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If you were to choose someone to be your life narrator, who would it be and why? This question came to me on a whim last night as I was watching Deadliest Catch on one of the Discovery channels. The show is narrated by Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs and the voice over for Ford F-150 commercials.

Mike has a very strong, manly voice that works well with these shows and the marketing of the F-150. At first I thought this manly quality of his voice was my reason for choosing him as my life narrator. Then I got to thinking about who I am and how that relates. I am a man and while I enjoy watching fishermen getting tossed around on the high seas and watching Mike go into the muckiest realms of society I’m not really an F-150 kind of guy. So what else is about Mike’s voice? The other side of Mike is that he is very down to earth and very approachable and it comes through in the way he talks. These are qualities that I feel are a little closer to who I am and what make Mike Rowe my choice for Scott’s life narrator.

So here’s your challenge: Who is you life narrator? Now, go find a good clip of their voice and post it in the comments with your reasons why you chose this person. When listening to your clip or others, video or audio, close your eyes and really listen. Picture the voice talking about you or whomever you’re reading about. I’d love to hear your life narrator.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpR9dP929LE&hl=en]

A few friends have recently announced their pending membership in the Daddy Club. This got me to thinking about what makes fatherhood so special. I always feel like it is difficult to explain, but there are little moments that just make life wonderful. This is one of them…

This week I got to spend some good quality time with my two year-old daughter, Juliana, as Jen was in Germany for work. She actually stayed at Jen’s folks the first two nights as I had school. We visited my folks one night and then Jen’s folks stopped by again last night. These visits were so she could spend time with her grandparents and distract her from M… o… m… m… y… being away.

So tonight, the last night Jen is away, was actually our first night to just hang out. I picked Juliana up from school and we headed home. It was so nice outside that we didn’t actually make it into the house for at least a half-hour after getting home. She played on her swing set and tromped through the tulips insisting that they all “Open now!”. We came in and I was getting her dinner ready when she decided that we needed to do her dishes, all her food containers and juice cups from the past two days. She pulled the chair over, hopped up on it and proceeded to hold each item under water and then handed it to me to wash. We worked like a well-oiled machine. After dinner I could tell that she was getting a little tired and upset as little ones her age are prone to do. She started to pout and I got the sense that she was looking for someone who wasn’t around. She then looked up at me and raised her arms. So I scooped her up and she wrapped her arms tight around me and snuggled on my shoulder. Her mood quickly went from sad to happy and it was so deeply satisfying to feel so needed. She picked her head up off my shoulder, turned towards me and said, “Its just you and me Daddy.”

Wait!!! Wait a just a minute here!!! This is not your usual Rick Roll. This is more like The Ultimate Rick Roll. Hmmmm,that may not keep you around, but indulge me for a minute. You’ll notice that all of the words in this post are links to everbody’s favorite 80s star (yes I’m using the term ‘star’ very
loosley). Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to discover the ones that are not Rick Roll’s. Feel free to look at the source code or to use any means you deem appropriate to decipher the hidden message. Discover the hidden message and be the first to post it back in comments and you will win the admiration
of well no one really, but you can pass the meesage along to its intended recipient.

The classic post about twitter starts with something along the lines of 30% of folks who try Twitter simply don’t get what its all about. There are also various posts on novel uses and Twitter etiquette. Twitter is a mini-blog, a glorified chat-room, a TXT tool and many other things, but I believe its most important description is that of group consciousness.

Once you use Twitter for a little while you begin to get to know people in a way that accelerates relationships. Within a group of twitterers you become part of a larger ongoing conversation and an observer of many smaller ones. It is in these smaller conversations that you learn little tidbits about new and old friends. You may not be actively participating in the conversation but you are allowed to see into it in such a way that provides the intimacy of having actually participated.

The wonderful thing is that real world gatherings become a continuation of the conversation, as if you all had been sitting around the table together for the past few days or weeks. When the crowd is larger I sometimes find myself quietly observing and just soaking up the dialog, injecting occasionally, just like I would on Twitter. The whole group is “in” on everything. The group interacts in a way that is really unique to a large group. Everyone has an understanding of everyone else on a level that is just a bit deeper than only normal conversation provides. Each person has had numerous conversations with everyone else, whether they realize it or not. There are all types of personalties, but from my view and interactions I haven’t seen too many personality clashes. Everyone not just gets along, but really seems to feed off of each other as we have learned along the way what each has to offer and what the best way is to interact on an individual level.

I do loosely follow a rule about who I follow or allow to follow my tweets. Generally, I have to have had some real world interaction with the person. Of course there are exceptions, I will include folks who know others I follow. I have a bit of disdain for people who insist on following thousands of people. I really wonder what it is they are up to as it would appear impossible to follow any sort of thread at all. Then again, that is just my view. I am sure they have their reasons.

The point is that Twitter is not limited to my uses. It is a simple flexible tool that has the potential to reach a little deeper than it appears on the surface. How do you use Twitter? What do you get out of it? I’d love to read your comments.

@scottsweep