You guys should really pick up programming, especially unTactical, who doesn't want to work all day.
I don't mind work, as long as I get my fair share of 'play' in as well. Being a programmer, which I probably will be, is going to be a dream job. Its kind of like when the D12 members were interviewed as to why they're rappers, they said because they love what they do. I love programming, and in my free time, I do it. Of course, if I want to get payed, I'll need to finish something, but eh?
unTactical is a collegiate Computer Engineer, which does involve a good amount of programming; he's probably more learned in it than you are -- no offense. Programming is by no means an easy job. The only way you're not going to be working normal hours is if you become an entrepreneur and start your own company. That would mean sacrificing some of the positions you're seeing yourself in (lead software architect/engineer) in order to better manage the company. I don't know about you, but that's not something I want to do with my life. I don't want to be Bill Gates, regardless of what people that know me in real life think. They always say things like "He's going to be the next Bill Gates." I generally just laugh, but it kind of makes me mad each time they say that. It's because they assume he's just a nerd who started programming and a bunch of people joined him. No--he persuaded a bunch of people to join him and made them do stuff that brought in money that he took.
I'll tell you one thing for sure: doing work for someone programming has a much different feel than working whenever the hell you feel like it on whatever the hell you want to work on. You're committed to that client and if you don't get things done in a reasonable amount of time, you're not going to keep your job. Because of this, it seems like a normal job most times. If you get stuck on the same project for too long, it gets boring and you'll wish you were doing something else. I've worked with numerous clients, all of which are very nice people. I've maintained personal contact with at least one of them; he calls me when he has a computer question or something like that. Last winter, he sent me pictures of the snow storm they had in the Massachusetts area.
I started working for him my Sophomore year (when I was 15/16) and I had a hard time getting along with him. Partly because he was more pushy than I was used to (he SHOULD be pushy towards someone he's paying $20/hr to sit at a keyboard and type) and partly because I was unmotivated to continue work. There were a few times where I could tell he'd gotten pretty irritated with how little I'd gotten done during some time period, but it was usually when I was busy. If I had been busy with school, he'd always understand. He's been a great person to work for. This is actually the person st0rm.iD worked for (I don't know if you know him), but he was suddenly committed to other things with school and was unable to handle the workload. He recommended me to him and I've worked for him since.
The people in town that I work for (web-work, PC repair, etc) are all very nice, but I don't talk to them on a personal level outside of the work I do for them.
To be honest, I think the term "dream job" is stupid. A job is a job, regardless of what it is. I'm positive any person is more suited for one job than the next person (and visa-versa), but that doesn't mean they're going to enjoy doing that job 100% of the time or even 50% of the time, regardless of how much you externally enjoy the activity involved in that line of work. It's completely dependant on what type of person you are. If you actually enjoy working, then you're going to have a lot of fun in any job that fits your personality. If you don't, you're going to find it tough searching for a job that you are going to be fond of.
Reitteratively, programming changes a lot when you're working for someone other than yourself. My boss (the network administrator, not the webdev client) was an extremely talented programmer when he was attending college. He really enjoyed programming. He did an internship programming his freshman year and
hated it. Since then, he's decided that a job in software engineering is not for him. The majority of programming positions are "cubicle" jobs -- you're going to work in a little 4x4 area with a glowing computer screen for hours on end. That may sound appealing, but think about it: you're not going to be doing what you want to do very often.
