2024 has been an interesting year for me personally let alone current affairs, which I am going to almost completely ignore in this blog post. Today, I went through my "gratitude journal" and my blog posts here on Hive to pick out some of the highlights of the year for me - as well as some missteps along the way.
So here goes:
JANUARY
Goodbye University Teaching!
I finished teaching my very last class at Hiroshima Women's University, having worked there as a part time teacher for twenty years! In October 2023 I decided not to renew my contract in 2024, as I blogged here:
It was bittersweet to leave, but I had taught all my courses to "my" second and third years, and the college has been in decline in terms of numbers of students and courses for at least a decade already, so this year seemed a good time to bail out.
In January, I had not replaced the "university gig" with anything else... Would I be able to survive on my other classes and my online business alone, or would other "gigs" come along to replace what I was leaving behind?
Investing In AI?
The prospect of less ready cash didn't stop me from investing in a lifetime membership of Quickwrite.ai for $197. Now I wonder whether it was really necessary and I note that I haven't used it since May as I tend to default to ChatGPT. (Already, this 2024 retrospective is nudging me towards revisiting stuff that I'd pretty much forgotten about!)
January Score: 5/10 all a bit uncertain at the start of the year...
FEBRUARY
Joseph Rodriques, Personal Development Coach
I discover a personal development YouTuber called Joseph Rodriques and have found his videos very helpful - this is a definite win for me in 2024!
100% Commission Funnel Launched!
Another positive development in February was my successful launch of the 100% Commission Funnel which generated a lot of sales for me throughout the year, and I trust into 2025 and beyond. (I will be going over the whole funnel in the New Year holidays to freshen it up for 2025.)
Internet Investment System??
On a less positive note, I decided to follow my Livegood sponsor into a program called the Internet Income System. I liked the training, but it soon became clear that they'd launched prematurely and well, I became rather disillusioned with the whole set-up and cancelled my sub, which my sponsor didn't seem to like very much! LOL!
February Score: 7/10 - two very positive developments, and I didn't lose much by joining and quitting IIS.
MARCH
Please Take Over This Class!
Well, here was a nice surprise out of the blue. An American who's lived in Hiroshima for a long time contacted me to offer me a Monday morning English class at a community center just down the tram track from where I live. He was moving to Mexico and specifically wanted me to teach the class.
Happily, I was able to shift my Monday vocational college classes to the afternoon, and so I got a double benefit with this new gig: (1) an extra class, and extra mula, without having lifted a finger to look for any new classes, (2) the class starts at 10:15 am and is much closer to where I live, than my vocational college class which started at 9am - so I get a much more leisurely start to the teaching week, and more or less doubled my Monday income to boot!
Oh, and I have now made up about 50% of the lost income from chucking my university gig!
6 Minute Dumbbell Boxing Workout!
I discovered a relatively quick and easy dumbbell workout on Tony Jeffries' YouTube channel called "Mike Tyson's Dumbbell Workout," which has proved ideal for me, even though I ain't Mike Tyson and am not even a boxer.
The idea is to do six 30 second reps with dumbbells, non stop for 3 minutes, then rest, then repeat the reps for another 3 minutes to complete the equivalent of two rounds of boxing. When it comes to workouts, I want the routine to be quick and efficient, and knowing that I can get it done in less than ten minutes really lowers the bar for me to do it, so I added this routine to my workout repertoire, and in fact, it is now my primary go-to workout and the results are noticeable.
March Score: 8/10 - positive developments on the teaching and physical exercise fronts!
APRIL
Another Way To Earn Some Occasional Yen
I start training to become an EIKEN exam instructor. EIKEN is a popular English language proficiency exam in Japan. This opportunity was handed to me - literally - by a Japanese colleague who had put her name to an EIKEN examiner application form as my sponsor and handed me the form without my having asked her to do it. Indeed, I had never mentioned any interest in becoming an EIKEN examiner to her.
I Launch A New Sales Funnel
I launched Traffic Exchange Success Secrets 2024 in April and that brought in a couple of dozen sales in short order! TESS 2024 is a revival of an old ebook that I wrote several years ago about how to work with traffic exchanges. I blogged about the launch of TESS 2024 new funnel here:
https://hive.blog/proofofbrain/@hirohurl/launching-rebrandable-ebooks-just-got-a-lot-easier
I Waste $1k On Another Dodgy Program???
