There seem to be a lot of milestones being celebrated in our Richard Armitage blogging world lately.
I don’t pay much attention to my own milestones. When I make a post, WordPress tells me how many I’ve made so far (this will be 34) but that’s usually as far as it goes for me. Tracking the days, months, hits, etc. tends to make me jittery, so I don’t do it very often.
I decided to take a peek though, and saw that it’s been three months since I started this blog; roughly eight months since I became fascinated with Richard Armitage.
The blogging seems longer to me, while the fangirling seems shorter. (we’re currently 3-4 months into my fan path)
While peeking at my fan path outline… yes, I have an outline for this blog
I noticed that the Richard Armitage 30 Day Challenge was close at hand. So I thought, why not start it on my three month anniversary? I’m going to try to follow the actual 30 day set-up this time, unlike the A-Z Challenge, where I’m still slowly trudging along.
I’ll still try to keep to my weekly two posts, this will be in addition to those…that’s a lot of blogging! Wish me Luck!
Richard Armitage 30 day challenge
1.) Q: The first role you saw him in
A: The Hobbit
The Hobbit is how I first discovered Richard Armitage, though I realized later that I had actually seen him in Captain America first. While Heinz is somewhat forgettable, Thorin is definitely not!
His presence intrigued me, while those eyes and that penetrating stare captivated me.
The moment that door opens to him in Bag End…
it sweeps my legs out from under me and carries me headlong into the story. every time.
Nowhere in Particular RA 
Yep. That Bag End door opening has done in many of us. Bless you, Peter Jackson! You knew what you were doing when you cast RA as Thorin!! Congrats on your fangirling and blogging! It’s FUN, isn’t it??? 😀
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the blogging is very fun! a new experience that I’m enjoying immensely 🙂
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Oh I love your posts with the gif illustrations. This is such fun. If you do the 30-day-challenge that way, it will truly be different. Looking forward to that!
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the 30 day posts won’t be as long of course, but I have to include pics & gifs galore, that’s just my way!
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Bring it on!
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Happy 3rd month anniversary to your blogging alter-ego and definitely write on!
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thank you for the congratulations! my blogging-self is my regular-self too
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Looking forward to your 30 day challenge immensely. I just love your gifs!
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the enthusiasm from all of you is getting me even more excited to do it!
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Hooray and congratulations, and YES, please keep giffing! They’re great! 😀
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is there a “gif” recovery program? I think I may be addicted
husband: why do I have no clean clothes?
me: umm, because I’ve been watching this gif for the past 3 hours?
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Congratulations,Kelbel! I love Thorin and his fans 😀
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he is one I could call King 😉
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Congratulations on three months!
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thank you 🙂
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Awesome post!! For me, the first role I saw him in was North & South and of course Thorin did me in… I ended up inviting all my girlfriends for a movie night and they all agreed Mr. Thornton is super hot 😀
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after I started my RA fascination, I resisted North & South for a long time. I thought Margaret would irritate me too much. but when I finally did see it I was like “ohhhh, NOW I see why this has such a big following!”
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Happy anniversary! I’d never heard of gifs until I started reading armitage blogs but I love yours, and the visual element they add to the text. Can I just say that Thorin’s costume has quite a viking quality, and that, for some reason, adds to the attractiveness. Must be the whiff of alpha male from the pelt. Coz vikings were really quite scary when met in adverse circumstances. Not so much our Thorin. Looking forward to the 30 day challenge!
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I’m glad you enjoy the visuals I use but I don’t actually make them myself, I’m just a “collector”. I agree that Thorin has that whole Viking thing going on, with the hair and the distinctive armor, etc. he appears wild & dangerous, yet he bares such a heavy obligation of honor and family that you just know he has a heart under that heavy cloak
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Although I had seen Robin Hood and episodes of Spooks, it was Thorin that made me go back and re-assess Richard Armitage. So thanks, Thorin. Life ruined.
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life enhanced 😉
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You say “tomato”, I say “to-mah-to” 😀
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this is one of those social media words with a different meaning, isn’t it? I think for most of my students, “ruined” means something like “world rocked,” it’s a word that’s only used with a slightly or extremely ironic meaning. It’s starting to show up in emails and in essays in that way, anyhow.
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I just thought it was meant in a lighthearted manner, like you’ve made me love you & now I can’t quit even if I wanted to; you’ve ruined my life because now I’m obsessed.
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I was using it as kelbel suggested, to mean “you’ve ruined my life because now I’m obsessed”, but I realize that others might use it to mean “world rocked” or something ironic. Or perhaps even the opposite of what is actually said or written. Kind of like those posts on tumblr where they call someone they crush on something insulting twhile saying something nice about him.
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the definition of verbal irony is that the actual meaning of the speaker contrasts to the ostensible expressed meaning. So if you say that Armitage has ruined your life but your life hasn’t actually been ruined, you’re speaking ironically.
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I know what it means. However, I didn’t think that “ironic” extended to meaning the opposite of what is actually said.
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Yup, that’s actually one of the most easily identifiable forms of irony.
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because we wouldn’t expect someone who says “ruined” not to mean it in a negative manner, instead of the positive one they are actually intending. in this case saying Richard has ruined their lives implies that they’re not exactly happy that he has the effect on them that he does…but they secretly like it.
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I don’t think you can know what any one speaker is saying with reliability outside of the context in which s/he says something (and maybe not even then). People may mean slightly different things when they say that. But I’ve had a minor fascination with the uses of the word “ruined,” lately, due to the kerfuffle over Raven Symoné’s recent revelation that she’s a lesbian.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/people-are-saying-their-childhoods-are-ruined-because-raven
A few tweeps were saying their childhood was “ruined.” Some of my friends took these statements as homophobic. And I don’t think they were using “ruined” in the same sense that the people are who say that Armitage is a life-ruiner. However, it’s another ironic use of the word, at least potentially, which suggests to me that “ruined” may be a word that is primarily used ironically in the social media sphere. With regard to this case, in the context of how I see people using the word “ruined” on social media, however, I think that it’s at least a possibility that people were saying that the announcement impacted some perception of their childhood. This isn’t an inherently negative statement, is all that I’m saying, based on how I see people using the word “ruined” these days. There was a discussion of this on imdb with regard to Armitage a month or so ago, with some commentators expression incomprehension as to why saying that Armitage ruined one’s life could actually be a positive statement.
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it all depends on the context & tone of course, but I see this type of “ruined” as being similar to the current usage of hate/love. hate and love are very strong words, yet we really don’t use them with any kind of respect anymore (myself included). you can love someone so deeply that you will protect them at all costs, and you can love your favorite type of cookie; not the same thing. but as for the “childhood ruined” thing, I assume they mean that what they thought they believed in is now tarnished, so in essence a part of that *is* “ruined”. (which I personally don’t agree with because they believed in the fictional character, not the real life actress) if anyone thinks that the enjoyment/endorphins/whatever that they feel in relation to RA have truly “ruined” them or their life though, then maybe they should take steps to pull back, because that does not sound like a healthy situation to me! but really, I just think they’re using “ruined” instead of frustrated
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My mom (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) suggests that “ruined” here could be like “ruined” meaning “lost virginity to”, which is a good/bad thing. She refers to a scene in a movie version of Death a Salesman in which his lover tells the main character “You ruined me”, but makes it sound like the sexiest thing ever.
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or ta-may-tah 😉
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tah-may-ta? 😀
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yes, that’s how I grew up saying tomato. and instead of saying poe-tay-toe (potato) I said bah-tay-duh *laughs*
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This reminds me of Friends. There’s an episode where Phoebe says “Poe-tay-toe, poe-ta-toe” 😀
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