There's a wingnut on the streets of Seattle

April 12, 2001 4:35 PM

There's a wingnut on the streets of Seattle wearing a sign saying "will do web design for food." Not only does his sign have a URL, but he's keeping a weblog of his progress. Here's a [self-link] better photo of the dude who, full disclosure, I do not know at all. Please do not hire him, I want to watch this unfold.
posted by jessamyn (28 comments total)

This is great! I actually need to write a threaded discussion app for my site. I was figuring it would take me 15-20 hours to write and debug.

So......... If this guy will do it for a couple bags of groceries and a hot meal I could be kickin' it at the beach this weekend.

This dot com crash is paying dividends already!
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:07 PM on April 12, 2001

Another one.
posted by netbros at 6:20 PM on April 12, 2001

...but now that I owe almost a years salary to the IRS (65% of my yearly income)

Ouch. That sucks. Good luck dude.

The Man or Astroman in the Flash movie is cool.

I wonder if his site stats are right. The site currently gets about 4000 - 5000 hits daily with a 20 - 30% increase in traffic every month. If so, few are leaving any comments or voting in his polls there.
posted by redleaf at 6:44 PM on April 12, 2001

y6y6y6: Um.. web design and coding web apps are two very, very different entities.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 6:51 PM on April 12, 2001

There's also this guy who's been hanging out on Sepulveda in LA
posted by owillis at 7:14 PM on April 12, 2001

Please do not hire him, I want to watch this unfold.

why wouldn't you want someone to hire the poor sap?
posted by mapalm at 7:26 PM on April 12, 2001

how are these people unemployed? there are plenty of web design jobs at computerjobs, dice, flipdog, etc. for which they're fully qualified. maybe it's just fun roaming the streets and getting media attention.
posted by register at 7:45 PM on April 12, 2001

plenty of jobs if you are willing to move away from Seattle. Combine that with rising energy prices and no water, the only thing keeping me here is my family.
posted by grefo at 8:08 PM on April 12, 2001

no water? what happened to all the water?

geez. it's getting closer and closer to when i plan to move to seattle, and all i see if earthquakes and horror stories of drought. what the hell?
posted by christian at 8:22 PM on April 12, 2001

Water doesn't just fall out of the sky, you know. Especially in Seattle.

Even with the increased electricity costs, my total utility bill here is still less than it was back in Detroit last year. Mainly because I don't have to run the air conditioning in the summer, and the winters are much milder too. Also, I guess not having a pair of 11-year old "space heater" 19" Trinitron computer monitors running 16 hours a day probably helps.
posted by kindall at 8:47 PM on April 12, 2001

This has nothing to do with anything. But I live in Seattle and being a big city with perhaps an above average homeless population one is constantly bombarded with the ubiquitous cardboard sign. However, something that made me laugh once was a guy down the street from me standing on a prime panhandling corner with a sign that read:

"Don't want anything. Just like holding signs."

I think he was out there for hours that day.

Cheezy to include, but maybe somebody will get a chuckle out of it. Probably not though, simply because I posted it.
posted by crasspastor at 10:18 PM on April 12, 2001

I don't think anyone is doing this in Chicago yet. Perhaps I'll take to the streets.
posted by aladfar at 11:45 PM on April 12, 2001

Isn't this what they call "thinking out of the box" to "guerilla market" the "brand called you?"
posted by Falconen at 4:03 AM on April 13, 2001

Hey, when I became an "unemployed web designer," I just took a job at a grocery store. "Food" problem--solved. Although I suppose it's a lot cooler to get media attention while standing around downtown than it is to swallow your pride and work a lame job.
posted by Eamon at 8:25 AM on April 13, 2001

He must have had a blast yesterday when that terrifying hailstorm got barfed out of the skies with no warning at all. He probably had to change his sign to read "Will Work For Triage."

This city is so self-consciously weird, bless it.
posted by Skot at 8:39 AM on April 13, 2001

Just talked to the guy as I was walking into work and told him Metafilter was talking about him -- he seemed excited so please, people -- be nice, okay?
posted by argybarg at 9:06 AM on April 13, 2001

Wait, where is he standing? How come I always miss all the good stuf?

*Goes to wander random streets on her lunch break*
posted by zannah at 9:59 AM on April 13, 2001

I saw him by the Seattle's "Best" Coffee in Westlake Center. 4th and Pine.
posted by argybarg at 11:50 AM on April 13, 2001

I thought "wingnut" was defined as a nut with a certain political viewpoint, as in right- or left-wing. Is it more generic than that?
posted by aaron at 11:59 AM on April 13, 2001

Don't be ridiculous, aaron. Don't you know your TMNT?!?!
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:10 PM on April 13, 2001

My office is directly across the street from this guy. He's got a "will write code for food" partner today.
posted by endquote at 12:49 PM on April 13, 2001

I was just over at Westlake Center and saw neither hide nor hair of the guy.

There's a guy who plays bagpipes in that area sometimes. I thought about offering him a job doing Web design, just to put the passers-by out of their misery.
posted by kindall at 3:53 PM on April 13, 2001

Damn, there are a lot of Seattleites here.

I was just down through there and didn't see him.
posted by Mars Saxman at 7:23 PM on April 13, 2001

It seems that at least four MeFi-ers currently in Seattle have been on the same streetcorner at different times in the past 36 hours. Any interest in meeting up all at the same time? My preference is somewhere in the beginning of May, somewhere downtown.
posted by gluechunk at 9:10 PM on April 13, 2001

Oops! I meant to post the above to metatalk but I had this thread open in a different window and wasn't watching where I was posting. Sorry.
posted by gluechunk at 9:12 PM on April 13, 2001

I think it's just silly.
posted by Spanktacular at 6:05 AM on April 14, 2001

...Well I see we have been talking about the "not so" local competition... and believe me I feel for him!

For the record - The HTMLBUM has been working as a professional vagrant for about a month in the hopes of enjoying all the good things in life. Things like nourishment, electricity, and gasoline. Most importantly: the bum yearns to give a healthy dose of artistic creativity back to the community in the form of amazing design.

The mission is clear: get work at all costs... er...without spending any money.

[ current spam page :: please forward --> hence it may reach my future employer! ]

[feedback ]
posted by htmlbum at 12:27 AM on April 15, 2001

This is nothing new. Quite some time ago I made a PayPay page... more out of humor than anything else... but yes, I have been there... hunting for a design job... any design job... It still amazes me how many web designers that really know nothing about the medium other than how to load their favorite WYSIWYG editor are still employed... and the really talented web designers who know most anything even slightly related to the medium are on the streets. Maybe this will change over time... but I am not holding my breath.
posted by Nick Finck at 7:34 PM on April 15, 2001