Last night I was staying at the Hilton and got a complimentary digital copy of USA Today. Very timely since Mother’s Day is almost here!
SO leaned over my shoulder and offered with a grin, “I had something else in mind for Mother’s Day, but this looks good.”
Okay, I was just kidding about dad eating for free.
The real kicker is no woman eats free unless she has a kid in tow. Yes, she can leave dad at home. :D
I lied — again. I’m getting to the phantom Diary entry after this post.
I understand Servetus has now coined Armitage Objectification Mode (AOM). Why didn’t we think of this before?! It should have been coined years ago, but I’m glad we have it now. :D I mean c’mon, we’ve all objectified Richard Armitage in one form or another. And even though I’ve said I haven’t fantasized about him, I never said I didn’t want to. LOL! I just said I chose not to do it. I’d be a big fat liar if I said I never had the yen. But as to AOM, I’m sure we’re all going to have a field day defining its various levels.
Of course I have to cover Armitage Protection Mode (APM). Posts about it are found here and here if you’re not familiar. It’s to be avoided unless you want to be a killjoy, and there are certainly various levels of APM which deserve their own modes. Armitage Correction Mode, or what I think of as APM Light. This is when someone continually feels the need to correct other fans about Armitage lore, e.g., making sure everyone knows that Guy’s horse is Richie and not Ritchie when no one else (or few; wish I could say no one else) gives a rat’s ass how the name is spelled. Did the show’s creators ever specify? Or APM Exreme which I fondly think of as Armitage Sanctimonious Syndrome (ASS). That’s when someone not only wants to protect Richard Armitage but is utterly self-righteous about it. Utterly here means the person may end up calling the authorities in an attempt to ensure dear Richard’s safety and most important that they (the person and not the authorities) can never be wrong! LOL! Yes, I laughed. I used to pity these people but have come to find them a great source of humor.
Oh, yeah, they’re funny, Rich. As if you need protecting. LOL!
There is also Armitage Denial Mode (ADM), and its various levels go something like the following. Armitage Denial Mode Extreme — when you’re so far in the closet you won’t even breathe Richard Armitage’s name to another human being and certainly never comment on him in cyber world, yet you may be the first to look at anything posted about our guy. ;-) Armitage Denial Mode (no frills; it just is) — you think Richard Armitage is great and sometimes you deign to express it to another human being with an occasional comment in cyber world. But then you step back and wonder what has come over you?!! Armitage Denial Mode Light — you are very chatty about Richard Armitage and frequently give and take on his abilities and are recognized as a commenter but swear up and down you’re just a casual fan. Of course the remedy to all of these is called Freedom from Armitage Denial Mode — that’s when you finally say to hell with it and get yourself a blog!
note: all of this is predicated on the idea that almost everyone reading this blog is an addict. D
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.com
[note: I’m going to attempt another blogging scheme. This time around is the April A to Z Blog Challenge. Since there are 30 days in April, there is a break every Sunday. We’ll see how far I make it.]
I’ve asked many questions as part of running this blog and have learned some fascinating facts. It’s been no hardship since I have always loved asking questions and wish I had asked even more questions in my lifetime and much sooner. One of my greatest regrets is not asking my father questions so that I could have come to a better understanding of who he was. He’s gone now and that opportunity has been supremely missed and missed because I had the attitude he had said quite enough to me about his thoughts. That’s when I saw him merely as a parent and not as another human being. As I write this, I have tears running down my face at how grieved I am about the loss of the fantastic thoughts he could have shared, and more important, about the fantastic human being I missed out on knowing to a richer level. I am not making that mistake with my mother!
As to making so many queries, it’s borne out of an insatiable need to understand so many things. Unfortunately, I feel compelled to qualify how I’m going about it, to make it clear that I fight the tendency we all can have of looking for particular answers. This is what lawyers do to get the upper hand. That’s not what I’m about. Oh, I admit to having a dominate personality at times, but my real obsession — the one that obliterates all others — is wanting to understand reality, and it has been my obsession as far back as I can remember having a thought. May I never lose the drive to know it no matter the ugly things it may reveal by which I don’t mean sordid details of someone’s private business. I’m sure some of you (no, make that all of you) have something intensely fascinating in your private life, but I do not want to pry.
