Free Design

This blog, design*sponge, looks neat, though I haven't had a chance to really check it out. Lotsa ads, but for things you would want. I'm actually thinking about doing some interior design stuff myself. I haven't worked out what I would need to do with the Ministry of Manpower to start what would essentially be a very small business, but I know another woman who did so and found it quite easy. A friend of mine is moving house, from a big place out by the Singapore Polo Club to a 1400sqf apartment near Orchard Road. She has hired a designer but he's not really listening to what she has to say. He seems to want to chuck all her stuff and start from scratch. I told her she already had lots of nice furniture, which could be re-upholstered or painted. I said she should spend the money on kitchen appliances and good flooring, and that I would eat my hat if I couldn't re-do her place for substantially less than what they were considering. So she brought her husband over to see my place and he seems pretty keen, so hopefully I'll be able to use them as my guinea pigs. I can see that the most difficult part of my job will be actually asking people for money and charging for my services. I suck at that, and I'm going to under-estimate how long it will take me to do things by several orders of magnitude. Like, I can paint you a trompe l'oeil mural of the Italian countryside! I mean, I actually can, but I will find it impossible to think, well, this will take me 100 hours, and since my labor is only worth 20c an hour...no, that's wrong, isn't it!

Unrelated: I thought I had posted about the Free Design on our old blog, but I couldn't find it (I looove the Free Design). I did find this, though. (Didn't it look clean and shiny then!) Scroll down to Tuesday July 17 (this would be, um...2003???):

Lately I've been wondering, has the Instapundit been losing it? Or is it rather the case that he's always had a vein of unpleasant right-wing flackery and I didn't notice at first because I was caught up in the magic of blogging?

That, my children, was 'back in the day'.

Comments

[ogged]

Hey, sapling, here's part of an email a friend sent me in April of 2002.

So I've gotten into this blog thing a fair bit lately. I started off liking Instapundit a lot. He seems to be getting a lot more right wing lately. Not sure why that is.

[The Modesto Kid]

'back in the day'

Wow, so 2003 is only 4 years ago huh? This is a little strange cause I could swear I've been reading blogs my entire life, which is longer than 4 years.

[Christopher M]

I had forgotten all about Kyle Williams, conservative wunderkind, but that post reminded me. And I clicked through to his site, and scanned a few of his most recent columns (from 2005). Reading them, you actually get a strong sense that the kid was growing up a little bit and realizing that the conservative line he'd been so ably parroting wasn't quite spot on. It's a little bit touching, really.

[ogged]

As for the rest of your post, this site might be of interest.

[Matt]

Was that back when you were supporting the Iraq war and giving people hell for thinking it was stupid? That might explain things.

[belle waring]

Matt: we prefer to think of that as my "fucking moron Hitchens" blogging phase. but yes, that explains a lot.

[Matt Weiner]

Warmongering is one thing, but Kausian editorial interpolations? You folks really do have a past. [OK, the interpolations were written by an actual different person -ed.]

[Kip Manley]

One's first "Instapundit is a right-wing hack" post is always a cherished memory. I do not think the fact that mine is dated 12/20/2002 accrues me any especial benefit.

(I smell a meme! Bloggers, start your search engines!)

Threadjack? Oh! Wow. Wallpaper really is coming back, isn't it?

[ben wolfson]

Like, I can paint you a trompe l'oeil mural of the Italian countryside! I mean, I actually can

Jesus. Is there anything you can't do?

[ogged]

She probably can't pass for Ernest Borgnine, Ben.

[ben wolfson]

But you don't know.

[jim]

Those were the days when John was changing the pulp avatars more frequently. Maybe you should get him to let you stop smoking.

[Matt Weiner]

I can see that the most difficult part of my job will be actually asking people for money and charging for my services.

I know of a really nightmarish case involving this, btw -- the moral of the story is, make damn sure that your properly licensed for whatever you're doing it in the county you're doing it in. (Which, the county thing, probably applies less in Singapore.)