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Random acts of statistics

Here's what you get when you're procrastinating from school work. *cough* I've looked at all the labels of the (currently, before posting this) 152 posts of this blog (6 of which are currently drafts). I knew the most frequently used one was "Richard Armitage", but how many per cent of my blog posts are RA-centric? A lot. :) I've used 433 labels in total. Out of those, 175 I've only used once, making up 40.42% of the total. Labels used two to five times go up to 127 (29.33%). I was wondering if it was better to leave the 5x left, because it contains some rather nice topics (namely: Alan Rickman, Harry Potter, Modern Talking and Toby Stephens) but decided not to in the end, and rather focus on the 6x or more, making the remainder of the list thus: Emma (6 labels) 1.39% Ken Olin (6 labels) 1.39% Sam Neill (6 labels) 1.39% Jane Austen (7 labels) 1.62% Robin Hood (7 labels) 1.62% Emily Brontë (8 labels) 1.85% Genevieve O'Reilly (8 labels) 1.85%

W13 back for seconds

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Warehouse 13 - SyFy (*shudders*) Channel's quirky show about a couple of FBI agents out to grab, bag 'n' tag magical artefacts and store them safely in a big ol' warehouse - is back for a second season. It starts airing in the US on July 13, with twelve episodes. My hopes and dreams are for the character who seemed to have been killed off actually wasn't. After all, s/he did carry that regeneration artefact at the time, so chances are we're just led to believe s/he died, when in fact, s/he is still alive. Please let it be so, it was only the bestest character in the show! Also, if that wasn't exciting enough, one of the episodes has as its guest stars Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, or Kaylee and Simon from Firefly (an awesome and far too cancelled TV show) and Serenity (an awesome film). I'm all tingly! And they're going to play a couple... or sorts. This time, it's Maher's character who has unrequited love for Staite's, not the othe

19 new/old posts

Because I'm a big believer in recycling and there was Earth Hour a few hours ago and all, I decided to import some stuff from my longest running blog, Rants & Raves , which is my personal blog in English. (Or maybe I did it just because I wanted to try out the import and export function of Blogger. That's for me to know and for you to not be interested in in the slightest. ;)) R&R used to be the blog which had the most posts, but umm, this one has moved ahead... a lot. I have no idea why. *cough* Now you'll be able to find a handful of posts from 2007 and 2008 here, and also some new posts from 2009. It adds a review of Bill Bailey's Tinselworm tour, Rik Mayall's The New Statesman stage show (although it's not much of a review, to be honest), and my opinion on BBC's Robin Hood , season three - prior to be a total RA fangirl. And some other bits and bobs I thought might fit in here. Here's a run-down of what's been added:  ►  2009 (

RA Fanstravaganza Results

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Sorry I'm late - the polls seemed to not close at 12 in the day, more like... nearly midnight to Wednesday or something last time I looked. Anyway, here are the results. Are you surprised by how people have voted or is it all blatantly obvious? :) Votes in total: Best RA Kiss: 125 Most Despised RA Leading Lady: 117 Favourite RA On-screen Squeeze: 56

RA Fanstravaganza - Third poll

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Let's continue with the polls! Thanks to everyone who has taken time to vote. :) But before I introduce the third poll, let's have a re-cap of the other RA Fanstravaganza participants: Avalon at Avalon's Blog Mulubinba at An RA Viewer's Perspective Nat at The RA Fan Blog Ragtag at Reviewerama Skully at The Spooks Fan Blog Susan at Me+Richard Who's your favourite RA on-screen squeeze? Seems to be the same options over and over on here, but never mind! This time, it's a question of your favourite on-screen partner, squeeze, flirt, wife-to-be, girlfriend, love interest, what have you... The favourite lady with whom RA's characters have been involved with over the years. This time, I've added the option of voting for someone else who I might've forgot to put down as I haven't watched everything RA yet.

