| Name: Shawn Toh L Z Year of Birth: 1986 Country: Singapore Race: Chinese Hobbies: Pen Spinning and playing Strategy Games Knowledge: Keyboarding of 70wpm with 96% of accuracy Basic in creating webpages Time started Pen Spinning: August-September / Autumn 2001 Internet: - Email: shawn_tohlz[at]yahoo.com - Website: http://members.fortunecity.com/tohlz/penstudioz/ or www.oocities.org/shawn_tohlz/main.html Website: -=[P]enstudio[Z]=- Pen Spinning, a form of contact juggling that must persevere to succeed. Born in Sunday 25th August 2002, lots of hard work and efforts are put into PenstudioZ so as to let everyone know more about the art of Pen Spinning. Pen Spinning Resume: Involvements Webmaster of PenstudioZ ( http://www.penstudioz.cjb.net ) Moderator of Universal Pen Spinning Board (UPSB) Moderator of Pen Spinning History Committee (PSHC, UPSB) Member of Battle Records Committee (BRC, UPSB) Member of Kammys Award Committee (UPSB) Member of The Tricks Guide Project Committee (UPSB) Member of Kit-Cat Pen Spinning Forum (KCF, Hong Kong) Moderator of Battle Arena (KCF) Moderator of Unique Combo Area (KCF) Member of Pen Zone (Hong Kong) Moderator of PS Secret Zone (Pen Zone) Moderator of Pen Zone Battle (Pen Zone) Member of Pendolsa Pen Spinning Community (PDS, Korea) Member of Taiwan Pen Spinning Community (Yahoo Group, Taiwan) Organized Singapore Pen Spinning Gathering I Singapore Pen Spinning Gathering II Participations UPSB (English PS Community) + PDS (Korean PS Community) Collaboration Video The Asia Pen Spinning Presentation: A PenstudioZ and PenSpinning Reference Room Collaboration Video Christmas Celebration Video 2004 (UPSB) Chinese New Year Video 2005 (UPSB) 20 Minutes Rush Collaboration (UPSB) The Best of UPSB: Battlers' Recognition - PS, Video Editing (BRC, UPSB) Spectrum: Early 2005 UPSB Collaboration Kit-Cat Pen Spinning Forum Collaboration Video Kit-Cat Pen Spinning Forum Collaboration Video #2 Pen Zone Collaboration Video #2 Capture The Throne #1 (CTT Defender Side) UPSB Unofficial Battle #1 - Through-spin based battle (Winner) UPSB Official Battle #2 - Fundamentals and its variations (Winner) Superhandz PS Challenge - Writing Pen Zone Battle #1 - Left Handed Spinning (Winner) KCF Battle #1 - Sonic KCF 1 vs 1 Challenge #1 - Infinity (Winner) Recognitions Kammys Award 2004 (6 Nominations) Best Pen Spinning Affiliated Site (Kammys Award 2004) Best Pen Modification (Kammys Award 2004) 73 Online Website Awards Pen Zone Battle Medalist Interviews PS-3K, Aaron Robertson, 2003 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How the Author picks up Pen Spinning and created PenstudioZ: Back in August-September 2001, my school was very popular in pen spinning. I am still not interested in pen spinning then and I always see some of them spin. At that time, my classmates that can spin only know tricks like Sonic and Thumbspin. Slowly, Pen Spinning started to spread around classes. In Four Express classes, at least 2-3 person know how to spin a pen. My friend that is not in the same class as I am also started pen spinning. His first trick is Thumbspin Normal (Also Known as 360 Degree Normal). From what I remember, in the four classes, those who know how to pen spin were spinning different tricks. The first class is more on Thumbspin, the second on Charge, the third on Fingerpass and the last class on Sonic. At that time, the Fourth class has the most numbers of people who know how to spin a pen. Everyone in the class perform same trick, Sonic. But, no one knew that it is a Sonic. They only know that they are spinning a pen, and not knowing that it is actually a trick called Sonic. So the trend started. I was in the third class. I have two classmates good at sonic and ThumbAround. I am a greenhorn then. Around September 2001, I started to be interested in Pen Spinning. I asked my classmate when he learned how to do the ThumbAround, he told me... when he was young at about 9-10 years old. Of course, I was shocked. Finally, my friend and I started to pick up this hobby called, Pen Spinning. I learnt one new trick in my Food and Nutrition class, that no other classmates knew how to, which is called the Fingerpass (The Reverse Version Though). I had to admit that I did not listen to my teacher talking since I was busy practicing