Mix 11-26-2025

Hey there, everybody! I hope that all of you are doing well and keeping warm, since we are heading into winter, cold weather, depending on where you are from. Speaking of where you are from, I would love to hear where you are from (do not give the exact location, but a region, or at least a hundred or so miles away), and how the weather is over there in the comment. Some of you already know that I am from the eastern part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, near the border with West Virginia in the Appalachian Mountains. The weather here in winter often surprises us; one day it feels like summer, and the next it’s freezing with snow. For instance, a perfect example of a weather surprise is the flood a day after Valentine’s Day this year, 2025, which has become the second-largest flood since 1977. The great flood of 1977 submerged most of our cities, and that happened again almost 50 years later on February 15th, 2025. It was unbelievable to witness, because where I reside, by a river, the river became pretty much a lake, with my house becoming an oceanfront. I, along with my mother, was very fortunate that my house is on a side of the mountain, but unfortunately, all of the houses below me were almost submerged in flood. Where my house is up on a side of the mountain, they didn’t reach us, but it did get too dangerously close to my liking, as I said that my house became an oceanfront home, of a kind. For more about my experience, the second-largest flood of 2025 since the 1977 flood, and what happened around here, you can read my article on the Kentucky and West Virginia floods of 2025 here.

https://www.joshiesworld.com/the-kentucky-and-west-virginia-floods-of-2025/

If you didn’t know about the flood between the Commonwealth of Kentucky and West Virginia on February 15th, 2025, I think it will shock you to learn about it, as I have shared pictures and video in the article above.

Now, there will obviously be a few topics here in the Mix article. Speaking of the Mix articles, I am sure you have noticed that the section is called ‘Mix’ and that this article is titled ‘Mix’. Before the mix section, there were a few names, such as “Overviews”, “MultiTopic”, “Snippets”, and “Tidbits”. For a long while, I have been struggling to come up with a name for these kinds of articles. After renaming “Tidbits” to “Snippets,” “Snippets” to “MultiTopic”, “MultiTopic” to “Overviews”, Overviews is now renamed to “Mix”. I have been conducting extensive research and speaking with bloggers, journalists, content creators, and SEO (search engine optimization) specialists about the name. After several months of that, along with a lot of thoughts, the name “mix” hit the right spot as it makes more sense and is more understandable.

As the news and media company/blog evolved, I wanted a name that better captured what these articles truly are — An article featuring multiple topics combined into one read. So, I renamed the Overviews section to Mix while cleaning up most sections for both articles and reviews. Before the reorganization, cleanup, decluttering, and renaming sections, the menu was too long and too many for both articles and reviews. The majority of the sections (or also known as categories) for articles and reviews have been renamed. Now, it’s shorter, more professional, easier to understand, better optimized for SEO (search engine optimization), and makes more sense. So, I hope that you accept and like them! The way I have been writing the articles under Tidbits, Snippets, MultiTopic, and Overviews won’t change; they will continue under the Mix section, which makes more sense. Before MultiTopic was renamed to Overviews, now it has been renamed again to Mix, the meaning for the MultiTopic name is a shortened name for multiple topics, I could’ve named it that multiple topics but search engines wouldn’t like it because they prefer shortest name for the sections as possible so that was the reason I renamed Snippets to MultiTopic, from MultiTopic to Overviews and now even better with the name Mix which I think that will sticks for a very long time. Mix is where I bring together multiple unrelated or related subjects in one article — from news and facts to opinions, education, and entertainment — all in one place.

Topics list for this Mix article

Here is the list of the topics for this Mix article. If you don’t want to read the entire article, you can always click on a topic to read, then come back later to click on another topic for more reading.

NBA player Carter Bryant

I am sure that many people in the Deaf community already know this, but I think many people who aren’t in the Deaf community aren’t aware of this about an NBA player named Carter Bryant. An NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs, selected Carter Bryant in the 2025 NBA draft in round 1 at number 14. What is so special about him, and why am I talking about an NBA player when I am not into NBA or basketball sports? Is it because of his last name, Bryant, which suggests he may be related to the late NBA great, Kobe Bryant? Many on social media mistakenly said he is Kobe Bryant’s nephew, but he isn’t; he has no relation to Kobe Bryant or his family. But again, what is so special about Carter Bryant? Maybe nothing special about him to many of you, but it is a different story in the Deaf community because he comes from a Deaf family; no, he isn’t Deaf, but his father, D’Cean Bryant, is a basketball coach. His grandfather, Mike “Doc” Torres, is in the USA Deaf Basketball Hall of Fame. He is a grandson of Deaf adults, meaning his grandparents, such as Mike “Doc” Torres and Carter Bryant, grew up learning American Sign Language before he could talk, making it his native/first language. Carter Bryant comes from the Deaf culture. As an NBA player, he represents the Deaf community. He has become an ambassador for Gallaudet University, the only Deaf university in the world, proudly partnering with the university to raise awareness of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. Gallaudet University was where his grandparents graduated, and Carter is what they call “GODA”. There are some labels within’ the Deaf community, for instance, CODA, which stands for a Child of Deaf Adults, SODA for Siblings Of Deaf Adults, PODA/MODA/FODA for parents/mother/father of Deaf adults, and GODA is grandson/granddaughter of Deaf Adults, which is what Carter Bryant is.

Here is a video of Carter Bryant talking about his Deaf background.

As I mentioned above, I am not into the NBA or basketball sport; I am more of a football and baseball person, but now that one of the NBA teams, the San Antonio Spurs, selected Carter Bryant, I think I will start watching some NBA games, especially if the San Antonio Spurs are playing, because they have Carter Bryant there. So, I’ll be rooting for Carter Bryant, jersey number 11, a power forward/forward for the San Antonio Spurs, who are based in Texas (yuck, a red state!). So, go and pound the rock!

Not paralyzed

I had a few people assuming that I am paralyzed from the waist down due to being in a wheelchair, which is untrue, because I am not paralyzed anywhere, and the reason that I am in a wheelchair was due to two things. I have a scoliosis, which is a curved spine, for which I had a major fusion surgery at I think 4 years old, from my neck to my tailbone, and I have gotten a little bit better from that, but not entirely, as I struggle with the permanent pain that comes from it. Even after that surgery, I was still walking, playing sports such as t-ball, and whatnot. A few years later, I had an unfortunate freak incident where I broke the femur in my right leg in half, which resulted in me being in the hospital for almost a month. I came home with nearly a full body cast, which makes no sense to me; it was right below my chest to all the way to my right foot (the femur in that same leg that breaks in half), and down to my left knee. Usually, when a person breaks a leg, they’d have a cast or some bracing on that broken leg, but for me, it was the whole thing up to my chest, down to my right foot, and down to my left knee. After I got them off, I started the physical therapay right away, for a pretty long time, and in doing so there was so much focus or work going on my right leg which was the leg that got broken that my left leg which had nothing wrong with got so weak to the point that I could barely have any strength in my not broken left leg but muscled up my right broken leg. I was in middle school when I started struggling more and more when I walked. The pain was becoming unbearable, and I started needing to find something to hold on to while walking. Then, I ended up in a wheelchair.

So, in other words, after having the surgery on my spine from my neck to my tailbone, it changed me in some way. However, I was still able to walk, and then after the surgery on my right leg with a broken femur, it was pretty much the nail in the coffin for my walking ability. Do I miss walking? I absolutely do! When I was a kid, all I loved doing was running as fast as I could everywhere, and suddenly, I ended up in a wheelchair. What a poetry of my life, huh?! Now you know, no, I am not paralyzed in any way. I still feel it in every part of my body.

