Friday, May 29, 2020

RA Blog Reunion! (2020 Pandemic Edition)

I am so glad I still check Twitter occasionally, otherwise I never would have seen Nat's tweet about wanting to set up a reunion of Richard Armitage bloggers from way back when!
Nat was my first contact with the RA fandom.  At the RichardArmitage Fan Blog, she got me hooked pretty good!  I couldn't resist her humour and musings on what the heck was going on with this crazy obsession we shared.  She must be most famous for drawing and later making videos about Stick-Figure Richard!

I miss you guys too!  While there are still quite a few newer blogs around, (I could never keep up with them all!), there is only one of the original RA blogs still around that pulled me into the whole blog world.  Well, maybe one more too, but I am speaking of course of Servetus of Me and Richard Armitage. When I speak of Servetus in my personal world - usually to my husband - I refer to her as "my professor friend".  Not that we are actually real-life friends -- sadly, I have never met her. But she has been kind enough to donate books to the libraries that I have worked in. As well, I follow her on Facebook in my real-life persona, so I feel like I know her.

Even with the fake nose I am hotter than ever!
I am still a huge fan of Richard Armitage, but I guess after he starred in The Hobbit movie series, I figured he didn't need me to toot his horn anymore.  After all, he was practically famous now.

The proof was that when I started with my interest in this actor, if you Googled his name, you got a picture of a very unattractive, balding American politician.  Now, the internet is studded with the very attractive face of this extremely talented and drop-dead gorgeous British actor.
When I first saw Richard in the wonderful mini series North and South, I couldn't believe that he wasn't as famous as so many other good looking British actors.  Why has no one else (who hadn't seen North and South) even heard of him?  It was an outrage!  Part of my purpose in blogging, besides connecting with other like-minded bloggers, was to give him the attention he deserved.
Now, I doubt very much that my little blog (with its quite small list of subscribers) really had anything to do him gaining fame.  But it made me feel better to write about him, and post pictures of him and poke fun at myself for my crazy obsession.

Hello, fan gurlz! Welcome aboard!
So what have I been doing since I stopped blogging?  By the way, I never really intended to stop blogging, it just happened.  I got lazy. I didn't have the need anymore.  It didn't help that almost everyone had switched blogging platforms from Blogger to Word Press. I tried to work with Word Press but it is definitely not as easy.  So I found it more difficult to comment on the Word Press blogs that sprang up exponentially as RA got more famous.  Spooks (or M1-5, as it was known in North America) helped with that!


Yes, well I can't say I have been doing anything really exciting since my last blog post.  I am still a Library technician in a school library, but sadly, I had to move up from elementary to secondary to keep the same working hours. It has been a steep learning curve and I was grateful for all the skills I acquired while blogging. I miss those little people and I miss reading picture books to them. I have been reading much more Young Adult books lately to try and connect with the older crowd.

Yup! It's Guy of Gisborne!
I have been spending waaaay too much time on my phone and iPad playing stupid games.  One of the ones I am addicted to is The Sims FreePlay.  When I was playing The Sims on my computer years ago, I was able to create a Sim with the same face as RA.  But I lost all that when we got an update.  So the Freeplay version does not give you the same ability to import a picture to make a face resemble a real person.   This was the best I could do,  Who is this good looking guy?


But the best news I have to report is that one of my life goals has finally been accomplished - and it only took a world-wide pandemic and some pointed use of guilt to achieve. I need to preface this story with the fact that my poor husband, who recently retired, injured himself while preparing to paint our kitchen.  He tore his Achilles tendon and was unable to get around without crutches or me to drive him places.  We had a quiet birthday for him unfortunately, as the accident happened the day before his birthday at the end of February. When my birthday rolled around we were about a week into the quarantine and he was feeling badly that he hadn't been able to buy me a present and spoil me like he usually does.  I really didn't mind, I had been feeling bad about not having a nice party for him last month, and besides -- I had another plan.

It's about time you looked this way, buddy!
I announced that the best present he could give me was to watch North and South with me!  I had previously tricked him into watching Castlevania, and he had enjoyed that!  Also we watched The Stranger when it finally came to Netflix and I didn't have to twist his arm too much.  So we watched all four episodes and he grudgingly had to admit that it was very well done.  (I knew he would like it!) Although he maintains he was more interested in the labour dispute than the romance, I could tell he was getting worried when Henry was making the moves on Margaret!

So that is it for now folks!  Thank you again to Nat and all who are participating in this reunion and thanks to all who visit here now and forever, until this blog disappears into the netherland or wherever blogs go to die...



17 comments:

Fabolaktuko said...

North & South forever! Sounds like you had a lovely birthday. So happy to read your post. It's been a fun day seeing all the blogs posting today.

Phylly3 said...

Thanks Fabo! It was a great birthday! So happy to hear from you again. I hope you can see the comment on your blog. (I am having trouble making comments).

Nat at RA FanBlog said...

Phylly! I am glad you happened to see the invite on twitter. I'm hit-and-miss on Twitter too, so it was fate. ;) Thank you for being such a sweet presence in our RA blog community all this time. (Active or not.) I loved visiting your blog again today. :)

Phylly3 said...

