My Road to American Idol 2009 Part 4: Finale Performances - Day 1

Man, we must have been tired from all the traveling... We originally had planned on waking up early to do more sight-seeing before the show, but Futaba and I both slept through the alarm and didn't wake up until 1030am!

So we just spent our 2nd day in LA walking around Downtown, having lunch at a Greek restaurant called George's Greek Cafe at a small shopping arcade called 7+Fig (because it was at the intersection between 7th and Fig... Duh...).

Though we were disappointed that we had kind of wasted the day, I think it was good because we managed to get some rest, especially Futaba who had not have good sleep since Aki was born, as she's a light sleeper who always wakes up for feedings at night.

Anyway, the best part of the morning was definitely getting the American Idol finale show tickets!!!

Nokia Theater - Here I come!

Was getting worried about the tickets as we were supposed to get them the previous day when we arrived, but there was a mix-up with the courier service, so it was only delivered on show day itself.

Anyways, the Nokia Theater was just opposite from the hotel we were staying in, so we left at about 3:45pm to have a look-see around the area.

GO LAKERS!

The Staples Center is located just opposite the Nokia Theatre and as you can see from the picture above, the Los Angeles Lakers were playing that night as well. It was the Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Denver Nuggets. Man, I wish I had tickets to watch this game as well. Can't have everything I suppose, eh?

Suprisingly, there wasn't much of a crowd at the Nokia Theater. I was expecting a larger throng of people, but it was actually quite manageable and easy to walk around.

Wonder what the guy at the bottom right saw...

I am guessing that since there were not that many celebs attending the performance show, not many people turn up for the red carpet. No complaints from me though as it was our first time there and we needed time to take pictures and also look around for the entrance.

Oh! And looking for merchandise too! I didn't come all this way to go home with just pictures after all!

Don't you just love commercialism?

We lined up to enter the theater at about 4:15pm. As you can see from the tickets above, we weren't allowed to bring cameras into the theater, so, being such law-abiding citizens, we had left our normal camera back at the hotel. However, I had to talk to JJ and Ean from Hitz.FM before going into the show, so I had my phone with me and was prepared to check it at the counter.

JJ & Ean from Hitz.FM and Jaclyn Victor (1st Malaysian Idol) during my Morning Crew interview on 4th May 2009

But while waiting in line, I saw lots of other people with cameras as well and 'Idol audience veterans' were advising everyone not to check in their stuff as the wait to get it back at the end of the show was baaaad! They basically advised the ladies to just stuff their phones or cameras into a zipper compartment in their handbags as they wouldn't search that thoroughly. And the guys? Stuff it somewhere... Discrete...

I'll leave it up to your imagination where I hid my phone... =p

Anyways, while inside the theatre, I snuck this shot out...

Inside the American Idol Shrine!
(Yes, I was that far from stage... =p)

This post is getting a bit long so I'll continue about what happens during a live Idol telecast and the post-show press and meet-the-fans session in my next post. I'm already halfway through so it shouldn't take too long... Fingers crossed...

Life-sized Gundam in Odaiba!

Holy crap! Man, would I love to be back in Odaiba to check this out!

I'd totally geek out if this was a life-sized Optimus...
(photo taken from Anime News Network)

This 18 meter high model of the RX-72-8 Gundam model was built to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime, which many credit for revolutionizing the art of anime.

The model can do a few simple tricks, as seen in the video above, and will only be around for 2 months (from July 2009), so if you are around Odaiba, Japan, make sure you check it out! Best part? It's free for public viewing!

Ahhh... Otaku-bliss!

Remember The Time... A Tribute to Michael Jackson

"TGIF! Weekend just around the corner!"

That was what I was thinking when I woke up this morning.

"Oh god...", was what I was thinking when I read the news.

Michael Jackson, King of Pop, died on 25th June 2009 at 5:31am Malaysian time.

I believe the whole world is reeling right now to try and come to grips with this earth-shattering event. I, like many out there, can probably track a good part of my life, if not all of it, along a timeline of MJ's music.

So to celebrate the passing of the King, let us not remember all the hooplah surrounding his personal life, but celebrate the man's genius and musical legacy. Apologies for the extra long post...