Just because you see somebody in a wheelchair does not automatically mean that they are paralyzed. I am starting to see that becoming familiar with many people, where they would assume that anyone who is in a wheelchair means that they are paralyzed or they can no longer have a feeling or strength in their lower body. Every wheelchair user has their reasons, so before you make an assumption, ask them first. Some could mean that they’ve got some damaged spine, some could be that they broke one or both of their legs, which is one of my reasons for being in a wheelchair, and some could be age-related. Some may be due to brain-related walking difficulties, such as ataxia, apraxia, dyspraxia, and functional movement disorder (FMD), among others. One of the few common misunderstandings by people is that they wonder how anyone who is in a wheelchair can have sex. We wheelchair users would be more than happy to explain, so show us some respect by asking us first before assuming. Don’t be afraid to ask, because it’s better to ask than to assume.

I am Joshie, not Josh.

I believe I have talked about this before in one of my older articles. I am not sure which one, because there are many articles for me to comb through to find it, so I figured I would go ahead and talk about it again for those of you who might not know. Is Joshie my birth name? No, and neither is Josh. My birth name is Joshua Sullivan. I do have a middle name, but I prefer to keep it private. However, many already know that the first letter of my middle name is B because I have an online biography website called JoshuaBSullivan.com, or that my social media channels used to be JoshuaBSullivan before I stopped using that name and decided that JoshiesWorld would make more sense. Please don’t try to guess what name for B is for my middle name, because I will not answer or give any hints. I have been a public person for almost two decades. Many people already know me, except for my middle name, which I will not share because I’d like to keep at least something private. I would greatly appreciate it if you’d respect that. Anyway, as I said, my birth name is Joshua Sullivan, for some reason, because my first real name is Joshua, my nickname is automatically Josh, and I don’t like that. I have had some doctors, lawyers, and others call me Josh, but I had to correct them that my name is Joshua, and they then required me to prove it by showing my driver’s license. That was somewhat odd, because Josh is often considered a nickname for people with the name Joshua, as I do, so if some people call them Josh, they should connect the dots that their real first name is Joshua and Josh is a nickname or shortened form of Joshua.

Not only that, there are many Joshua/Josh out there on this earth, to the point where my best friend’s name is Josh, my step brother’s name is Josh, and even worse, there is someone with the exact birth name as mine, Joshua Sullivan that lives in the same county, in same state, only a few miles apart. I had a few birthday parties with three people, including me, all named Josh, so imagine when people, including my mother, called out for Josh, and three of us had to ask which one they meant. So, I decided that was enough. I am not a fan of a shortened or nickname version of Josh, and how can I be the Joshua that people meant? I decided to go with Joshie as my permanent nickname. I am aware that others are now using that same nickname, but there is no one with the nickname Joshie anywhere near me, which is important. How did the nickname Joshie come about, and why did I decide to make it my nickname? There was a couple named Anthony and Haley, Anthony, who looked up to me, and who I considered my cousin, even though our DNA is different, but there is a known linkage somewhere in our family, would call me Joshie. Haley was Anthony’s girlfriend at that time. Anthony is unfortunately no longer with us, as he passed away at a very early age, in his 20s. It started when there was a senior night for the band members at my school, there was a school homecoming with a football game, I was one of the band members, I was the drum major which means a leading drummer in the school’s band, and at that homecoming game the school had introduce some senior students onto the football field especially that it was the last year for the senior students. This was my senior year, my last year in the school’s band, and I was one of a few other seniors, so the band teacher called us out to the football field by calling each of our names, pretty much as a farewell to the senior band students. When the band teacher called my name out — Joshua Sullivan — and I went to the middle of the football field, out of nowhere, Anthony and his girlfriend at the time, Haley, were on the bench, screaming “JOSHIE!” So, my nickname, Joshie, was born. Even when I used to chat with them online through Yahoo! Messenger (remember them?!), and they would continue calling me Joshie whenever they called out for me.

This was in 2005. Two years later, in 2007, I had to come up with a good name to mark my start as a blogger and content creator. Joshua or Josh was already taken, but my nickname, Joshie, was available, so I grabbed it when I registered JoshiesWorld. That pretty much solidified my nickname as Joshie. I do have another nickname, but it was when I was a child and was known only to my close family and rarely used. That is Trucker, because when I was a toddler or a small child, I used to love playing with honka toys, trucks, and whatnot, so my mother gave me the nickname Trucker. But it was rarely used, and it doesn’t make sense as an adult because I am not a trucker. If I were to create a content creator name called TruckersWorld, it would be confusing to many people because they might think it’s all about the world of truck drivers. So, JoshiesWorld’s name as a news and media company and identity brand makes more sense. Now you know where and how my nickname Joshie came into the picture! I am now known as Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan. We have already ordered the tombstone for me, as I have a plot reserved, which was brought by my mamaw (grandmother). It will be shown as Joshua B. “Joshie” Sullivan.

An Island called Christmas Island

As we head into four holidays in the winter season —Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s —now, speaking of Christmas, did you know there is an island called Christmas Island?! No, I kid you not! There is an island called Christmas Island, a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. The island is named after Christmas Day when the Europeans first sighted the island/territory. Captain William Mynors of the East India Company vessel Royal Mary named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643. On Christmas Island, phosphate mining was conducted using indentured workers from Singapore, British Malaya (then under British control), and China. The word “indentured workers” is a fancy way of saying “slave workers.” John Davis Murray, who graduated from Purdue University, was sent to supervise the operation on behalf of the phosphate mining and shipping company. They called John Davis Murray the “King of Christmas Island” until 1910, when he got married and decided to live in London, United Kingdom.

Read more about the territory of Christmas Island, Australia, on Wikipedia: https://w.wiki/3peA

The Redneck Beach

Since I was on the subject of a place, I’d like to share a bit about it, and it is more for people from where I live. So if you aren’t from where I am from, skip this topic and go to the next. Now, I wonder if you have ever heard of a place called The Redneck Beach? If you haven’t, that name obviously isn’t well-known yet, but I think you might know the place I am about to point out to you—Burnwell beach? Now, maybe some of you are familiar with the place I am talking about—a place in Burnwell, Ky—where a lot of local people, and maybe some from outside this area, like to visit for fishing, camping, or hangouts. If you are still not sure which place I am referring to, good thing I have a video I recorded while riding my ATV; here is the clip of Burnwell Beach.

If you’d like to know where to go, here’s the Google Maps that I have pinned for you, so all you have to do is go to this link, then you will be taken to Google Maps, and then from there you can press the direction button so you can know where to go from wherever you are. https://maps.app.goo.gl/85PWGfpB4vDkjJG97

Suppose you have been there before or have seen the video I shared above, which I recorded while riding my ATV a while back. You would know it is a place with sand everywhere when you get near the river; it almost resembles a beach, but more like a mini beach or something like that. Many people who have been there before know it as Burnwell Beach, and the first time I went there, riding my ATV, I thought, “Redneck Beach.” So, long later, whenever I talked to my mother and other people about that particular place, I would refer to it as “redneck beach”. A few people, including my mother, were confused and asked me what I meant by redneck beach. I answered that it’s the name that is known to them, and they told me that there was no name for that place – it’s just that it’s near a Tug River or that it is a small place in Burnwell, Kentucky. I was puzzled because, for years, I had thought it was called the redneck beach, and it was never called that. So now that place has a name, people are starting to know— I coined that spot, the Redneck Beach. So, now you know the history behind how that spot in Burnwell, Kentucky, got its name, the Redneck Beach. Before that, all it was known for was a spot in Burnwell, Ky, or, even fewer people knew it as “that Burnwell beach”. It now has a name, coined by me —the Redneck Beach in Burnwell, Ky. And I’m talking about this: now, so many years or decades later, they will trace it back to here to find out how that spot got its name: the Redneck Beach! The reason I called it Redneck Beach is that some people might say they wish they could go on vacation to a beach. Still, they couldn’t because either they are busy, have conflicting schedules, have health/medical reasons, or cannot afford to, and would say they would go to that beach in Burnwell. So, it’s a place for anyone from this area who wishes they could vacation at a real beach but can’t, so the next best thing is the beach in Burnwell. As of now, it is called Redneck Beach, located in Burnwell, Kentucky, by me, Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan!