I jumped hastily into a "big ticket" program run by a guy I'd been following for a while. However, within 24 hours I realized that it was not something that I could recommend to my network in good conscience... Why not? Because once you join you discover that there are a bunch of other training on the inside that you need to pay for, one of which blatantly tells you that only a small percentage of people will actually make any money with... the program!
This was a big wake-up call. I was aghast at how easily I - someone with a lot of experience in this game - had got drawn in. It made me more determined to build my OWN business around programs I can happily recommend because I use them.
I rearranged my finances and did not suffer any serious negative outcomes in spite of my stupidity and the obvious loss of any online profits I'd made so far this year by chucking all my gains down this particular drain! Still, it will be a nice tax write-off!
I Meet A New Group Of Board Gamers!
On a happier note, I found out that a guy called John, who I'd never met before, had opened a board game cafe close to a station not too far from my neck of the woods, so I reached out to him and have become a regular player and drinker at his "Board Room" gaming sessions. It has given me a new circle of fun people to hang out with at a very convenient location. Here's a blog post from one of our sessions a bit later in the year:
https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/3rd-attempt-to-control-afghanistan-at-the-board-room
Speaking of blog posts, April was a sweet month for blogging on Hive - two of my favourite posts of the year were published in April:
Magnolia blossom and Natume Soseki: https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/offering-innumerable-blossoms-to-the-sky
Wisteria blossom and fun with school kids (TikTok video) https://hive.blog/proofofbrain/@hirohurl/encountering-wisteria-and-japanese-schoolkids-on-a-back-road-in-hiroshima
April Score: 6/10 - lots of positive developments and experiences, but one major downer put a damper on things
MAY
Another Teaching Gig Comes My Way
The only proactive thing I did to secure more teaching/yen-earning gigs after leaving my university job was to mention to a friend who works part-time at a language school that is conveniently located just down the tramline from where I live that I'd be interested in teaching some classes there.
I already know the boss of the school, and it turned out that she had wanted me to work there for some time, so as soon as my friend mentioned me to her, the door was opened and I picked up a couple of Tuesday evening classes that I teach "on my way home" from my vocational college classes.
It makes Tuesdays a long day, but also another nice earner of a day - oh, and the teaching is fun. Mind you, I love teaching anyway, so it doesn't really feel like work, just more of what I love - meeting new people and communicating with them!
This gig has turned into a little gold mine, of which more later....
With this new gig and my Monday morning community centre class, I have pretty much replaced the income I lost by walking away from my university gig!
Bitcoin Hits A New High
When Bitcoin popped over $70k I sent 0.01 BTC from my Freebicto.in account to Hive to help me get closer to my 2024 Hive token targets.
60 Second Deadhang!
Yoh! I first tried deadhanging a couple of years ago and wasn't sure that I could hang for ten seconds! Well, once I got used to it, I extended my time to 40 seconds, and then forgot about it ... until May 2024, when I tried again, and managed to hang there for a full minute!
*May Score: 9/10 - positive developments across the board, and online biz doing well as well!
JUNE
70 Second Deadhang!
This is now my current record deadhang... My goal is to hit 2 minutes, but this is the last time I tried a deadhang, so let's see if I can't revive my deadhanging project during the New Year holidays and hit 90 seconds... and then aim for 2 minutes some time in 2025!
Researching Shakespeare's Rape of Lucrece
I revived this old academic project of mine with the intention of writing and presenting a paper on the topic to an academic conference that is supposed to take place in Hiroshima every September...
I recorded the progress of my researches in a series of blog posts commencing in June with this one: https://hive.blog/proofofbrain/@hirohurl/machiavelli-shakespeare-and-the-rape-of-lucrece-research-notes-1
Other June Blog posts
I also blogged about the Japan Bank Building that survived the atomic-bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945: https://hive.blog/proofofbrain/@hirohurl/video-tour-of-the-bank-that-survived-the-atom-bombing-of-hiroshima
On the chess front, I rediscovered a good old chess book called Logical Chess via a YouTuber called Chess Vibes and blogged about one of the games it features here: https://hive.blog/hive-157286/@hirohurl/irving-chernev-logical-chess-game-1-avoid-h3-after-kingside-castling
*June Score: 7/10 - all positive. Online business also chugging along nicely.
JULY
First Eiken Examiner Job
Woohoo! I got up early and spent one Sunday testing EIKEN oral exam candidates. You get a pretty decent free lunch thrown in, and pick up a nice wad of cash for your work. (I wouldn't have bothered with this if I'd still been doing my university gig.)
