitage or a sighting of him or both. The only ones that don’t share that have either video clips or pictures that most of you love. Anyone want to guess which RA character is in the pictures? ;-)

Least read post:

The Unlikely Duo

This is a bit of a shocker until I consider this was very early on in the blog. If I did this one today, I’m sure it would be read quite a bit — even if you don’t like Britney Spears.

Post with the most comments:

What Would You Do If You Were Checked Out by Richard Armitage?

Are you surprised? I didn’t think so. :D

Posts with no comments:

Puddle of Goo or Don’t Tell Me The Moon is Shining
The Perfect Symphony
Tangent — If Media Producers Would Just Listen to Me
Waiting on SO
Housekeeping Again
FanstRAvaganza What’s the Big Deal?

The first two posts are two of my favorites. If you don’t read anything in that list, read those. The third post is a tangent I’m deadly serious about, and there will probably be more about that as I go on — whether on this blog or somewhere else. Before I looked this up, I thought this was my first tangent. It was my fourth, and I was surprised how many I’ve done. Thirty four in all. Phew, man, I like to go off topic. The fourth post I wrote strictly for myself. It was a trip down memory lane. I let my kids read that one, but not on this blog. LOL! They always love to hear SO and I reminisce, so they loved this one. The fifth post makes total sense; however, I’ve tried to make even those worth reading. The last one has no comments because I disabled them; otherwise, I think some of you might have ruined some surprises. LOL!

First comment:

“I could have written what you just wrote, practically word for word! I had to look up the word “squee” when I first started reading blogs about him. Now I write one too! See what he makes us do? In nicer terms I call him my muse.” By Phylly

So well put! Oh the things he makes us do. :D Muse indeed.

Oh, and I forgot to look which post had the most “Likes” and now I’m too tired to go find out. Do you really care? I didn’t think so. :D Anyway, I could care less which ones you liked the most. Yes, I really said that. Haven’t you figured out by now that a lot of this stuff I write for myself? Well, I do, but I’m glad so many of you have enjoyed it. Thank you again for that, and a big thank you to those of you who have made yourselves known. What a treat you are!

And a last thank you to DelicateBlossom who was gracious about me uploading her video in one of my first posts but without previous permission. Hopefully, I’ve made that up to her, and in the near future an interview with her since she rarely says much, and some of you might be curious. I know I was. LOL!

Photo courtesy of the Richard Armitage Russian fan site

New banner courtesy of Karima, who gifted me with it a while back. Thank you, Karima.

Note: Yes, I really am going to have a final FanstRAvaganza post, but I’ve been waiting on something. If I don’t get it by tomorrow, I’m posting anyway.

April 6, 2011
Categories: Housekeeping . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 23 Comments

Figwit Lives Bygosh!

Richard Armitage’s involvement with ‘The Hobbit’ has me feeling a lot better about this blog. Yes, sometimes I get a bit self-conscious about it. Thankfully, I quickly wise up and realize how much fun I’m having. But with my entrance into the world of LOTR, I’m finding I’m a mere novice at obsession. I’m so small time compared to some of these people. Oh, I’ve got nothing on the LOTR fans as I said in a fake fan letter to Peter Jackson, and all the time I’m realizing their ardor just spills out everywhere. Take for example the three second scene of Bret McKenzie in LOTR that’s now spawned all sorts of obsession with his character not to mention obsession with him I’m sure. Reading this made me feel so much better about my repeated examination of RA’s three second spot in Cleopatra. LOL! It’s clear I have not crossed a very important line — starting a website to it. Although he looks hot in the Cleo pictures.

But I do want to make it clear that I’m happy for Bret McKenzie, and it will be interesting to see if he makes it into this latest movie. With the talk circulating about it, I feel confident he will. Whatever happens, he strikes me as an amiable and interesting fellow, and he plays a mean ukulele. :D

Of course all of this has me wondering what will be the fallout result of RA’s involvement in ‘The Hobbit’? Thoughts?

And on another level, is obsession always a bad thing? Surely doesn’t feel like it. :)

April 2, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Movies, The Hobbit . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 20 Comments

Before I Really Get Rolling

Please click on the banner to see the list of participating bloggers

The first day of FanstRAvaganza is here! But I have to take timeout to give you a little insight into the struggle of getting ready. A few weeks ago I asked for recordings from fellow bloggers and some online buddies. I assumed this was going to be a fairly easy task but for the few who don’t like their voices. I was wrong. Oh, some took to it very well, but some had no clue how to record. That was fine since I love to teach. There were also some who had to find a microphone they had not used in awhile or never. Some did not find their microphones. Some had colds or other such maladies that rendered them mute. :D One even resorted to co-opting some two year olds to sing instead of recording her voice, and every day I would get multiple excuses in my in-box about why someone couldn’t send a file. Yet I kept reiterating it was voluntary! After awhile I began to think I was being stonewalled. Yes, I know some felt bad, but please, please, do not feel bad. I hate my voice too! LOL!

