So, it has been decided.  Tonight at USTREAM I held a live drawing to decide who won the Sony Cyber-shot digital camera give-away.  With 365 entries to the contest from over 70 entrants the contest was, dare I say, a big deal.  My three daughters aided me in the drawing.  The youngest shook the bag holding all the names of those entered in the contest, my middle child picked the winner, and my eldest read the name of the winner.  Who won? 

The Winner:

Congratulations to Loomis2!!!  Loomis entered a scant '3' times and somehow pulled out the camera.  

Here is a list of the folks entered in the Sony Cyber-shot give-away thus far.  You are all now mortal enemies.  Take a good look at this list.  Find your name and make sure you are down for the correct amount of entries.  For instance, if you already area subscriber of Joeprah and you weren't given credit for the 3 subscriber entries--let me know.  If you disagree with the amount of entries I have you down for, let me know and I will update it.  Thanks!

• Sheena  4 entries
• ciara 6 entries
  
• Kitiara 3 entries
• Mr. Big Dubya  1 entry
• Manager Mom  1 entry
• Dad of Divas 11 entries
• Stacey 11 entries
• Birdie 11 entries
• Lori 1 entry
• Charlie Patpk 1 entry
• Mommy Needs Therapy 4 entries
• Adriane 1 entry
• Madame Meow 11 entries
• KJWB03 11 entries
• A Buns Life 6 entries
• Jen 3 Entries
• GoaldeeBug 11 entries
• Patrick D 9 entries
• SAM 1 entry
• flickrlovr 11 entries
• Mr. Lady 11 entries
• Weasel Momma 11 entries
• David “Father of Five” 6 entries
• Leslie Webb 1 entry
• Trysh 4 entries
• Jared 6 entries
• Stephanie 8? Entries
• Imtheglue 1 entry
• MightyBoognish 9 entries
• Jenny 1 entry
• Smoochiefrog 4 entries
• Wornoutwoman 6 entries
• Aimee Greeblemonkey 1 entry
• Khyle 1 entry
• Bill 1 entry
• Ourcrookedtree 6 entries
• Joy Smith 11 entries
• MHD 6 entries
• Courtney 9 entries
• A Cowboy’s Wife 1 entry
• Aqhej 3 entries
• Amber 4 entries
• I am a trouble Maker 11 entries
• Literal Dan 6 entries
• Tanyetta 9 entries
• Jenny2  1 entry
• Jennifer England 10 entries
• Misty 5 entries
• Summer 1 entry
• Lunanik 4 entries
• Carly 3 entries
• Deb 1 entry
• Matt  1 entry
• Phil 1 entry
• May 6 entries
• Jess 1 entry
• Kim 1 entry
• Ginny 11 entries
• Hubs 6 entries
• Pam 1 entry
• Charlie 1 entry
• Wendy 1 entry
• Maria 7 entries
• Nuke Dad 2 entries
• Busy Mom 6 entries
• AsCapeCodTurns 4 entries 
• Loomis2 3 entries
• Jeremy 4 entries
• Russ 4 entries
• Julie 6 entries
• Shannon 1 entry
• Tom 5 entries
• Becca 1 entry
• James 4 entries
• Dawn 1 entry
• Kristinia 9 entries
  

I am in the process of retooling my site a bit and I will be adding some new features along with some of the changes. Some exciting stuff is about to be added that will make the Joeprah experience perhaps even more mediocre than before.  I am obvious stoked.  

The Galleries

Loomis, a Joeprah user, came up with a fantastic suggestion.  Why not allow Joeprah users the privildege of uploading their own personal photos into the new "Gallery" section of Joeprah?  I thought about it, and it was such a great idea that I took action--immediately.  I will be creating more galleries for any registered user to upload into, but currently there is a section for "Summer Fun I," "Family Pictures I," "Pictures of You I," and "Your Best Work I."  To access the galleries to upload into them, simply click on the "My Galleries" link at the top right of the Gallery Section at Joeprah (it can be found here).  Uploading should be fairly self-explanatory, but that being said I am sure some folks may need assistance.  If you do have problems...enter my next update.