Is A.I. doing more harm than good?

I am sure it’s not just me, but many people have a burning question: Is A.I. doing more harm than good? I don’t blame anyone who has that question because it is legit and valid. If you aren’t sure what A.I. stands for, it’s Artificial Intelligence, and it runs in data centers. Think of it as hundreds, if not thousands, of servers with the fastest possible networking connections (like fiber optics), and hard drives such as SSDs (solid-state drives) that store countless files of data. How much of this data comes from? It comes from pretty much every one of us throughout decades, they study our behavior, our thoughts, what we do online, watch videos, listen to audios such as our voices that we use for like a translator, speaking on our phones that would go from voice to text which is often from smartwatch or the phones that some people don’t like having to type a lot. Hence, they speak to it, and it turns into text.

You know, over a decade ago, that you talked to Siri on your iPhone? That was one of the early A.I.s that learns from how you speak — your voice — and what you say or command the iPhone to do, such as opening an app, using GPS, or something like that. Not only that, but they also learn where we go by having cellular networks track our movements with our phones and smartwatches when we go out. For instance, where do we often go? How long did we stay at that particular place? What time would we typically go out to somewhere? Almost all social media platforms have a database for each user, including their appearance, religion, and whether their posts (statuses) align more with the Democratic or Republican party. Who are our family members, and who are our friends? The bottom line is that almost everyone in the world has contributed to artificial intelligence’s learning by feeding it their data. So, if you use A.I., such as A.I. chatbots, grammar and spelling checkers, or apps to filter or make our pictures look cool, like adding a hat, makeup, sunglasses, or whitening our teeth and whatnot is because of our contribution to A.I. by feeding our data with them, such as our custom filters, custom colors, and our facial points, such as our jawline, lips, and whatnot. The A.I. chatbox such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s CoPilot, Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s Sora, META AI, X’s Grok, Perplexity A.I., NVIDIA, Apple Intelligent formerly Apple’s Siri, Claude AI, High-Flyer’s DeepSeek which is A.I. founded in China to compete with our America’s best A.I. which is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, NVIDIA gaming processors (GPU), and many more would not exist if it weren’t for us because they rely on the data from everyone in the world.

The A.I. chatbox, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, wouldn’t be any helpful or useful at all if it weren’t for the data that it uses to learn from. Now, many are using A.I. for different reasons —from business owners, journalists, bloggers, restaurants, chefs, photographers, videographers, wedding planners, programmers/developers/coders, authors/writers, gamers, news and media companies, and content creators like me, and many more. They already have decades of our data from our social media platforms use, such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X/Twitter, Pinterest, and many more that the A.I. has studied/learned, but that does not stop here. They will continue to learn from us even more because not only are they collecting our social media data, but now we are feeding them more through the A.I. chat, so the A.I. is learning everything. Can we ever stop allowing the internet to collect our data? No, unfortunately, no, it is way past our ability to do so; we are over a decade too late. Nothing we can do but pretty much give into it, because again, they already have our data, so they are building layer by layer, every second, learning more about us so they can know what we need from them. Right now, they are tracking us while we are at home reading this Mix article by JoshiesWorld and eating a box of popcorn, thanks to our phones’ cellular signals from the towers everywhere. That goes for our Wi-Fi, wireless networks, and even wired networks such as internet cable. Even the smart TV you are watching now collects data, such as why you’re watching this TV series or movie. When did you turn up the volume at a certain point in a TV series or movie, and why?

So, in addition to the bottom line, they are everywhere, and there’s nothing we can do about it but adapt to them, because this technological advancement doesn’t stop here with A.I.; it will only get more advanced, and the technology is advancing very fast. I mean, from an old, bulky TV to a smaller cube TV to a flat TV, now to a smart TV with 4K, and a smart TV with 8K quality is already here in some homes. We can never catch up with technology; it’s outrunning us, advancing so fast that it’ll take some time for us to learn to use it. I mean, even though some people still don’t know how to use email or FAX, they are significantly behind in terms of technology! Many tech giants are buying large amounts of land to build huge buildings that will house several data centers dedicated solely to A.I., meaning they are buying land wherever they can find it to house their data centers focused on A.I., and nothing else. It is basically a building with many racks of servers, with thousands of hard drives running 24/7 and thousands of wires, including each server’s own internet cable. To operate them, specialized air conditioning would be needed to prevent overheating, and the building would be designed for data centers focused on AI, with top-line security. So, there will be people that are assigned to monitor the servers very close, making sure that no one hacks any of these servers, adding the top line security technology such as lasers for motion detection, employees would have to go through a few of steps, like you would at TSA but more steps in the way, scanning them, having to swipe their access card several times, having to pass biometrics, I am sure there will be a step that they will have to be disinfected by going in a room that would kill any infection that they have, almost like scientists would have to before they get to their lab at some places, and whatnot. Tech giants like Meta (parent of Facebook), Alphabet (parent of Google), Apple, etc., aren’t only building one huge place that is only for datacenters, they are rush shopping for a few more properties and construct even more buildings that is just for housing the datacenters only that stores every one of our data in their hard drives for the A.I. to continue learning to be smarter and to learn about us so that they can be helpful for each of us – think of it like our own assistant.

The A.I. has already overtaken us a few years ago. But is the A.I. doing more harm than good? That depends on what they are needed for. They are great tools for the people like content creators, bloggers, journalists, writers, authors, photographers, videographers, information gathering, doing a research, asking them to reserve us for that restaurant, asking them to find any information that we look for, asking them to develop a website for us, even ask them to write a content such as a article for us, having them to write us a draft that we can use to send to somebody or a business that would easily convince them to follow up what we said or asked for from that letter or whatever because A.I. knows all the right words to convince them. They are also helpful for us Deaf people, because they can auto-generate the closed captions for the videos, and that goes the same for the disabled people who are paralyzed in their arms, so they can speak to A.I. to click/press what button, to type what, and to visit what website or app. The A.I. has many advantages, but it also has disadvantages that can harm society worldwide. Companies, large businesses, and wealthy people are starting to purchase many machines that has A.I. in them so they would already learned how to do the task that a human knows how which that would result in having many employees fired because it would be pointless to them for having employees when they have the machines with A.I. as a brain in these machines to do the tasks that they asks them to do. They are more affordable than employees, they would see no point in having to pay them to do some job for them because they would have the A.I. robots doing the same job for them at a significantly cheaper because all they would have to do is buy these A.I. robots which costs them a lot less than it would for them to pay their employees and pay the A.I. companies to keep them maintained which is still a lot cheaper than paying the human employees. For instance, let’s say they have to pay $50,000.00 a year for an employee of theirs, and paying for their insurance, so let’s say $80,000.00 total a year for an employee, while an A.I. robot costs maybe between $5,000 to $25,000 per A.I. robot, or they call it a humanoid FOREVER. So, tell me which one you would prefer: having to pay an employee $50,000.00 salary a year, maybe somewhere in $10,000 to $30,000 insurance a year for that employee, so you’d be spending about $60,000 to $80,000 a year, and again next year, again in that employee’s third year, and so forth.

In contrast, you only pay an A.I. robot/humanoid $5,000-$25,000 one-time, and you have it FOREVER. Of course, you would pick that A.I. robot/humanoid in a heartbeat because it’s twice or a third as cheap. Hence, you bring in even more revenue for your bank, and because that A.I. robot/humanoid can work 24 hours a day non-stop with maybe a couple of breaks just so that they could be recharged unless even better having more than one battery replacement so that way whenever that A.I. robot/humanoid’s battery get low then you could replace it with a battery full and then have that battery recharge then repeat that way so you would have a A.I. robot/humanoid working for you 24 hours a day for every 7 days non-stop. With that, you would bring in twice or three times the money thanks to having a lot more inventory to sell in a very short time, and you won’t have to pay the A.I. robot anything except maybe a maintenance/tune-up once in a while. So, that is where the downside of A.I. is: they are not, will not, and are taking jobs from many employees because it is much cheaper for them and because they can do the work they command them to do to their liking.

