Monday afternoon I opened the clue and immediately thought JD was Jason Davis on RecruitingBlogs.com who is wearing a hat on RecruitingBlogs and is in Canada also known as "the great white north". I went back through the clue again and pulled the first unique phrase "what we do in life echoes in eternity", searched online and came up with links to the movie the Gladiator. The first link I noticed is to a YouTube video since the last challenge involved a YouTube video and it is of Russell Crowe in the Gladiator saying the phrase. I connected RC as Russell Crowe, search "Russell Crowe sourcer" with not many good results, then "Russell Crowe recruiter" and the second site up referenced Jim Stroud who is involved in SourceCon so I knew I hit something. I clicked on the posting and found a brief post of Russell Crowe with a yahoo email address. Most recruiters have a direct company email address not Yahoo so I looked online to see if he actually existed and could not find him. The clue mentioned both social media like the post on Jim Stroud where I found him and an international focus which is also his title so I think it's great....5 minutes in and it's solved, emailed RC and went back to work.

Monday night I hadn't heard anything from RC so I looked for more clues and kept an eye on Twitter, also key in the last challenge, for other discussions, etc. I also re-read the posting that RC responded to on Social Media. I read a lot of things from Jim Stroud this week, am now hooked on his blog and even asked him later in the challenge, based on a clue, where to look for sourcer jobs where he sent me great webinar on how he found his current job. Just in case it was related I made a list of all possible Social Media sites they could post the challenge profiles on. I also pulled some other things from the clue...One was JD being practically a neighbor of Harry Smith's from the first challenge so I pulled up his address. Nothing but I did notice the North Pole is a town over (neighbor) from Fairbanks where Santa is supposed to live as well as the reference to them being "polar" opposites. I also took Latin in school but could only figure out the first part of the translation of RC's sign off on the clue "Beatus Irrecogatitio". Beatus can mean blessed or saint but I couldn't find (still haven't) the rest of the translation.

I tried other crazy ideas (many more than to mention in this review and I'm only mentioning because I don't want anyone to think this was easy). Somewhere in the challenge Joshua Kahn asked PJ "how was the bacon" which I later find out is a reference to a Plurk post but initially take it as a clue to reference Kevin Bacon and try to go back from Russell Crowe like 6 degrees. I also thought maybe Dave Mendoza who has just partnered with JD and has a SixDegrees blog trying Dave as Santa in the clue. Someone mentioned somewhere after Sourcecondude says Happy Birthday Santa on July 9th and now knowing who Sourcecondude is so I tried to find Dave's birthday, etc. When this led me nowhere I link to Santa and everything and everyone else on every other social media site that looked like they related to the clue such as Russ Crowe, Santa, Gladiator, etc. I linked, now unlinked and emailed a few people who probably thought I was crazy. Sourcecondude mentioned at one point searching for old McDonald's hapless friends for HB (I still don't know what that meant) and I connected with someone who goes by Mayor McCheese. For anyone I sent a bizarre cryptic message thank you for placating me.

Tuesday morning I got a confirmation email from RC that yes, I hit the right place but I actually needed the other names. My email to RC was "Do I need all 3 names in between you and Jason Davis?" and he said yes so I just assumed Jason Davis was correct.

That night I noticed a conversation from Jeremy Langhans on Twitter that referenced a clue on a Sourcecon Grandmaster Ning site and asked to be invited to join. I looked at the picture of what looked like marbles he had referenced from his friend Helen and at least knew HB was Helen B but was more confused than ever. Just as I was about to call it a night Nita (connected through Harry Smith) messaged me and told me she was new to the sourcing arena and just wanted to follow along, can we message regarding the challenge, etc. I let her know I had RC, does she have the picture clue, how to set up Ning and Recruitingblogs, etc. I told her I was searching for the source of the picture; she suggested some sites to look for photos. Throughout we shared some very amusing dead ends that at least let me know I wasn't the only one hunting down strange clues. I seriously think she even said she called Ross Perot which totally made mine look JV.

Wednesday morning I decided that if Jason Davis was correct on RecruitingBlogs maybe PJ, SM or HB were as well, searched profiles and found Phil Jones. Another member had asked him if he is PJ and he said yes, so I now had PJ. That afternoon I sent Phil Jones and Jason Davis a friend request. Jason Davis messaged me to check the chat widget on RecruitingBlogs which revealed him letting everyone know he is not JD in Sourcecon. One step forward, one step back.