However, there is a person in RA Universe, whom I want to ask questions and have asked some. I want to ask more! I’m fairly certain the person knows I feel this way. If not, then I haven’t said it enough. And if the person isn’t reading this, one of you knows whom I’m talking about, so will you tell the person I’m more or less asking again to have a chat.
Oh, you thought I was talking about Richard Armitage? No, it’s not him although I would love to ask him some questions. I’ve already asked him for an interview, and he said yes. :D The only problem is I don’t think he realized he was talking to one of his crazy fans when he agreed, and I didn’t have the heart to take him up on his kindness to me. So when it came clutch time, I just couldn’t reveal my insanity. I’m not that insane yet. I would love to be that insane. Oh what fun that would be. But I am not that insane today.
And if I ever do interview Richard Armitage, I might just call it a day on this blog, which I’m not ready to do. However, I do have some great questions for him. Nothing inappropriate or inane despite my appearance here. Let’s just say I won’t be asking the usual (I wouldn’t do that to you. LOL!), and hopefully not the predictable either.
But back to who continually intrigues me. It’s a person who just when I think I’ve got them figured out, they do something that confounds me again. I will admit to being pretty average in my assessments, so maybe it doesn’t take much to confound me, but I don’t think this is just me. And I’m sitting here thinking about what they’ve done, chuckling to myself, and wondering when the next surprise is coming. Whatever happens, I want THE interview if there ever is an interview. Oh, it would be friendly, because you have to know I’m a fan of yours as well. Mostly, I wonder how people like you come to be and flourish. I am damn near dying to know this.
For the rest of you, please no guesses on who this is, because I’m never going to confirm it if you get lucky. :D
And a huge thank you to those of you who have submitted to questions. Some have been published, some have yet to be published or may never be — at your request. Whatever the case, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you.
That’s enough for now. More tomorrow when I of course come with the B word.
Robert Ascroft promo still courtesy of RichardArmitageNet’s gallery.
I keep hearing how Richard Armitage went to Los Angeles to pitch an idea for Richard III. That was certainly floated as a possibility when he was on the plane to LA and missed the BBC Leicester Radio interview. But now it seems to have become fact. When did that happen? I’m honestly asking that. Is there some intel that someone has that verifies this indeed happened?
If not, it’s still just a bunch of speculation, and frankly, Richard Armitage and “his people” would be utter fools to talk about him doing this. So again, I’m wondering what’s up?
Yeah, Rich, you’re not stupid, so I don’t think you let this out of the bag if indeed there was a bag. Love the smile:
I can’t help myself. This is such a fantastic photo. You all may get sick of it before I’m done. :D
edit:
It’s one thing for Philippa Langley to talk about Richard Armitage doing this, but it’s another to call that a fact. I do give her big time kudos for chuzpah, and I mean that in the very best way possible. Actually, I have a complimentary post on her which I wrote right after I watched the special and will post at some point soon, but it’s not for this blog. It’s a better fit elsewhere. At least how it’s written at the moment. Just know this: I like her!
But back to the subject at hand. Until Richard Armitage or someone who officially represents Richard Armitage or who is confirmed as working with him states that he went to LA to make a pitch, I can’t refer to that as a fact. Did it probably happen? Oh, I can certainly see that it may well have happened. No problem seeing that. It’s how I’m referring to it that’s a sticking point.
A couple of months ago I passed the five year milestone as a Richard Armitage fan, and I’m satisfied as to why Richard became such an obsession for me. I’m sharing the discovery in my diary entries, which I started because this is a common question among people who aren’t fanatics one moment and a little while later, they are.
This week during FanstRAvaganza, I’m exploring the subject a little more and talking to new and not so new fans about it, and hopefully catching up with where they are in their lives. So hang on while I get my act together, and I’ll be back to share with you.
For now the screencap of one of the scenes that got me started:
Screencap courtesy of RichardArmitageNet
More on Richard III tomorrow from our guy Richard Armitage, and who knows what else he will say that may have the ripples rippling.
If you want to hear it live and you’re not in the UK, you can. It is only British TV that is not accessible through conventional internet means. Radio is completely accessible. Go to the BBC Leicester Radio page Jim has linked in his tweet when it’s time for broadcast.
