I just saw this while on another site...too true! So many people, even some of my very good friends, have taken one look at my sandcrawler computer case and instead of saying "how cool" (ok, I'm biased I know, but I don't see how anyone could NOT say that LOL ), they would say "you've got WAY too much free time." I've never been sure how to take that, mainly I feel insulted - after all, as I'm sure many of you can understand, it's not that I have "too much time," it's how I choose to spend the time that I have. Anyway, thought I'd share this, I think it's very true:
"Nobody means to be rude when then ask "where do you find the time?" or they say "you have too much time on your hands!".
I understand they mean "wow, that must have taken a long time". I do find it strange that people can spend an entire weekend watching television (sports, dramas, reality shows) and nobody asks or says the same thing.
It's almost as if our culture has begun to look down on the concept of putting forth effort. You can waste as much time as you want on any number of endeavors, but if it results in a tangible 'thing' it somehow moves into the realm of needing to be evaluated in terms of how much time you spent on it.
-Doug Haffner
http://frankencade.blogspot.com/"
*edit - I just thought of this - it could be that people respond that way because they don't see your effort resulting in anything useful or desireable to them. Almost like, if your project took tons of time, and doesn't cure cancer and result in world peace, there's no possible way it could have been worth the effort.