Here is my list of things that I remember the most of MJ:

1. I Remember The Time... I watched the Thriller music video for the first time.
My sisters used to watch the Thriller video on VHS when I was just about 5 or 6 years old.
with my sisters when I was 5 or 6 years old. I remember that I was a bit scared of the whole horror setup, but I was mesmerized by the dance sequence! We even had an instructional video on how to dance the Thriller dance! I remember my sisters trying to imitate and dance to MJ (and I was trying to imitate them). Thus my exposure to MJ's music began.

2. I Remember The Time... Watching Beat It & Billie Jean
After Thriller, before the days of MTV in Malaysia, I got glimpses of Beat IT and Billie Jean on Malaysian TV. It was always so cool to watch MJ do his thing in those videos. Plus the whole pavement lighting up as he walked in Billie Jean was just way cool. A few years later, I would also rush to the TV whenever I heard Weird Al's Eat It was showing. Thus my exposure to Weird Al and comedy music began.

3. I Remember The Time... MJ sang a capella on Oprah Now this is probably the even that kicked off my whole love for a capella music. I know that a capella music and beatboxing has been around way before MJ, but it was watching this interview that got me thinking "Damn! Can the human voice sound like that?". So it's because of MJ that I started singing acapella and doing vocal percussion.

4. I Remember The Time... Watching Moonwalker/Smooth Criminal

Moonwalker... Now what an epic short film that was... Ok, storyline wasn't great, but the music and special effects were out of this world! I remember wondering how on earth he managed to do that gravity-defying move during Smooth Criminal (which still remains one of my favourite music videos of all time). I just found out that MJ even got a patent (http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=MAUgAAAAEBAJ) for the method! Amazing!

Oh and I also played the game non-stop on my Sega Megadrive/Genesis...

5. I Remember The Time... I watched MJ's Concert Live

This was back in Adelaide 1996. MJ was playing at the Adelaide Oval as part of his HIStory world tour and I just HAD to go watch the concert, even though I had a Physics finals the next day. Exams come every year, but MJ doesn't come around that often! My seat was a bit far from the stage, but it was the experience that counted! The stadium's atmosphere was electric and everyone scream and danced and partied to the King as he worked the stage. I am glad to say that I have been privileged to have seen him perform and experience his magic live.

MJ performed at the Adelaide Oval in 1996

6. I Remember The Time... Watching Black Or White

This was such a media event when it was released in 1991. I rushed home from school to catch the premier of the Black or White video on the TV. Again, I was just blown away by how cool the technology in the video was. I mean, all that morphing at the end was just not done back then. And then I had to go rush out and buy the Dangerous album when it hit the stands here. It is remains as one of my favourite albums.

7. I Remember The Time... Watching In the Closet

I think almost any teenager with raging hormones at the time would have been transfixed to the TV when they watched the video for In The Closet. MJ and Naomi Campbell totally burned up the screen together. And MJ's silhouette dance moves kept my eyes on screen whenever Naomi didn't. Classic! There was also a lot of speculation who was the "Mystery Girl" who voiced the female voice in the song. Initially people thought it was Madonna, but it was later revealed that it was Princess Stephanie from Monaco. The song was originally supposed to be a duet with Madonna, but the idea was dropped. Pity, but the song is still hot though!

8. I Remember The Time... Listening to Man In The Mirror

Man In the Mirror was probably the first socially conscious song that I ever listened to and understood. I know there was We Are The World before it, but this was the first song that I actually looked at and analyzed the lyrics. And it made sense, even to a boy who was still in his tweens. MJ later came out with other socially charged songs like Heal The World and Earth Song, but this one was and still is my favourite.

9. I Remember The Time... Watching Jam & Remember The Time
I was really big into basketball when I was in high school. Was not very good at it, but still loved it anyway and I still follow the sport today more than football/soccer, which most people here in Malaysia prefer to follow. So when this video of the two biggest MJ's of the generation got released, you can imagine just how excited I got. Jam's a great tune, and the video was only so-so, but just to see MJ trying to teach Michael Jordan how to dance, it was good enough. Classic!

Then there was Remember The Time. This video was EPIC and filled with super cool dancing and chock full of special effects (this was like the Mummy even before the movie was made!) And it also had Ervin 'Magic' Johnson, another one of my favourite basketball icons, guest starring with Eddie Murphy and the super hot Iman.

