Today marks one year of my witness campaign.

Although, I would like to think of it as one year that my witness server being procured and up and running, while my entire life experience here as a Steemian and all of my life experiences along with the lessons that life has taught me to actually e a part of my campaign.

Where do I begin?

Well, let me say that being committed to Steem is what I feel is one of the most important aspects of my campaign.

As was the case just over a year ago, when I paid 12 months in advance for my server and support services from a professional techy, I have done the exact same thing again for this coming year.

Why would I pay for my witness server all the way through Feb 2020?

Well, I'm in it because I believe in it.

I sure wouldn't "invest" my money into building something that I don't believe in.

However there is a lot more to it than just "economics", as my actions here have been far from economically justifiable.

What do I mean when I say that?

Well, having done some number crunching, it became clear that if it was all about the money and nothing else, then I should have to date with just the fiat invested, Over 40,000 Steem.

Sounds a little unbelievable, but the numbers don't lie.

A lot of that was given away. It feels good to give. It puts smiles on faces, including my face, so it was worth every cent.

Life is not all about "taking", at least it shouldn't be.

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This year I have to tighten the budget, my wife and I are in the middle of a contract for a piece of land that we are going to put a deposit on and we are short some $220,000 Australian Dollars. ( roughly Euro 140,000 or in USD $180,000).

So this year is a very, very, very strict budget for the entire family.

& many things are finally going to fall into place for us.

We will be together again and home will be Home.

However, I won't let our personal life change who we are, we shall still give when possible, we just have to be a little more conscientious about it, a little more rational and by all means ensure our priorities in life dictate our actions.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

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Over the past few months, there have been some rough patches in our lives, that didn't really help too much in the "motivational department".

That is now in the past, over with and we are heading back on track with getting back to the almost hyperactive full gung ho type of attitude towards what we do and how we do it.

As I always keep saying to myself:

"Yesterday is in the past, it is what I do today that can make a difference"

and I'll add onto that a little saying that kinda goes hand in hand with it:

"Life is too short to waste on negativity".

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So what all do I have on the drawing board?

Well, apart from what I have got up and running, I'll make a list of them below, it is what I have been working on for well over half a year now.
A front end project.

However, I am in no rush to get it out there, in fact, need to ensure everything is in place and 'spic n span' prior to making it public.

Recently we have seen the name "steemalliance" pop up.

I truly believe that this is worth putting 110% effort into, as it is a means of separating the powers, giving Steemians the ability to contribute to the overall expansion of Steem.

That is, if it is done in such a way so as to ensure decentralization.

Hence why I have pulled together all the ideas from that I have been lobbying for over the course of my life, taken those that I believe are relevant and incorporated them into a formal proposal.

At the moment we are at the first stage of the proposal review process. Call it "Stage 1" or a "First draft review".

My proposal is named:

STEEM UNITED

Yes, I have all the accounts to ensure this name (and derivatives of it), I have the domain names booked.

As I stated above, I actually saw this coming, not exactly in this format, but it was clear that a separation of powers had to come about, that the budgeting had to be reworked so as to incorporate independence to the people and further more, that "politics" (governance) as such shouldn't be the alpha and omega of Steem.

We have an opportunity to change the world, it depends on all of us, from "voters" to "those doing the work".

It is one heck of a responsibility at all levels.

Here are the relevant posts to date on STEEM UNITED:

OFFICIAL CALL FOR STRUCTURE PROPOSALS STAGE ONE

PROPOSAL "STEEM UNITED" 1.0 by @jackmiller (witness)

STEEM UNITED 1.0 - "INTRO" (Video) by @jackmiller - witness

STEEM UNITED - Red Tape Nightmares Solved. (Video) by @jackmiller (witness)

When you look over all that, try and "think out of the box", the future of Steem can be what we the people make it!

On that note too, "Thinking out of the box", many know me for my very direct and upfront nature, or maybe should I call it "an upfront approach".

Some of the things that many of us Steemians have lobbied for in the past year have come to be, one of the best examples is the fact that on Steemit.com when using the witness voting option we all see 100 witnesses and not only 50.

Although this wasn't an earth shattering modification, it did add to the transparency, open and public nature of this front end. It is in the grand picture of things an excellent move towards a successful and decentralized future for Steem.
Again, I do state that this was a small victory, yet a great big victory when we look towards the future.

Here are some topics that I as a witness have been addressing over the past year;

A USER PROFILE PAGE! - What Steemit.com NEEDS.

Broken Witness Voting System!

Government & Politicians!

Making It Work: The Steem Ecosystem. "THINKING OUT OF THE BOX"! (Part Three)

[Making It Work: The Steem Ecosystem. "THINKING OUT OF THE BOX"! (Part Two)](Making It Work: The Steem Ecosystem. "THINKING OUT OF THE BOX"! (Part Two))

Pyramid vs A Real Community!

A Year & A Half Later - You Are Worth A Lot More, Don't Sell Yourself Short/Out (U-log)

Changing The World. Why? (Sharing Thoughts) - Ulog

I think that these topics cover a fair bit, especially if one 'reads a little between the lines' ;)

Overall my experiences have resulted in many "mixed" emotions. Seeing and learning the way "human nature" tends to make things go in ways that were never hoped for just confirms what I keep saying about that:

"Technology changes, human nature doesn't".

Yet, if I truly believed that changes were not possible, I would not be doing what I am doing and would have over 40,000 Steem to my name and would be sitting back and enjoying my Steem Power.

So, although there are some things that need to be done and the frustrations in trying to see them done here take their toll on a persons patience, it is all worth it. When we look at the potential we have to offer the future generations of this world, there is all the motivation a person really needs to keep working at it!

Here are some of the little things that I have worked on and really enjoyed doing:

http://steemdel.com/

http://www.witnesspage.com/

http://www.steemaustralia.org/

and others, but these are the ones that I can say I really enjoyed as such.

Then there are the communities that I love hanging out with and being a part of:

The Veterans community,

The Alliance,

The Ramble,

&

Steemchurch.

In some of these I actually partake actively in the building of the community, in some I am in the shadows more so but in all of them I am there because I like being a there.

There are other communities out there that I am looking at and following and see that I will be very comfortable in as an individual, one that I want to make a special note of is Helpie, although I am not "active" there, I do see a warm atmosphere there which is all about people, individuals a lot like all the communities I listed above. Had to mention that, "giving credit where credit is due" as I say.

Guess I could mention many more communities out there, but these are the ones that I feel at home with, without any pressure to "change myself, or others". We can all be who we are!

The following 12 months of me as a witness, unless I die, will be more than interesting.

Have a nice firm foundation based on facts now and not what others want me to see or think.

So, it will be interesting, definitely interesting.

I will close this post off with a little thing I wrote up and posted a while back:

I thank you for your time, your support and for the fact that you are a part of this great endeavour called STEEM!

Let's make Steem the dream!

STEEM ON!

Yours sincerely,