WordPress is ready for 2012 with their kickoff of Project 365, and it’s had me musing about joining. It would be interesting to try it. Oh, heck yeah, I know how difficult it is to meet deadlines on a blog. Are you kidding me? I’ve now spent almost 21 months at this. It’s just, well, I want to get into really good blogging shape this year, and this is a good way to do it. My subject is certainly worthy, and there is a lot more to discuss. If someone can document “burger art” every day for a year, I think I could manage.
I know there’s not going to be much news about RA until near the end of the year, or will there be? Between you and me, I have yet to see a real drought. Of course I could be wrong, but wouldn’t you have fun watching me squirm to come up with posts? And things might get really silly, or maybe you would take pity and send me something to blog about.
Wonder if WordPress would include me in their line up for 2013 if I made my title ‘RAFrenzy 365’. Somehow I doubt it. But I’m giving this a shot, and really, it’s a public service for the new fans. :D
This will be me at the beginning:
Probably me somewhere in the middle:
and we’ll see what I am at the end.
Of course I will take one day’s respite since 2012 is a leap year, and I’m going to cheat a little ’cause I can’t really talk about Richard Armitage every single day. There will probably be some reblogged posts as well. Just sayin’.
Hang on while I begin flexing my blogging muscles.
Artwork from the EverythingBurger blog, and screencaps courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com.
You can thank bccmee for this public service post. ;-)
Several of us dig Richard Armitage in glasses, and the obvious reason might be that glasses usually make someone appear more intelligent. Oh, I’m sure that’s part of it — as if he needed that help! LOL! But if I let my mind relax and think of what it is that viscerally affects me when I see him in glasses, I boil it down to two things: 1) it’s like his eyes are magnified to better see who’s checking him out, and 2) he’s sort of hidden from the general public as someone hot, so he’s still ours in a sense. Ours=you and me, the early fans.
Okay, I’ve revealed quite enough about my thinking on this, and I hope SO never reads this blog. LOL! Good thing I’m anonymous or I might be ashamed of exhibiting a little CWS. Do I need an emoticon here so you realize I’m teasing? Too bad I don’t have a clown handy.
You can also thank Servetus for this post. Her analysis is rubbing off on me. Unfortunately, her prose is not. :D
note: I intentionally left out pictures of him in sunglasses. Of course anyone would find those pictures hot. It takes someone special to love the glasses. ;-)
And for you techies, this may not be what you think. The video below addresses something everyone on the World Wide Web needs to know is happening so is well worth the nine minute’s investment to watch.
I chuckled a bit when Eli Pariser mentioned his political bent. He has been an integral part of Moveon.org, a very politically biased site. I do not agree with everything said there. I’m not sure I agree with everything said anywhere, but this never keeps me from listening to someone’s viewpoint, and I’m almost always wiser for having listened. And how sad if their visibility were diminished in my little world thereby making my world that much smaller. Oh, I’m all for personalization, but when it becomes a stumbling block to my ability to consider a bigger picture, it’s gone too far. And for what? Mostly to take advantage of niche marketing, i.e., the ability to sell me something whether it be a product, a service or an idea by appealing to my seeming interests keyed into a search engine. Oh, I’m not completely opposed to niche marketing, but I HATE when someone seeks to think for me in a way that limits my thinking, and it’s really insulting when it’s a machine. Hopefully, you watched the video, so all of this makes sense and my next words in particular will be in perspective.
Today, the only major information site that doesn’t personalize to the degree of Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. is Twitter. I would include Digg and Reddit, but they are being eclipsed by Twitter. So this makes Twitter a really important tool for the little guys — us. The beauty of the web has been this power to connect people who would not otherwise be able to find each other, and gatekeeper media sites have been fairly circumvented in this process, but now Google, et al are seeking to control where we go even more. Frankly, the mere mention of a gatekeeper hacks me off. Thankfully, Twitter is still powerful enough to overcome that kind of control because it’s mostly unfiltered, and therefore wild and unpredictable and beautiful in its ability to give us average people who have little or no professional connection with major media the power to potentially have impact. This is the main reason I like Twitter and would hate to see it go the way of the others. Hopefully, this makes it evident Twitter should not be dismissed as mere fluff.
It’s amazing to me how true is this adage: it’s not what you see or hear but what you don’t. I’ve told my kids this countless times in the hope they will learn to think outside the box by knowing that the box is invisible.
On a personal note, if I told you some of the influential people whom I’ve been able to converse with as a result of Twitter, you wouldn’t believe me. I could care less about name dropping, but I say this here to make the point that your voice can be heard on Twitter in ways you could have only dreamed about before.
edit: I’m putting the Richard Armitage and public service tags on this since this is “important” stuff in the fine art of Richard Armitage watching. :D
If you’ve read this blog for more than a few pieces, you know how rabid I am about fan videos, which I’m defining as videos set to music and starring the object of a fan’s attention — someone or something. They got me started on Richard Armitage, and my love for them has become so intense that I’m wondering when these things will gain much more notoriety than they currently enjoy. For now they are not really acknowledged much by the mainstream media, and a good part of the reason is the history of their illicit nature. In my search on the web, I found one piece from a mainstream media source discussing the significance of fan videos, and that was from 2007. Maybe there are a few more, but the key word would be few. However, at some point soon I think fan videos will have more formal recognition. So far for most people who don’t peruse videos sites and are over the age of 25, there has been no awareness these things exist, but that’s changing as more and more people (even your grandmother) are starting to surf YouTube.