10. I Remember The Time... HIStory

To me, his last great album was Dangerous, but that still didn't stop me from rushing out to buy this album of greatest hits and new releases. I just had to listen to his duet with Janet on Scream. It was also the first time that he swore on a song, which is also kinda significant. On a mellower note, this album also housed You Are Not Alone, which I loved in the beginning but kinda wore me down due to the repeated playing on radio.

So those are my top 10 memories of how MJ has influenced my life (ok, I cheated with some of them and put in a couple, but there were so many!) I am sure everyone has their own personal list and memories as MJ has reached out and touched so many though his visionary music, videos and style. He will be missed. Rest In Peace.

Michael Joseph Jackson

(29 Aug 1958 - 25 June 2009)
The King is dead. Long live the King.

Related Articles:

• Joe Jackson - Model Father... NOT!

American Idols Interview Each Other

The Los Angeles Times posted some fantastic vids on YouTube of the 2009 Idols interviewing each other. The videos show that theses guys really are friends and just enjoy making fun of each other.

My favourites are:

• Anoop interviewing Matt. You can really tell the camaraderie between these guys. These guys and Danny Gokey are close, as you will know if you follow them on Twitter (@dannygokey, @AnoopDoggDesai and @MGiraudOfficial, if you don't already know). It was also really funny when Allison jumps in and calls Matt LOSER!
  

• Kris interviewing Allison. She was just totally making fun of him and his whole heartthrob image thing.
  

• Kris interviewing Adam/Adam interviewing Kris. Now it was just total marketing genius to have these two interview each other. These two guys are supposedly really close buds and were roommates during Idol. They are polar opposites of each other and according to what "society" defines, shouldn't get along with each other. But they DO seem to get along and they apparantly DO have great and mutual respect for one another. Now if only their fans would get with the whole KRADAM program and stop dissing the other camp...

The other videos are also interesting (didn't really like Matt's interview with Anoop though because it felt like most of his questions were basically about himself: "What's the best part about being MY friend", "most fun you've had since hanging out with ME") but the vids above are my favourites.

Which are yours?

Japanese Toilet Training (Shimajiro) - Muzu-Muzu!

There's something about Japanese kiddie programs... They aren't filled with pearly-white-teeth-high-on-sugar-and-who-knows-what-else kids like the ones in Barney, but neither would I call them anything normal... Or at least normal to what I have been brought up with (I love my Electric Company and Sesame Street).

Shima-kun!

My kids love this Japanese educational kiddie program called Shimajiro by Benesse. It's a cartoon child tiger who teaches kids all about manners, colours, shapes, play and also... toilet training. Yup, this little tiger also teaches kiddies how to do the poo-poo and pee-pee in the loo-loo. How cool is that?

At first I thought that it was just down right weird, but strangely enough, it works! My son, Rei, is now toilet trained and he knows all the key words and catchphrases like "unchi" (poo), "chichi" (pee) and my personal favourite - MUZU-MUZU (the feeling of the tummy or bottom when it's time to do the bizzo).

Muzu-muzu!

And what about that darn toilet song! The one that Shimajiro's parents sing in the video! One of those tunes you just get in your head and can't get out... And not in a good way!

Rei even knows which button to press to indicate what type of business he's gonna do and the second button to go "I DID IT!".

Bet Big Bird never thought anything this on Sesame Street!

My Road To American Idol 2009 Part 3: Touchdown LA!

Man, I am just really procrastinating with this account of my trip to watch the American Idol Finale. Keep finding other articles to post instead of this one! Ok, ok... Instead of posting about my yummy Father's Day dinner at El Cerdo, I'm going to just recap my first day in LA, before I forget it all!

Ok... So we touched down in LA on Monday morning, 18th May 2009. I just love flying eastbound since we always gain a day, so eventhough I had left KL on Sunday evening and spent 17 hours in the air and half a day transit in Tokyo, it was still Monday morning when I arrived. Sweet!

Since we only had 3.5 days in LA, there was no time to rest, so we dumped our bags off with the concierge at the lovely *cough* Downtown LA Holiday Inn, and quickly made our way out to do some exploring!

Even Holiday Inn had Idol fever!

Since we only had 3.5 days in LA, there was no time to rest, so we dumped our bags off with the concierge at the lovely *cough* Downtown LA Holiday Inn, and quickly made our way out to do some exploring!

Tired & Jet-lagged tourists...

