I have searched all over for this

[VicDesigns]

I am definitely doing something wrong.
I removed the richtextbox and placed a new one there, inserted the code you provided, ran debug and the whole textbox on the left went crazy splurting out random numbers.
I presume it is into form1.vb I am putting the code right?
<!-- shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt="hock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- shock: -->