the Fingerpass :S . I showed it to my friend and taught him how to do it. Those classmates that saw Fingerpass was amazed by us. They wanted to learn, but failed to do so. One day, my curiosity struck me. I thought: 'Is there any Pen Spinning website on the internet?' I felt curious about it. So I decided to go to the internet and check it out. Entering a Search Engine, I have exactly no idea on what to look for, because I don't even know that what I have been doing is called Pen Spinning. Is it turning, twirling or whatever... and finally, “ah! Pen Spinning! “Upon pressing the Search button, I waited patiently with my slow 56k modem. The first website I entered was an English version of the pen spinning website by Hideaki. I downloaded those videos. And then I saw the Japanese version's link. I went there. And there were a lot more videos. Of course, I downloaded all of them. Like everyone, looking through all those videos, I go "WOW! That’s cool~! How did he do that?” Then I found another Pen Spinning Website. I registered myself at the website through a Pen Spinner Section as the 'only' Singaporean there. Then a forum was started, but not many people use that. I phoned my friend at my aunt's house and told him about Pen Spinning in the internet. And it became a 'secret' between us. I invited him to my house and both of us watched every video over and over again, hoping to learn something. We also learnt that the trick we did often is called Fingerpass Reverse. Year 2002 came... we can do many basic tricks and their reverse. Classmates saw us doing the Sonic Reverse or even the ThumbAround Reverse and so on. Those who can do Sonic Normal or ThumbAround were shocked. And so, we started to do Combos and Freestyles. He was in the Second class while I am in the Third class. Both of us became an influence at Pen Spinning in both classes. Many classmates from his class wanted him to teach them pen spinning tricks, while classmates from my class wanted me to teach them. Of course, this whole spinning thing started to irritate the teachers, hehe. Soon, pen spinning became more and more popular. Classmates from other classes also wanted me to teach them how to do tricks like Fingerpass and Thumbspin. Since only me and my friend knew about Pen Spinning website, both of us are like 'enemies', but only in Pen Spinning. Every time one of us learnt how to do a new trick, we were share tips on the trick. Sometimes, we were also challenge against each other, like who can be able to perform more Sonic Harmonic in one minute time. The more we spent on pen spinning, the more we have to visit a bookshop, 'laugh out loud!’ This is because; we have to change our pens every time. They either crack, or the tip of the pen was damaged when the pens dropped on the floor too often. Hundreds of pens in my house, with only 1 or 2 can be used to write with. Pathetic isn't it? But, that doesn't stop us. We started to do prevention so that we won't have to change pens frequently. Examples are like, removing the ink tubes, spinning only a specific pen and not those that we need to use it to write, finish the ink first before we use it to spin, and many more. In addition, our textbooks, school uniforms and tables started to have pen marks and inks. Although all these are the disadvantages, I still think that it is a good hobby. This is because, now I can show off my tricks to my classmates and amazed them. Also, my fingers tend to be more flexible now. At around August 2002, one of the forum members started to create a new pen spinning website. And he said that he was inspired. At this time, I thought: 'hmm, shouldn't it be nice if there would be more websites on pen spinning? There would be many different websites updating their news and pen spinners or visitors can visit more sites and view more videos and tips. So, visitors won't get bored if a pen spinning website stop updating for a while.' The following day, I went to the Library to study and revise with my friend. Then, I told him that I intend to get a Web cam and make a pen spinning website. He supported my suggestion. Soon, I bought my first CMOS Web cam and on 25th August 2002, it became the birth of PenstudioZ. Phew, finally, end of my story. |
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