Trying To Come Up For Air

Armitage Day came and went, and I found myself at a loss for an appropriate blog piece to commemorate it. But it occurred to me yesterday that I gave Richard Armitage the perfect gift from me — a few days off from this blog. Taking off was made especially easy as my conscience was pricked by reading things like this. LOL! Notice the bold sentence. Third “paragraph” down if you’re not sure. Poor guy(s). And no, I have no need to instruct anyone on proper behavior toward Richard Armitage. It’s just that when I read something like that, or I see him duck his head when he hears, “women will chase you…,” I feel funny and wonder if anyone else feels a bit foolish. Maybe that’s a good sign?

Earlier today I was asking myself why I’m even keeping this blog up. Yeah, I’ve beaten this drum before about my conscience. Apparently, I’m really not as insane as I first feared, and the part of me that’s so cussed circumspect especially wants to take over after being inundated with the birthday gushing. I threw myself into the midst of that fangirling, and by Sunday night I was in a bit of a stupor from my tweeting. Come Monday I had run dry for the blog.

Have I made you feel sufficiently self-conscious yet? LOL! Well, no worries, ’cause I’m soon going to leave the self-flagellation behind.

Today, some inspiration for renewed gushing manifested in my email. A fan sent me one of her favorite private pictures of him taken a couple of years ago. Look at that face!

I love the candid shots. There is a freshness and sweetness to them that always makes it hard to look away. Richard Armitage seems to have such a pure smile, and that really does make me like the guy (even if he turns out to be a schmuck). See! I’m still a bit insane although not tempted to draw arrows on RA’s pictures yet. ;-) But if I were ever tempted to draw them on anyone’s pictures, it would be his. :D

As if this weren’t enough to put my addiction at full throttle, RA has sent another message to the troops:

Dear Friends,

I would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for all the kind gifts which have been sent to me over the last few weeks, for my birthday; so many gifts, cards and emails of good wishes from all over the world. (Poland, Ukraine, Japan, Russia, Germany, Korea, Itlay, USA, Canada, Netherlands and all over the UK)

I will be so ‘well read’, drunk, fat, warm and sweet smelling thanks to your generosity.

I am particularly excited to let you know that the “Just Giving” donations to our four charities has reached an amazing £11,933! In addition to donations to Oxfam and Christchurch Earthquake appeal, which I find both thoughtful and moving.

I am afraid there may be some delay in remitting thank you letters and any requests for signing photos, as I am in New Zealand for the rest of the year, but am working on a system to remedy this.

So middle age has arrived and apparently ‘life now begins’. I look forward to the next chapter, there is nowhere I would rather be at this moment than exploring “Middle Earth” with my new family of Dwarves, Elves, Men, Wizard and Hobbit. What a gift to be here, in this place, at this time. I can’t wait to share it with everyone. I am a very fortunate man.

Much love
RA

And the crowd said, “Awwwwwww!” and beamed.

Did he make a cryptic acknowledgment of Calexora’s book of fan letters? Looks that way to me.

Man, that typing with thumbs is tough! No more references to the typo or we’ll revisit the apostrophe debacle. ;-) Also, I’m going to spare RA some more today by not waxing on about the topic of middle age. I will get to it later. Too good to pass up.

I would say what’s coming up next on this blog, but I’m learning I like flying by the seat of my pants, and a good thing since that’s what I’m forced to do these days.

Candid photo courtesy of KuchingGirl.

Message courtesy of Richard Armitage by way of RichardArmitageOnline.com

edit: the photos coming up, are, well, let me put it this way: take your heart medicine. Oh, you don’t take heart medicine? you might after looking at these photos.

I Have a Plan

edit: Richard Armitage did trend on Twitter

Dangerous words, but well, I have a plan of sorts. It’s about Richard Armitage. I know that’s a shocker, but I thought I would tell you that upfront. His 40th birthday is coming up, and Calexora has a birthday book planned for him. The messages I’ve read so far are lovely, and I love the possible covers (hope it’s the French poplars). If you want to be in on that, get her a message by July 8th. But before Armitage Day, wouldn’t it be cool if he were trending on Twitter? He never has trended that I’m aware of. I asked Ali at RichardArmitageNet.Com (aka @RAnetdotcom) and she doesn’t remember him ever trending.

Oh, you don’t do Twitter and have no clue about trending? Well, maybe you need to open an account, and trending means whatever is the hot topic (see right sidebar on my Twitter home page). If you don’t have time to take on Twitter, just do it for this and then you can bail — no one will think anything of it. You know how many widow accounts are on Twitter?! Believe me it’s no biggie.

I’m contacting all the RA websites — the ones I know are on Twitter — and asking them to be in on this too, and of course I’m contacting all of the RA bloggers I know. We’ll just need to set a date and have a theme of sorts so that this doesn’t come off as lame. I’m thinking the date should be sometime after Captain America but before August 22nd, and Strike Back promotion will also be in the mix. That timing surely can’t hurt, but the truth is so many things that trend on Twitter are planned trends. Take Captain America for example. That will trend (if it hasn’t already), and it’s surely due to all of the hype by pr machines at a certain time. Why can’t RA have some hype? He’s definitely worth it, and this could be fun. And so much better if fans do it than a publicist. Hey, are we the Armitage Army or not? :D Oh you don’t consider yourself part of the Army? Too bad ’cause it’s fun and not even close to violent.

None of this will work unless we coordinate it as any good Army would do. Everyone going their own directions won’t work. The tweets must be within a certain window so that Twitter’s trending app is triggered, and the theme must be something that piques the interest of non fans. Yep, they have to talk about him too if we’re going to pull this off. In that interest, I hope the principals will participate, and that we can all brainstorm about what would be an appropriate theme. My rough idea is to have something along the lines of “Who is Richard Armitage?” but something much less prosaic. So put on your thinking caps and let’s come up with something good. After I have some caffeine, I might be a little more productive in this discussion. In the meantime, if you have an idea bring it! :D

A picture to inspire you:

Yeah, we’re thinking about it, Rich.

Still courtesy of RichardArmitageNet.Com