Sandra Amazes, And Checking My Socialization Skills

I'm hoping Sandra won't hit me for posting this, but I found something really cool that I have to share.  If you visit Sandra's blog today, you'll notice she's talking about the competition on Jeopardy between a computer and man.  She also happened to mention that she had been on Jeopardy a while back.  That prompted me to Google her and I stumbled on these awesome YouTube vids of Sandra's performance.  If you thought she was amazing and incredibly intelligent before, you gotta check these out:





As you can see, she came very close to winning the game.  That's a serious achievement in my book.  Sandra, I hope you understand I am attempting to honor you, not poke fun :)

On another subject, although I am extremely late with this, I was supposed to put up a blog chain post a few days ago.  Never let it be said that I have avoided a blog chain entry.  This round's question comes from the awesome Amanda, who asks:

Are you a good social networker? What aspect of platform building do you focus on the most? Which aspects freak you out?


First off, I am not really on the social networking train at all.  I don't have a Facebook page, and I don't use Twitter.  In fact, this blog is really the only platform I'm currently using.  There are really good reasons for that however.  For me, time is precious commodity and finding even an hour to do any particular task can be daunting.  Sometimes I feel like I'm related to the Hindu god Shiva.  After all, I must have at least four arms to be able to juggle this many balls.


So thinking about Facebooking or Twittering (not even sure if that's the right terminology) is out of the question for me, at least at the moment.  Part of me actually wonders what I'm missing, since I've never checked any of this stuff out.  Probably I'm not missing too much, but who knows.


Having said all this, once I do begin to build a platform, I probably will at least put up a Facebook author page.  I can see the usefulness of such a thing, and I'll be willing to work at it as part of being a serious full-time writer.  I don't think any of the social networking stuff freaks me out though.  It might surprise some people, but I'm fairly talkative (both in person and online).  I wasn't always this way, of course.  If you looked up the definition of a silent geek, you'd probably see my high school picture.


I'm not really sure about the Twitter thing though.  Although my new phone has the capability, I'm not sure everyone wants to know whether I cooked eggs for breakfast or how many people cut me off in traffic this morning (nor would I likely share all that mundane stuff anyway).  I guess I just don't see the appeal of it, but more power to those who do.


I believe Michelle Mclean was bowing out of this chain, so I'm the last entry.  If you haven't read everyone's post on the chain, start with Amanda and work your way though them all.  Everyone has had some great thoughts on the subject.


How do you deal with social networking?  And does any part of it send you running scared?