The Squeee

Back in 2010, there was an idea for a fanblogging event, where the current Richard Armitage fanblogs would participate, highlighting Richard Armitage's work and/or his fans for a whole week, and this venture was named FanstRAvaganza. You might recall this: Then, in 2011, it was decided that the FanstRAvaganza, having been a big success and plenty of fun for everyone involved, should return, and return it did. With more participants than the year before.

The Winter It Is Past The winter it is past, and the summer comes at last And the small birds, they sing on ev'ry tree; Now ev'ry thing is glad, while I am very sad, Since my true love is parted from me. The rose upon the breer, by the waters running clear, May have charms for the linnet or the bee; Their little loves are blest, and their little hearts at rest, But my true love is parted from me. [ Source: Robert Burns Country ] (Not seasonally accurate just yet, but the poem was short enough to keep my attention and easily enough read and understood to get a modicum of my affection. Robert Burns was a Scottish poet, from the times when cravats were all the rage. His birthday is celebrated in the UK, and in Scotland in particular. Thought I'd mention it for once, even if I can't stand poetry myself. :P)

... Also known as "stuff I do when I really should be doing a lot of other stuff". *cough* To start off with, let's look at when books were released and the ratings I gave them. That shows that even though we're talking three different centuries, they're fairly consistent in average quality/enjoyability: The 21st Century (2000s): 3.78 (based on 45 items) The 19th Century (1800s): 3.59 (based on 8 items) The 20th Century (1900s): 3.21 (based on 20 items) Note that unrated and/or "date unknown" have not been included here, for obvious reasons. As most of the written items are from the 2000s, I've whittled it down to a per year thing: 2000: 3.8 (1 item) 2001: 5 (1) 2002: 4 (4) 2003: 4 (1) 2004: 4.75 (4) 2005: 3.35 (2) 2006: 3 (2) 2007: 3.6 (3) 2008: 3 (4) 2009: 4 (4) 2010: 3.62 (10) 2011: 3.82 (9) There's a similar story for films as well. The 21st Century scores 3.45 on average, with the 20th Century coming in at the lower 3...

Hollywood's done it again, announcing a re-make of a film that is perfectly fine as it is: The Princess Bride . We've heard rumours of a Dirty Dancing re-make, and I think Top Gun was another one. And now, they want to bastardise yet another 1980s favourite that DOESN'T NEED A RE-MAKE, putting Paul Rudd in Cary Elwes's shoes. IT'S NOT ON. Just because you can't think of anything new to do, you have to go back and butcher innocent, unsuspecting cult classics? "A re-make?" "Inconcievable!" Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya), BLESS HIM, is not amused. I'm expecting Inigo to appear, sword in hand, saying words to the effect of "My name is Inigo Montoya. You're killing an awesome film. Prepare to die!" [ EDIT: Apparently, THANK GOODNESS, this was a false alarm. They were just gathering a cast to do a script reading in a library or something.] So what other classic 1980s films could Hollywood's greed decide to fuc...

Richard, Richard, Richard ... Every time you enter my dreamscape, you leave confusion in your wake. Okay, last time it wasn't very confusing, just surprising. This , however, takes the proverbial biscuit. I'm not quite sure how it started, but I can definitely tell that watching Sherlock and planning for this year's FanstRAvaganza (stay tuned!) just before bed-time definitely took their toll ... To start off with, Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage, in a hallway or something like that. I think Richard Armitage was inside the apartment (as was I and a group of other female fans) and Martin Freeman was out in the stairwell. They both expressed surprise at seeing one another here, in England, because both had been texting earlier in the day, when both had been in New York City or something like that. Just a quick "oh hello, fancy seeing you here, I thought you were abroad!" followed by "I thought the same about you!" and there's me thinking gosh, I...

Admittedly, I could have gone for the obvious one - Friday the 13th - but seeing as how there's about three of them this year, I thought I'd save it for the next one. Today, there are other things to talk about! On Tjugondedag Knut (twentieth day Knut), it's been twenty days after Christmas, today's name is Knut, and the day means that Christmas is officially over, so it's time to take the festive decorations down and get on with the new year. My parents' tree, Christmas 2010 (haven't transferred the photos of our tree this year from my camera yet)

This is only about a week overdue as the day in question was last Thursday! Trettondagsafton and Trettondagen (last Friday), indeed all of Trettonhelgen (Thursday to Sunday), is what's called Twelfth Night in English. I think it's from when the three kings came to visit Jesus in the stables in Bethlehem, but most Swedes would likely just shrug at that and say "yeah, whatever". We have several holidays based on religion, but as Sweden today is very secular, the days only mean "we don't have to go to work/school today because it's a red day in the calendar". It's common for TV to show a musical farce during this weekend. It runs in the summer, at Fredriksdalsteatern, an open air theatre in Helsingborg in the south of Sweden, and is recorded for TV. When I was growing up, the star of these used to be Nils Poppe, but since he retired, comedienne Eva Rydberg has taken over. She's definitely living up to the expectations he left! Other th...