The Forum

I have installed a new forum component.  You can go the forum either at its direct link here or by visiting the forum via Joeprah.com itself.  If you have any tech questions in regards to using any of the features at Joeprah.com simply go to the forum and enter your questions there.  If you are a blogger and want to show of your blog or you have questions regarding blogging, check out the section in the forum dedicated to all things blog related.  If you are parent seeking an outlet to vent, or ask advice of other parents on how to deal with some parenting topics that are currently confounding you, check out the section dedicated to that.  There are some social sections in the forum and I hope it takes on a life of its own.  If you want any new sections or if you want to be a moderator--inquire within.   Basically, go, post, and interact.  It should be off-da-hook.  Awesome.  

Finally, I am starting a new section:

Hot Topic Debates

In addition to all my normal robust and amazingly trivial posts, I am going to post news stories, political windfalls, and or basically anything that stirs the pot so to speak that I think my readers would be interested in adding their two cents to.  I would like get folks involved so they can speak their minds, find out what other people think and more or less stay informed.  To kick things off in this section I would like to see what people think about this news story (I know it is a few days old, but it is still worth exploring).   

The Independence Day Contest

I have been uber swamped lately and I didn't post an update, but I wanted to let those folks still in contention know where they stand as we head down the stretch.  Amazingly, there has been some changes to the leaderboard.  The top three bloggers up until today are:

Kim at Jogging in Circles with 6,923 Referrals

Jared at DadThing with 6,710 Referrals

Momo at MomoFali with 6,630 Referrals

Kim, has made some huge strides as of late and the last few days will prove to be pivotal.  Some advice; digg, stumble and otherwise promote your remaining blog posts...any sort of exposure will be key.  Best of luck and I can't wait to annouce the winner.  At the end of the contest, I will spread link love through the valley of blogger-dom.  It will be a fantastic celebration and truly there were no losers.  

Newsletter

I am about to release my July Newsletter with some exciting results on how much money I made during the month of June and how I went about doing so.  Are you as anxious to find out the BuzzFuse results as I am?  Word.  

That is all for now.  Return to work.  

Big Time News

I am leaving for Atlanta today to participate in a video shoot.  Yep, you heard that right.  Me.  Video shoot.  I am working with Graco on a great project along with some other bloggers.  The project will be off the hook, by in large due to my participation, and as soon as I have time I will post all the details of both my trip and the actually project itself. 

In My Stead

Over the next couple of days I leave you in the willing and capable digits of one Pete J from MyGpsCameraPhone.  Pete is a close bloggy friend of mine and I trust him like I trust myself (see not very much at all).  He will continue the tradition of Joeprah by delivering mediocre content.  Mediocre, which Pete will assuredly exceed, will actually be a step up, so you may be begging for Pete to stay on full-time.    

Contest Winner

I didn't forget.  I used my webcam this morning to tape the drawing and I used one of my daughters to choose the winner.  The video wouldn't upload although I tried as hard as one man can to upload it.  I feel Blip.Tv was afraid of its intrinsic awesomeness, which is understandable.  Anyways, you are going to have to trust me when I say that the winner was Smoochie Frog.  I will post the video someday...as long as Blip allows for amazing videos to see the light of day.  As for the next contest, I will post the details either when I return on Thursday or next Monday.  Stay tuned as I have some amazing stuff to give away over the course of the next few weeks.  I am totally serious.  

I think everyone that reads my blog is a super star to some degree.  First, they have put up with how quirky it is.  Slow page loading times (a thing of the past I hope, see next post) and obnoxious colors--not to mention how stuck on myself (rightly so) I am.  So, if you are reading this, take a bow.  Now, there are some elite Joeprah followers that not only stomach my daily diatribe, but they actually think it to be noteworthy--so noteworthy in fact, that they have deemed it acceptable to don me with awards.  I would like to call these folks "Super-Dee-Duper-Stars."  First, I got a really cool mention from Penny over at Cafe at the End of the Universe, then HuckDoll, this was followed by Christine at Serenity How recognizing my awesomeness, and, to top it off, not one but two awards.  Now, these award givers have crazy good taste and I'm just saying, "They're right to acknowledge my smooth ways."  There is this rockin' award from Rachel at A Southern Fairy Tale:

It is totally homemade and really cool because it has the tell tale pinkness of a mom blog.  And not to be outdone, we have Tara from If Mommy Says Ok dropping some more hardware on ol' Joeprah: