AI5 finale results show and Clay Aiken ...

Hello everyone,

Well I have been resisting, but it seems to be next to impossible to resist weighing in on the American Idol 5 finale results show which was held last Wednesday evening - and in particular, Clay's appearance on the show.

Goodness knows, everyone else has written and disseminated everything going through their mind (good and bad) about the "Clappearance" on AI5, so why not me, I figured, since I'm a true-and-true Clay fan?

Just check out this graph of Clay mentions on Technorati (the oft-called "Google-of-blogs"): posts that contain Clay Aiken per day for the last 30 days

Get your own chart!

"Clay Aiken" is currently the most-often searched term on Technorati... it's incredible, but well-deserved and a long time coming for our friend Clay!

Seems that Clay made the evening, perhaps even more than AI5 winner Taylor Hicks himself! Not fair for the guy, but I have to say that I mostly watched the finale with the hope of seeing our man Clay once again. And see him I did! What an appearance! I knew him right away when he appeared in the background behind the parting curtains - those big feet turned outwards gave him away. :-) A true Clay stance. The male fan's reaction to seeing the real Clay come out and join him onstage was both cute and annoying at the same time. But I was peeved when he kept on belting out his out-of-tune imitation of Clay - I kept mentally begging him to be quiet and let Clay shine. Shine he did of course - because Clay always does. I felt so proud and happy to see him again, live and in front of our eyes. He has become a true star, needing no introduction, no explanation, just Clay with his huge heart, his smile and his incredible voice.

But... here goes. I know I'll get a few (many?) disapproving comments on this, but I have to say that I don't love the new haircut, in fact I don't even like it. It makes him look way young and immature, with the bangs in his eyes and plastered to his forehead so one can't properly see his beautiful eyes:
Clay AI5 Flickr.com pix, posted by "Friend of Faeries" 

Quite unappealing in my opinion, nothing like his natural strawberry-blond short locks sticking up in the air, which I love. I think his hair was at his best when he performed during last summer's Jukebox Tour. I really love the photos of Clay which fans posted online of the JBT05 concerts. One of my very favourites can be seen here:

It shows true Clay emotion, plus I love his hair at that time. Guess I'll have to post a hair-poll to guage my fellow fans' appreciation of Clay's new hairstyle. But then, I already know most love it - just see the results of a current poll being taken by Clay's Daily Double. In any case, it has sure created a buzz around Clay, such that now would be a great time to release your new album, Clay! ;-)

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Clay Aiken fan blogs

Hello everyone,

I am just amazed by the recent explosion in Clay fan blogs. It's great! Mine has been going since last October, which I thought qualified for pretty recent. But in the last few weeks - count 'em, weeks! - I have noticed a marked increase in the number of blogs not only mentioning Clay, but, like ClayKat, devoted exclusively or almost exclusively to this incredible singer. I figure fans are so eager to hear Clay's upcoming album, and see him once again in the public eye, that they are creating blogs to at least share our love for this young man and make the wait less difficult!

To find some of these other fan blogs, see the "Links" section in the right-hand column of my blog. Under the sub-heading "Search tools for finding Clack", you will find the following entries, which I comment below:

- Fan blogs about Clay Aiken on Technorati - these blogs focus exclusively or almost exclusively, on Clay;
- Blog posts mentioning Clay Aiken, referenced by Technorati - this link leads one to posts on any blog referenced by Technorati and which mention Clay, no matter how small the mention;
- Blogs and blog posts mentioning Clay Aiken, referenced by Blogger: this takes one to posts and blogs referenced by Blogger (my blog host and one of the main, free blog hosting services).

Unfortunately, along with the good, you will also find the ugly: posts and blogs full of hate, slander and discrimination, spreading rumours and nasty accusations about Clay, which I believe to be ridiculous. I guess freedom of expression has to dominate, so all one can do is ignore them and pass on by, while heading towards the pearls of life which celebrate and affirm Clay in words and music. Like ClayKat! Happy blogging! :-)

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Proud to be a Clay Aiken fan

Hello everyone,

I just read a blog post which I really enjoyed - and can relate to! Thought I would share it with you. The author of the blog entitled Show Me Love, Show Me Life says: "Yes, I'm a Clay Aiken fan.......Why do you ask?" She got me at the title!

The author writes about how she discovered Clay - like me, at his first audition in January 2003, when jaws dropped across North America at the sound of that voice coming out of that body. In my case, I actually had tears in my eyes, he pulled my heartstrings so much. The blogger writes about Clay's so-called "It" factor, which fans of Clay all recognize, but which is so difficult to explain to those who don't see it (and how come they don't see it, anyway - it's so obvious to us?!).

The post goes on to describe how she became involved in the online fandom after going to one of Clay's concerts - just like I did. I loved Clay from that first moment in AI2, bought his CD's, DVD, book, looked out for him on TV etc. But for some reason I never really explored the Web world of Clay until after I attended the Jukebox Tour last summer.

I love that the blogger describes how she began to write through online fan fiction, meeting other writers and Clay fans, developing her skill, honing her talents. Who knows if that would have happened had she never known Clay? Here is yet another example of the positive effect Clay has in our lives!

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All Things Clay Aiken Web site will be closing down on May 31st

Hello everyone,

I learned of some sad news recently. The well-respected Clay fan site known as "ACTA", All Things Clay Aiken, will be taken down as of May 31st. Webmaster KCClaymate explains that this is "due to personal reasons of [her] own as well as financial ones regarding the site cost."

In my occasional series of posts featuring great Clay fan sites, I blogged about ACTA last November.

I want to thank KCClaymate for her devotion and commitment to Claymates - and Clay! - since 2003 when she started her site. And I would invite fans to go check out All Things Clay Aiken soon - before May 31st anyway!

