Joshua B. “Joshie” Sullivan was born on March 18, 1987, at approximately 3:30 AM at the old hospital on College Hill in the city of Williamson, West Virginia. After he was born, he was diagnosed with several disabilities, such as being Deaf, specifically Hard of Hearing, Scoliosis, which he had major surgery at the age of four or five (from neck to tailbone), Little Person (the medical term is Dwarfism, but considered an offensive word), and a few more. When he was born at the hospital, the doctor told his mother that it would be unlikely for him to live long enough to be seven years old, but God had some plans for him, and now he is thirty-eight years old (38). Joshie is a big-time believer in God and Jesus Christ. At the age of four, he attended an elementary school called Turkey Creek Elementary School from first grade to fifth grade; Turkey Creek Elementary School was changed to Turkey Creek Middle School, so he had no choice but to go to another school to complete the rest of his elementary education, and he attended Southside Elementary School. He was among the first students to attend Southside Elementary School in the first year that Southside Elementary School opened, as the Board of Education built a new elementary school called Southside Elementary School and changed Turkey Creek Elementary School to Turkey Creek Middle School to have all three education levels in the area (Elementary, Middle, and High). After finishing fifth grade, he returned to the same school building, Turkey Creek Elementary School, but changed to Turkey Creek Middle School. Then, after graduating from Turkey Creek Middle School, he attended Belfry High School. He graduated from high school in the year 2005, the same year that the Board of Education built a new building at a different location for Belfry High School and closed Turkey Creek Middle School as they changed the Belfry High School to Belfry Middle School, so he also was one among of the students who graduated from the old Belfry High School before they moved to a new building at a different location then changed that old Belfry High School building to Belfry Middle School.
As a student, he plays the sport he is passionate about: baseball. He played baseball, football, and basketball, but his heart was in baseball, where he excelled more than in the others. While playing a sport in 1995, at eight, he had an unfortunate accident that changed his life. He broke a femur in his right leg when he slipped from wet stairs over at the old house that he used to live in, and when he climbed to the very last step of the stairs on a porch that was several feet high, he slipped over the side of the stairs. When he fell from climbing those stairs, he tried to get a grip by reaching the house wall between the stairs. He could not reach in time, so he fell in between, and his right knee landed in a small mud hole, which immediately broke his femur in half on his right leg, ending his dream of playing baseball in high school.
After that incident, he was rushed to the local hospital. The local hospital had no equipment for such a bad injury, especially the broken femur. They had no choice but to send him to Cabell Huntington Hospital in Huntington, WV, about a two-hour drive away. He underwent surgery when he arrived; the surgeon ordered him to stay in the hospital for almost a month. He said to recover, but in the end, he could not recover fully, which put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life; he is now a wheelchair user, so that is another disability on his list.
So, from there, these disabilities have prevented him from having a career. When he became an adult, he tried to apply for jobs everywhere he could think of, from fast-food restaurants to superstores, but no one could hire him. This was when he graduated from high school at the prime age of eighteen, and he realized that it would be almost impossible to get a job that required any form of education. Three years later, he decided to try college and applied to Westwood College in Denver, Colorado, for online study. He was accepted based on his 3.6 GPA. He attended Westwood College to earn a bachelor’s degree in Web Design and Multimedia after discovering a passion for web development. He has been a self-taught web developer since 2004, when he began building several custom layouts for a social networking website called ShowMyPro. However, the website owner ultimately decided to sell it to someone with little to no web development experience. Thus, the new owner shuttered it. He then decided to start building several layouts for MySpace. At that time, he had a website where anyone searching for an awesome design could visit and copy the code he had built to paste into their MySpace layout using HTML and CSS. He also had a website in 2004 that offered a file-sharing host, where anyone needing a place to upload their images or videos could use a few methods to share on forums or on customizable profiles, such as MySpace or ShowMyPro.
