Thursday, October 12, 2017

Makin' money thru spinnin' things

I think this will be a more "fun" post than usual?

Every once in a while, I will come across posts from other financial bloggers emphasizing the importance of developing a side hustle to diversify one's income streams. Out of curiosity, I have searched the net for viable side hustles. The answers are almost always the same. Be a writer. Be a celebrity blogger and earn through page views. Create an e-business. Create apps. Man! This is hard! I can suka suka pull off any of the above with ease meh? 

Then I looked around me and observe other more non-conventional methods to earn money. Normally, they are hobbyists who, in the process of enjoying their hobbies, hone their expertise in their craft to a sufficiently high level. I have a friend who started her own online bakery business after taking her baking skills to the next level. I have another friend who started her own online florist business after realizing she has the passion and gift in that particular area. And then there's photographers who are able to immortalize beautiful memories on film.

I have enough on my plate already, but there's no harm thinking what I could potentially do right? A half-baked idea which I had was to consider starting a statistics tutoring/consulting business. I like that idea, but seriously, is there a non-bookish hobby that I am sufficiently skilled in and could monetize if I so wanted to?

Then, one day, it hit me! Donkey years back in secondary school/poly, a significant part of my life revolved around yoyoing. Yes, that roundish thing that is connected to your finger by a string. I've worked as a yoyo performer before and have been invited to perform for kids on several occasions. 

Is it all just up-down, up-down, and loop the loops? Nah. Enjoy the following 5 yoyo videos (roughly 3 mins each) featuring the 5 yoyo divisions:

1A division: Single yoyo, string tricks
2A division: Two yoyos, looping tricks
3A division: Two yoyos, string tricks
4A division: Offstring (yoyo not attached to string. Yes, yoyo could fly off)
5A division: Freehand (yoyo attached to string, but string not attached to finger but to a counterweight such as a dice. Yes, yoyo, string, and dice could fly off)

1A
Featuring Hiroyuki Suzuki, 1A division World Yoyo Champion for 2012. He has won 1st in 1A multiple times, but I think this is one of his best performance. Some people call him the world's fastest player. And look at his horizontal tricks. Mind-blowing!



2A
Featuring Shu Takada, 2A division World Yoyo Champion for 2012. I just love his infectious enthusiasm for yoyoing. Great stage presence too!



3A
Featuring Hajime Miura, 3A division World Yoyo Champion for 2016. During my time (LOL! I sound so old), 3A was still an underdeveloped field. Well, things have changed after almost a decade.



4A
Featuring Rei Iwakura, 4A division World Yoyo Champion for 2016. Multiple times world champion for 4A. I also love his great stage presence and confidence.



5A
Featuring Takeshi Matsuura, 5A division World Yoyo Champion for 2012. One of the younger world champions.




Hope you all enjoy the videos!

Now, for some random yoyo trivia:

1). For those observant enough (hardly anyone though!), they may notice that Unintelligent Nerd has a scar on his face that came as a result of a yoyo smashing into his face. It happened while he was performing and there was blood all over the place. He went to A&E to had it done up.

2). Not enough evidence that yoyos are dangerous? Unintelligent Nerd's metal yoyos have cracked the floor tiles at home and have smashed the ceiling lights before.

3). It's not the yoyo; it's the player. Unintelligent Nerd has observed kids who got their parents to buy them a $100+ yoyo and couldn't do anything with it. And then sell it off to others for 5 bucks. -_-

4). A $100+ yoyo? Seriously?!?!?! So ex for a toy! Errrr, by the way, there are $1000 yoyos too. It's marketed as aircraft grade titanium, precision-weighted, gold-plated, etc.....etc....

5). I think I qualify as a collector also? I think I have more than 50 yoyos lying somewhere around the house. My most expensive yoyo cost like $150? 24K gold-plated some more. Shit! Time to get shot by other frugal financial bloggers liao. Toh long! Give chance, I recant my non-frugally ways liao! It's been years already!

6). Meanwhile, those national masters/national grand masters of yoyoing use their old-school wooden yoyos. No metal to increase yoyo weight to spin longer. No ceramic ball bearing to reduce friction. No precision-engineered yoyo halves to increase stability, etc. Just think of them as the Uncle CW of yoyoing (e.g. over 50 years of yoyoing experience and contribution to the yoyo community). Just give the world champions in the yoyo videos above a noob old-school wooden yoyo and let's see who is the real McCoy. (Okay lah, to be fair, they will still do exceptionally well with a noob old-school wooden yoyo).

Hope you all enjoy this post!

(Okay, time to wear my anti-flame suit with regards to point 5 above >.<).

6 comments:

  1. That's many year ago when I last seen a yoyo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sleepydevil,

      They are still a common sight in Singapore if you know where to find them. ;)

      Delete
  2. Hi,

    Are there listed companies that sell / modify these specialist yoyos? And is there a forum / community for those yo-yo enthusiasists?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi INTJ,

      Not that I know of. Not too sure about that; have been out of the hobby for far too long.

      Delete