Explaining what I do for a living is kind of a long story* because I've cobbled together a slew of different income streams, rather than having a single full-time job like most people. For example, I teach computer art classes (3D animation, game design, etc.) at a couple of colleges here in Chicago, but I'm an adjunct and thus a) this is part-time work and b) it doesn't pay much**. I also make money selling animations in Second Life but that income stream has been progressively dwindling because I've been paying less and less attention to maintaining it. And then on top of that stuff I do freelance work developing games, especially online games in Flash. Freelancing is definitely a feast-or-famine approach to work where you're constantly hustling for new clients (I finished one lucrative gig a couple weeks ago, so right now I'm hoping one of the clients I pitched last week will hire me for my next gig.)
My best shot at more stable employment is to get a full-time teaching position for next year and, while job hunting for tenure track faculty positions is pretty much always a long shot, in this economy there are even fewer schools hiring than usual. I also need to get around to finishing one of the many unfinished games I've constantly got on the back-burner (currently I have half a dozen iPhone games that I'm either planning out on paper or have developed prototypes for, but no finished games in the App Store.)
Also, all the health-care debates recently have a lot of relevance for me, since I don't have employer-provided health insurance and thus know first-hand what the situation is like for people without employer-provided health insurance (AMERICA FUCK YEAH.) It was amusing to me when my very Republican father sent my sisters and I an email full of misinformation (or rather, a link to a Wall Street Journal article full of misinformation) about what health-care is like for uninsured/underinsured, and reminded him that I am underinsured and in the past couple years I've been to the emergency room once and have had major dental work so I'm perfectly aware that that article is nonsense.
*I keep thinking I need to come up with a concise answer to the common question "What do you do?" but I never get around to thinking of that, so I'm constantly fumbling awkwardly to explain my work-life to people.
**People attending college, you might not realize that little of your tuition goes to faculty salaries (the majority pays for administration, and health services, and job placement counselors, and athletic facilities, etc.) and so only the handful of full-time faculty are paid decently, and even they are typically paid considerably less than they could make in private sector jobs.