This exercise made me question if almost everyone hates her voice. I went in search of some data about this and found quite a bit. In particular I thought this was interesting. It seems almost no one likes his/her voice when they hear a recording of it! Although I’ve long known the difference was created by the amplification inside our heads versus outside of it, I did not know that we actually hear additional vibrations of our voices. All of this has me wondering how Richard Armitage must sound to himself. Since a person’s voice sounds higher pitched when recorded than it does in his/her head, what must it sound like in his head?! Oh my! And of course I wonder if he hates the sound of his voice as well. Yes, I’m still trying to get in his head, but I’ll stop this line of thought for now. :D

Thankfully, none of you gave up and eventually all came through despite the obstacles, and some of you didn’t realize you weren’t as bad as you originally thought. Natalie of ArmitageFanBlog was a trooper though.

First attempt from Nat:

Already trying to distance her name from it:

Really not sure about this:

Almost giving up:

I think I heard a “to hell with this!” No, I’m just kidding, Nat. :D

Aaah success!

By the way, Nat, you were doing good to get it in five takes although I thought the first one was just fine! I’m not even going to say how long it took me, and one friend said she had 400 files or what felt like it.

There will be more voices throughout the week not the least of which will be RA’s, and if someone would still like to send me a file of 2-3 minutes (more or less) of what you like about him and perhaps words of encouragement to him, I’ll be happy to take it. :D Would love to have them by March 20th or sooner.

But for now:

Voice brought to you by Phylly of PhyllysFaves. Be sure to check out her posts as she will be covering ‘The Impressionists’ and all things of an artistic bent relating to it. Can’t wait to see what she’s got!

March 14, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Voice Work . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 36 Comments

Twitter Encounters — Part 2

March 5, 2011

Yesterday, I was talking about Twitter having a positive effect on me. I did acknowledge one pitfall, and other than that, it’s been very positive and productive. But it’s imperative to reiterate Twitter is what you make it which means it matters who you are when you get there. And who are you? What are you about? Chances are good Twitter will reveal who you are whether you want it to or not. I’m not talking about your name or title. I’m talking about how you think and why. If someone talks long enough on Twitter, and it doesn’t take very much talking, they will reveal where they’re coming from. Even the alter egos cannot completely squelch their real selves.

Blue Ostrich

Two things dictate Twitter’s keen ability to reveal someone. First, being on Twitter means a person wants to be heard. There is no other reason to be there (that’s true of any online presence, i.e., blogs, forums, etc. or almost any conversation whether online or not). Let me say that again. There is no other reason to be on Twitter than a desire to be heard, and more accurately, a desire to be known and to know, and I don’t mean everything about someone but at least some aspect. Before anyone starts objecting, please realize I’m not saying this is a bad thing. It’s hardwired into us to desire being known, and it’s not so much in the sense of celebrity that we want to be known but being in communion with others, which can only happen in relationships — online or otherwise. Why do you think social media is so popular? It’s appealing to the basic instincts of everyone.

Second, the stacatto nature of Twitter makes it conducive to generating someone’s unvarnished thoughts. Someone said yesterday that Twitter invites the knee jerk. Yes, in many respects it does even if someone only retweets another’s thought. But doesn’t a knee jerk, i.e., a visceral reaction, usually reveal a lot about a person? It’s my experience that it does. In fact, it can oftentimes say a lot more about someone than seemingly thoughtful answers they may craft. Isn’t that why job interviewers throw job candidates curve balls? Aren’t they looking for the person’s involuntary reaction in order to take an accounting of them beyond the image they’ve created? As a long time interviewer of potential employees (mostly white collar but some blue), I can tell you yes, that’s what they’re looking for, and sometimes an honest response of, “I don’t know” or “I need to think more about that to answer” is completely acceptable. Depends on the question and of course, on the interviewer, but this interviewer thinks it’s often a great response. This is also acceptable on Twitter and can lead to some interesting discussion, and frankly, I’m suspicious of people who seem to have the answers to every question. No one’s that good, but that discussion is for another post.