So after walking around a little bit, we decided to check out Santa Monica. Heard a lot about it on TV and music, so must be good mah, right? We asked the concierge how to get to Santa Monica and got some directions to hop on to a bus heading that direction.

Ok... Note to self... Next time, plan journey ahead even if you are tired!

Even with the direction from the hotel, we ended up getting on (and off) the wrong bus (thankfully not having to pay because the bus driver must be thinking I'm some stupid tourist) and getting some grunted instructions on which was the correct bus to take to head of Santa Monica.

Here's a little tip for those who don't know... If you want go to Santa Monica, decide which of the two popular hotspots you want to go to, Santa Monica Beach or Santa Monica Boulevard, because they aren't walking distance from one another!

We decided to head to Santa Monica Beach because (a) the trip takes about 1.5 hours from Downtown LA and we wanted to catch the sunset there (b) shopping there is probably helluva lot cheaper.

I sighed a breath of relief and wiped my brow as the bus zoomed by Coach and Tiffany shops on Santa Monica Boulevard...

Ok, so after about 1.5 hours of bus travel (my butt was soooo totally sore from sitting down in the airplane and then the bus), we finally arrived at Santa Monica Beach. So, first things first - LUNCH!

We wanted to try some "American food" so we stopped by at this restaurant called ??? and ordered a giant burrito and buffalo wings (very American no?).

Good wholesome (?!) American meal...

Well, the pictures looks better than the food tasted... I'd have the burrito from Las Carretas and chicken wings from Bandar Menjalara over this stuff any day!

Anyways... We did some shopping...

Santa Monica Beach 3rd Street Mall

Checked out the beach...

Can you see the tiny ferris wheel in the background?

And did some soul search... (NOT)

Oooooommmm....

We then took another 1.5 hour bus ride back to Downtown LA, nodding off on the bus all along the way (it was early morning back in Malaysia after all!).

While walking back to the hotel, we saw this really nice looking restaurant called Bottega Louie so we decided to stop there for dinner. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Will post about this place another time because it was just so good!

Bottega Louie - Best restaurant during the entire trip!

After dinner, we got back to the hotel and HORROR OR HORRORS -

NO IDOL TICKETS!

The tickets were supposed to be delivered at midday to the concierge but when we asked they said that they hadn't received them yet. Thankfully, other people have been asking too, so I knew we were not the only ones.

Whew!

The room wasn't too bad actually! I was quite surprised that it was quite spacious and wasn't very noisy at all, eventhough it faced the main road. Too bad I didn't take a pic of the room. Didn't think I'd be blogging about it after all... =p

After settling in, I called Star World to say "WHADDUP! Where's my tickets?!".

Well, not really, but kinda...

Was told that there was a mix-up at the courier's office and that the tickets would be available by morning the following day. It had better since the show was at 4pm on that day!

With that, that wraps up my first day in LA on the trip!

Will write about the American Idol Finale Performance Day next (if I don't procrastinate again...)

To be continued!

David Archuleta's Dad gets busted...

Happy times... Ahem... Click image for story...

Poor David... First he has to endure the Stage Dad From Hell and now Daddy needs to go ahead and get himself in trouble just ahead of his tour...

I guess David's dad is still Crushed and A Little Too Not Over the fact that his son finished second to David Cook. So he had to go to set a 'massage' and ask the masseuse to "Touch My Hand".

"No Miss, not those hands..."

Hmmm... I wonder if there's a Happy Ending to this story... Ahem again...

Taylor Swift & T-Pain Make Out...

... a collaboration at the CMT Music Awards that is! =)

WORD UP! T-SWIZZLE! T-PIZZLE!

This short video called Thug Story is just too funny not to be shared!

Love it when T-Pian does that "She didn't even swear" bit with his trademark Autotune sound... Hilarious!

YATTA!!!

"YATTA!"

...said Hiro Nakamura when he successfully teleported from his Tokyo office to New York in the hit TV series Heroes.

The phrase then became worldwide pop-culture and a popular catchphrase for the TV series.

But little do the people outside Japan know of how it reeeeally got popular in the land of the rising sun in the first place...

Ladies and gentleman, minna-sama... Get ready for Happa-tai!

"YATTA! YATTA!! YATTA!!!"