So, the question is, are A.I. doing more harm than good? No, not to the corporations/business, and yes to the people. But again, they could be good if we take advantage of them and become self-employed, meaning we start our own company and have A.I. to help us grow the business. I can see that because of A.I., there will be a lot more new businesses, but only with one person, who is the business owner. For instance, as a content creator, blogger, journalist, and reviewer, I can use A.I. to generate content without needing someone else to help me with that task, like a team for video editing or a team for commerce to help sell our merch. This customer service team would help our customers with anything that goes wrong or any questions. The A.I. can do most of that: it can talk to customers for us, edit videos for us, develop a strategy to sell our merch, and more. Again, the bottom line is that A.I. does more harm than good, specifically for the people. Still, if we take advantage of it, they will no longer do us any harm but become more useful to us, especially small business owners, content creators, photographers, videographers, web developers, web designers, and whatnot. Especially the small business that has only one employee, who is the owner of the business they founded or acquired.

Leave a comment below if you have an opinion on the question: Do you think that A.I. does more harm than good? I have found a few interesting information that you might be interested in reading more about the pros and cons of A.I. (Artificial Intelligence).

• The Pros and Cons of AI by ScaleFocus
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence (AI)? By Tableau from Salesforce
• 9 Benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in 2025 by the University of Cincinnati

Content Creators are required to disclose!

There are many rights granted to content creators, bloggers, journalists, and whatnot, thanks to the freedoms of speech (including the right to express) and the press. Of course, I forgot to note that I am talking about content creators from America (United States of America), so I am not sure about the rights, if any, for citizens in other countries. Now back to it: even with these rights for Americans, they still have to follow the laws and policies of different government agencies here in the United States. If you are here in the United States, you are a content creator, a blogger, a journalist, an influencer, or whatever else that creates content. You are approached by a business or person who asks you to collaborate, typically involving receiving products from them in exchange for showcasing them on your website or social media channels. When that happens, you make a post on your social media platforms showing their products, whether that be recommending/endorsing their products for them or doing a review on them, you are required by the law (yes, a law) to disclose your relationship with that brand, business, or person that you got the product or anything from them. On most social media platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, you can mark a post as paid content/paid partnership and tag the brand, business, or person as your collaborator. It does not matter whether you were paid to make a post about them or their products; receiving their product(s) can be considered paid, since you would get the free product at the expense of that brand, company, or person. For instance, if I am to write a review here for JoshiesWorld about a product or a service that I got from them by having them shipped to me or having me to invoice them for them to pay the invocie with the exact total amount to order any products from them but still at no expense of mine but theirs (sending their product or offering service to me at their expense without costing me anything) I would be required by the law to make a disclosure note in that review article stating that this brand, company, or a person sent me this product or offered me the service at no expense to me for this article or review article, and that I earn/get how much for it or what percent in commission that I get to all of you publicly.

So, if you are a content creator, an influencer, a blogger, a journalist, a reviewer, or whatever, and you are approached by a brand, a company, or a person asking if you would be interested in a collaboration, be sure to disclose it. Share the name of that brand, company, or a person, what is the product or service, how did you get it, for what, and are you earning any commission from them if somebody buys the product or service using the referral link that they gave you to use so that they can track the activity on it such as did anyone ordered anything from that specific link that was given to you from them so that they can pay you in commission (usually 10% per sale). As you are required by the law to do so, if you didn’t make a disclosure, there is a chance that you could get in trouble with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). The FTC would view it as a violation of the laws against deceptive advertising.

To learn more about disclosures for social media influencers (including content creators, bloggers, journalists, reviewers, etc.), visit this link: Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers by Federal Trade Commission. Here are the links to the PDFs for FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers and its Endorsement Guides. You can order 25 or 50 print publications of FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers for free, and they will ship the print publications of FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers to you at no cost. If you would like to do that, then go to this link here: https://www.bulkorder.ftc.gov/publications/disclosures-101-social-media-influencers

I suggest you read these so you do not get in trouble with the law. No matter what, if you are a content creator or influencer, always stay up to date on the laws and be aware of them; otherwise, you risk violating them and being punished by the government, such as the FTC (Federal Trade Commission).

Is there such an international language?

I know some of you probably think that is impossible, because every country has its own language, and they aren’t the same in different countries. If you try to have a conversation with both Spanish- and Italian-speaking people, how can you speak to them in just one language so both can understand at the same time? You would have to say the same word in Spanish to that Spanish-speaking person, and then the same word in Italian to that Italian-speaking person, repeatedly, which sounds time-consuming! Suppose you have traveled to another country before. In that case, that country has a different language you don’t know, and you, along with that person from that other country you travelled to, would end up trying to communicate in gestures, wouldn’t you? Now, speaking of communicating with people from different countries in a language you don’t know, some of you would resort to gestures. Did you know there is an international language that countries can use to communicate with one another? Yes, it is called International Sign Language (ISL), created by the Deaf community worldwide for us Deaf people to communicate with people in different countries. The International Sign Language was created using the mix of different country’s sign languages, for instance here in the United States, our sign language is called American Sign Language (ASL), for in Mexico, it is called Lengua de Señas Mexicana (LSM), for France it is called French Sign Language (LSF), and more so each of our countries we have our own country’s sign language but to create the International Sign Language, we pick some signs (words) from American Sign Language, some from French Sign Language, some from Lengua de Señas Mexicana, some from Korean Sign Language, some from Japanese Sign Language, some from British Sign Language (BSL), and others into a International Sign Language. So, the Deaf community worldwide created International Sign Language by combining signs (words) from different countries’ sign languages. Incredibly, the Deaf community from all over is creating International Sign Language to communicate with everyone from different countries, so that all of us can understand, and that is something that spoken or written languages do not have. We, Deaf people, have that advantage: we can understand everyone from different countries using International Sign Language, but for spoken and written languages, that is pretty much impossible, because mixing different countries’ words would make it almost like gibberish. International Sign Language doesn’t have that; it’s clear and understandable.

Read more about the International Sign Language on Wikipedia: https://w.wiki/G63P.

Political division in Ky’s coal country

The other day, I was looking for some videos on YouTube to watch, and I came across a video from Judy Woodruff Presents America At A Crossroads PBS NewsHour titled “In Kentucky’s coal country, a community is working to heal political division.” This video has closed captions, when they say Kentucky’s coal country, everyone knows it is between Pike County, Ky, which is my county and Martin County, Ky, Floyd County, Ky, Harlan County, Ky, Johnson County, Ky, Knott County, Ky, Knox County, Ky, Lawrence County, Ky, Letcher County, Ky, and Magoffin County, Ky. That isn’t only Kentucky, the “coal country” is from West Virginia as well – Mingo County, WV, Logan County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Raleigh County, WV, and Boone County, WV. But in the video, they are talking about Pike County, Ky, which is the largest county in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and Pike County, Ky, is my county/home. I suggest you watch this video, and then read my thoughts on it if you’d like.