That year, when MySpace owner Tom Anderson decided to sell the Site to someone else, his growing reputation as a layout builder was shattered because no other social networking website offered customizable profiles. So, he decided to take the next step and become a freelance web developer. He built websites for clients looking to establish an online presence or for businesses that needed one. Then, he would be the one they come to. From that point on, he built his reputation as a web developer over the next few years, until he purchased the domain JoshiesWorld.com and created a blog. He began writing a few articles about various aspects of his daily life. In 2007, he bought the domain for JoshiesWorld.com and established a brand identity under the name JoshiesWorld. He found his calling in journalism. He has since written several articles on various topics, whether expressing his opinions or contributing articles to news outlets, hoping the editors would approve them. So he eased up on web development, shifted his focus to blogging, and wrote as many articles as he could from 2007 to the present. He launched JoshiesWorld in 2007. Then, he was under stress with the spam and the DDoS attacks, so he decided to shut down JoshiesWorld in the year 2010-2011; then he felt he missed writing some articles, so in a matter of one year after not running JoshiesWorld, he decided to bring it back up in 2011-2012. Since then, he has kept JoshiesWorld up and running with several articles he has written. At first, he thought web development was his calling, but he ultimately chose not to pursue it; journalism was his true calling, and he has stuck with it for almost a decade now. Even though he may have eased up on web development, he still builds websites only in his spare time, and when he comes up with new project ideas he’d like to run. He founded AppalachianCrawlers.com for ATV, side-by-side, and dirt bike riders, a club that loves trail riding in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Kentucky and southwest of West Virginia. He is also a photographer and owns a photography business called Joshie’s Photography. He serves his clients in various genres, including portraits, boudoir, events, groups, weddings, candid/street, nature, landscape, and many more.
Skills and Experiences, Projects, Achievements, Activisms, and Beliefs and Ideologies
Skills and Experiences
- Journalism
- Blogger
- Reviewer
- Writer
- Reporting
- Editorial
- Columnist
- Investigating
- Contributor
- Guest Writer
- Content Creator
- Content Creation
- Content Ideation and Content Specialist
- Writing, Editorial, and Copywriting
- Social Media
- Editing and Visual Content Production (Photos, Videos, and Audio)
- Creativity and Innovation
- Communication and Storytelling
- Collaboration and Networking
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- PQRST (Research and Analytical)
- Time Management and Organizational
- Marketing (Social Media Marketing, Identity Brand Marketing, Brand Marketing, Etc.)
- Content Monetization (Affiliation Programs, Advertising, Sponsorships, Paid Content, Etc.)
- Others
- Photographer
- Portrait (person, children/baby/tween, maternity/pregnant, headshot, boudoir including swimsuit/lingerie, school portrait picture, employee or employer, etc.)
- Group Portraits (family or friends, school group pictures, group of employees, group of employees and employers, etc.)
- Automotive
- Landscape and Nature
- Sports
- Events (party, birthday, concert, wedding, celebration, gathering, holiday, reception, etc.)
- Architectures and Interiors (house, business, restaurant, building, real estate, etc.)
- Others
- Web Development
- HTML/CSS, JavaScript/IFrame, and PHP
- MYSQL/SQL, SQL Injection
- Mitigation and Integration (depending on what they are)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Backlinking
- Keywords
- Ranking
- Others
Companies Owned
JoshiesWorld.com (active) โ Observe Within’ My World – a blogger/journalist, reviewer, and content creator.
JoshiesPhotography.com (active) – Joshie’s Photography by photographer Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
JoshuaBSullivan.com (active) โ Public Biography for journalist, blogger, reviewer, content creator, photographer, and web developer Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
AppalachianCrawlers.com (semi-inactive) โ ATV, Side by Side (SXS), Dirt Bike, and off-road vehicle riders club rides in the Appalachian Mountains. It has expanded to include motorcycle riders as well, since many roads run through or around Appalachia. The Appalachian Mountains are one of the many places where club members ride, and we occasionally ride elsewhere as well.
CheckMyPro.com (inactive) – Social media competing with ShowMyPro and the likes.
KillYourBoredom.com (inactive) – Was a large social media website with profiles, forums, games, videos, a photo gallery, ratings, and many more.
ShowMyUpload.com (inactive) – A file-sharing media that generates BBcode, HTML code, and whatnot to embed on any social media or website that allows embedding to display video, pictures, and documents.