And the British are doing those of us in the U.S. a favor on the broadcast time. It is before most of us go to work. Not that any of you would listen while you’re on the job. ;-)
When to listen in your time zone:
Eastern Time: 7:10am
Central Time: 6:10am
Mountain Time: 5:10am
Pacific Time: 4:10am
Okay, I can hear you out in LA saying, “4:10am? WTH?!”
Look at those eyes:
Yeah, you can get up at 4am for Jim as well as Rich. :D
But if you decide to miss all of this, the BBC is great about keeping a short term archive of shows. Go to the Jim Davis’ programme page on the BBC Leicester Radio site to find past episodes.
Other helps for listening to BBC Radio broadcasts, and of course RichardArmitageNet and RichardArmitageCentral will probably upload the broadcast as well.
Yes, I’m finally updating this saga, and started to do it in the wee hours of the morning — at least for most of my readers. But if you haven’t been following along, the first part is here. And if you don’t want to follow along, no worries. Come back when I return to the regularly scheduled snark.
SO and I followed the doctor’s instructions and began the odyssey into the world of kidney disease. But just as we were getting started, the insurance company we had been paying for years decided to cancel our health insurance. They gave us a few months notice, and this was after they had been paid an average of around $2,000 a month for almost 10 years. Yeah, do the math on that. You may ask why that much. SO is type 1 diabetic and we are self-employed, which meant the bill was for a hellacious amount of coverage (and with a high deductible), but then when we needed it most, gone. Even now I want to call those that run the insurance company some foul names, but I believe it’s wrong to hold a grudge. It also steals my energy to do so.
Nevertheless, the insurance company took advantage, and we should have known we weren’t insuring against catastrophe. On some level as business people and realists, we knew insurance companies are gamblers and gamblers have the ability to call the game if it’s not going their way. But we got comfortable in what we were doing. We loved concentrating on the town and its people and not worrying about something coming to bite us on the backside. At one point before this happened, we had talked about self-insuring because we had the means, but we thought it was too risky. I could cry about that now; I just see no point. We have learned a hard lesson and now we try to apply what we’ve learned and move on. But make no mistake we’re aware of others who do not have the means and are still paying for what insurance companies and the healthcare industry in general did to them. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that, but I’m going to do something — government intervention or no government intervention (no, I don’t want to get political). This experience has made a reformer of me, but mostly, as a Christian, I cannot simply let this lie.
But I didn’t always feel that way. When this first happened, I wanted to become terrified and roll into a ball. I knew that although SO made an income and we had savings, it was potentially not enough to handle the coming debt of kidney disease. And since no one would hire SO and give him insurance benefits, I needed to find employment or we might eventually be left destitute. What I hadn’t considered was age discrimination. I wasn’t a stranger to discrimination as I had received some when I was younger and working in a “man’s profession,” but it was still not in my nature to look for it. I have to be hit over the head with it before I realize it’s happening. It began to hit me over the head repeatedly as I went to look for a job. No matter where I went or how well I did in interviews, no matter the power clothes or hip hairstyle I wore, or how much people liked me, or how well I passed any tests I was given, or how much I was willing to relocate, no one wanted to hire me. Along the way I kept re-educating myself about the process of getting a job, and I learned a lot more than I had known. I had certainly let most of my network dry up, and eventually I had to accept that maybe there was an issue with my being 50 years old. Ouch.
I’m not sure I can fully describe the pain of fighting the notion people are looking at you like you’re a non-entity, something to be dismissed. It took over a year for the reality to sink in. When it did, I was way past terrified and a big part of me wanted to say, “F*ck it” and be depressed. Can I think that and say that as a Christian? Can I have that attitude as someone who believes in Christ, the Redeemer of all? I sure can, but that’s not what the Lord wanted and had prepared me to do. Plus, He reminded me I know about depression and how it can suck you down in a pit and keep you there. I had learned that from growing up in an extended family where depression became so prevalent the running joke is the family crest is three men in straightjackets. I also learned it from my own life threatening bouts with it. Frankly, I could write a book about its debilitating effects, and in fact, I am. But I digress.
The unscalable wall of no job and no benefits, and therefore no way to easily deal with SO becoming sicker, was not moving. Something had to be done. But what? An employer was not on the horizon, and I could not see starting another business. Not a successful one anyway. I know how hard that is. It’s like being pregnant, giving birth and then rearing the child, which takes a lot of time and heart, and if you don’t attend to it as such, it will wither and die. The thought of taking that on while soldiering through what SO was dealing with and would eventually be dealing with could short circuit my brain. But the thought kept coming back. And of course I felt guilty at times about this place. Here we are in a major life crisis, and I’m blogging about some obscure British actor (a good looking, obscure British actor), but some bloke I didn’t know, and I was painting myself as a goofball in the process? What?!!