STOP THE PRESSES!! :D

I got my Amazon package today, and wow, I never knew Amazon sold drugs, but by golly, Amazon can be my pusher any day! In fact, they have been for years, but today in particular. Happy happy happy!! So it's been established that I'm a fangirl when it comes to Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester in particular... well, the package had two contents. The first one being the book Rochester by J.L. Niemann, which apparently started its life on a forum somewhere online, says the introduction. The thing is, it's not just Jane Eyre from Rochester's perspective, it's book one in a trilogy . If the other two books are 325 pages too, we're talking nearly 1000 pages of smouldering hot Rochester!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Good evening, everyone - I'd especially like to welcome any newcomers who have found the blog through the Richard Armitage FanstRAvaganza. Thanks for following! :) Today is St. Patrick's Day, the Republic of Ireland's national day, celebrated amongst the Irish, Irish descendents, or just friends and fans of the Emerald Isle everywhere in the world. I'm in the "friends and fans" category. I'm currently doing a course in Celtic Studies, I'm a big fan of traditional Irish folk music, and the time period I'm most interested in in Irish history is approximately 1825-1925 or so. That period covers emigration, potato famine, the Easter Rising and the Civil War. However, this is not a political or historical or religious blog, so celebrating will be in the shape of film. Two Irish films I particularly like are Neil Jordan's Michael Collins (1996) and Ken Loach's The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006). Same time period, similar topic.

RA Fanstravaganza - Second poll

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Best Kiss

First ever Richard Armitage Fanstravaganza!

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The bloggosphere is downright awesome sometimes, because it's such a great community, and I'm so happy to be a part of it. Today, a bunch of Richard Armitage fanbloggers start polls about various aspects of Richard Armitage and his acting career, as well as the fandom that has popped up around him. (Fandom that has happened, of course, because we just can't help ourselves - he brings out the creativity in us all. Imagine if that was a superhero power. "Who are you?" "I am the CREATIVITOR!" ...Okay, that was lame.) Before I introduce the topic of voting here at The Squeee, here are the other participants. Hop over to their blogs and vote on the Fanstravaganza polls, but don't just vote and then bugger off again - no, please stick around and read their other posts as well. It'll be well worth your time, I promise. :) Avalon at Avalon's Blog Mulubinba at An RA Viewer's Perspective Nat at The RA Fan Blog Ragtag at Reviewerama Skully

Reading for Life

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Came back from London today, and watching TV, I saw this advert. It's been on before, and it's always brilliant. It's from the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency, to promote reading and literacy. Many people find books boring, and some say they've never read for pleasure - something I find shocking, as I've grown up with books, and you'd never see me without one. Books are great, and I can't imagine a life without them.

Naturally Richard Armitage

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Okay, so channel-hopping after Masterchef on BBC1, we came upon the end of Natural World on BBC2. There was a baby elephant to begin with, and then elephants in general, and my delighted "naww!" probably prevented the Squeeze from changing channels straight away. I LOVE elephants! Squeeeee!! An Indian elephant at Twycross Zoo in 2004. So, sitting there with a huge smile on my face, I realised who the voiceover artist was... and that person... was Richard Armitage. I just looked him up on IMDb (if I had a penny every time I went to that site...) but it's not listed there, although there is a thread about it on the message board. His voice seems to be everywhere on TV nowadays - and it's good to get confirmation of it. It means it's not just me being delusional! ;)

New Thomas Anders single, yay!

The new Thomas Anders album, Strong , is already released in Russia - the rest of us have to wait until May or June before its being released in Germany in order to get it from Amazon. Boo! Hiss! The first single from it is called "Why Do You Cry" and is a catchy song, not unlike a good Modern Talking track. Here's the official video: For the new album, Thomas has gone to Russia. The Russians have written songs, they've come up with a video and directed it and everything. It might actually be quite a smart move, because Modern Talking were (and still are, seven years after the second split) huge over there. Having the duo's singer working with a team of Russians and releasing the album there first might actually be a really clever move, rather than working with the usual bunch of Germans. Whatever. I wish him lots of success with this new album, and I can't wait to get my hands on it! Meanwhile, I suppose I'll just keep working on my SingStar hig

DH Lawrence Challenge 2010

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DH Lawrence (1885-1930). Controversial. Censored. Persecuted. Misunderstood or just way ahead of his time? I'm liking these literary challenges being posted around various blogs, because they get people reading, and perhaps reading things they would otherwise not get around to. As I found DH Lawrence omnibus book in a charity shop recently, and have been curious to host one myself, I decided that would be the subject. Not only because I enjoy his writing and his thoughts on society and people, but also, because I like the regional aspect of it: DH Lawrence was from Eastwood in Nottinghamshire, 20 minutes down the road! :) I first read Lady Chatterley's Lover after a classmate let me borrow it, as she thought I might like it. I don't recall exactly what the discussion around it was, as it was in 2003, but one day, she brought it with her, and I started reading it, not quite knowing what to expect. I had heard of the title before, certainly, but had never actually read i

New look!