What the heck is GREENL anyway? Green Leaves??? Anyway, the song is from 2001 by a a fictional Japanese band called Happa-tai. You can read more about it in this Wikipedia article.

I will never look at Hiro Nakamura the same way again...

How are you gonna save the Cheerleader like that?!

I AM BENJAMIN CHEONG!

No, no... I am not schizophrenic. And no, I have just not finished watching Spartacus (I AM SPARTACUS!) or Judge Dredd (I YAM DA LAW!).

I'm just cheesed that Google isn't picking my blog up when I search for "Benjamin Cheong" or "Benjamin Cheong" blog. Hmmm... Guess I'm gonna have to read up on SEO or something... Or just post more...

Aiyah... The latter option sounds easier...

Doh... Can't seem to get Youtube going. Down for maintenance perhaps? Can't go searching for links to Spartacus and Judge Dredd...

Oh well, later then. Off to bed!

EDIT

Ok! I've got Youtube going again, so here's the links I videos I wanted to share...

I AM SPARTACUS!


I YAAM DA LAW!!

My Road To American Idol 2009 Part 2: The Trip to LA

Ok, ok… I better start getting into putting my American Idol Finale experience down before I forget all of it. I’ve got a memory like a sieve after all.

I’ve already covered how I accidentally won the ticket, so I’ll cover just quickly cover the journey over.

Winning the ticket actually caused a little bit of a dilemma for me. You see, firstly my application for leave in July was just shot down the week before so I didn’t know whether I could get 1 week off at the end of May. Secondly, I couldn’t take the kids into the show and we didn’t know any babysitters in LA, nor did we think that Rei would take kindly to being left with any stranger. Thirdly, H1N1 (aka swine flu) that was spreading and LA was one of the hotspots, so we didn’t really think it was wise for the kids to fly.

“So why can’t we leave the kids with the in-laws?” I hear you ask.

Well, we weren’t sure how the kids, especially Rei, would take to being left without their parents for an extended period of time for the first time, so we were worried that my mum couldn’t keep up with taking care of 2 screaming kids. In the end, we had to rely on a combo of my mum and also Futaba’s aunty who stays here on the “Malaysia My 2nd Home” programme. We left the kids with my mum on the Sunday that we flew off, and they would head over to Futaba’s aunt’s place a couple of days later when she returned from Japan.

Rei had a teary farewell and after we had checked in at KLIA, we called home to see how was everything – The kids were asleep! Not only that, but Rei fell asleep happily watching TV with my mum! We thought “Hey! This might not be so bad after all!”, and kept our fingers crossed that this would continue for the rest of the week.

Anyway, Futaba and I were pretty much one of the only handful of people actually taking precaution and wearing face masks at the airport! The barista at Starbucks even thought I was returning from overseas and had been given the mask by some other airport or in the airplane (as if…).

Needless to say we got a lot of funny stares and snickers from the people around us. Hey, you would point and stare too if Cobra Commander walked by…

Cobra! REETREEEEAT!

We had a few hours transit in Japan on the way to LA and were put up at the Nikko Hotel in Narita for a few hours. Futaba took the opportunity to call friends and family and found out that one of our friends was actually recently transferred to be the GM at Nikko Narita! What a coincidence! Anyway, we met up for a good chat and catch-up session and he was nice enough to send us off at the Airport Bus.

Thanks Tanaka-san!

LA - Here we come baby! (Ok, ok, I know it’s in the past, but “here we come” just sounds better, so there!).

To be continued…

No Boundaries Face-Off!

Ok... I still haven't gotten to writing about the rest of my AI 2009 experience yet, but there are so many people having strong opinions about who should have won I thought it would be interesting to just run a quick poll about it.

Feel that Adam was cheated of the title? Or perhaps America got it right and Kris deserved it more? Well, here's the first acid test - their first singles, No Boundaries.

Ok, ok, I know it's a crap song (I cringed when I first heard it at the show)... But that's not the point now. The point is which one is better? Kris' or Adam's?

Have a listen to both and decide!

↓ SOUND OFF HERE ↓

I have decided to take the poll offline because GAWD! THE VISU POLLS DRAG THE PAGE LOAD SPEED DOWN! Sheesh... Gonna have to look for another poll engine in future... In any case, when I closed the poll, Kris and Adam's votes were tied at 50-50! So looks like we'll have to wait until the albums come out to see if it's another Ruben-Clay situation... Anyways, thanks to everyone who voted!