1st Years Learn Chess at my Vocational College Gig
I was very happy to get an enthusiastic response to my suggestion that my first years learn to play chess. They think they are playing a game, but their brains are getting a much more rigorous workout - and in English too - when they play chess than when they pootle their way through a normal "English Communication" class!
I mean, seriously, they pay me to play chess with my students! LOL!
https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/beat-the-teacher-at-chess-win-1-000
My First University Student/Teacher Reunion
Yeah, that was a fun evening! The first time I'd seen my sweet third year students since I finished teaching at university!
https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/having-a-blast-with-four-former-students
*July Score: 9/10 - Two new sources of yen, and lots of fun with students in class and out!
AUGUST
Cycling With The Mrs On Ikuchijima
This was a fun day out: https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/what-did-you-wear-to-the-beach-this-summer
Summer Police Course
My vocational college won the yearly contract for a special Hiroshima Police English training course and I was one of the team of teachers on the job, so another nice source of extra yen pocket money to see me through a summer of cold beers and spritzers.
Ajina Community Centre Class - Back to 2 Lessons a Month!
Woohoo! I sometimes had to drop this gig when teaching at university. I've had it, on and off, for about twenty years now. Back in the day they'd have weekly classes. Then the number of students dropped off and they reduced the classes to two, then just to one, so I began to think it would be time to say goodbye, but this year the class has revived with some new intake, and so we are back up to two classes a month... I think I'm well and truly ahead of where I was with yen income at the beginning of the year! LOL!
*August Score: 8/10 - two boosts to the old yen income, and a fun day out with the Mrs. Not too bad a month at all.
SEPTEMBER
Typhoon Knocks Out The Shakespeare Conference
After all my efforts and research on Shakespeare's Lucrece poem... a blooming typhoon throws the good professors into a panic and they cancel the conference... and invite us to resubmit our papers next year. :(
I delegate 800 Hive to the Chessbrothers project
A bunch of guys who like chess and working out; what's not to like about that? And they pay out some sweet liquid Hive to delegators every week. :)
$150+ in safelist commissions in one day.
I think this has been my biggest single day of safelist commission earnings ever! The commissions came from Frank Salinas and Phil Booth (who owns a Frank-inspired safelist).
Online Classes for a Japanese Au-Pair in Australia
I agreed to take on this job even though the pay was not so high because I wanted to support a former student of mine who has started an au pair agency for young Japanese women who want to work in Australia.
The lessons went well - 50 minute online classes that I ran on my laptop at home. I used ChatGPT to create my class content and posted the lessons on a free blog for my student to work with: https://english.siterubix.com
Unfortunately, the student chucked in the au-pair game after just four classes. Presumably she felt homesick and so that was the end of that. Feedback about my classes was positive, but since they are tied to the au pair program, once she quit the program the classes went down the plughole. Still, it was a good experience, and now I have the website infrastructure in place so I can easily pick up with online classes again in the future.
September blog post - Oktoberfest in Hiroshima!: https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/hiroshima-celebrates-oktoberfest-in-september-of-course
*September Score: 6/10 - Some nice developments, especially making $150 from safelists in one day. A pity about the cancelled conference, and to lose my au pair student, but neither is really much of a disaster.
OCTOBER
Fake Wedding Vicar Gig
One of my chess-playing pals asked me if I could cover a couple of wedding gigs for him as he is chucking it for something else. I accepted - something to do with pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone or some guff like that...
What started out, when I agreed to cover for him, as "you'll do 3 weddings and earn ¥30,000 (about $200) in a single day," was reduced (when the Italian bloke who runs a "fake wedding vicar supply service" for various Japanese hotels that offer wedding services found out that I had absolutely no experience) to just one wedding for ¥10,000 - minus emergency tax, LOL!
I ended up investing ¥16,000 in a white shirt, white tie, black jacket, black covered ring-binder for the wedding service, so went into my first ever wedding ceremony in the hole for several thousand yen!
Thankfully, the service went well. The couple weren't particularly interested in the vicar, who was simply there to give a patina of "Christian" atmosphere to the rigmarole of getting married. The bride's side of the aisle was pretty empty as there was only her mother, a weeping sister, and an old geezer, presumably granddad, there to see her married.
I was quite elated that it had all gone pretty well considering my zero experience and minimal training.
Merino Wool T-shirts
Having sweated my way through a long hot summer, I decided to invest in some merino wool t-shirts, which remain odour free even if you wear them for a long sweaty week.