It is somewhat nice to see that a few people making an effort to get together, liberal people, and conserative people, having a meetup from time to time, having a group meeting, even though they said they have no answer to why that Pike County, Ky that was known for one of the most Democratic county in the Commonwealth of Kentucky suddenly flipped to a Republican stronghold county pretty much overnight which I recall that especially seeing my well-known, caring, and one of the friendlist Democrat representative lost which that surprised many people in Pike County, Ky, to an inexperienced and unknown person from Martin County, Ky who has no heart for Pike County, Ky, but herself and a small group from Martin County, Ky. Pike County, Ky literally was flipped switched from traditionally blue county to blood red within’ a blink of eye in 2016 which was the same year that Trump won the election for his first term. Even though there are some people in Pike County, Ky, who have started having dialogue with each other from both political parties, allowing each other to share their feelings, their worries, their opinions, while at the same time respecting each other, and being willing to listen to what the other has to express, unfortunately, that is still only a tiny group of people. In contrast, the rest show no empathy or compassion toward each other, resorting to calling people names, degrading them, challenging them, imitating them, and finding any way or words to make them feel belittled. From the video that I watched above, is only a tiny group of people where people with both political affiliations or parties to have a dialogue, and to discuss about their ideology with respect because I have been witnessing the majority of the people in Pike County, Ky, refuse to associate with each other, refusing to allow them to correct any misinformation that they go based on, insulting them just because they aren’t affiliated with their political party, and trying to find every way to mock them with different names such as snowflake, WOKE, too sensitive, baby killers, and others.

Mocking them for wanting to protect themselves from a pandemic such as COVID by calling them wearing the face diapers, making up information that cannot be backed up, trying to encourage others not to protect themselves and their family by not taking the vaccine that saves their lives. Sounds familiar in what political party I am referring to, doesn’t it? Yes, republicans, MAGA cult members, and fascists. Yes, I am calling them these, but not just because out of nowhere, it is because they have been very harsh toward us, who are more centrist or democrats, outright disrespecting their neighbors, the people from their community, just because their beliefs and values aren’t aligned with the ideology of the Republican Party. Throwing tantrums, screaming at people who are democrats, centrists, or independents, and having no empathy or compassion at all towards their family members or their friends, that isn’t aligned with their Republican ideology. Even when a Democrat is elected as a governor, a mayor, a commissioner, an executive judge, and others in our area, we don’t go out calling Republican people all these names that they have been calling or throwing at us since Trump became the United States president in 2016 for his first term. Why would we need or want to? We democrats, centrists, and independents have respect for other people who are Republicans or MAGA cult members. We hoped that a newly elected Democrat or independent would be willing to serve for all of us, regardless of our political affiliations, unlike Republicans, who hoped that their newly elected representative would serve their political party, Republicans only, and not other people in general—not going in their face, saying some silly and childish words to them about Republicans losing or even winning. So, enough of that, I think it’s time for us people in Pike County, Ky, to listen to each other for once, and try to understand why we align ourselves with that ideology of the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. There are always reasons that they align themselves with the Democratic party, independent, and that goes the same for the Republican party, or at least used to be until Trump became the President; it becomes a game to them all instead of thinking about what the ramifications would be for all of the people, not just for Republicans.

Can we, people in Pike County, Ky, please have respect for each other once again? Like, before Trump was even a president, because this whole thing started when Trump was elected President in his first term, and people’s attitude has gotten even worse since Trump won the second term. Why cut their family members out, stop being friends with other people, and refuse to do business with them just because they are Democrats or independents? That doesn’t make any sense, to be honest with you, and that’s childish behavior. I thought we were better than that, but obviously I was wrong. I have family members who completely cut me out, I have people who stopped being my friends, even going as far as calling some of my family members names just because they are my family members who happen to be Democrats as well, and I am talking about my own mother! I had a childhood friend who tried to belittle me and told me that my mother needed to follow the Republicans’ ideology, and that she supports Trump when she never did, especially since she has a disabled son, which is me, obviously, after watching Trump make a mockery out of us disabled people on live TV. Just because I am a moderate Democrat, they think that this gives them the right to go around me and tell me such things as that? My mother wasn’t even a political person; she never had any interest in politics, and yet that person dared to make it so. Of course, this upsets me because I am talking about the childish behavior from Republicans towards us who are Democrats, independents, or even have no interest in politics crap.

Anyway, I am going to end this topic because I am not going to give any reason for Republicans and MAGA cult members to behave worse than they have been towards people like us. For us to have respect for each other, people who are affiliated with the Republican Party need to stop being so harsh and outright rude. I have respect for all people with different political affiliations, ideologies, principles, values, beliefs, religions, preferences, lifestyles, and everything else! What about doing the same for us Democrats, centrists, and independents? The respect is two-way, and that is on Republicans or MAGA cult members (Trump supporters) because we already respected them, but we don’t need the mistreatment from them, as we have other problems that are more important than that. If you ever wonder why I am more aligned with moderate Democrats, please do not hesitate to ask me, and I would like to listen to your reasons for being a Republican or why you support President Trump. Our relationships, friendships, and whatnot are more important than allowing politics to divide us. I have to admit that it saddens me to see how Republicans behave towards others and have no empathy towards anyone else but themselves. Do better! We are better than that here in Pike County, Ky. Have a dialogue with an open mind and heart, regardless of our political affiliations, and maybe we can understand where we come from. But one thing is for sure: it has to start with respecting each other first.

Voter suppression and barriers by the government

If you have studied a history class on the United States of America’s election, you would already know about the barriers and suppressions in the United States’ election. Although I am not sure about this generation, or even worse, in the next generation, because the government is banning books, which can be the resources for the students in the history class, but I know in my generation, or before that, we students had to learn different periods or eras in the United States history. I had to learn about the slavery in the United States along with President Abraham Lincoln ending the slavery but after that happened the government in southern part of the United States find another way to continue suppressing them with the law like Jim Crow’s laws, but that ended with the laws like Civil Rights Act of 1964 which it outlawed segreggation in the public, Voting Rights Act of 1965 which making it that the people cannot discriminate the BIPOC community from voting in the United States elections, the history of woman’s suffrage movement in the United States which that means to end the discrimination against the women by not allowing them to vote in the United States election, how was the United States became a country when it declared independence from the British by thirteen colonies (which is like 13 states) during the America’s revolutionary war starting in 1775 before the independence declaration in 1776, the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Sacagawea which was commissioned by the United States President Thomas Jefferson.

Not only these, but there was more about United States history taught during my generation and before me, and we learned about United States elections, such as how the United States became a republic and a democracy with “we the people”. We The People sounds good, right? The meaning of “We The People” is that every one of us is equal, we are the ones who get to choose who can be elected to represent us, and how we want our country, the United States, to be. But there was and still is a problem with that quote “We The People” in the United States Constitution, because we, along with our ancestors, specifically white males, misinterpret or distort what “We The People” in the United States of America’s Constitution means. Because there cannot be “We The People” when not everyone of us is equal, and when being selective about who can be the people of the United States. How can we be when we dismiss and oppress many minority communities? I am talking about the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community, people with disabilities, including the Deaf community, the LGBTQIA+ community, the women’s community, every community of different religious people, including those who aren’t religious or believe in anything, and other minority communities. There cannot be a “We the People” if we, as the majority of white people, try to find every way to suppress voters in the minority communities from being allowed to vote in the election freely, easily, as we, the majority of white people, do. This include making sure that our representatives and senators that we elected with our own votes that they pass the voting rights laws where it make sure that every one of us regardless our race, sex orintention, gender, age, disability, religions, and others can vote without any hardship by allowing the minority voters to vote the same way that we white people do without having the hard time to do so including being able to register to vote and the options in how we want to vote in the election such as mail-in/absentee, in person, and even by electrionically meaning through the internet.

What got me to talk about this is because many Republicans from different states are trying to find a way to suppress the voters from the minority communities by making it harder for them to register to vote and to vote such as forcing the voters to have identitifcation with the matching their home’s address which many people know that many indigenous people does not have an address due to living on a reservations or tribal lands. Many indigenous people who live on the reservation or tribal lands rely on post offices for mailing and shipping, as there are boxes with different post office numbers on the reservation or tribal lands for mailers or shippers to send to any indigenous people who live there. Republicans are passing laws that make it more difficult for voters, which results in making it a lot more complicated for the indigenous people to vote in the election, thanks to being required to have a home address on their identification card, such as an ID or driver’s license, to register to vote. For instance, by now, if you put a post office address for a store like Amazon to ship your stuff, they would warn you that using a post office address is not allowed and that you are required to use your home address for any store, or even anyone, to ship something to you. Now, think about that for the indigenous people who live on the reservation or tribal lands, and their home address is only a post office because the reservation or tribal lands do not have an address for the homes of indigenous people, so they can only go to a post office to receive something through mailing or shipping.

