End of calendar year Witness-Update

@jackmiller

---

Witness server:

These are the current specs of the server:

64x GB RAM
Xeon E3
2x4 TB HDD
1gbit/s network
Dedicated Server

Same as they were from day 1.
Ample to meet the needs of a Witness Server on Steem.

As of a few days ago, the server and support services are all paid for in advance through Feb 2020.

So, no matter what, I'm in it, through the good and rough times!

For those wondering where I spent my hard earned fiat money:

Privex (@privex)

exclusively with the full cooperation of their CEO @someguy123.

WHY?

Well, through the course of this year I have had other offers from some people as far as the witness server goes.

I politely "Declined the offers".

Privex has high speed servers in various places on this planet, all of which are well above and beyond any of the expectations and requirements needed by me as a witness.
Their CEO @someguy123 is a cool business man, making sure that at all times, I as a customer and more importantly as a fellow Steemian am in the loop with the inns and outs of what I need to know.

I feel that MY MONEY is utilized in the best and safest of ways, when doing business with Privex and nothing out there can convince me of anything to differ, as now with practically one year of experience in working with them I am an overly satisfied customer.

& there is the thing of "My Money = My Choice". I don't go around telling people what to do with their money!

So that pretty much covers that, moving on to the next topic.

Community side of things:

Well, there are many things that I can say here, but at the end of it all, my actions speak for themselves.
Apart from pitching in financially from time to time and helping out with various projects, there are things out there that I feel are just as important.

Like for example, looking after the best interests and integrity of things.
Making sure that things are done in a transparent, open and public manner, or "TOP" as I like to refer to it.
Going the extra mile when possible.
Taking on the initiative and not falling into the trap of "complacency".

During the course of this year, I experienced something that was not in any way positive. Guess that comes with the "job" when a person is a witness. My loyalty and intentions as an Aussie were put at question. Which really offended me. However, I moved on.
In response to that, all I can do is to use the blockchain to prove who and what I am and that no matter what is said, my actions do speak a lot louder than any words.

I will post a link here to show what is in my mind and heart when it comes to my country and fellow countrymen and countrywomen:

@anzac & @anzacs - LEST WE FORGET - WE WILL REMEMBER

& I quote:

These accounts were opened up by @jackmiller, born and raised in Australia.

I served proudly and have taken these actions on my own with full responsibility to ensure that I do my country and countrymen proud.

As an Australian Soldier and as the youngest soldier in my Company, I had the privilege of participating in the laying of the wreath for the Dawn Service on ANZAC Day. As God and all of you are my witnesses, I do swear here and now, as I did when I joined up, that I, Jack Miller, shall to the end of my life or to the end of the existence of Steemit.com do everything that is within my power to ensure that these two profiles remain here as an online memorial to all the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice, so that we may live as free people.

I will leave that topic alone, but I had to get it out there and get it off my chest. Money isn't everything in life and although some chase their holy fiat dollar, many of us stay loyal to what really matters in our lives and what can never have a dollar/price tag put onto it.

I will continue on doing my best in the communities that I am a part of, I will always remember and respect good deeds and good people.

That is all I have to offer: My sincerest personal best, can't promise any more than that.

Business Side of Things

FINANCES:

As many remember, I promised to use my "earnings" from the my first year as a witness to the charity run that my better half @sylviamiller does around this time of year.

I have actually added extra, out of our own pockets to it.
The only thing that won't happen as planned is the date of delivery for the donation.
My wife had surgery the other week and is still recovering, with strict orders from the doctor to avoid any type of stress or hard work. As we are talking boxes of toys, there is no way in hell that I am going to harass her to load them, deliver them and unload them until she gets the green light from the doctor.
Our eldest son @chrismiller (not an active Steemian anymore, unfortunately) offered to jump in, all I said to him was:
"It can wait", the boxes are not going anywhere and nobody has the right to call me up on it and if they do, they will hear what I have to say to them in my well known fashion of saying it!"

So, there, I haven't failed in keeping my word on that, it is all good to go and will be completed as planned ASAP.

I dare say this is simply a case of "Force Majeure" (excuse the French, literally).

Onto the next topic here:

---

Delegations

I have been juggling my delegations around over the past 6 months or so, because I had to ensure I kept my word on the donations.

It wasn't easy to figure it all our, in fact, it felt really ugly to "undelegate" at times, or reduce my delegations. But it had to be done. Wasn't a case of "I don't want to support them", but a case of managing finances so as to ensure the job gets done on something that was promised.