There is amazing clack to be downloaded there, for example: photos, fan montages, MP3s, videos, etc., from American Idol 2 days, before and after AI2... and much more! An incredible Clay-fan reference and resource which will be sorely missed from the online clack horizon!

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My del.icio.us Clay Aiken hotlinks

Hello everyone,

Has anyone noticed the new section in my right-hand column? Entitled "My 20 most recent "del.icio.us" Clay Aiken hotlinks", it is just below my Technorati blog search tool - scroll down the right-hand column a bit to see it. Look for this symbol:

What is that, you are wondering? I bet some of you are thinking lascivious thoughts, because of its title: "del.icio.us"! Well, no folks, that's not the way I'm thinking! Let me explain.

del.icio.us is an online social bookmarking tool (free, too!) which allows one to save and tag bookmarks one wants to keep for further reference and access from anywhere one has the Internet. I love it! Among other things, it has allowed me to build up an interesting collection of Clay Aiken bookmarks, which, instead of being saved on just my personal computer, get saved onto the Internet, searchable through the del.icio.us
search tag: "Clay Aiken". And once I save a bookmark, anyone, anywhere in the world, can access and save those bookmarks too.

I decided to integrate into my blog, an evolving list of my 20 most recent Clay Aiken online finds (including Web sites, blogs, forums, listservs, etc.). As soon as I save a new bookmark into my del.icio.us account, it automatically appears at the top of the list in that space on my blog. And if you click on the title text: "click on this title to access all of the hotlinks", you will be directly taken to all the del.icio.us hotlinks tagged Clay Aiken (there are currently over 100 of them so far!).

Social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us are one of the hallmarks of the so-called Web 2.0 phenomenon, where the Internet is evolving towards a more interactive, dynamic, people-centered, accessible media for all. That's the way I like it! If I find something fun and useful online, I want to share it with others, and Web 2.0 features allow me to do so.

How can you benefit from these new Clay hotlinks? Here are some of the many ways:

- you can check out my blog often and see if there are any new hotlinks added to my del.icio.us 20-most-recent list
- you can save the RSS feed to my Clay links so you will automatically be alerted when a new hotlink is added to my list
- you can check out del.icio.us' Clay Aiken hotlinks on a regular basis
- or save the feed for all Clay Aiken-tagged bookmarks in del.icio.us

And there are undoubtedly other ways which I haven't yet figured out! I'm still learning about this wonderful adventure that is the Web, and how to use it to improve myself, contribute to others' lives and have fun in the process, particularly to share my admiration for Clay!

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"The Amazing Race: Clay Aiken edition 2006" - how it went for me

Last Monday evening, I participated in The "Amazing Race" Clay Aiken online edition, spring 2006, which was organized by Clay's Daily Double, Clay Aiken - the Ideal Idol and the Clay Report. I had blogged about it a few days beforehand. Turns out about 300 people began the race, while 61 finished it. And I am relieved to say that after over 3 hours that evening, crossed eyes and a bit less hair on my head, I was one of the 61 who crossed the finish line. Phew! At one point I wasn't sure I would make it! Ok, I was only number 35 to reach the finish line, which is not too great, but hey, at least I was there. :-)

And I want to thank the organizers for including my blog in the list of Website destinations - that was very nice of you, and contributed to greater visibility for ClayKat! Since then, I have noticed an increase in visitors, which is great. Thanks also for the personal comment in the ClayKat clue (something like "check out her blog, it's awesome") - that was very sweet of you!

The race was a lot of fun - but also, a lot harder than I expected. I thought there were be mostly questions about Clay, his life, his music, his personality. But the questions seemed mostly about Claymate fan sites, and Clayfans themselves. And I do say "seemed" because I'm just sharing my impressions. I don't have the actual questions anymore, and so I haven't done anything like a proper analysis. I thought I knew most of the Clay fan Web sites and blogs, but I discovered some I had no idea existed, which is great. And I thank the race organizers for including afterwards a list of the Websites and blogs which were race destination sites. More Clay resources to get to know!

I have a few critiques which I would like to share. One of them was an obstacle which made me lose about 45 minutes - 1 hour, and almost made me give up continuing the race. It was the clue to find a piece of information on an ezboard discussion forum. One has to be logged in to access those fora, and I couldn't for the life of me recall the password I had used a long time ago when I set up an ezboard account for myself. I used the automatic system to ask ezboard to send me my password. At least 45 minutes later, it still hadn't arrived in my e-mail account... Finally, when I was about to give up, because I could not go any further into the race without providing the answer to the ezboard question, my stepson asked his Dad whether he didn't have an ezboard account. He said he thought so, though it had been a while. I tried logging in using his username and his usual password - which worked, thank goodness! I then found the answer to the question, and continued the race.

The only other issue I have, which slowed me down, was that occasionally the responses one had to provide to move on to the next clue... were wrong. Unless there was something I completely missed, but I don't think so. Let me explain: on at least two questions, I entered what was the correct response (according to the Websites which posted the information), only to be told that it was incorrect. So I had to play around, guessing what might be the "right" answer, although it was actually wrong. The two questions I have in mind had to do with how much money had been raised in Oklahoma for a Clay-related cause (not sure it if was the Bubel-Aiken Foundation - I think so) and the date of ticket pre-sales in Pittsburgh for a Clay concert. For the first question, I entered the correct answer, but the one that was accepted was the amount of funds raised in just one city in Oklahoma, not the state as a whole. As for the second question, the answer was October 6th, 2005, but it refused to let that answer go through. I had to test every date between 1 and 31 until finally it let something go through that was not on the original Website.

In sum, I will definitely participate again - the race was a lot of fun - but I hope the next version will be a bit shorter, have more directly-Clay-related-clues, and no links to online fora or sites for which one has to be registered to get in. ;-)

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