Just had an email reply from Ali [from our Buddy-team] !! Dancing for joy. Shalalala~ ^.^

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Blogskins is conking out on me. I am getting bored of my template! Sigh, i shall go and gorge on some ice-cream. Flick the telly. And try and get some theory done before my lesson. I am so restless.

Shoot me somebody.

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Was searching for templates online, and came across this line: Sometimes its hard to keep on running. May i add on to it? Sometimes its hard to stay stationary like this too. It gets boring. when it gets boring you will get restless. when you get restless i will get pissed. when i get pissed i will sleep. when i sleep it gets boring. when it gets boring you will get restless. when you get restless i will get pissed. when i get pissed i will sleep. when i sleep it gets boring. Want me to continue? I told you i am bored. -__-

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I think i'm suffering from two jet lags. if not why am i so sleepy the whole day? Ah.....
Sigh, feeling really bored and spaced-out. I need OM in my life man~! Haha, think i'm sounding like some obsessed freak.
Sigh.
Sigh.
Sigh.
Is it part of a secret plan that no one is to be online at 2.52pm on a Saturday to bore me out so that i'll go screaming and wreck my knee further by cycling around the spoilt-girl-with-a-slide 's house, and go swinging doobedeee high on that new swing?

I'm bored.

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Extracted from In Touch, page 12 - 15.
--------------
It was a nail-biting finish. But in the end Ruben Studdard had the votes to pull off an American Idol victory. Or did he? More than 38 million viewers were watching when host Ryan Seacrest gave out the numbers – and then had to correct himself. Now fans are asking if the result was fixed among the questions hanging over the final:
-Why couldn’t viewers get through on the phone lines?
-How were the votes counted, and who checked them?
-Were the judges pushing for Ruben to win?

Voting
Switchboards were jammed across the country as millions tried in vain to vote for Clay. “Nobody in North Caroline and several other states could get through,” his mom Faye told In Touch. She added, “People in other states tell me their lines were jammed and couldn’t get through because so many people were voting.” Phone lines were left open for three hours after the show ended, supposedly granting enough time for everyone to vote. But it didn’t work.
In Touch has discovered that when some people dialed Clay’s number they actually voted for Ruben! A Fox spokesman said he was aware of the complaint but said the problem was due to a glitch in the telephone system. Edna Gundersen, USA Today’s senior music critic, tells In Touch,”I do think there’s something fishy in the tabulations. Too many people could not get through to place votes, suggesting the lines were operating at maximum capacity.” In Clay’s home state of North Carolina, fans have been inundating their local newspapers with complaints. “Aiken fans cry foul,” ran a headline in the Raleigh News & Observer, accompanied by stories demanding a recount. “They want an investigation. They want a recount. They want fairness, for crying out loud,” said an article.

Numbers
Host Ryan Seacrest twice announced incorrect figures describing the difference in the close vote between Ruben and Clay. “It was a mistake on the part of the host,” a Fox spokesman admitted to In Touch. The rep added that mistakes “add to the excitement on live television. He [Seacrest] simply read the digits wrong.”

Secrecy
The network threw a veil of secrecy over the ballot procedure, refusing to give In Touch the name of the company that counts its votes. “All that matters is that Ruben Studdard is the new American Idol,’ said Fox spokesman Scott Grogin. “I’m not going to give out that information.” In Touch can reveal that the balloting was handled by a British company called Telescope, a small firm which handled text messaging votes for the show’s UK version, Pop Idol and worked in tandem with Fox and AT&T for this year’s U.S. votes. Many are surprised a more well known firm wasn’t used. Nicole Thomas, form the accounting firm Ernst and Young – which audits votes for the Emmys and the Golden Globes – stressed the importance of openness to the public, telling In Touch, “The Golden Globes likes to be associated with a big firm such as ours.”

Popularity
Just one day before the grand finale, a USA Today poll showed Clay had 68 percent of the vote compared to Ruben’s 32 percent. Amazon.com, the country’s leading merchandise outlet, ranked Clay’s single, “This is the Night,” ahead of Ruben’s “flying Without Wings.” Even the day after Ruben won, Clay was still Number 1 on Amazon’s chart.
“Clay should have won,” insists the New York Post’s entertainment critic Adam Buckman. “He aced more of his performances than Ruben did.” Adds Edna Gundersen, form USA Today, “I was surprised Ruben won because Clay seemed to have the momentum in the final week.” But the contest judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson all seemed to be pulling for Ruben. “I believe they want Ruben,” third-placed Kimberley Locke said. “Simon says that every opportunity he gets.”
Randy confirmed his Ruben bias to In Touch, and Paula echoed his sentiment.
One conspiracy theory advanced on a web chat site is that two weeks before the finale, Clay’s performance of “Vincent” was hampered by producers, who rearranged the song just 25 minutes before he went on stage. Sure enough, Clay appeared to miss a line when he sang the Don McLean classic. He was criticized by the judges for the error, which some say was deliberately orchestrated to make him look bad.

Money
Clay was widely seen by Fox as less marketable than Ruben, suspects Martin Lewis, a music industry vet who’s worked with Paul McCartney, Sting and Phil Collins among other others. Lewis tells In Touch, “this was all about calculating what kind of artist the public might like, presenting that artist as sympathetically as possible, and then going with it. Ruben appeared more distinctive. This, I’m afraid, is why Clay had such a slender chance.”

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Got back this morning at 1+ am. Slept till ard 4-5 pm. I'm so dead. ^.^

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[a]rchives
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