And just to be clear, SO is not a eunuch, was definitely skeptical of this place, and said to me rather pointedly on one occasion, “What are you doing? What wonderful energy are you expending? Is it worth it? You decide, but I want to ask you another question.” I arched a brow at him but said nothing, and then he went on, “How would you feel if I started blogging all the time about some good looking actress?” I looked him right in the eye and said, “I wouldn’t like it.” I almost quit blogging, but at that point, it was not about Richard Armitage, and really, it never was.
This post was supposed to be more about SO and turned out to be more about me. These posts were originally in two parts, but I’ve been thinking, and now I’m not sure how long this will run. This has happened a few times, and I’m well aware it has created some loose ends lying around here. I’ll get to them before I’m done. My anal nature will ensure that! But with this series, I’m going to keep going until I’m satisfied. Sort of like this blog — which was supposed to last two months. :D
It’s been a Richard III kind of day. A kind of week really, and now could Monday be the day we find out if it was really the King’s body under the public housing parking lot?
Philippa Langley was all over the place. Now she’s in The Sunday Times, and the teaser posed by the Times has me paying close attention (emphasis mine):
I had a hunch: The true story of the hunt for Richard III
An eerie feeling convinced Philippa Langley she had found the lost king. Tomorrow we will see if she was right
by Sian Griffiths Published: 3 February 2013
The story of the search for the long-lost bones of one of England’s most reviled kings starts on a sweltering summer day when Philippa Langley felt a sudden chill. Langley, a screenwriter, was researching a play about Richard III — Shakespeare’s dastardly hunchback — a figure who had fascinated her since childhood. To stimulate her creative juices she paid a visit to Leicester “to walk the area where he was supposed to have been buried”.
Read more here, but not much unless you have a subscription to the Times.
I’ll cut to the case if you don’t want to bother with a Times subscription, you can watch the special on Channel 4 on Monday, 9pm GMT. I know I’m going to watch it albeit at 2pm in the afternoon.
More unvarnished thoughts about all of this. I could be so wrong, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say Ms. Langley is one ballsy lady. She is going for it. This is going to be fun to watch. No, I’m not sadistic. I honestly want to see if her chutzpah pulls off getting this movie made. I guess you always have to have chutzpah to get a movie made, but again, what the hell do I know? Nothing. LOL!
And I can’t help but continue to wonder where is Richard Armitage and why the hesitance from his agent? That just won’t leave my mind when I would like nothing better than to start gushing about this. C’mon, Richard.
Damn. I hate it when my sane self tries to ruin my fun.
How ’bout a fun picture instead?
In honor of all of this Richard III news, I’ve finally given the King his own category. :D
Photo manipulation courtesy of @maraiad
And now for something weird.
The other night I slept 16 hours when normally I sleep six at most. This may account for Richard showing up in my dreams for the first time.
I was sitting in the back of a large, black SUV and a man was sitting beside me. We were both dressed in black slacks and black turtle neck sweaters and talking about some project we were working on. No specifics on that; just that we were making preparations to continue with it. A few moments later someone walked up to my side of the vehicle, and I partially rolled down the window to see who it was. It was Richard Armitage, and he was also dressed all in black with some sort of black cap on his head. He peered into the window and said very slowly, “There you are.” Then he pulled a black ski mask over his face and just stared at me through the eye slits for an inordinately long time. Eventually I looked straight ahead and said, “You’re unnerving me.”
Then it was onto the next dream where I was a prisoner in a concentration camp and there was lice all around. I woke up with an itchy scalp.
Let the psychoanalysis begin. :D
When considering the Roger Ebert quote* about The Hobbit sequels:
you may ask, “How does Peter Jackson do that? How can he stretch these things out? What pray tell could the cast be doing for so long?!”
I was wondering myself, and then @nancyjohnson1 reminded me. Dumb me. I should have realized how they could chase the hat for two movies! It’s the answer to everything!
*Fake like this post.
edit: I promise I’ll get serious. My next post will be serious with a vengeance!
RAFrenzy 