I really haven’t shown much interest in “social networking” web sites like Friendster which claim to help people network with others of similar interests. But Eric Seiden, an online acquaintance of mine, has been trying to talk his friends into signing up for the Google-owned Orkut. I went ahead and signed up, just for the heck of it.

At that point, instead of meeting someone new, Eric found out something about me he hadn’t previously known: I make soap. This interested him, and so I’ve sent him several messages today passing him links and suggestions. After hearing my description of cold process soapmaking, Eric decided that he’s more interested in making some melt-and-pour soap with his preferred ingredients. This is a much simpler process which doesn’t involve lye but still allows you to customize soap with fragrances, colors and exfoliants or other additives.

I don’t know that I’ll actually try to network with anyone using Orkut, but it’s something interesting with which to play.