I Am #AliveAndThriving Today! || #IAmAliveChallenge || Daily Off-Grid Jungle Journal Entry: Day #495 - Know What the Witnesses for Whom You Vote Are Supporting! - GaiaYoga Gardens, Lower Puna, Far East Big Island, Hawai'i - Monday, December 4, 2023

I live barefooted and naked, very close to Earth and Nature, in an 18-acre, off-grid, clothing-optional, food-forest intentional community (GaiaYoga Gardens), way out in the jungles of Lower Puna, far East Big Island, Hawai'i. I love my life, and I'm immensely grateful to live where and how I do, on my own terms! I would not want to live any other way! 😁🙏💚⚡💥🔥✴️✳️❇️👣🌱✨🤙

Warm greetings all! 😁🙏💚✨🤙

Voting for Hive witnesses (and Hive-Engine witnesses if you have WORKERBEE) is one of those foundationally important Hive responsibilities that behooves everyone on the Blockchain to do, and not just once, but periodically. It is our support of particular Hive witnesses over others, and when necessary the removal and reallocation of our support, that determines the direction of our entire Blockchain Ecosystem.

Given the critical significance of witness voting, it is therefor absolutely essential that we educate ourselves, those of us that love and believe in Hive, on exactly what the witnesses for whom we vote are supporting. There are three issues which have caused me to change my votes over the 2+ years that I've been here, free speech VS censorship, the APR on HBD, and just today, whether to remove author rewards. Yes, there is talk among whales and witnesses right now about the idea of removing author rewards from posts and comments/replies, as well as whether to lower the APR on HBD, which several witnesses are already signaling.

When I first came to Hive, I didn't know the lay of the land, or who was who, though I did see some seemingly supporting censoring certain information that they did not like, with big downvotes. It was for this reason that I originally set @ura-soul as my voting proxy, as he was quite well educated on where various witnesses stood on this matter. It was only fairly recently, after getting a better and clearer understanding of who many of the witnesses were, and what they were actually wanting to implement, that I began voting for witnesses myself.

One of the challenges that I found with this is that it was challenging to find witnesses with whom I agreed on everything. Some are very much for free speech, yet want a much lower HBD APR, or they want 20% APR on HBD, but think the reward pool should be removed. Others are fine with 20% APR and keeping the reward pool, but don't seem to be strong supporters of free speech. So sometimes it's deciding what is more important at any particular time. This is another reason why updating our witness votes periodically is so important, as it helps us to be able to properly 'steer' our Blockchain ship.

I do hope that you will take some time to get to know the people that run the witness nodes, what they want for Hive, as it very much does concern you, decide what is important for you, and then vote accordingly. One of the amazing things about Hive is that we, you and me, get to decide the direction that it goes over time. That's a hugely important responsibility, that is squarely in each of our hands. Let us choose wisely!

I got all of my essential Hive tasks wrapped up by about 3PM yesterday, Monday, which is when I left my tech-center lava perch at the Flow House, to go devote some time to land work. I had already taken photos for this post in the morning, so I didn't have to do it when I left the Flow House. Since I have some bills to pay, my first task was to do some paid work in Ano's nursery, up-potting some bamboo and young mango trees. After finishing that, I took a shower (to sooth the itchy burn from little fire ants), then I headed to the fence garden next to Kana's house to do some much-needed weeding. I made a good dent, but since the garden had not had any regular work done in it in about a month, it was semi-buried in weeds, so I plan on continuing with weeding every day until I am able to get it done and looking good again. There just aren't enough people here presently to do everything that needs doing, so keeping everything functional and looking good is quite a challenge indeed. Ano and Kana were working on Kana's house while I was working in the garden, putting on a new tarp, and they enlisted some help, mine included for a short while, to help pull the new tarp over the portch.

Once I had finished working, I took a second shower, strained out kefir for my kefir-honey-cinnamon-cacao blend, made myself some food, got food for my kitty friend, and then I made my way back to the Flow House, to begin my evening round of Hive tasks and catching up on notifications. Although I did get close, I wasn't able to fully catch up on my notifications before sleep overtook me, so I headed to bed around 11:30PM. I did sleep well, waking up about 6AM, doing a round of token management and continuing to catch up on notifications, before finally getting out of bed to go make my superfood fire coffee a little after 8:30AM.

It's almost 12:30PM by this point, so it's a great time to end this post for now, so that I can get to my afternoon round of essential Hive tasks, before heading to do more land work in the late afternoon. I deeply appreciate you all very much! Until tomorrow! Onward and upward, joyfully together! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙

All photos were taken with my Motorola G Power Android Phone.

Thank you all so much who have helped me get to where I am today, and allowing me to share more of the beauty and magic from my life and my world with you, and for your continuous appreciation and support! I am truly deeply grateful! 😁🙏💚✨🤙

If you'd like to find me on other alternative platforms where I have accounts (I spend most of my time here on Hive), click on this signature image below to go to my LinkTree page.

If you'd like to send me a BTC Lighting Tip (made possible by the fantastic work of brianoflondon on @v4vapp), just scan the QR image below. 👇

Signature image created by @doze, and the dividers made by @thepeakstudio, with all tweaked to their present form by me.