Later that afternoon I followed another clue about searching something similar to Twitter, try friendfeed eventually making my way back down my initial social media network list to Plurk. I added my connections and then searched their followers leading to the marble picture clue with HelenofTroyRecruiter. I find Nita, Jeremy, Josh, Amie and Ryan who were already there. I read every comment given and tried to make sense of it ....she mentioned jigsaw puzzle and I went to Jigsaw and found a Helen Brown in Fairbanks and actually called her; tried to connect the whole Helen of Troy to Gladiator; she said go to daddy which could be godaddy.com. She gave clues about SM being color blind and using the internet so I did research on that. She confirmed Amie's question about blood is thicker than water and says to reverse the wording somehow. Spent a half an hour on that and still have no idea what she meant. I connect with Ryan Gillis briefly and know he has JD, PJ and HB but no RC.

Jim Stroud had started posting about Scribd and resume searching so I thought it was a clue and took all my search strings I had been using for days and plugged them in. After many failed attempts I went back to PJs profile to see if anyone new has friended him or posted clues. I noticed a comment from PJ that said JDs profile reveals a secret Ning site that he is on. I tried all my keywords like Santa, Christmas, Plurk, Helen, recruiting, sourcing eventually landing on "north pole" and got North Pole Recruiting Ning site. There I found Jason Davis and his crazy resume. Someone put some serious time into making this challenge! I find the forum that there is a photo of in the new clue Sourcecondude has posted of Allthingschristmas. He had mentioned somewhere in his profile or resume as well as Sourcecondude saying look at Santa and "all things related".

Thursday after 3 nights of being glued to my computer and debating whether I should pop in a DVD of the Gladiator my husband decided he wanted to help. I explained to him the clues and he decided he was going to solve the challenge. After 15 minutes of questions and the internet he turned to me and said he was done. I looked over at his laptop and somehow he managed to turn Plurk to HTML code and gets bounced from the site. Game over.

I went back to my laptop and ran with a few things Helen had commented...a suggestion to the last name of Susan M (SM), to go look for a sourcer job and to go to daddy. Since Davis, Jones and Brown are all common names I found a list of common last names for M and debated sending those to RC (Moore was actually one I had!) but wanted to actually find the site. I searched on the common names I had and tried to link them to the clue of cdn evangelist she gave. I looked for actual sourcer jobs and emailed Maureen Sharib for suggestions I might have missed. I went on godaddy.com from Helen's clue of "go to daddy" and a reference to the predominant tan and black colors of the website and plug in both websites that might match and checking others for who may own them. I even came very, very close with sourcingjobs.com at one point but once I saw Jeremy had solved the challenge I got frustrated and called it a night.

Friday morning I was a little tired and ready to either solve the challenge or shut down. I had a full day of work ahead of me and plans for that evening that did not involve staring at a computer screen. I anxiously awaited Helen of Troy to wake up and sign on to Plurk and realize now Julia and Lisa were hot on the trail. Nita had sent me more amusing messages of where she has been misdirected that originate from 5am so she was on too. At this point I knew I had to solve it or know someone else would. Helen signed on and said she is ready to smack us with a big clue. After what seemed like forever with no clue (could have been only 10 seconds) I think I even asked her to smack me. She posted something pretty direct about going to daddy and looking for a sourcer job. I've done that but just in case I tried godaddy again and plugged in sourcingjob and sourcingjobs, look back at my list of clues she has posted with the R capitalized in the word sourcer and revert back to sourcerjobs.com. I had it, it was the picture from Helen's profile but nothing was on the site but a quote. I reverted back to godaddy and looked to see who owned the website. It was 1and1 like in Helen's clue but no actual name. I tried to plug in the site and look for the owner no luck. I went back to the website and tried to highlight the quote to search on it and the whole page started to turn blue and I noticed writing underneath. Now the whole color blind reference made sense from my earlier research and I scrolled down - Susan Moore - I emailed RC.

I had emailed RC for an update the day before and knew someone else had him; did Ryan get it, Nita, Lisa, Amie? No response from RC. I waited for a bit but now my work calls were coming in. Every once in awhile I checked Twitter and RBC and saw Amie didn't get, Nita was celebrating but no word from Lisa or Ryan. I was relieved it was over and went back to work thinking I finally got it but must have not won. A few hours later I got word from RC I won.

Congrats to Jeremy for getting there first as well as Josh, Nita, Julia, Ryan, Lisa and Amie who were competing closely behind until the end.