Happy New Year, everyone! It's the year of the wood dragon. Hopefully a lucky one that sees us all get rich!

Most years I do a series of New Year posts for the first week or so of the year, and this year will be no different. So look forward to that in the coming days. Included in that will be exactly what kind of luck we might expect from a wood dragon year, if you are interested in that kind of thing.

I spent last night watching Kohaku Uta Gassen. It's an annual singing contest that has been broadcast for so long that it's tradition now to watch at the end of every year. It was a little different this year. Because of the Johnny sex scandal, none of their young pop groups attended, so it was a lot of older singers. Lots of great ones. Like Hiroko Yakushimaru (photoed below) who did really great. And Ado, Shiina Ringo, Yoshiki. Queen was there too, which was fun. Some great stuff. Maybe I'll do another post about it in a few days when people have had a chance to upload some of the performances to Youtube.

While watching I drank too much, then went to temple for the New Year. It was all great fun. And now I'm up early to go to Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year in a little bit with my family.

But anyway, for this post, we'll be powering up! Because this is Hive Power-Up Day!

What is Hive Power-Up Day? Let's get a brief intro out of the way for any of you who may be unfamiliar with the day.

Hive-Power Up Day (HPID) is when we all power-up some hive. Pretty simple, eh? Powering up has many benefits, such as increasing your vote and your stake in this platform. Increasing your vote has a lot of benefits, among which are you can reward people more and you can make more in curation. We can of course power up on any day of the month; HPUD is just here for an added social push.

Hive Power Up Day uses UTC time, so it started about seven minutes ago as of this posting. Check what UTC time is in your local time zone here, or you can also go to the Hivebuzz page, login, and they will show you a countdown clock.

If you have at least 10 Hive that you can power-up, you will get a badge from doing so. I mean, sure, badges are a little silly, but they are a fun perk. Think of them as achievements in your favorite game. If you are under level 70 then you might get some big rewards for powering-up as well, like a lot of Hive in delegations. Alas! I'm over level 70, so no rewards for me. But it's ok, I enjoy supporting the platform.

I powered-up 500. I wanted to start the new year at 22k, so I moved around some investments to come up with enough to buy 500 Hive. While it pales in comparison to my 2000+ power-up at the start of last year, I'm still happy with it. May it be the first of many!

Growing stronger!! Soon to be an orca!

If you missed yesterday's Hive Goals post, I wrote there that my Hive Power goal for this year is 35k, with 40k as a stretch goal. If we do find ourselves in a bull market and I can get even higher, all the better, but these numbers will be the goal.

Anyway, Happy New Year!!! It's still last year for many of you reading this, so enjoy your celebration too. And Happy HPUD!

If you miss out don't worry, there will be another next month. But that next month will be here before you know it. I suggest following @hivebuzz and/or @traciyork so you will be reminded a few days before the next one.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.