WANKER!

Wow! Just 1 day in and I've already got my first rant to babble about!

Went to Westin today to have lunch with some friends and also let the kids play in the pool there. Generally had a good time... Rei didn't want to try floating by himself again, but Aki seemed to enjoy herself in the water.

Had a nice enough chicken burger and lychee smoothie, while the kiddies enjoyed themselves in a very nice (but expensive!) kids room, fully equiped with kids favourites like the Thomas playtable and large Step2 kiddie car.

Overall an enjoyable afternoon with the family and friends, that is until we were on the way out - we saw a guy (nationality unknown) jerking strangely at the corner of the pool. And jerking is the right word to use - He was wanking off in the pool! And how do we know he wasn't just having a spasm? Well, let's just say that there were stuff that aren't supposed to be in swimming pools there...

What kind of weirdo is this anyway?! Not only is this a public pool, but it's in the bloody Westin! I mean, we all have relieved ourselves in swimming pools before (c'mon admit it!) but this really takes it to a new low... Am so lucky we got out of the pool before this imbecile went in!

WTF!

My Road To American Idol 2009 Part 1: Fate or Luck?

A few people have asked me to blog about my experience going to the American Idol 2009 Finals, and I've always just asked them to follow it on Facebook and Twitter, since I didn't have a blog.

Well, since now I do, I'm just gonna put what I can remember down for posterity. Hopefully it'll give some insight to you as to what isn't shown on TV every week.

But before that, I'll start with how I won the ticket to watch the finals in the first place! This was the performance that started it all!

Now here's the story behind the video...

My family and I were at Cineleisure Damansara on 3rd May 2009 to check out the sales (think it was a Massimo Dutti warehouse sale) and while walking back to The Curve, we noticed something happening at center court - It was JJ and Ean from Hitz.FM hosting Star World's Golden Ticket To American Idol finals.

We stopped by to have a look and my wife, Futaba, dared me to try and win a goody bag (which I won) and I decided to throw my name into the lucky draw for the additional 3 wildcard entries into this Monopoly-like game they were playing - not knowing that the main prize was a trip to Los Angeles.

When they pulled the 3rd wildcard number and it wasn't mine, we started making our way out of the building. But the owner of the 3rd wildcard number wasn't there! We paused... They pulled another number. The guy was there... Darn... We start walking away. The guy couldn't answer the question to qualify to enter the game... But we continue walking... They did the 3rd try for the 3rd and final wildcard...

Futaba starts shouting at me saying its our number! I make a record 100m dash (for me anyway) back into the building, waving my hands like a mad man. Answered the questions and BAM - I'm in the game!

The Board: If only they gave RM200 when you pass GO...

Anyway, to cut a long story short - I played the Monopoly-like game (with my son Rei sleeping in my arms for the most of it) and ended up with a tie to determine the winner. Rules state that we must do a performance as a tie breaker and let the crowd decide the winner. Up until now, Futaba still doesn't believe that I was playing for a trip to the Finals... =)

Lily sang Endless Love and I sang I'm Yours. And with a little (a lot of?) help from Rei, I got the popular vote and that set me off for an experience of a lifetime in LA to watch the finals.

Rei: "Erm... Daddy, what's all the fuss about?"

Thanks to Star World and Hitz.FM for the opportunity!

Heeeellloooo Blogosphere!

Ok! So here it is! My first official post!

I've finally managed to drag my prehistoric butt into the new age of the Internet and have decided to start blogging.

Don't know who will really bother reading, but what the heck, if anything this will serve as a digital notepad of my experiences and thoughts as my memory is as bad as a leaky sieve (I can tell Futaba is already nodding away agreeing).

Anyways, this blog is just as it's title reads - BenZ Babbles... A collection of my babbles covering anything and everything I decide to write about. Music, TV, amusing events, random thoughts... Anything that takes me longer than 140 characters to write using Twitter. =)

Ok... Gotta finish off some work... Will post my first babble soon... Oh wait.. I just did! =)

EDIT - 20090619


Right... Since this is the very first post that I've ever done and that it's most likely going to be the most unreferenced page in my blog, I'm going to use this post as a little SEO experiment... Please excuse the following links as I'm going to try and do some link exchanging... Excuse the dust ok?

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