If you ask my wife or daughter what I do for a living, you will most likely get a blank stare followed by "Something to do with computers". This is not due to a lack of interest on their parts. It's just that it can't be easily explained. I do a lot of different things and some of them aren't necessarily connected. If I do try to explain it, I'll get a "I can see your lips moving, but all I hear is Blah, Blah, Blah.". So, the subject of what I do for a living has proved to be rather frustrating.

First of all, I don't have a title. I haven't had one for at least 20 years. (Sidebar - How come every form you fill out asks for your Title? Name, Company, Title. Besides being a pain in the ass trying to think of what to enter, what the hell do they care?  I digress). When you have a title you can say "I'm the VP of Schmoozing" or something to that effect and you might get an "Interesting" and that will be the end of it. But when you don't have a title, you tend to try and explain what you do. And that's when you get into trouble. "What do you do?" "I'm an IT guy. Today I started planning the best way to deploy our new iSCSI SANs in order to ensure high availability of our VM infrastructure." This is okay if you're trying to get rid of someone, but not if you're trying to be socially acceptable. It's also not a good response when your wife asks "How was your day?". I would maybe get to the word "deploy" before she would interrupt and say "Oh, look what the cat's doing!".

But I think I finally have a solution. Since I have this website, I've decided to start a work diary. This will be different from my blog. It won't be about what I think or have to say. It will just be a list of the things I did or encountered during work. After a while, it will start to detail what I do for a living. So then, when someone asks what I do, I will be able to just say "I'm in IT. If you're really interested in what that means, read the work diary on my website". This will be a way more cool response. Instead of alienating people, they'll say "Oh, you have a website?". This will lead to further social interaction and ultimately me being the one who's saying "I can see your lips moving, but all I hear is Blah, Blah, Blah.".

Update - December 2012:

I recently had to move my website to a new server. When I did, I chose not to move my Work Diary. I made this decision after reviewing it and coming to the realization that it was stupid. Besides, I never remembered to reference it when asked about what I do anyway. So instead, I've decided to just lie. This is better for everyone. I'm going to re-read my article titled "Personal Incontinence Councelor" now to get some ideas.