I was there, learning about the Forbidden City in China and Emperor Qinglong, and making notes about designs and textures; and finally aggravating, not only because there’s so much interesting stuff in the world to learn about, but because I realized while I was sketching in my notebooks that I was still working.

Geoff makes this comment over on his weblog, and I understand what he’s saying completely. And I think he’ll understands what I’m going to say here:

It’s great, isn’t it?

If you don’t love what you’re doing, and it doesn’t consume you, what’s the point? My research takes up a lot of my thought time, as does the programming I do for myself. While, on occasion, I like to “just veg out,” sometimes that involves reading a book (that looks dangerously like a “work” book), or sometimes I just watch a movie. However, most things that I do are active. Creative. By my definition, fun.

I probably have one post left in me before my two weeks of holiday. I won’t be taking the laptop, and I won’t be checking email. If you’re someone who knows my phone number, you’ll be able to reach me. If you don’t know my number… we won’t be chatting quite so much, yeah? However, I did stumble on a new piece of technology that makes me happy, so I’ll post about that this weekend. Perhaps in combination with an email that I’ve been meaning to send for a month or two now.

So. Keep on workin’. It’s good for you. If you love it, do it.