I have much more to say about Twitter, but I suspect this post will go on so long that it will have trouble loading. So I’m saving most of it for later. But I do want to say that I find it infinitely fascinating that Richard Armitage has not been on Twitter, and I mean on Twitter as himself since he may very well be on Twitter. If my gut is still functioning properly (although it had a glitch awhile back LOL!), I suspect he is there anonymously. The man for all of his supposed reticence is a talker. I know there are those of you who will have a violent disagreement with me about this, but you’re mostly reacting to my choice of the word “talker.” That’s not an aspersion on him at all. When I say that I’m not saying he’s indiscreet. Certainly, he doesn’t talk about some of the things that some would like him to, but those who have any brains are not going to tell everything they know or even come close to doing so. First, it’s boring and second, it’s like dropping your pants and bending over. Wait. That’s a bad analogy. LOL!!! Uh, let me try that again but without analogy. Who wants all of their personal business known? No one I know of unless they’re dense and/or temporarily rendered dense by being desperate, e.g., Charlie Sheen. More about Charlie later. Maybe. That post is quite a piece of work. Not sure the public is ready for it.

edit: I found this article interesting. I’m not sure I entirely agree with it, but I agree with the dynamic. Perhaps I don’t fully agree because if someone analyzed my RAFrenzy account on Twitter, they would find I follow both “liberal” and “conservative” accounts, and I can assure you I’m not a moderate. :D

March 5, 2011
Categories: Tangents . Tags: , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 27 Comments

At It Again

It’s been hard to get back into the RA universe this week. Certainly, it’s not Richard Armitage. No, it could never be due to him. He is utterly fascinating all the time. In fact, that’s the beauty of having him caught on tape — he can be whatever I want him to be anytime, anywhere. But sometimes real life just won’t let me fanatasize incessantly about him. Did I say fantasize? No, I would never do that. At least not while I’m asleep. I want to be awake so I can get the most out of it, but damn, SO and the kids just won’t stop being who they are to let me do it! So I was in a tizzy pondering my abilities for fantasy about RA (yes, when you’re a rabid fan, you think about heady stuff like that) — at the least trying to work up that perpetual glow fans get when they’ve been wowed by himself’s abilities.

What I really needed was a little Armitage fix. I just couldn’t do it to myself since the curse of taking something fun and making it convoluted complex was riding me hard. Thankfully, I didn’t have to do it. I opened my in-box, and there was a little treat waiting. It was almost as if the laws of attraction really do work. Less than a minute later I was back thinking of angst about life and love in an enjoyable way, and before I could think too much, I was loading up various slide shows (oh, sometimes there are some slide shows that my heart can barely handle for the thrill; I force myself to look at them anyway. :D), and well, my fingers were itching to unleash all of my bullshit on you again.

The little treat I received is packed with goodies to find. So despite its length, you make up for it by watching over and over to mine them. Picture me with glazed eyes and a wonderful glow this morning. :D

Enjoy:

February 26, 2011
Categories: Fanvids, Robin Hood . Tags: , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 19 Comments

What Would You Do If You Were Checked Out by Richard Armitage?

I think that title just about says it all. Of course most of us can only dream about that, but maybe someone has had the experience.


Check it out on Tumblr (January 14th entry)

It would be a total hoot if she could share some details with us, or maybe she’s just daydreaming. Umm, that’s my kind of daydream although I must admit I’ve never had a daydream nor a dream about RA. But I do love hearing about others’. :D

Thoughts?

Jaded self rearing its ugly head: What a great way to get a blog piece kicked up. Wonder how many hits his name has generated. I know I’ve probably clicked on it at least 6 or 7 times. LOL! Oh hell, I don’t care if it’s real or not. I’m enjoying the thought.

edit: bummer. Beth no longer has her site, and it was good too.

January 22, 2011
Categories: Fandom, Rumors . Tags: , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 131 Comments

Tangent — Facebook, I Think I May Really Dislike You

Have you heard the news today that Facebook may eventually own the word ‘face’ when it’s used online in chat rooms or forums? Wow. I’m wondering exactly what that means. Sounds like they will have some sway over how the word ‘face’ will be used. Yep, that’s exactly what that means. And I’m sure they will charge for its use in some instances. Are they crazy to push for this word? They are already intensely disliked by many, and now we can’t even use this word without them involved? They need a good ass chewing. Where’s Mike Masnick when I need him?

This begs for the invention of a word to replace ‘face’ or perhaps an emoticon. Something needs to thwart FB. Yep, we need another word for ‘face,’ or the emoticon might be even better. Then someone could trademark it and become mega rich. LOL!

I wonder if FB will get ‘book’ next.

Off to load up Paint app (yes, my graphics editor is crude).

In the meantime, perhaps we will meet ‘headfront’ to ‘headfront’ one day. Yeah, it’s lame, but it’s all I’ve got right now.

Do I need a picture? Oh yeah.

The perfect picture. That one’s for you, Sue. ;-)

Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com

And no tag for Richard Armitage on this one. I’m leaving him out of this mess except I like his picture. :D

edit:

Note to Facebook staff (or action fans): the picture is a joke, but my disenchantment with Facebook is not.

November 24, 2010
Categories: Tangents . Tags: , , , , , , , . Author: RAFrenzy . Comments: 17 Comments

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