Let's start with a huge Happy Birthday and follow it up with a congratulations on your decision! You do great work and I look forward to seeing everything you have in store for us in the future!
You just scored mine and any of the kind people who've set me as their proxy vote for witness. I love the promotion you've done for Steem as well as your @minnowfund project. I personally feel they have been a huge success for the platform.
I would be extremely interested if you made a video documenting your journey to become a block producing witness. I think the series would be extremely beneficial for anyone learning how the Steem chain really works not to mention being a great tool for anyone else looking to set up a witness node even as a back up witness.
I appreciate your support and all the kind words you've shared here, @patrickulrich. And I actually think that's a great idea and something that's much needed in 2018. I ended up following about 3 different tutorials, lol. Some were from 2 years ago. The only issue is that you can't update Steemit posts after 7 days, so if something changes (and they will) then you would I guess need to leave a comment on the article and upvote it, which I could do.
Anyways, I would be happy to share the steps I took with everyone and encourage others (who have some experience) to create their own witness. It really feels good to have mine up!