IPetRescue.com (inactive) – Was a resource center for pet rescuers, providing resources and information on what to do when an animal is rescued. It also facilitated networking with other pet rescues and agencies, as well as with individuals willing to adopt rescued pets and animals.
JustAFreelancer.com (inactive) – Was a website where freelancers could be paid to complete a job that a company or individual needed, without the involvement of a third party or middleman. Think of it like Fiverr, but for freelancers of all kinds.
SullivansCustom.com (inactive) – Sullivan’s Custom was a small, personalized products business that used a top-of-the-line heat press and high-quality supplies (including vinyl, dyes, and inks). The Sullivan’s Custom was founded by the son Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan and the mother Brenda to create customized products for both individual and business customers.
Achievements
- 1st Place Trophy in Computer Science by Turkey Creek Elementary/Grade School
- 3 Trophies in Baseball
- 2 Trophies in Football
- 1 Trophy in Basketball
- Awarded for The First Demonstration of a Compact Disc Computer for Pike County’s Schools
Advocacy and Activism
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan is a civil and human rights activist for the Deaf and disabled communities. He firmly believes there is at least a glimmer of hope for the Deaf community to live better lives, be equal, and be respected as equals.
- Deaf Grassroots Movement of Ky – He was a temporary representative for the Deaf Grassroots Movement of Kentucky that prepared the state of Kentucky to rally at the capital on May 3rd, 2016, for the National Deaf Grassroots Movement Rally where every state of the United States gathered at every state’s capital on the same day and before the rally he was replaced by someone else to become a permanent representative. However, he was offered the assistant representative position only briefly before the new representative unexpectedly changed the name to DGMU in protest against the Deaf Grassroots Movement, and he left. A couple of years later, in 2019, he was again offered a representative position by the National Representative of the Deaf Grassroots Movement. They formed a new Deaf Grassroots Movement – Kentucky after the old one had long since disappeared, when it changed to DGMU. He accepted the offer from the Deaf Grassroots Movement’s National Representative, Wesley Arey. He remained a representative from 2019 until February 2021.
- White House Closed Captions #WWnowCC – He was one among others, including Braam Jordaan, who worked hard to make sure that the public relations and its media team at the white house offer equal access for the Deaf community by providing closed captions for all the videos that they produced on their website and their social media such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or others. The Obama Administration’s team agreed in 2016 to provide closed captions for the Deaf community through its social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and others. Braam Jordaan led this campaign for the white house, closed captions now, and succeeded. (Unfortunately, now with the Trump Administration, we are going backward as they no longer provide closed captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, so this means round 2!)
Religion
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan is a Christian, a strong believer in God and Jesus Christ. He was raised by a devout Christian family; his family was churchgoers every week, especially his aunt, who taught students on both Wednesday and Sunday every week until she passed away. He, along with his family, used to attend a Baptist church for years, until he became a teenager, and he stopped going to church every week, but he did attend church every once in a while, not as frequently as when he was a child. When he became an adult, he no longer goes to a church even though his belief in Christianity continue growing as he gets older, and read the Holy Bible from time to time but still no longer going to a church for some reasons such as no American Sign Language interpreter, and he preferred to follow the old and new testament in Holy Bible instead of following what a preacher says. For example, many preachers are anti-immigration, but the Holy Bible says that we should welcome immigrants to our country because Jesus was a foreigner, and that we should do the same with immigrants by welcoming them as it did for Jesus. I am a big-time believer that this earth was created by God, and that everyone has the right to be on any land which was created by God without any barriers such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or borders. That goes the same for love thy neighbor, and others. The Bible commands us to love everyone, including enemies, as an active, sacrificial, and often costly reflection of God’s unconditional love.
Political ideology
He is a Democrat through and through, having been one since birth, and exercises his civic rights by voting in every election since voting for the first time during former President Barack Obama’s first term in 2008. He is considered a moderate Democrat; his beliefs mostly align with Democrats, but he agrees with some Republican positions, such as the Second Amendment. But unfortunately, that Republican party is becoming something else, and diluted thanks to some becoming far/extreme right forming a new party, such as Trumpican, or joining the MAGA cult formed by President Donald Trump. The Republican Party is no longer the same party Abraham Lincoln belonged to.
