I used to do the photo-finish at the local (regional area) races. Sit in a box for an afternoon, read a book or hack some code for half an hour to 45 minutes. Then watch the race, hold down a button as the horses cross the line, drag line-markers onto the horses noses on the image, mark up the number, print a copy, save to disk, go back to reading until the next race.<p>Collect $AU200 for an afternoon's reading, basically.<p>Lost the gig during COVID; easy-come easy-go.<p>(The camera was actually super-interesting: it's like a slit-scan camera, it records a pixel width image continuously and adds it to the last image taken. So if a horse passes the camera, it takes a photo of a sliver of the nose, then then next sliver of nose a split-second later, and so on. It's sort of like taking a picture of time, rather than space. Very cool).
I bought a small studio condo with a mountain view in the center of the city right across the street from a restaurant and a hospital outright with cash after pulling my money out of the stock market. Lots of businesspeople and travel nurses are always interested in it since I rent it out on a month-to-month basis so the rent is higher than most other places, but it comes fully furnished with everything included.<p>Also renting out rooms in my house and trying to obtain at least one more condo and rent that out and live off the income, while I'm "working from home" at my day job.<p>I also try to work on side projects for my side hustle company and I've made a few bucks doing that, but nothing that has been sustainable.