How a Swede spent last night sort of dictates how Nyårsdagen (New Year's Day) is spent. If you were full up on drink and didn't get to bed until the early hours of the morning, you probably spend most of the day in bed, then take it very easy due to the inevitable hangover you're likely to have. Not so much if you took it easy. There is of course time to start working on those new year's resolutions ... Did you make any? I normally don't, because I don't see the point. Losing weight? Yeah, well, I need to do that regardless of if it's a new year or not. Quit smoking? Never smoked. Exercise more? See the bit about losing weight ... In Britain, if a red letter day falls on a weekend, the holiday is pushed to the next available Monday, so you get it back, meaning tomorrow is a Bank Holiday here. In Sweden, if a red letter day falls on a weekend, tough luck, you don't get it back, meaning today is a Sunday, tomorrow is a normal Monday. I much pref...

This is the first post of this year's theme, which is oh so imaginatively called: Swedish Ways . This is a theme focusing on the year in a Swedish calendar, with all those things we celebrate, when and why, or rather, how . There are a lot more things than eight days of note here, so let's get crackin' with the first one: Nyårsafton , or simply good ol' New Year's Eve in English. Figured it'd be easier to start off with that, rather than writing about New Year's Day tomorrow and having to either wait a year to explain what happened the night before, or having to explain it now and then again in a year's time, so I'm starting a day early, technically. When it comes to Swedes, in all likelihood, New Year's Eve will be spent in one of two ways: Binge drinking at a party or Quiet night at home in front of the telly

After checking all the comments for who has responded, and then subtracting those that aren't eligible for either not answering the qualifying question or for not leaving contact details (yes, this was a prerequisite to enter - I either need to know you in one way or another so I know how to get hold of you if you win, and if I don't, you need to leave me a hint of how to contact you), the winners in the big Xmas Giveaway are as follows:

Secret Santa is awesome sometimes. Here's what I got in this year's Secret Santa over att Rollspelet Svenska Hogwarts : I have a sneaking suspicion as to who the Secret Santa is, but even if it's not her, I still love it. Thank you, Secret Santa! You rock! :D Also: I'll be closing the comment sections for the giveaways some time tomorrow. Not sure when, as will be AFK in the afternoon, and not sure how long for. Possibly I'll close it in the evening or morning, depending on time. Still time to enter if you like, though, but you have less than 24 hours. :)

Hoping you have a fabulous day, wherever you are! :) And clickie here to hop over to Y I Mum and ogle a couple of very saucy santas ... :D

Item 12 in the Christmas Giveaway is a book, or rather, a couple of books! Beyond the Legend and its sequel Forsaken Legacy by Jo Ann Mason , who is kindly providing these paperbacks. What a way to end the week - with a double giveaway! :)

Item 11 (and the penultimate one) in the Christmas Giveaway is a handcrafted natural wood wand , courtesy of Thornfield Handcrafted Wands .

Item 10 in the Christmas Giveaway is a book, or rather, a manuscript printed in a book, namely that of award-winning The Piano by Jane Campion . You know, the 1995 film set in New Zealand, starring Holly Hunter, Sam Neill, Harvey Keitel and Anna Paquin.

Item 9 in the Christmas Giveaway is a 2-disc Region 2 DVD set of Jane Eyre (2006 ), courtesy of the Daily Mail , which as a newspaper isn't worth the paper it's printed on, but comes in handy here. I already have the DVD of this production, so don't need it. Got it when I bought a selection of these newspaper giveaway DVDs on eBay and have been hoarding them ever since. :)

Item 8 in the Christmas Giveaway is a graphic novel, Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, Brett Matthews and Will Conrad . It's the first of the graphic novels to bridge the gap between the TV show Firefly and the film Serenity . I'm giving this one away simply because we managed to buy two back in the day, and we only really need one.

Item 7 in the Christmas Giveaway is a book as well as an almanac: Llewellyn's 2006 Magical Almanac . Okay, so the almanac itself is out of date (although it will technically be semi-in-date again in 2012, heh), but the book itself isn't - it has many articles in it (see below), and should be of interest to those interested in Magick, Paganism and folklore. 'Tis, after all, Yule today!

Item 6 in the Christmas Giveaway is a book (have you spotted the pattern yet?): Whisper of Scandal by Nicola Cornick , which I gave a 3.9 out of 5 in July 2011, when it was released, and this is my review copy up for grabs. :)

Item 5 in the Christmas Giveaway is a Christmas jazz CD from France: Noël en Jazz , courtesy of Yves Rocher, which is where I get all my beauty products from. I'm not keen on jazz personally, so that's why I'm giving this away.