Sent in a resume to a place and got an email back wondering what I was doing since the last time I worked. Which was awhile ago.

Now this is always a bit of a sticky wicket because if you haven't worked in a long time, you could come off looking like a loser. This despite it being the worst economic crisis since the '30's. Or despite the fact there are also millions and millions of people who would therefore be classified as losers too.

So you have to spin it a bit to make it seem like you did more than sit on your ass and watch every Law & Order and Law & Order spinoff episode ever made. Or spent that time playing World of Warcraft, hanging out on Lost message boards, and seeing "Avatar" thirty times. Which is the kind of thing some of us did (especially since it's not like there's a lot of jobs out there). So, you have to come up with something positive sounding to make it seem like you were productive. For instance, things like this:

-Took a bunch of classes to enhance my knowledge of blah blah blah
-Decided to make lemonade out of a lemon and so decided to take up life long dream of writing the Great American Novel/training for a Triathalon event in Nepal
- Went to India to help give aid to lepers
-Read all of Tolstoy's masterworks
-Spent time working on relationship with Jesus

And there you have it-- each answer has it's advantages (it all looks like you did something to make either you or the world better) and disadvantages (who wants to go deal with lepers?) but either way nobody can look at that and say "wow, this guy is not a loser. I should hire them immediately!"