Strange software engineers.. Yes, I've also come across some of these people, but I don't pretend to understand them. They work all their working week with computers, solving problems, making natty little useful programs, yet some of them don't even have a computer at home! I can only guess that this is a bunch of people who are stuck doing something because it brings in the money, and not because it interests them much at all. Which is a poor reason, IMO.

Some of this thread talks about not wanting to tell people what their job is. Why?? Maybe thats one of those weird cultural things, but I don't get looked at strangely at all, when I tell people I write computer software for a living. I haven't met anyone who hasn't understood what that meant either, most people know what computers are. Although, I do understand from some point of view. I would guess there are also doctors, lawyers etc who keep pretty quiet, in order not to get invited to examine lumps and bumps, or peoples wills/lawsuits etc.

I actually enjoy fixing things for other people, I picked this profession because I enjoy doing it, so why would I not help out friends with computer problems? In my experience, one can usually sort ones circle of friends into their usefulness in certain areas, and know who to call in certain crises. If I'm the one that gets labeled to call with computer problems, thats good with me.

Anyway, to answer the original question, maybe I'm in a minority here then, but my job is an extension of my life, and not the other way around. So at home I also spend much of my time writing useful programs to help ease my life, to solve other peoples problems, to help out at PM, or just generally to have fun.

Currently: A banking program which allows me to assign categories to each bank transaction (grabbed via a Finance::Bank module cronjob to a database), and eventually will allow me to figure out what I've spent on what, and which of those are essential payments etc.

C.