This has proved to be a good investment. Very pleased with how comfortable and indeed, how odour free they remain. You can hang them out in the sun and breeze and they come in as fresh as daisies. Very nice.
German Classes At Eiglobe!
The boss asked me if I knew anybody who could teach German... well, if the students are beginners, I can do it! And so, without further ado, I took on my first German student in about twenty years, who turned out NOT to be a beginner, but, fortunately for me, her knowledge is almost entirely passive and she can hardly speak German at all.
Having succesfully created an English language study website with the help of ChatGPT I immediately got to work to set up a German language teaching webiste at https://german.siterubix.com
October fun blog post has to be the one about the Haloween party that I attended (I'm the skull with a black hat and sunglasses!: https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/early-halloween-party-in-hiroshima
October 6/10 - New earning opportunities, but one was not quite the golden goose it was made out to be (the fake vicar gig)
NOVEMBER
My Daughter's Last Nagasaki University Festival
Time certainly flies when you have children, and it seems incredible that my daughter will soon be graduating from university. We went to see her perform with her cheerleading club at her final university festival. While in Nagasaki we came across this Ghibli souvenir shop in Nagasaki Chinatown: https://hive.blog/hive-147010/@hirohurl/totoro-no-tonari-in-nagasaki-shinchi-chinatown
0.013 BTC to HIVE - Dolphin Status Achieved
Woohoo! I hit some of my Hive token targets in November, not least of which was becoming a Dolphin with over 7,000 HP. I did so by transferring 0.013 BTC from my Freebitco.in account to Hive. Very nice!
I'll blog more about my crypto progress in a separate blog post.
My Second EIKEN Examiner Gig
I completed my second day as an EIKEN Examiner - all went smoothly and once again, it's a nice - if occasional - little earner.
Hugo Boss and Other Jackets from Circle One
I expanded my wardrobe by picking up several jackets in my size from Circle One, a used clothing store, and blogged about how I removed the stitched-in name of the previous owner to make the jackets - and a very nice cashmere coat - entirely my own: https://hive.blog/alive/@hirohurl/how-i-used-a-seam-ripper-to-make-a-usd17-thrift-store-jacket-my-own
November Score: 8/10 - lots of good things happened in November.
DECEMBER
2nd and Last Wedding Gig
After successfully trundling through my first wedding ceremony, I agreed to do one more to cover my friend's butt. At the time, I thought I might keep going with this line of work. However, I noticed that as the day drew closer I felt more stressed than before. On the day, I got there in good time, but that was not necessarily a good thing because a very cheerful civil wedding ceremony with a large number of guests was still in full swing, and so I was unceremoniously bundled into a broom cupboard where a bod was manning the sound system. I was stuck in there for about twenty minutes as the celebrations and rounds of applause went on and on and on... So there was not much time to prep for our service, and as a result, let us just say that things did not go so smoothly as before. The essentials were done, but it was a ragged affair. Mind you, the families were cheerful, and nobody seemed to notice - after all, as I quickly realized on my first outing, the fake vicar is merely an appendage to give a flavour of exoticism to the affair.
That gig brings me close to break-even, but in order to continue with the wedding lark, I'd have to invest in vestments and that is a further expense I'm unwilling to indulge in, as is the stress of trying to work out what on earth I am expected to do at various points in the proceedings!
And so ends my venture as a fake vicar. Once thing it did bring home to me was how much I enjoy teaching - and the spontaneity that comes with it, as opposed to the fixed and rigid order of a wedding ceremony.
Another 0.013 BTC to Hive!
With Bitcoin breaking above $100k, I sent another 1.3% across to Hive to boost my HBD holdings. I won't hit my 2024 HBD target, but the year has seen my HIVE-based crypto pot grow substantially...
I Shutdown ThousandAMonth.com
When the time came to renew my ThousandAMonth domain that I used to promote my book, I decided that it was time to retire that particular blog and point all links from my other blogs directly to the book on Amazon.com.
I co-wrote the book back in 2017, I think, and a lot has changed since then. I no longer want to spend time updating the book, and it doesn't cost anything to leave the current edition on Amazon.com, so that's what I'll do. After all, it's nice to be able to point to a book of my own on Amazon.
And that brings us right up to date.
December Score: 6/10 for a fairly quiet month in which I abandon a couple of projects but boost my Hive holdings.
All in all, though, it has been a good year, with new opportunities, new friends and activities, and good progress on the crypto front.
All the best for 2025!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
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