The audacity of us white people who stole the lands from them, and to return our thanks is by making it very hard for the indigenous people to register to vote and vote in the election by requiring that their ID exactly match their home address, which they cannot obtain. For them to get something from some business or people, the majority of them do not have the boxes on their reservation, as you would see in some trailer parks, so these indigenous people would have to go a long distance to get to the post office in the nearest city to their reservation to get some mail or shipments. Republicans want to make sure that their voters are legit, that these people prove themselves who they are, so they can register to vote and to vote, but forget that they are making it nearly impossible for the indigenous people to be able to register to vote and vote, so that is a contradiction with “We The People”. They aren’t stopping there either, this does not just affect the indigenous people, this also affect the people with mobile disability because Republicans are making it where if we want to vote in the election that we would have to drive a regional city to vote instead of being able to vote in our own city because of limiting the polling stations by only allowing one ballots drop in a regional city or majority city. The nearest for me is about a two-hour drive, so as a disabled voter, I would have to have someone to help me take me about a two-hour drive so that I can do my duty as an American by voting. This is precisely why we need mail-in/absentee ballots. They aren’t only used by disabled people but also by the military overseas.

So, you Republicans and MAGA cult members, quit making it harder, stop adding barriers, stop suppressing the voters, for the BIPOC voters and the disabled voters to do their duty to vote! That starts with making sure every city has its own polling drop-off, not just one but a few in each city, rather than just one ballot drop-off in each regional town or in majority cities. You Republicans are suppressing your own citizens who want to vote! No matter if they are Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, every single American citizen should have the right to vote and to have access to do so!

If you want to know about Republicans’ efforts to suppress the voters, here’s a link to it: Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 United States presidential election on Wikipedia: https://w.wiki/GATS

The Dinner Table Syndrome

I am sure that many people don’t know about the dinner table syndrome, which many Deaf people know about because they have to go through it since they were born and are still going through it to this day. Maybe if you try very hard to think about what the dinner syndrome is for Deaf people, you can figure it out. If you still don’t see the connection, I will share a bit about it here. So, the table syndrome, or dinner table syndrome, is one reason anyone who is Deaf does not want to visit their family during a holiday when the family gathers to feast and celebrate, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve. If they have no choice but to visit, believe me, they are very much dreading it, especially if the children are Deaf and the parents, along with their family, aren’t, because of the dinner table syndrome. The dinner table syndrome is where Deaf people would sit at a dinner table with the family or friends, and out of everybody at that dinner table, they are the only Deaf person with them. They are being left out of all the conversations the family or friends are having, which would isolate the Deaf person because all the Deaf person can do is look and pretend to nod, laugh, as if the Deaf person understands what the conversation is about or what the family members at the table are talking about. Some people make it worse by telling the Deaf person that they will say to them later about these conversations that they were having during the dinner. In doing that, they make the Deaf person feel even more unwelcome and uneasy being there, as they already were to begin with, knowing that this would happen because they grew up going through the same thing every year. The dinner table syndrome does not necessarily mean it occurs only during a dinner; it can happen at any time when a family gathers at that table, whether for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. This is one of the reasons the family must learn sign language so they can communicate with the Deaf family member who is visiting for the holiday. Even if they don’t want to learn sign language, they can at least communicate with a Deaf person by writing on paper or a notepad.

If you want to know more about the dinner table syndrome, here are a couple of good sources for you to read to learn about the dinner table syndrome.

• Fostering Inclusivity at the Dinner Table Syndrome: Understanding ‘Dinner Table Syndrome’ by DeafChildren.org.
• What is Dinner Table Syndrome and Why Does it Matter? by Inland Regional Center.
• Dinner Table Syndrome: Everything You Need to Know by Nagish.
• Why ‘Dinner Table Syndrome’ is getting worse for deaf people by BBC.
• Basic Tips On How To Communicate with Deaf People by Nagish.

So, if you happen to have someone in your family who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing, please find a way to make sure that the Deaf person is acknowledged instead of allowing the voice in your head that says avoid that person to control you by doing what that voice tells you to do. Like I said above, if you do not know sign language, there is always another way to communicate with a Deaf person such as using the pens and paper for both of you to communicate with each other because that Deaf person will for sure appreciate your effort which that is what matters the most is that you at least make an effort for a Deaf person in your family especially during the holiday events. There is something that you need to be aware of, just because that person is Deaf does not mean that Deaf person communicate with sign language, because every Deaf person have their preferred communication methods, whether it be sign language, notetaking, lipsreading, gestures (home sign language), cued speech, a device that allow both of you to communicate with each other (for example, phone, tablet, two-way device) or others. Some Deaf people use audio tools such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, while others do not. Even if that Deaf person has audio tools such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, it does not mean they can hear what you say, which is one of the few misconceptions people have about cochlear implants. That Deaf person with cochlear implant may only communicate through sign language, that goes the same with hearing aids, so that is why it’s important to find out what communication method that the Deaf person in your family prefer so that way you can be more prepared for that day where you and your family get together for the holiday such as Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner.

As for me, I do experience the dinner table syndrome growing up, especially with one of my sides’ families, and I know that wasn’t intentional. Still, I went through it every year for several years until I was in my late teenage years, when I stopped visiting that side of my family for the holiday because of the dinner table syndrome. I am so lucky to have a family that would go out to make sure that I am not being left out when the family were talking about something, because my mother knows sign language which is the only language that we communicate with each other to this day, not only my mother, also my aunt, and a little with my grandmother but mostly it was my mother and my aunt. Now, it is only my mother that I thank the Lord for, because my aunt and my grandmother are no longer here. Every holiday family gathering is me, my mother, Chad (who I consider my second father), and my uncle Johnny, my mother’s brother. However, my uncle Johnny does not know sign language, but my mother always makes sure that I am included in the conversation between him and me. So, suppose you have a Deaf family member who uses sign language. In that case, there is no excuse for you not to learn, no matter what your age, and even if you struggle with sign language, that is ok because your effort matters more than you would think to that Deaf family member.

Suppose you are Deaf and reading this, wishing you had someone to communicate in sign language and celebrate the holiday with you. In that case, some Deaf groups on Facebook will be hosting a group video call, like Zoom, FaceTime, or a similar program, where all Deaf people can eat and celebrate together! Once I find more information on this, I will come back here and edit this article with the details for you so you can know where and how to join the other Deaf people to celebrate a holiday with food (obviously, each of us will have to fix or get somebody to fix some for us since this will be remote)!

The midterm election is important too!