I was going to create my own layout, but I haven't had any inspiration for how it would look. That, and the fact that I couldn't quite be bothered to make a template that's perfectly Blogger compatible as there's soooooo much extra code that goes into it that I haven't quite figured out where to begin. *cough* Today, I decided to google Blogger templates (the default ones are terribly boring) and found one I quite liked and I think would fit with the blog. So, this is the new look, called Club Red. What do you think? Better or worse or the same, just different? :) The background is similar to what I had in mind, and if there's already a finished template, weeeeell... no work and all play! ;) I might still decide to make my own template, but at least this is a bit more interesting in the meantime. (Not that any attempt of mine would look better than this one, I have to admit!)

Mr. Armitage, you spoil us!

He's at it again, it would seem! Now, I'm just waiting for him to do a voiceover for Thornton's chocolate or take over Dirvla Kirwan's role as the seductive voice for Marks & Spencer... Spontaneous self-combustion in three... two... one...

Another RA voiceover!

On the way back from the supermarket this afternoon, we were listening to BBC Radio 1 in the car and came upon a trailer for the Winter Olympics coverage. Something about snowboarding. The voice was familiar... My thought was "hey, even though you're doing the voiceover for the ad, Richard, doesn't mean I'm going to watch snowboarding!" Perhaps if he was an actual commentator... but alas. So yeah, Richard Armitage has got some more voiceover work going on at the moment than that Santander ad! :)

International Magic Day

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Time to put a new date in the calendar: Saturday, 31 July 2010! Not just the birthday of Harry Potter and his creator, JK Rowling, but also the date of the first International Magic Day! The aim is to dress up as witches and wizards (or witches/wizards trying to blend into muggle society) for the day, and celebrate everything magic! You are hereby cordially invited to participate (and invite other muggles and magic folk alike).

So it's February...

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Been busy with stuff recently... and at the same time, not more than usual. Oh well. On the Squeee front... Couldn't help myself, so I've started on North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell... Think I'm on chapter six so far, and from sneaking a peak, I think it's in the next chapter (i.e. 7) where she first encounters dear Thornton. I've watched Jane Eyre '73 and been ogling some spin-off books on Amazon (waiting to get a voucher to buy them). Also been reading some... I think I've read past the shoelace scene. It's somewhere around when Blanche et al are at Thornfield anyway. Saw the Heroes and then the Heroines episodes of the documentary Reader, I Married Him yesterday, and for the first time, found myself disagreeing with Daisy Goodwin. Something she was saying about Rochester "marrying a mad woman for her money" had me exclaiming, "Oi! He was tricked into that marriage! He didn't know she was mad, and he didn't marr

Filming locations: Haddon Hall in Derbyshire

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It's always fun to go places where they've filmed things, especially if it's something you're really into. For instance, I think I'd die and go to fangirl heaven if I were to go to Minyip in Australia (the town of Coopers Crossing in The Flying Doctors ). Australia is a bit far to travel, but Derbyshire isn't, it's just next door. :) "the most complete and most interesting house of [its] period" Growing up, every summer, we used to go on family holidays in the caravan and travel around Sweden and go to museums, old houses, glass-blowing places and a number of other things. It wasn't just swimming and eating ice cream, no, we got to do Boring Cultural Things. At the time, I wasn't perhaps not very appreciative of it, as I never had any stories in class that quite measured up with my classmates who went to Crete or the Canary Islands for their holidays. What had I done? Gone gallavanting up a boring mountain up north somewhere and seen so

Photo Friday

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Aye, I'll jump on the bandwagon too! :) Although, instead of pictures of RA, I thought I'd show some pictures I took this morning, as I wanted to try out the camera on my new old mobile phone. (I don't buy mobile phones anymore, I just use the Squeeze's old one when his contract gets upgraded. I didn't want the previous one, so haven't had an upgrade for quite some time, so yay, the new one is pretty damn cool!) This is Daisy. It's not a very good picture, admittedly, with the light coming in through the window and all, but hey, we'll ignore that. She's about 10 years old or so, but we don't know for sure. She was a stray originally, who one day just appeared in the cellar of a friend's house. They advertised and went to the police and things but she wasn't chipped and no one came forward to claim her, so they kept her. Three years later, I came along and wanted a cat, and seeing as how the new-born stable kittens (of which I was to get