Heck, SO’s almost 80 year old parents get on YouTube regularly, and my mother, who by the way, is considerably younger :D, also gets on YouTube. So if you’re 60 and you don’t ever get on YouTube? What planet are you on? ;-)
Actually, I’m assuming most reading this are the choir. So why did I even say that? Maybe there is one out there among you who has not ventured onto a video site for fear it’s just stuff like this:
and you got your fill of this kind of thing on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Oh, you’ve never seen that show? LUCKY YOU. Really wrestling here with the temptation to go on a rant about why I hated that show when it was on, but one rant a week is enough. The show is still on?! God help us.
Of course this is a cute video, and it’s understandable why it’s in the top ten all-time watched videos on YouTube, but c’mon, after you’ve watched it 300 times, you would think it would get old. FYI: a few weeks ago this video passed its four year anniversary, and I can see its lasting effect with the eventual publication of How to Pay For College: The Advantages of Being a Mischievous Teether in the Digital Age by Charles Davies-Carr. ;-)
Okay, where was I? Oh, yeah, fan videos. Well, if you’re new to them, and I’m assuming you’re a Richard Armitage fan since you’re reading this blog, there is only one place to go, and my friends, it’s not YouTube. No, it’s a little place on the web hosted by one of the most intriguing fans, Elvira Sweeney. Here are some things I know about Elvira. She is artistic, prolific, a bit perfectionistic, and definitely industrious. Oh, and she likes RA. :D He was the inspiration for what I now think of as the RA Fan Video Empire, or just The Empire. So what is this place? It’s called RAfanvids, and if you have never been there, oh my are you in for a treat. Now the only proviso I will give you is that you must prep the storage on your computer so you can download to your heart’s content when you get there. You’re not sure about this downloading? No, you’ve got to change that notion. You can’t really enjoy some of these videos without watching a download. YouTube, Vimeo, et al will not give you the quality of a 1080 vid. You can only get the real impact of it by downloading and watching on your system or possibly your tv monitor.
Take this video for example:
You can watch it and love the music and the clips, but you can’t get the full effect of this unless you download and watch. It’s the eyes. You almost fall into them. Can’t get that from watching on YouTube — even in full screen mode. Oh, it’s better than the little window, but not nearly as good as watching your own copy.
Or consider this one:
Want to really feel like that leather is within arm’s reach, download! And of course the eyes are also compelling. By the way this video was done as part of Elvira’s “Vidding on the Cheap” series for all those people who think making videos with an old Mac isn’t possible. Guess again.
This is one of my favorite montage videos, and for good reason. I really feel I’m in the room with RA and he’s looking at me when I watch the download:
This was the video that convinced me I needed to watch everything I could from a download copy. Once I got this one on my computer and started watching, I realized that I had missed so much on YouTube, and if a video is not in a large format, putting the player in full screen doesn’t really cut it either. So I downloaded this one and was blown away. I also realized something about Elvira. She can read people. Anyone who puts as much emphasis on people’s eyes and expressions is focused on reading them. I would love to know what she really thinks of RA other than just liking him so damn much. LOL!
And the next two you haven’t really seen unless you’ve watched a download and especially in 1080. You watch these like that, and you will never be satisified with them on YouTube again.
If you still don’t want to download, you can just watch the videos on that site, and there are quite a few that are not on YouTube. So check it out.
One more thing. If you go over to RAfanvids, you may notice something is absent. But no worries, ’cause Elvira’s got it covered over here. :D (note: the link is an archive page and not all pages linked within it are available).
Interrupting my FanstRAvaganza posts for a public service announcement. :D
I’ve said it before: watching Heather’s Sexy Back videos is a rite of passage as a Richard Armitage fan. Some of us have been waiting three years for her next Sexy Back video, and now….
[Note: No, there will be nothing about Richard Armitage in this piece, but sometimes I just can’t help but talk about other things]
AOL (America Online) is that company which almost everyone in America has used as an ISP (Internet Service Provider) — thanks to those CDs that were littered across America’s mailboxes and practically pressed on us when we went to Wal-Mart or Target or even the grocery store. If it weren’t for AOL, America would not have become accustomed so quickly to the joys of surfing the web. But as other ISPs, who did not sink their hooks into our systems quite so much, came into existence and had the means to provide high speed services such as DSL or Cable at a cheaper price, AOL went on the wane.
However, they should never be counted out. They have managed to stay afloat, and now they are once again on an acquisition frenzy. I’m fascinated with what they’re doing. Unless they know something the rest of us don’t, I’m thinking they’re nuts. And now Mashable.com might be one of their pickings? Tomorrow Mashable is announcing something major, and I’m wondering if they will make this list. And if you don’t know about Mashable, well, then I haven’t done a very good job of public service while you’ve been reading this blog. :D
To know about Mashable, you have to know about Pete Cashmore, its founder and CEO. Other than being one of the hottest geeks around,
Pete has built an information empire majoring on the power of social media, and all beginning when he was 19 and blogging from his bedroom in Scotland. If Pete says something or Mashable says something, it often sends a wave through the media community. If AOL gets hold of that? Oh man, I don’t know what I think at this point. My gut is screaming, “No, no, no and no!” But maybe I’m wrong. I’m always willing to be wrong. It’s just that AOL is so pedestrian, and I have a hard time thinking they’re going to go places that Pete has taken the rest of us. I don’t see it.
But hey, if Pete does sell, I don’t blame him. He is young enough at 25 to do many more things. I just hate to see the establishment get hold of Mashable. Bummer.
Richard Armitage at 22 seconds, and I mean only at 22 seconds. So all of this for a one second shot. LOL! But I’m having a blast. I may breakdown and buy some fancy software yet. :D No, no, someone needs to slap me. I DO NOT need another diversion. LOL!
I snaffled a copy of the 1080i size, so the caps would be good quality, but bccmee has a great one without watermark:
I even stumbled across this kid while I was surfing YouTube:
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.
RAFrenzy 
