Once I had decided that I was firmly on the Richard Armitage train, it was time to let everyone know.

So, first things first: I jumped into my Paint program and made a new signature for my community message board, something more RA-centric.
I chose this particular photoshoot because Richard seems to look his actual age in it and that appealed to me. This was the Richard Armitage that you could possibly pass by on the street buying a newspaper, or hailing a cab.

Next, I sought out the Armitage Army. I found an Armitage Army forum.this one is associated with Richard Armitage Central (a RA info site) and joined right away.

Fan-Forums are ideal places to find helpful tidbits from the fans themselves: location of things online, history and lore, interviews you shouldn’t miss…
Well established forums can feel a bit intimidating at first, so I like to focus on the film work as a start. After I made my introductory post

I jumped down to the film threads to lurk around a bit

and hopefully find what to watch next. I noticed they housed a large Fan-Fiction section, but seeing as how I had just recently pulled myself out of a fanfic addiction, I thought it best to bypass that area for now. that would change once I discovered North & South, Robin Hood, Sparkhouse…

I should note that becoming engulfed in the world of blogs and blogging has pretty much canceled out my forum time.

I also needed more visual stimulation, so I turned to Tumblr. I Googled some Richard Armitage themed tumblrs, then clicked on promising titles and avatars from their followers, etc. there seems to be an RA tumblr for everything: characters, body parts, even Richard eating and drinking!

I have my handful of favorites now, but it took me weeks of clicking through the archives of all 500 gazillion of them.

It was a taxing job… but a sacrifice I was willing to make.
Welcome! You definitely are in the Army now 😉
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I think it’s automatic if you have an RA themed blog…
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My blog has evolved from being a bit more neutral to all out RA although my lovesexdirtywords blog would like to focus on the ‘muse’ 🙂
And though my muse does change from time to time – Lucas, Porter and even Hannibal – the banner/header kinda says it all 😉
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Yeah… I haven’t “named” my muse for riverofmirrors.wordpress.com, but it’s pretty much just all RA all the time, taking the place of an imaginary lover. :}
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I’m not sure I could have a blog without a clear focus, my mind is all over the place 24/7!
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(sheepishly) Perhaps this is why I have two Facebook personas, a twitter account, a tumblr account, and a “me” WordPress blog (gigglepants) and a “romantic/naughty” WordPress blog. OH. Um. And I’ve started writing fanfiction, although it won’t surprise you that I haven’t had time to post much of it. My mind is all over the place too, but it’s constantly shouting at the top of its (figurative) lungs. :}
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this sounds intriguing, does having all of those outlets help balance out the chaos? I’m noticing some of the RA bloggers have more than one kind of blog; maybe I should try my hand at an unfocused one.
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For me, it definitely helps. I find that having lots of creative outlets lessens my tendency to create other, less positive messes. :} And I really enjoy posting and keeping up on all the different sites, although not all of them every day.
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DOH. Hit “post” too soon. But I love this post… you know you’re truly RA-ving when… 😀
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Richard can do that to a person, with very little effort!
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All aboard! We’re on the Richard Armitage train! Love that image. I too joined the Army (under a different name) and managed to become a Private. But since I began blogging I have not been there much. I love Tumblr, have two Facebook pages one for RL and one for RA, two twitter accounts,and that’s about it for now. Glad I’m not alone!
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hmm, I think I’m going to try this “multiple accounts” thing, at least for Twitter and Facebook
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Yeah, my family really wasn’t very interested in all the Armitage love. 😛
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my mom was complaining just the other day that I post too much about “that actor” on facebook…but I hardly ever post anything! then I realized she was seeing all of my “likes” *blushes*
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Very lovely banner for your blog. So, you’ve decided there’s no turning back? I tried to resist labeling myself a fan for awhile. (That lasted about a month.) But once you discover that Richard is really a nice bloke and that so many of his fans are really intelligent, funny ladies – what’s wrong with joining the group?
Absolutely love the opening gif. sigh.
Have fun blogging!
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I gave up trying to hide my fangirling a long time ago! but with RA, why would you want to hide it? he’s a very worthy fellow 🙂
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Luv’d this particular blog Big Time! It was great. I have to bookmark this one and also send this over to my BFF. She’ll luv it!
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I’m glad you’re enjoying it! just spreading the RA love 🙂
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I love your gif illustrations kelbel! Particularly Guy going online *hahaha*,
Yeah, your path into the community pretty much mirrors mine, too. It was tumblr that got me hooked (visual person). I already maintain four blogs (commercially) and have 2 private blogs, so another RA blog is definitely not gonna happen. And I am trying to keep RA out of FB, but like you I have attracted a lot of suspicion among my friends because I did not realise that the salacious RA images I was posting into the “drool pool group” showed up via the ticker *arrrgh*. At least I have divided my professional and fangirl life on twitter. Easy enough – I never use either *haha*
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I loved that particular gif of Guy too. sometimes I get a little slap-happy when putting together the posts and laugh out loud at my ridiculousness, but that IS what it feels like to lurk 😛
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I can see you’re having a good time! : D
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you could say that 😉
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And obviously, you need to be on the Addict List.
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oh, there’s a list? *prepares to sign on the dotted line*
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No need to sign. : D
Addict List
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I recognize many more of those than I should *blushes* guess I do belong on the list…thanks for adding me!
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But don’t hold me to the tumblrs. They multiply faster than rabbits.
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I have a hard time with the multiple identity thing. I have my own RL FB, and that has meant that I don’t do much on my “Servetus” FB. The other social media I do at all are all connected to Servetus, but I didn’t start off planning to do them — they were outgrowths of blogging anyway, so that’s been fine. And the way “me + ” was conceived as a blog project, anyhow, it was supposed to unite what I thought I could say about myself with the Armitage fangirling. I say almost anything there, except political things, which I try to keep out of my fangirling life (I wanted to jump off a cliff when my Servetus twitter account started filling with political tweets during the 2012 Presidential election). I wonder if I’d blog more about myself if I weren’t sort of set up as an Armitage blogger, but in the end he’s the one who gets me to write, so I’m mostly satisfied. It’s not like I’ve felt I’m running out of stuff to say …
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I’ve always found the concept of your blog intriguing, to explore introspective things about yourself through RA. It seems like it might be easier to use a muse like that, instead of just randomly writing about things. I’m going to try the “multiples” thing though, just to give me additional space to express myself. the additional social media accounts may prove way too confusing, and having a blog without a clear direction may be too much freedom for my chaotic brain to handle; we shall see… (I’ll still be “me” in all of them, variations on the same user/RL name; just slightly different subject matter)
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I think the main problem is not realizing which account you’re logged into and then posting something from your fan life in your real life account — depending on what you post that could be a problem and it’s caused minor or major problems for a few people I know. So you always need to check “who” you are before post / submit / send / tweet. A more doctrinaire person than I would say never post anything anywhere that you couldn’t afford to have associated with your real life identity — but I broke that rule long before I started Armitage blogging.
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And sometimes you can think you’re not even posting to and account and facebook will do it for you. LOL! But that only happens from a phone. (crosses eyes) Thankfully, I figure that one out, so it’s never been repeated!
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I knew there was a reason I still have a dumb phone.
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yep, there are pitfalls to all that “smartness.” : D
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my phone is quite basic by today’s standards, but it’s still smarter than me. I can zip my way around a computer with no problem, but I panic when I use my cell-phone!
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That should have been “an account.”
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