Many Americans know that the presidential election every four years is significant; the next presidential election is in 2028 for the United States of America, and many voters intend to vote in the presidential election along with their state governor in gubernatorial elections, and so on, but do not take the midterm election as seriously as the presidential election. I don’t think some people realize how important the midterm election is, as important as the presidential election, because every election for federal, state, county, city, and local offices has consequences. The midterm election is a election for the people that we would want to represent for us in our area, because unlike the presidential election which happens every four years for a term which the President can only have two terms (four years per term, only two terms allowed, combined 8 years total), every representative in the United States of America House only has two years per election which is in both midterm and presidential election. The longest one would be the United States Senate, as each senator is elected every 6 years with no term limit. Now, I am talking about the Congress, not the executive or judicial branches, such as the United States of America Supreme Court, which has a lifetime term (I oppose it). The longest term in Congress is the Senate, which is elected every 6 years, then the House of Representatives, which is elected every 2 years. Why is the midterm election so important? As I said above, they come with consequences, whether positive or negative, depending on who we vote to be our representative for the next two years. In every election, including the midterm, we can vote to keep our current representative or replace them with someone else. The midterm election is also a measure of how the President of the United States is doing; for instance, we have a Republican (more so far-right) President, Donald Trump. You aren’t a fan or happy with how he has been doing such as abusing his power, downplaying the United States Constitution by not obeying them, allowing the ICE to be his gastapo, taking away your medicaid/medicare, your SNAP, raising the prices of goods, causing the healthcare premiums to soars as double or triple, dismantling the Department of Education, and whatnot then you can vote to elect someone from the oppositing political party such as a Democratic in that case to restrict Trump’s power or stop/slow down all of the agenda that he has such as the Project 2025. If you are upset by all of that, seeing our own President doing more harms to his citizens including his voters/supporters, having no empathy or compassion in anything, sending the ICE agents to different cities for no good reason except that they happens to be Democratic cities, and that is one of his revenges since he has been elected as the United States President once again then vote for the opposite political party which is democrats that can throw a monkey wrench.

Right now, all of our government branches have a Republican majority, and because of that, it allows President Donald Trump to exercise power beyond his presidential powers and abuse them. How do we put a stop to that, or at least restrict that? The answer is voting in the midterm election! I cannot fathom enough how important the midterm election is; it is an opportunity for Americans to give their answer to how our government, including President Trump, is doing. If we flip both the United States House and Senate back to Democratic majorities, that would be the answer that says we, as Americans, do not approve of what President Trump and his Republican allies have been doing, and that we want to restrict their ability to continue doing so. Yes, it is strongly predicted by many news outlets, politicians, analysts, and even some Republicans that both the House and Senate will be flipped back to a Democratic majority in the 2026 midterm election, but that cannot happen if any of us do not do our duty as Americans by voting in the 2026 midterm election. Even if Democrats get the House and the Senate back, they are unlikely to be able to pass the critical bills to help us Americans because President Trump will veto them unless we can get both the House and the Senate with a 3/4 Democratic majority. The Democrats can easily override President Trump’s veto. That would have to be about 75 Democrat Senators, and about 326 Democrat Representatives to do so. Suppose we don’t get that, but we do get both the Senate and the House back into Democratic control. In that case, the best scenario would be to stop or restrict President Trump from exercising or abusing his powers. With a Democratic majority, they would also prevent any future nominees made by President Trump from being confirmed, including judges. Still, at the same time the both Senate and House with Democratic majority will not be able to or have hard time to pass the bills that may would help us Americans such as extending or repairing the Affordable Care Act, making sure that the premiums for our healthcare don’t change or lower their costs, and whatnot for the next two years after the 2026 midterm election. There will be a stalemate for both sides. Still, at least that will stop Trump’s agenda and limit his power for the remainder of his second and last term, until we have an election again in 2028, when we can vote for whoever we think should be the next President of the United States. If we vote for a Democrat president in 2028 (I hope!), we need to make sure that both the House and Senate is Democratic majority so that both Democrat President, and Democrat congress can finally pass some bills that would reverse some of the actions done by Trump, and to pass bills that would help us more such as healthcare, taxing the super wealthy (they really don’t need all that money, they have so much that they don’t know how to use them), finding a way to control the climate change, and whatnot.

The midterm election is as important as the presidential and gubernatorial elections. Midterm elections have consequences just like the presidential or gubernatorial elections have, and what consequences will be is up to us, American voters – positive or negative consequences! So, please do your duty as an American by voting in all of the elections, including the midterm elections, do not skip any elections, and if you haven’t voted yet, then please register to vote so that you can vote in your country, state, county, city/town, and local elections!

Here is a website owned by the United States of America government, for any information relating to the United States of America elections such as voter registration, voter registration confirmation, polling places, how to get a absentee ballot, how to vote while oversea, when is the elections, for what elections, who are they, finding our state or local contact information that you can contact for some help with your voter registration or having questions about the elections. https://www.usa.gov/voting-and-elections

Telehealth/Telemedicine for deaf people!

I think many of us have doctors’ appointments to keep. Some patients have quarterly, semiannual, or annual appointments for different reasons, such as a regular physician checkup, a family doctor appointment, a vision clinic appointment with our optometrists or opticians, and so on. It was common for all of us until the pandemic hit us hard that many businesses, restaurants, clinics, doctors’ offices, and whatnot closed for a long time. Because of the COVID pandemic, many people and businesses have to find another way they continue serving us, which is through the internet, such as shopping online, curbside pickup, getting some things delivered, such as DoorDash or Uber Eats, and others. But what about visiting our doctor appointments? How can we see our doctors, refill our essential prescriptions, and whatnot? Through virtual! Checking in with our doctor appointments virtually such as having a video call with the doctor, where we and our doctors would be able to see each other virtually such as webcam or using our phone’s or tablet’s camera so that we as patients can continue getting the care that we need without risking exposing ourselves to the COVID virus by visiting our doctor in person. In the virtual space, they have a few names for it, such as TeleHealth, TeleMedicine, TeleCare, E-Health, Virtual Care, and others. Most health insurance, as well as Medicare, was approved for virtual visits with our doctors for checkups or to continue refilling prescriptions.

I am sure, like me, many of you like the idea of telehealth or telemedicine instead of going to your doctor’s office for appointments because it is very convenient. Sadly, while they are convenient for us, Deaf patients, we still experience a communication barrier. When doctors do telehealth, it’s just a one-on-one video call, so there’s no room for an interpreter to relay communication between our doctors and us. Even using telehealth for my doctor appointment, as a Deaf person, I heavily rely on my mother to interpret for me, and the doctors often wouldn’t put themselves in the frame, like I was only able to see my doctor from the nose and up, or only the forehead when my doctor was talking so close to the microphone. Hence, my doctor was half out of frame so that I couldn’t lip-read. I love how convient it was, I didn’t need to be in rush leaving the house, getting in the car, and drive over there on time which I always do, usually a lot earlier but I think like many of you, I am not a fan of going into the waiting room seeing that the waiting room is packed which that means longer waiting to see the doctor! If you know me well, you know I am very impatient when it comes to waiting for my turn, and my nerves don’t help either! For me personally, for some reason, my doctors are very strict when it comes to it, only allowing me to do telehealth/telemedicine during the COVID pandemic, and if we are heavily snowed in. Other than that, I am forced to visit in person, as some of my doctors want to avoid telehealth/telemedicine at all costs and would only use it as a last resort.

Being able to see our doctors virtually through telehealth or telemedicine has many benefits. Still, it has some disadvantages for us Deaf patients because like I said, to visit our doctor virtually, for their telehealth or telemedicine, we would have to use their system which is only one on one video call, and that means no room for having an interpreter unless we happen to have someone in the same room that we are in who would be willing to interpret for us. Their telehealth or telemedicine system isn’t like Zoom, where we can have several people in a video call, a group video call/conference. For us Deaf people, some video relay services offer a service where interpreters can join the group video call/conference to interpret for us at no cost, as they are paid through TRS (Telecommunications Relay Services). Unless some lucky Deaf patients have a doctor who knows sign language, or even one who is Deaf, there would be no communication barriers when having a conversation with their doctor. The problem with having doctors who know sign language or are Deaf is that there are so few of them, and many of us Deaf people, including me, wish one of the very few Deaf-friendly doctors happened to serve in our area. Even though the statistics showed that the number of Deaf medical professionals has increased by 26% over the last decade, there is a slim chance we would find one where we live unless we are willing to drive long distances, such as to another state or through a few states, to see them. I am aware of some in the southern and western states, such as California, Nevada, and Texas. Still, I think none in rural areas or in the East, such as my state, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, or West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, etc.

