It's the most, wonderful time, of the... month. Cough Cough Sorry folks, I know nobody likes out-of-season Christmas songs, but I couldn't resist.
So, here we are, the 1st of February, already. Where does the time go? No idea myself, it feels like last week we were celebrating the new year and now I spun around and find that we're a month into it.
January was great, I really changed some of my lifestyle choices, and feel better for them.
A thing I decided to do was give dry January a go, now, in saying that, I'm not a major drinker, maybe once a week, sometimes twice depending on what's going on. I do tend to overdo it a bit when I do drink though, but only when I'm in good company and in good form. More than often, if the night is going well, we'll drink everything we have and then I'll start raiding the cupboards... "Wine anyone?" "Prosecco?" "Rum...? Do we have any mixers, no, but we can make hard prosecco spritzers." (It seems like a good idea when being egged on by Team Thirsty at 6 AM.) Oh, I get it, if a bar sells them, it's a cocktail, but if I make up some concoction, I have a problem. lol
Anyway, yeah, I knocked the drinking on the head and throughout the month of January I had maybe 3 cans of Heinomite. (Heineken) apart from the 28 of January, where we supported Bad Manners in Opium up in Dublin, that night was cool, I didn't go mad either, mainly because I couldn't get to the bar haha
The gig went really well, we got a good reaction from the crowd and I'd say, by the time we finished our last song, we were playing for about 70% of the capacity of the venue. Good time, it seems like Dangerous Dave and the Side Effects are moving up in the world.
Pregnancy
Me and my partner have picked out our pram and have the money sitting there for it, as well as a Moses basket. For anyone having a child and afraid of the prices of the baby carts, look on Smiths, they are by far the best deal we have come across. We also have a crib, and we've been buying some clothes and teddies, aww man, they're so cute.
The kid is going to be spoiled rotten, I'm cleaning up all my Star Wars stuff, including the vintage figures I've collected since I was a kid. I know, I know, they could be a college fund, but look, I'd rather they get used and played with. It won't be for a few years of course, so until then I get to keep them. Besides, explaining to a child that these toys have value would be too hard, obviously, the boxed figures are remaining boxed, no way am I opening them.
It's cool though, as of tomorrow, we are 8 weeks away!
The Hive Script
We are currently on the second draft of the script and it was a really enjoyable experience getting involved in the project and writing it.
It is out for review and we're waiting to hear back from the review team at the moment, with the reviews we'll start cross-analyzing suggestions and make changes to bring it up to draft 3.
There are a few fun weeks ahead, and everyone should be excited about the future of this project.
Onwards With The Power Up
So, as of last month (The 1st of January to be precise.) I had 1984 Hive Power, As Shown In This Post. But, considering 325 of it is being delegated. I had a usable stake of 1657 - I powered up by 116 that day, which brought my power up to 2100 which gave me a usable stake of 1773.
Well, during this month, from posting every day, and my curating and commenting. That raised naturally to 2329 - with a usable stake of 2001 HP as seen in the screenshot below.
Each month when I do one of these posts, I'm actually surprised, and this month is no different. That is an amazing gain, in my opinion. I know it's not as much as some accounts but I can really see a difference.
I think the 2.9% APR on my Hive is a big cause, I have noticed that some days, I can earn upwards of .20 or .30 Hive per day.
I have a total of 297, so decided to stake over half of that.
It's a pretty specific number, but I thought I would keep myself with an even 120-liquid Hive. Sure enough, though, I saw that I did it wrong. I put in a 9 at the end instead of a 7.
This left me with 118 liquid Hive, not that I mind, it is still an even number after all.
The end result is shown above. I hit 2509 HP, with a usable stake of 2181. This is huge for me, and I couldn't be happier about it.
Each of these power-up days is a lot of fun and after each one, I can feel a noticeable boost in my account and have gotten to a point now where I feel that my vote counts.
Hive Goals
Before last month's power-up day, my goal was to reach 2100, which didn't happen in December, and by the 1st of January. Which, I didn't mind, but I still found that my gains that month was great.
This month, I didn't have a goal, but the increase in my account has been amazing as far as I'm concerned.
Next month's goal I think will be to reach 2800 total HP, I think increasing by 300 is very doable, especially considering that I will be Powering up at least 100 Hive on the 1st of March. So, 200 through curation and posting seems like a good goal. We'll see how I do by then.
External Goals
Last month, I said that I wanted to self-publish the novel that I wrote here on Hive, which is still happening. Currently, I am about seven chapters into the edit of the novel and I think, if I put my mind to it, I should be able to have it published this month.
Two things I want the novel to do.
I want to start my publishing career. I don't care if I don't sell a bunch of copies of it, I just want to get the publishing career started.
I want to have it out there, maybe attract some people to the world I've been building. I think if anyone is interested in science fiction, they will like it.
I want to promote Hive outside of our ecosystem. I'll make sure everyone knows it was written on Hive, and maybe, some people interested in writing will come here. The more creative people we have, the better. (I obviously know that I'm not going to be some best-selling author.) But, if there were a few people interested in it, I kind of like the idea of those people being able to read chapters and go through my thought process, maybe they could gain some inspiration to do their own stuff.
I release (World Building Notes) in the world-building community, which is kind of a free-form idea generation session where I can store my thoughts digitally, and of course, it's not set in stone, I can retcon anything, because, well, it's mine.
I then post serialized chapters and stand-alone short stories in the Scholar and Scribe community.
Both of those communities are great, and honestly, over the last couple of months, they're where I spend most of my time.
Advice For People on Hive
If you're new or have been around a while, my biggest piece of advice is, read, and my second piece of advice is. READ!
I see so many people commenting on people's posts, mine included, who have clearly not read it. I'm not pointing fingers or calling people out, I just want to say, everyone can see it and knows.
Nobody is saying you have to spend every waking moment on Hive reading and writing heartfelt comments, but try and start small and build yourself up. Try to break it down, I usually read an article or two in the morning, before I write my own, then I post, read another one or two, and then before bed, I go on my phone and read another couple before going to sleep.
Don't read someone's thing that you're not interested in, there are so many communities here that everyone can find something in. Do you like fiction? There are about 5 big fiction communities. Do you like gaming? There are about 3 of those. Photography, DIY, Rants, Finance. There is really something for everyone.
Don't comment. "Wow, awesome!" Or "Cool post bro." If you can't think of anything to say after reading someone's post, you're probably reading the wrong content.
Also, another piece of advice and this isn't something everyone can do. I know there are a lot of people who fall on hard times and need that couple of dollars, but, if you can afford to power up and leave it there, do.
Treat it like a high-interest bank account, nearly 3% APR is really good, and the more power you have, the more power you receive, I mean, join a few curation trails if you're not going to be on for a while and you'll see your stake raise a lot, just from that.
I treat mine as a kind of long-term savings account, personally, I would rather have my money in Hive than a bank. But, that's just me.
Anyway, that's enough rambling. Toodles, and have a great HPUD!