The Grand Prize winner is JULIE COOK, who correctly identified an astounding 60 percent correct! It must be mentioned that Julie has never met me! Julie will be the recipient of the Starbucks gift card.

As promised, here are the correct answers.

What city was I born in? Lima, Ohio. Many chose Colorado Springs probably because I lived there most of my life.

What is my middle name? Jeffrey. Ladelphia would have gotten you creative points.

What song did I choose to sing at a karaoke bar? (first time) Wonderful Tonight – Eric Clapton. Not many would know this as not many saw or heard it, thankfully! But it happened at my own place and my head cook and good friend Tony set me up. I don’t recall it all as he unfairly used a number of shots of Wild Turkey to convince me. It was a wonderful night. Pete correctly commented that the Hootie song was not a Hootie song which was true — which made me wonder since he knew that why did he pick it?! For the record, most of you chose Hootie and the Blowfish as the music I sang. They are one of my favorite groups, but were not the choice that night.

How many times have I traveled out of the country? 4, I think.

Fave Morning Coffee Stop: Dutch Bros. Everyone should have gotten this one right. If you are fortunate to have a Dutch Bros coffee in your neck of the woods, you understand.

All were pets except: LUCY. Lucy was a cool girl that was my partner in training at Carnival Cruise Lines. Maxie was a sweet yellow lab; Ranger was a special chocolate lab; Trooper was a German Shephard mix that grew up with my kids; Mr. No was our African Grey parrot, and he named himself.

What subject did I teach? Language Arts.

8th grade girl friend’s name: Kelley.

Phil the Lurk was nickname given by whom? Denise, as in Pikes Peak Denise. Most of you had no idea because those of you who knew us in Steve’s friendship forum came after. That back in about 2002, I think, when I was much less comfortable with online anything. Denise would see that rare occasion where I would log in and called me Philthelurk.

Favorite vehicle (owned the longest): 68 Chevelle. My son even missed this! The give away was the vehicle I owned the longest. I had the Chevelle for over 20 years and had bought it from the original owner. She cried the day we transferred the title. I even remember her calling me a year later to see how the car was! I made a mistake and sold it finally to a young guy that had followed me to work to offer me a price. It took about three months before I decided it was time to let it go. I didn’t cry but felt pretty bad. In hindsight, it was a mistake. All the others were vehicles I have owned at one time or another (72 Camero, 55 Chevy Pickup, 81 CJ5, 83 GLC).

Congrats again to Julie, who by knowledge or by guess picked 6 of the 10 correctly. For the rest of you, even Shana, who scored the lowest total, I will use an online randomizer to select who will win the other gift card from Starbucks. That will be announced on Wednesday! (promise).

And should you ever have opportunity to participate in another like contest, follow me on Twitter where I share more about what I think, do, read, and believe on a daily basis.

First, at its worst, there is no doubt some becoming addicted in a narcissistic way to the world of real time updating. These people see themselves on a stage and believe the world is truly interested in what they are doing now, which often doesn’t amount to much.

The Twitter FAQ summarizes this activity as:

a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Possibilities are endless!

In this dual community of friends and strangers, I plan to pursue two uses for social networking. The ability to follow people that are expert or successful in areas I am interested allows me an inside track to what they are thinking, reading, learning, etc. This is exciting to me. By being able to listen in, so to speak, to their conversations, I am gaining insight to what they are doing and learning, on a daily basis, as they share what sites they are visiting, books they are reading, posts they are writing, and who they are listening to. Their world is accessible to me.

Think of it this way. Have you ever thought how cool it would be to spend a day with someone you have heard about that is doing something significant or successfully? Twitter is one platform that is allowing people to share and engage in ways never before possible. These exchanges are not limited by time or geographic boundaries. And even more significant is the possibility of actually developing business and professional relationships. Used appropriately, true friendships can also result.

The ability to select who you listen to is powerful too. This “following” activity reminds me of the old E.F. Hutton advertising slogan, “When E.F. Hutton Talks, people listen.” That is how I am feeling when I see a “tweet” from one of the people I respect professionally. I am paying attention to what they have to say.

Next, developing a following of family and friends connected by this technology I see as beneficial. It is in this group that I am appreciative of knowing what coffee they had this morning, fun they had last night, or announcement they want to let the group know. Sharing and encouraging one another in this digital environment has potential.

Still not getting it?! Basically, you’re no-one if you’re not on Twitter:

I’ll see ya on Twitter, where you can be bookmarked, re-tweeted and blogged!

I signed up for a Twitter account and here is what I am finding. First, it clearly can be something that can be misused or addicitng. The concept of sharing what you are doing in 140 characters or less is where this phenomena begins. Those that stop there are the ones’ that don’t get it. This level of understanding leaves the skeptic to see Twitter as a self-promotion vehicle, with narcisistic results, and it certainly could be. Here’s more of the story.

Finding what other’s are doing allows you find not only what they may be doing at the moment, but also what they are reading, thinking about, commenting on, finding and then sharing it. It’s in these realms some real cool things are happening. Benefits are far reaching for one personally or for business.

For example, I have in just two short days been able to listen in, so to speak, on the conversations of some very successful bloggers. I’ve gained new sources of insight, practices, tools, etc. They share (tweet) what they are reading, online sites/blogs that have interesting posts. What might have taken me days or weeks to find, I can now find discussions on or ask questions where literally a global network can respond. There are discussions where people are sharing information on just about every interest.

I am obviously still trying to sort all this out. One of the best sources I have found is the blog Twitips.com. If you are new to Twitter (or have been around it awhile), you will find this to be a very helpful source in sorting out all of the options and keeping up with the latest. I made the decision to use TweetDeck based on the post of the 5 best tools of 2008 for Twitter.

Come check it out and Follow Me to see what I’m doing, saying, or reading!

What a complete waste of time! Are you kidding me?! I don’t get it.

And I didn’t …until a couple of days ago. If what I am seeing and learning about today is what I think it is, does and more importantly will do, Twitter is going to significantly and thoroughly change how networks connect online … globally. In a HUGE way.

If you plan to ** follow ** these posts, (emphasis will make sense if you get it), I encourage you to read an eye-opening article by Clive Thompson that is the best explanation of why and how the world is embracing digital networks. You, as I, will begin to grasp what is happening within the realms of Facebook and Twitter and our social worlds. There’s a good bit that is awesome, although it isn’t all good. Read this provocative article here, Brave New World of Digital Intimacy.

Twitter works around what people are doing. Are you kidding me? Why do I care what you are doing? Oh, wait till you ** get it **.

Wait till I share what I have seen and learned in just the first couple of days. This thing is big. And if used right, really cool. Trust me.

So, what am I doing? Follow me on Twitter!