The past few days have been a bit rough for me personally with the passing of a close family member, which is the reason I have been absent here on Steemit. She was my Great Aunt and the last family member of her generation, born in 1924, she lived a long and passionately lived life, loved by many, passing away peacefully.

I didn't want to make a big deal out of this and wasn't going to share this here on Steemit but ultimately, I felt it would be good to get out out and give everyone a sense of hope. Hope that if you live your life with passion, kindness, love, and selflessness like my Great Aunt Nadine did, you may have a long and prosperous life, like hers. I've always tried to live by her example, her wit, intellect, and passion really was an inspiration to me and others she knew. She will always live on in my memories!

As many of you know I live in the city of Boston, in the good ole state of Massachusetts, Nadine had lived almost her entire life in Arizona so this past weekend that's where I've been. It was on average 105 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Celsius everyday and 110 degrees the day of the funeral, it was HOT, to say the least! So between the heat, travel, and funeral services I am quite tired but no time for rest, too much to do!

When you go without the usual daily grind it really makes a difference , for me anyway. I realized just how many different ways I have stretched myself recently with a seemingly countless amount apps, Steem projects, side-projects, investments, initiatives, opportunities, servers, maintenance, updates, and on top of that a full time day job! But I can say that even though it may just be little too much for one person to handle and come out the other end sane, I do love it! So I want to continue on with some updates on what I've been up to and what I have planned.

Steemit Projects Etc

_{I'm going to make this short and sweet and not really go into the details
Feel free to ask me about any of these via commenting below!}

• http://steemitworldmap.com

!steemitworldmap 33.4484 lat -112.0740 long Nadine had lived almost her entire life in Arizona so this past weekend that's where I've been. It was on average 105 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Celsius everyday and 110 degrees the day of the funeral d3scr

• @steemprice
• @helpbot
• http://steem.cool
• http://steemit.pics
• http://steemitphotochallenge.com
• http://steemitchat.com

Privately Run Projects

• Steemit Challenges Manager - Backend Application (Steemit Photo Challenge & Meme Challenge)

Upcoming

• STEEMFEST 2 Ticket Giveaway! (Posting about this very soon!)
• DTube BackUp IPFS (Should have this up very soon)
• New Version Mentions App
• New http://catchawhale.com
• Updates New Features http://steem.cool

Witness Update

_{Current Witness Rank: 54 (14,174M)}
Everything on the witness front has been going very smoothly! Servers are up and running very efficiently with 0 missed blocks since my initial first missed block. Total Missed: 01. My Witness node is currently at 30% hard-drive capacity and with the Avg CPU usage around 6% there is a lot of room to grow.

I haven't been very active in campaigning for my Witness lately due to time restraints but I have been staying up to date with all of the other witnesses and staying tuned in to all of the current community topics and discussions. I want to point out that, even though I am quite busy, you can always reach out to me at anytime and I will respond to you as soon as I can! I believe a witness should always look out for the needs and desires of the community and do his/her best to meet those needs.

I want everyone to know that since becoming a Witness I have made sure to dedicate time to my responsibilities as a Witness. I am here for the long haul and not looking to make a quick buck (like some). If I move up in the Witness ranks, or not, I will always use my profits to help the community, and the platform, over all else. I currently pay for my Witness Node and all of the services, servers, domains, and projects that you see here on Steemit, out of my own pocket. I plan to run and maintain many more services, including RPC Nodes, IPFS gateways for DTube, and more hopefully down the road.

To all whom which I work with and to all of those looking to me as a Witness and advisor, Thank you again for your patience during my recent absence.

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<sub>1. Go to the Witness Voting Page on Steemit.com
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and locate the vote box

3. Type (blueorgy) in the box and click vote.</sub>