The year continues to fly by and here we are at September already. On the old Japanese calendar, this month was known as 長月, "The long month". Most scholars agree that "long" is in reference to the nights growing longer, which is starting to become more noticeable around this time. The full moon of this month is considered the most beautiful of the autumn season, so we have that to look forward to I suppose. (If you want more September in Japan highlights, see my recent post on the topic)

Anyway—Hive Power-Up Day! Let's start September with a bang by powering up!

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 (HPUD) 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, which starts right about now. To check what these times are in your local time zone, this is my favorite time zone conversion site, but 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 200. It would have been more, but I've been powering up around 20-50 Hive every day this past month. I guess I don't like waiting. But I did hold back a little to power up today with just so I could join in the fun.

Growing stronger!! Soon to be a whale!! (someday)

I'll do my Hive goals breakdown tomorrow, so we can get a clearer picture of where we are at that time, but I am getting really close to my goal of 35k HP. If the cheap Hive keeps up and I can manage to continue buying some, I might even hit my stretch goal of 40k.

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.