Favorites
Hobbies
Riding ATV (four-wheeler) on the trails, watching television shows or movies, reading books, collecting several comic books, including comic novels, and hanging out with family and friends. He also enjoys fishing and hunting when time allows, and he likes traveling when his health and medical conditions permit it. He also enjoys photography with his photography business. Photography is both a profession and a hobby for him.
Television Shows
The Walking Dead, The Last of Us; The Outlander; Smallville; The Flash; Gotham; Superman & Lois; Legends of Tomorrow; Supergirl; The Arrow; Daredevil; Supernatural; Game of Thrones; Fear The Walking Dead; The Vampire Dairies; The Z Nation; The Falling Skies; Under The Dome; The Jericho; Revolution; Lost; Battlestar Galactica; The Outpost; The Walking Dead: Dead City; The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon; Killjoys; The Witcher; Warrior; Into The Badlands; 12 Monkeys; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D; Beauty and The Beast; Vikings; Chuck; Continuum; Nikita; Torchwood; Fringe; The Leverage; Air Wolf; Star
Movies
Star Trek (all franchise); Captain America (all franchise); Ironman (all franchise); Transformers (all franchise); Guardians of the Galaxy; X-Men (all franchise); James Bond (all franchise); Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-man (all franchises); Avatar (all franchise); The Hobbit (all franchise); The Harry Potter (all franchise); Good Morning, Vietnam; Rocky (all franchise); Catch Me If You Can; American Graffiti; Armageddon; Pearl Harbor; The Aviator; The Bourne (all franchise); Defiance; Escape From Alcatraz; Gallipoli; The Hunger Games (all franchise); Hook; The Hunt for Red October; Indian Jones (all franchise); The Pianist; Rudy; Snowpiercer; Thor (all franchise); The Wolverine (all franchise); Gia; Tomb Raiders (all franchise); Hackers; Wanted; Girl, Interrupted; Saving Private Ryan; Platoon; We Are Soldiers; Apocalypse Now; Schindler’s List; The Deer Hunter; The Thin Red Line, The Hurt Locker; The Longest Day; Valkyrie; Flyboys; Jumanji; Black Hawk Down; Jack Reacher (all franchise); Free State of Jones; The Huntsman (all franchise); Batman V Superman; The Finest Hours; The Perfect Storm; Deadpool; Ip Man (all franchise); Star Wars (all franchise); The Revenant; The English Patient; The Martian; Ted (all franchise); Ant-Man; Mission Impossible (all franchise); Heartbreak Ridge; Seven Years in Tibet; Mr. Holmes; Kelly’s Heroes; Jurassic (all franchise); Awakening; Avengers (all franchise); The Rainmaker; Hanover Street; Witness; Six Days, Seven Nights; The Road; Kingsman: The Secret Service; American Sniper; Selma; Help; Unbroken; Exodus: Gods and Kings; The Lord of the Rings (all franchise); John Wick (all franchise); Fury; Maze Runner (all franchise); Medea (all franchise); Planet of the Apes (all franchise); Risky Business; Bullitt; Dead Poets Society; Popeye; Hook; Patch Adams; Heaven Is for Real; Noah; Chaplin; Gangs of New York; Leatherheads; The Monuments Men; Stalingrad; The Wolf of Wall Street; Thelma & Louise; 12 Years A Slave; Glory; The Butler; Elysium; Man of Steel; Charlotte Gray; The Great Gatsby; Master and Commander; The Patriot and Gladiator.
Foods
Pizza; Deer Tenderloin (back strip); Deer Jerky; Bear Steak; Sweet Corn; Gravy and Biscuits; Filet Mignon; Corndogs; Corn Bites; Cheese Sticks; Pizza Rolls (not mini ones); Peanut Butter Crackers Sandwiches; Reese’s Cup; Chili Beans; Homemade Brown Beans (also known as pinto); Cheddar Cheese or Wisconsin Cheese (premium brands); Muenster cheese and Mozzarella Sticks.
Comics
The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Hawkman, Star Wars, Deadpool, Old Logan/Wolverine, Supergirl, Batwoman, Captain America, Hulk, and Aquaman.
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