warm up/choke advice

ok so instead of hijacking Wendys thread i thought id just start another one. Im totally new at ownership and havent ordered a owners manual, have a Haynes though. I have a 95 zx6r and am curious how much choke to use and how to use it. When ive started it the few times i was able to ride at the end of the summer i used full choke until it started to register just above the bottom mark. When i would try to shut it off with the bike running it would die, so id start it without the choke (once warm), hop on and go easy until she was well warm. Now it barely runs and wont rev above 6 or 7k but will at least idle. I could swear in the MSF course i took that they said "dont touch the throttle while its in choke" of course the first time i hopped on i naturally put both hands on the bars and accidently pulled the throttle like a hair and fouled the plug. Embarassing but good ice breaker. So now im afraid to touch the throttle while in choke much less ride like that to warm it up. So whats the proper way to choke this bike? Should i even use it if its nice and warm out? Also when people shut their bikes off i could swear ive seen guys turn the fuel off before hitting the kill switch. Am i seeing things? Does this have a purpose?