That is, until now, thanks to telehealth and telemedicine! Because of advances in medicine, many big and small companies, such as Amazon, are taking advantage of telehealth and telemedicine, and Amazon now offers a service called Amazon One Medical for a monthly subscription fee. We can see doctors using the telehealth service instead of having to be there in person, and thanks to that possibility, there is finally a telehealth service offered by Deaf-friendly doctors who know sign language! Yes, that means we can have a doctor who knows and communicates with us in sign language through a telehealth service! ASL TeleMed (ASL TeleMedicine Clinic) is a Deaf-centered telehealth service for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people who would like a doctor who knows sign language, available via a monthly subscription fee, like any other telehealth service. In case you don’t know what ASL stands for, it’s American Sign Language. ASL TeleMed providers will be able to schedule scans, such as X-rays, at a discounted price, which will be sent to them to help them get a better idea of what’s wrong with you. They would do what a doctor would typically do for you if you were there in person; the only difference is that, through ASL TeleMed or other telehealth services, it is done virtually rather than in person. ASL TeleMed have some plans that you can subscribe to with monthly payment, such as $20 for a child or adult membership, if you want to add someone to that membership such as your child or spouse, you can do so by paying $15 for additional membership with your $20 monthly membership, and they have a plan that does not require a membership which is for like if you are in a hurry then it is $120 pay per call. All of that good news, unfortunately, there is some bad news for the Deaf community. They can only serve Deaf people who are in Nevada, Texas, and Utah. But that is not permanent; they are working to expand rapidly, depending on the demands, and when they get more resources. Plus, they are still new, and whenever you start a new business, it takes some time to build on it.

Here is the link to ASL TeleMed, where you can sign up for a membership if you are in Nevada, Texas, or Utah. If you don’t see that they have a service in your state, you can subscribe to ASL TeleMed for updates. ASLTeleMed.com. I must make a disclaimer: JoshiesWorld doesn’t get anything from ASL TeleMed to promote them, and is not affiliated with ASL TeleMed as of now. I wanted to raise awareness of telehealth (telemedicine) for the Deaf community because I felt it was important for them to know about Deaf-centered telehealth services and understand what telehealth is.

Happy Thanksgiving Day 2025!

I would like to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving Day, and I hope you have a great one with plenty of food to feast on! Celebrating Thanksgiving Day is about being thankful for what we have and for the people we are surrounded by, such as friends and family. Thanksgiving was celebrated by indigenous people and early settlers long before the country became the United States of America. Thanksgiving is a national holiday that honors the indigenous people and the early settlers who came together to have a historic harvest feast. Unfortunately, Thanksgiving isn’t all positive as you all thought; Thanksgiving Day is also a National Day of Mourning for the indigenous people because it was the beginning of colonization by the Europeans. So, keep indigenous people in mind, show them respect, and have a feast when you celebrate Thanksgiving Day. We can be thankful for our family, our friends, our successes, and whatnot, but don’t be thankful that we have the land or property because we, as Europeans, stole them from the indigenous people. In November, it is Native American Heritage Month, so I suggest that we, as white people, do some reading and research about indigenous people, their culture, their history, their pains, and others. There are plenty of resources out there, articles, videos, books, and information that you can find online to learn about indigenous people. Suppose you would like to do something for indigenous people. In that case, it is suggested that you participate in Indigenous-led events and contribute to indigenous peoples’ organizations. GiveNative.org is a great place to do so, as it lists many Indigenous peoples’ organizations you can donate to.

Here is an amended speech by Frank “Wamsutta” James that you should read and think hard about every Thanksgiving day. Click Frank “Wamsutta” James’ name in the quote to see where it was cited from.

We don’t have to say Thanksgiving; there are other names for that holiday, such as Friendsgiving, harvest festival, harvest day, and whatnot. As for the family feast, I am sure some people will have alcohol. If you are one of them, please be responsible and never drive drunk! No matter if it is even a can of beer, or an ounce of whiskey or vodka. If you are planning on drinking alcohol, be sure to give up your keys to your vehicle to someone who isn’t planning on drinking any alcohol, and tell them to hold the keys until the next day. If you need a way home or want to go somewhere, please use a ride-hailing app or call a ride-hailing service like Uber, Lyft, or Taxi, or have someone who can be your designated driver who doesn’t drink alcohol that day/night. It isn’t only important for your safety, but also for others’. So, do the right thing!

The End!

Finally! I seriously didn’t think that I would be able to have this new Mix article published by then on or around Thanksgiving Day. I kept having to come back to write a few words every chance I had, and then I was often interrupted by the clock because the time goes so fast that I ran out of time, when I thought I had all the time to write this Mix article that I would have it finished within a day or two at most. What consumes so much of my time without me realizing it or feeling it is double-checking sources, double-checking information, and making sure that all the information I have is accurate, as I always do for all of my articles and reviews. Not only do I double-check all the information to make sure it is accurate, but sometimes I have to wait for information to come to me from someone. Once that is done, not completed though, I still have to double-check for some spelling, grammar, typos, and whatnot. Then that is finished? No, not even completed yet, because once I got that out of the way, I have to do SEO (search engine optimization) for this article to make sure that this article is optimized for the search engine such as Google, Bing, etc. because SEO is vital as they are what help the articles or reviews to get higher ranking in the search engines which that means this article, any articles or reviews, will hopefully be ranked top 5 on the first page of Google, Bing, and other search engine so that it makes easier for the audience or people to find this article or any articles or reviews that I write here on JoshiesWorld. Now that this article is completed and ready to be published, I will move on to the next task for JoshiesWorld. Maybe a few articles or reviews, or both.

Even when I am not writing an article or a review, I am still very much occupied with JoshiesWorld, such as trying to make some contacts with some businesses or brands to see if they would be interested in having their products or services reviewed by JoshiesWorld, trying to see if anyone would be interested in collaborating with JoshiesWorld, and whatnot. While I am waiting for any response, I do some work on JoshiesWorld’s website, making sure everything is in order, that all cylinders are firing, and adding or building features that I think, or people think, can be useful on JoshiesWorld’s website. Once I made sure that some of the tasks for JoshiesWorld’s website were completed, I would move on to doing some tasks for JoshiesWorld’s social media platforms, such as trying to find or work on a strategy to bring in more engagement, and as well as followers because the more followers that JoshiesWorld’s social medfromromunts eeasier to get some company or brands to be interested in having their products or services reviewed by JoshiesWorld, easier to get some collaborations, and whatnot. That is the job of a blogger, journalist, reviewer, and content creator! Speaking of that, I want to say thank you, everyone, so much for always supporting JoshiesWorld and spreading the word about JoshiesWorld! That means a lot to me, so from the bottom of my heart, I thank everyone for your support and continued support! Not only that, recently JoshiesWorld got a surprise donation of $5 from someone $5! Even if it’s just a dollar, it can be a huge help, so thank you very much to the person who donated $5 to JoshiesWorld a few days ago! If anyone would like to donate to support JoshiesWorld, you are more than welcome to do so, and I would greatly appreciate it! You can click here to go to the donation page and choose the service you prefer to donate through, such as PayPal, Cash App, or Venmo.

Okay, I need to wrap this up before I make it even longer than it already is! As always, if you have some information about someone or something that you think JoshiesWorld should share with the public, or if you think of a topic that you’d like for me to add in the next Mix article, or suggest some product or service for JoshiesWorld to review (depending on the cost unless the company or brand would be willing to ship them to JoshiesWorld for a review) please contact me by going to this link! If you are a business, brand, or other entity and would like JoshiesWorld to review your product or service, please click here for more information.

If you have a thought or a comment about any of the topics in this Mix article, please leave a comment below and share your thoughts! I hope you have a great day/night, and stay warm wherever you are!

Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.

Please donate or buy JoshiesWorld merch to support JoshiesWorld, and follow JoshiesWorld on social media. If you notice any incorrect information or website issues, please contact JoshiesWorld.