I get this a lot…
Whoever made this had too much time on his/her hands.
— Truth-lover
Some people have way too much free time on their hands.
— MattK
Someone has a little too much time on their hands – the result is cool.
— specialk420
Who has the time to think something like this up?
— kristen_kish
OK…someone had wwwaaayyyy too much time on their hands…but it is kinda fun! :)
— myron
Do you have too much free time? :-)
— Tom on Formosa
I won’t spoil it for you, the only thing I will say is that someone has waaay too much free time on their hands.
— Jedicraft
March 20th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I get that a lot on things I create too.
Some people seem to think that any act of creation that doesn’t have a “purpose” or an easily identifiable function is somehow a waste of time.
I create things because they help me understand the world better. I create things because I enjoy the act of creation. I create things because I love seeing the things that other people have created.
Don’t stop making fantastic things, Jim!
(Sorry, that struck a nerve!) :-)
March 21st, 2009 at 2:22 am
Although I’ve used that phrase before, I think it can usually be translated as a jealous:
“Wow! That must have taken loads of skill, time and patience! I wish I was capable of producing something so (insert superlative)!”
March 21st, 2009 at 9:03 pm
If you only did practical things then I wouldn’t view your blog, so you have a draw there. If you made money by the advertisements then it is not a waste of time, but a economical pursuit.
Your blog is (at the times of this criticism, I assume) is a branch of recreational mathematics. The greatest mathematical minds of all time perused that goal. This stuff mostly happened in the last 300 years. Do the folks who complain about it think that it is all known now. It isn’t.
To point this out is similar to pointing out that Martin Gardner has wasted his time. He hasn’t. And you are not. This is good stuff.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Most of those comments were about the Coverpop website. Also I think one about the Wheel of Lunch, and one about the Whitney Music Box.
I think a common assumption about the large mosaics on the Coverpop site is that they took a long time to produce. This isn’t really true, many of them were produced in less than 20 minutes. People don’t always realize that the computer does most of the heavy lifting…
March 26th, 2009 at 8:47 am
A response I like to such comments (especially if I know their TV viewing habbits).
Them: Looks like you have too much time on your hands.
Me: Hey did you see The Biggest Loser (or CSI, etc) last night?
Them: Yeah, it was great!