Awww! You are so sweet Nat! Thanks for dropping by. So glad to reconnect!

Mulubinba said...

It's so lovely to catch up Phylly!!! I love this post, and I feel much the same about blogging in the early days. I really felt the need to cheer him on pre-Hobbit days. The nuisance I made of myself over on The One Ring.net stating that an actor called Richard Armitage would make a great Bard the Bowman. Most had never heard of him and those that had, repudiated my suggestion. How wrong they were!! Once The Hobbit was released there was a veritable stampede of fans. Great for him, but I miss the old days.

Well done for encouraging your husband to watch North & South. Mr M tolerated it - he is a Tolkien fan, so getting him to watch The Hobbit was no problem and he enjoyed Berlin Station.

I hope your husband's tendoachilles heals well ... a nasty injury, poor thing! Stay safe and well. Mx

Maria Grazia said...

I was so curious to see what all of you had been doing and wished to relive a bit of the old enthusiasm all togetherwhen I accepted Nat's invitation. Thanks for joining the reunion, Phylly3! Glad to hear you are doing well 🤗

jazzbaby1 said...

Hey, Phylly my Phriend! I'm sorry WP ate your comment over at FBD, wasn't that also a problem with my first place on Blogger? And stupid Facebook games -- who would ever play stupid FB games? ;)

Traxy said...

Happy belated birthday! Good to hear you're doing well. Hoping your husband is doing better now. :)

Watching N&S together sounds lovely, and I'm glad he enjoyed it ... even if the labour disputes were the biggest draw. But on the other hand, that's what makes N&S memorable too, I think, and it's what makes it feel more anchored in reality than Pride & Prejudice, which is mostly about people sitting in drawing rooms or going for pleasant "turns" in the garden.

Phylly3 said...

@Mulubinba- I knew you would know all about my hubby's injury. Thanks for the sympathy! He is doing online physiotherapy over Zoom and is working very hard at his exercises. He is finally able to drive again so that makes him feel a bit better.
I am sorry my comment on your lovely post didn't take. I enjoyed your walking tour pics very much. I would love to do an easy one some day, but would really have to get in shape first! I actually did do one by accident when we were in Windermere 10 years ago. I blogged about it too. It was because the bus didn't come so we walked all the way to Beatrix Potter's farm. It may not have been much to some people but it was like an Olympic event to me!
Thanks for visiting!

Guylty/Sonja said...

I'm not sure whether we ever crossed paths back in your active days. Your blog post for the reunion was all the more interesting for me, reading about the old days and how you got into blogging. Cheerio!

Phylly3 said...

@Maria Grazia - So happy to hear from you again. I still follow your blog on Facebook. I post comments under my work name. I was over at your blog yesterday and today trying to comment as Phylly3 but I'm not sure if it will let me post. Or maybe you have to accept it first?

Phylly3 said...

@jazzbaby1 - I was one of the few who had no trouble posting to your old Blogger blog but have had enormous trouble commenting on your WP blog!
Not being able to comment on people's posts was probably one of the reasons I lost interest in blogging. (I didn't feel like part of the "in" crowd).
But I do enjoy being beaten by you at our Facebook word game! I'm finally getting a bit better at it!
Also I appreciate your generosity over the years as I believe you also contributed books to my various libraries!
I always appreciated your musical sensibilities too!

Phylly3 said...

@Traxy-- Glad to hear from you old friend! I agree that the social/economic aspect of Gaskell's North and South made it much more relatable than the rarefied world of Austen's drawing room romances. (But I still do love Austen's novels.) I had never heard of Elizabeth Gaskell before I saw North and South and now I can say she is my favourite author! So that is one more reason why I appreciate Richard Armitage!

Phylly3 said...

Hi Guylty/Sonja! Thanks for visiting! I've been following you for years but I don't believe I've ever been able to comment on your blog. I've tried again, last night and just now and ... NOPE! So that is why you don't know me, but I do know all about you and your lovely creative endeavours, your wit and your helpful summaries of what is going on out in RA land.
Not being able to comment on so many blogs (usually WP ones) is one of the reasons I lost interest in blogging.
That's why I was so happy to see Nat's tweet!












Servetus said...

Those were heady days in more than one way. I'm grateful if I could motivate. And yeah, if you follow the "real me" on FB you have a much better idea of who I am. I think Servetus is not that far off from me but there are a few differences or perhaps "silences / omissions" from Servetus. We had a lot of fun and you know, you could still blog from time to time! You had a lot of "faves" posts back in the day.

Phylly3 said...

@Servetus - Yes. Who knows, I may finish some of my many draft posts. It's been nice to catch up with people!

Fanny/iz4blue said...

Hey you, it took me long enough to comment on your blog, no need to feel bad about not managing on WP. I think some people’s way around is to make an account but just to never blog with it. I will forever think of you when I listen to Gordon Lightfoot. How fortuitous you saw the tweet! How crushing to lose your original RA SIM. Which reminds me I wonder what Gizzy action figure has been up to and who’s been hiding him in their closet ;) I passed on my little Thorin to my kid, he still has cardboard Thorin standing tall in his bedroom decorated with medals ;) and why I didn’t remember that until I’m commenting on your blog? :D good to hear from you!