Anyway, everyone can see my current delegations as they miserably stand right now after all this "juggling of numbers" at:

http://www.steemreports.com/delegation-info/?account=jackmiller

&

http://www.steemreports.com/delegation-info/?account=millers
(Family account)

---

FIAT INVESTED

Recently I sold my Old Timer, Mercedes Benz 250 CE (1972)

For the sake of this post, I will use a random pic off the net, can't be bothered trying to find photos of mine as they are saved "somewhere" on "some disk" under "some name".

Image source

I have used the money for the following:

1 - To pay for an additional 12 months of my Witness Server
&
2 - Bought some Steem

With the Steem I plan on using the promotional tools available here so as to get certain posts about projects, communities and other business related topics into the "Trending" column.

The goal is simply to try and get them noticed and known of.

We all know that it isn't easy to get things into the "spotlight" with all the information and posts out there, so it is necessary to invest into it so as to achieve this goal.

By doing so, I am also ensuring my information and actions are not only "on the blockchain" but visibly transparent, open and public. Again, trying to do as I preach.

---

Private Finances

As for the Private side of the finances, I will do a post on our family account @millers

So rest assured, I won't skip that, but don't expect to read about how much I spent on food this year!

It will be Steem related and not "how much we spent on petrol/gas" type of thing.

---

Projects

So far I have managed to keep these expenses within figures that are more than rational, was actually given a server to use for messing around on and testing some front end ideas on. Not that it is expensive, but it did come in handy.

Have procured two additional servers too. Again, nothing spectacular.

Registered the necessary domain names for my planned projects.

As for the front end that I am investing into, currently it is dependent on finances working out as planned, plus the fact that it would e very convenient to see the Smart Media Tokens (SMT) happen soon. But I won't be holding my breath on that. So I plan on marching forwards, even if it be "leopard crawling" my way to the goal.

Some may have seen, some may not, some of the things that I have done, again, just putting it out there, nothing to brag about, but again, it is there:

@witnesspage
http://www.witnesspage.com

http://www.steemdel.com

@steemaustralia
http://www.steemaustralia.org

I guess these are the ones that show some of what I have been up to over the year, don't want to get into all the nitty gritty of everything. Enough to see that I have been active and working parallel to the work on the big project.

I would say that all together to date, I have only invested some $2,500 (US) all together. A very small figure in comparison to the costs of everything needed in the coming year to make it all happen as planned in my business plan.

But there it is, no need to hide it, or make mountains out of mole hills!

I think that this is pretty much more than ample to cover the bulk of what I wanted to report for this year on the business side of things.

Various other topics of discussion:

I covered a good portion of it in my rant from the other day:

@jackmiller Witness Update: "TO BE OR NOT TO BE!" - The Future of Steem.

One thing that I didn't touch on in my rant was the topic of "Fixed Term Witness Votes".

Not "Decaying votes" as some EOS fans refer to it, as we are not EOS and it just doesn't make sense to reduce someones voting influence as time passes, yet their investment is still the same. Kinda unfair if you ask me.

What I am referring to is a "Term"

i.e. 365 calendar days.

Meaning, once you click on "Vote" for a witness, the switch goes from "0" to "1" and the "ticker" starts ticking aways from "365 days down".

& to make sure I am totally clear on this, this should be applied to both Witness Votes and to Witness Vote Proxies.

So far to date at EVERY discussion on the topic, there have been comments such as:

"It can't be done"
"if you do it, I'll vote for it"
"it's all on Github anyone can do it"

and the list of these rather disrespectfully condescending types of replies just goes on.

However, the fact of the matter remains, that within the Steem code, days, hours, minutes, seconds are defined.
The option of using the voting switch "0/1" to trigger off a ticker with a defined time limit on it is more than possible.

& anyone who was able to code HF20, RC, MANA and all the other great and very complicated changes/modifications/additions to the Steem Code can get this done with.

So it really boils down to "GOOD WILL" AND "INTENTIONS"!

To make a point of why this is more than necessary, rather than explaining it all, I will just say the following:
None of us will live for ever.
Our votes should not be valid for infinity.

If you don't believe me, well, then have a look at accounts out there like @bitcube. (not sure what happened to that person, in fact, nobody seems to know his/her fate).

However much I have tried to lobby for this and have many a person saying "yes" to it, just to shut me up, the fact of the matter is, actions speak louder than words.

Why it hasn't been done to date?

I'll leave that part up to you to figure out on your own.

To end this post on a few positive notes:

I will get my Christmas wishes out there via our family account @millers,

Might try and post a few posts in the future on my eldest sons account @chrismiller (so as to get him back onto Steem), worth a try, will see if I can get him here again and on the right path as far as this goes. Just need to work out a plan!

Will figure out some new and fun ways to distract me from all the serious stuff out there, need a few laughs every now and then, so don't stress out. Can't have all work and no play here!

Cheers!

STEEM ON!

Yours sincerely