Hitting 6k HP (August HPUD + Blog)

August is here again, which is the second August I've been here on Hive, and this is actually the first August I've powered up my account, as last year I missed it; I didn't do too bad as I hit most of the other months that year. January of 2022 was the other one I missed, as I had only been here for a few days and didn't know about powering up on the 1st, at that time.

It has been such a great time so far, and a lot has happened here on Hive, and off Hive in the last year and a half - that's one thing I love about power-up days, it really gives me a chance to be a bit introspective and think about all the other days and months leading up to this particular day.

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Helping Hands
There are so many people who made me feel welcome and taught me everything I needed to know, while also answering any questions I had about this place.

It would be hard to name everyone, as the list would be endless, but I can share a few links to Discord servers and just say join them if you're new here and feeling a little bit lost.

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The Terminal - I had so much help here and this is the first server I joined after writing my first post here. The people who run this server are happy to help with any query and have a wealth of information about this place.

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Original Content Decentralized - This server to me is pretty similar to The Terminal and was the other server I was invited to join after starting out here, they're both cool places to hang out and chat and between the two so many of the members were able to help me out by answering any of my - stupid - questions.

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The community is what makes Hive great, and a well-informed community is what makes this place thrive. So many people take on the responsibility of essentially being an online tutor, and they all do it for free, knowing that helping out new users and getting them settled will help Hive as a whole.

I've gotten to the point where I'm onboarding friends and family, and helping to guide them as best I can with the knowledge I possess; when I'm not sure about something I do try to point them in the right direction to find people to talk to. Thankfully, I've been able to help out the people I've onboarded, and they seem to have a decent understanding of the place. I also try to help people I come across up here who are new, as that's what it's all about, we're all stronger together and Hive is the responsibility of all members equally.

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Life Stuff
I like to take the opportunity on the 1st of each month to have a chat about whatever going on in my life, it's really the only time a month I talk candidly about stuff, and take powerup day as a chance to "Blog."

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Baby
Baby is doing well, I still have not made him his own Hive account as I just haven't really had a chance to do it, but I will and I'm going to maybe use it to post some updates and milestones of his, and one day maybe he'll go back and read through his baby blog posts, and cringe... I hope there's a lot of cringe haha

He has been laughing a lot, and me and his mother have been singing silly little songs to him which he really likes, he's also a lot more aware of his surroundings now and is constantly looking around, I even noticed that he has started to look at animals now. Before, when the dogs were walking around he would ignore them, and now he's staring and tracking them with his eyes, as he does with us, which is cool. I think a nice trip to the zoo is in order soon.

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Band/ Music
The two bands are doing great, and there is a pretty decent/ hectic week ahead of us.

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As mentioned before Dangerous Dave and the Side Effects, - which I'm the bass player of - is playing Rebellion Festival in Blackpool this Friday, and that is something that has been on my wish list for a while.

For playing the gig we've been given an AAA pass for the whole weekend, which will be great for us to hang out and do a bit of networking with other bands.

The Blackpool trip will be cool, we're leaving here at 5 AM on Thursday morning, getting the ferry from Dublin at 8:05, then the train from Holyhead, and hopefully we'll arrive in Blackpool at around 4:30 that afternoon.

Me and my dad have been looking it up as neither of us have ever been there, there are a few antique shops we want to check out and there are some other places we want to see, the two of us wake up naturally around 8, so we'll both be heading out each day to do some stuff which will be cool, and it's nice that the whole weekend won't be about having a piss up... but, there will be plenty of drinking going on haha

Here's one of our songs from our second album, which currently isn't out, but we're hoping to release it after this weekend.

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The Cover Band
The cover band is doing well too, when we get back home, it'll be about 9 AM on Monday, and that night I'm going out to jam with the others, and then the following day we've got a gig here in our home town which is going to be a lot of fun.

Then two days later it's my birthday and a few friends are coming down for it, and one is coming over from England which is going to be great, as I haven't seen him in person in a few years. He'll be over for the week, so it'll be nice to catch up properly.

I'm not doing a lot on my actual birthday, but I did book a venue on that Saturday and there'll be a few bands playing including the two I'm in, and it's just going to be a good craic in general.

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The Stories
As you may know - if you've followed me for a while - I write a lot of science fiction kind of stuff, and all of these stories are set in a Galaxy I've been building for the last few years, although, before joining Hive I hadn't put as much work into it, as I have to date.

Currently, I'm sitting on a novel I've written, and I'm over halfway through the editing of it, but damn, I hate editing. I don't know what it is about the process but I'm just so slow when it comes to it, but I'm chipping away at it nonetheless.

While working on the edit I told myself that I wouldn't work on another novel until it's complete and published, so I decided to write short, self-contained stories set in the same Galaxy; these stories have been so much fun and they've really helped me grow the idea, and world build so many aspects of each planet. It's freeing, to be able to work on something like these short stories.

I have something I'm going to be announcing soon, and I think it is going to up my game and do some amazing things.

As I've said here, when the novel releases, I'm going to be crediting Hive in it, and that should hopefully drive more attention and people here. Now, I know I may not sell many - or potentially any - copies of the book, but I like the idea of Hive being pointed at with it, and the chance of it bringing more people here.

The thing I'm going to announce will work in the same vain, and I think everyone here will be very hyped about what I've been doing in the shadows. I don't know when I'll be announcing it, but the potential will be amazing, and I have a really good feeling about it.

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On To The Power-up
Sadly I haven't been able to buy any Hive this month as I'd hoped; last month I was able to buy and power up 1,700 Hive, which was something I was hoping to do again, but with the Blackpool trip, my mums birthday, two of my cousins birthdays and my own coming I just didn't really have any cash spare to put in, but once my one is out of the way I'll be able to put some more cash in and I might be able to reach my long goal of 10k Hive sooner than Christmas.

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Here's a screenshot from Hivestats.io which shows how I've done in the last 7 days. I'm pretty happy with my earnings and pretty much every bit of HBD I earn either gets converted into HP or spent on coins on Hive Engine.

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This is a chart showing my earnings over the last 30 days, and I'm really happy to see how much I'm growing each month. Since my big power-up last month, I've really noticed my curation rewards alone helping my account grow, and I think this is a prime example of why it's important to keep your Hive powered up.

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I've been posting every day since the 1st of January, so currently I'm over halfway through 1 full year of posting, which of course has helped me grow a lot, and with this growth, I'm able to give back to people with my upvotes.

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Currently, I'm sitting at 6,896HP, which means that naturally, I was able to raise my HP from 5665HP last month, As Mentioned In Last Months HPUD Post, by 231 HP, which is pretty amazing.

Here's my current HP - pre-power-up

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I put aside over 100 Hive, just because I wasn't sure how much I would need to hit 6k.

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I decided to power up 104, to hit my goal, rather than power up everything I had.

Here's the end result, which to me, is such an achievement.

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Goals
For next month, I would like to hit 6,500 HP, by the first of September. If I can earn about 200 from creating and curating, I should easily be able to buy the rest I need to hit that.

If I grow by 500 per month, I'll be at 8k by the 1st of December, but that means I won't hit my stretch goal of 10k by Christmas.

Hopefully, I will be able to buy some more Hive once everything settles down this month, but it won't be until the latter half of August, as with everything going on up until then is pretty hectic. If I have a chance of buying some large amounts of Hive, it'll be around September and October, but that's if nothing happens between now and then.

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Happy HPUD, I hope you have been able to reach the goals you have set for yourself, and any future goals you have set for yourselves.

Have a great day/ month everyone!