2012 Blog Year in Review

2012 was a good blogging year for me. I posted 150 blogs in 2012, not counting this one.  In 8 full complete years I averaged about 247 blog posts a year or roughly one blog post every 1.5 days on average.  The most I ever blogged in a single year was 470 blogs in 2005. Last year I blogged 269 times. The lowest number of blogs in a single year was 69 blogs in 2009.

This year my blog saw three milestones. I reached my 2000th blog piece becoming the most blogged deaf/hh blogger around. I passed my 8 years of blogging earning the longest running deaf/hh blogsite around. I am now in my 9th year of blogging. And lastly, in my third milestone my blog received one million hits last month in November earning me the berth as the only deaf/hh blogger to have one million hits to his/her credit.

This year saw the good, the bad, and the ugly comments. The ugly and outrageously bad comments typically came from anonymous cowards who come in here thinking ad hominems make valid arguments. They don't. So, I take comfort in the fact of their continued stupidity. But then again I get a lot of good comments that provided good insights and good arguments. Those are the more interesting ones.


Most outrageous comment: "Nobody bullied Celia May Baldwin."

Most uninformed comment: "HUH? this is so outdated (very old information like 2 years ago) where have you been? You must be in the basement and studies to sterotypes the deaf community? Sadly. Occupy KokonutPundit." (Note, my response:"Anony #1, It is not old information. This is relatively new. The study began in April 2011 and will continue for three years while they get qualified candidates to do their year long Phase I study.")

2nd most uninformed comment:  "This blog is an example of a*dism and ignorance at its finest."

Most insightful comment: "Some prefer remaining blissfully ignorant. There's nothing much anybody can do for them. Is it crossing the line when they decide to ask for disability checks?"

2nd most insightful comment: "Yeah, well. Writing an open letter wasn't smart."  The Lotus flower wilts in shame.

Most desperate comment: "Thanks for promoting our new forum. We're forever indebted to you."
Maybe contribute to that forum and do a "pity" visit?   That reminds me of a homeless guy on a street corner bugging me for money and I can smell his foul, alcohol odor emanating from his mouth. Yeah, sure.


This year also saw a lot of failed petitions by the usual whiners and complainers who have nothing better to do than gripe and do mindless petitionings that go no where.

Petition against stem cells (scroll down for link) for babies who lost their hearing after birth. Link to petition is no longer. Ultimate fail.

Petition against one deaf character, Daphne,  in the Switched at Birth show because she wasn't "deaf enough." Petition only gained 99 supporters. Go figure.

Petition to get CSD to remove "The Bear Hunt" statue from campus. Petition collected only 146 supporters. Petition is closed. Common sense prevailed.

Happy New Year fans and supporters of Kokonut Pundit! Another year awaits for Kokonut Pundit.

ADDENDUM:

Forgot to include a petition to get show comedian Chelsea Handler to apologize to deaf people for making fun of sign language. As most petitions go, they don't go anywhere on achieving results.

And also, must not forget the failed petition to get a certain author from publishing her book on dirty signs.  Petition is already closed.

Having a fit over "Deaf Trash"

After seeing Barry's video "Deaf Trash" I can't help but think the people who are upset are just probably are so laser-focused on the words "deaf trash" rather than on what Barry discussed in his video. Much the same way on how some tended to focus on the words "ASL failed" rather than the discussion behind it and instead got all upset over those two words.

Now, I'm just thinking here. Bear with me.

Are some people upset because they think they are indeed "deaf trash" in their own minds and felt they were somehow "targeted"?  If they're confident about themselves then there would be no reason to get upset over those words since it would have no bearing on them or of no importance. Perhaps this is a case of people who are simply "context-impaired"?  Barry targeted no one single individual in that video and yet what did some some people do? The run over to Tayler Mayer, the owner of DVTV, and cry about Barry's latest video and demand that he be banned despite the fact that Barry broke no rules in DVTV.  Tayler Mayer knows this. In fact, Tayler had to resort to a video explaining again that members of DVTV have the power to block anyone they want and that DVTV is actually better in terms of being "safer" than YouTube. All this goes to show that Barry has not violated any of DVTV's R-list. Feeling hurt or upset when you weren't personally targeted doesn't count. People have the option to block Barry or anybody else in DVTV. It's easy.

Here's the conundrum.

If people claim to have no interest in Barry's videos then why do they continue to watch his videos on DVTV and continue to complain to Tayler Mayer? Makes no sense. I've a mind that they simply like to whine and complain all the time for whatever reason is simply beyond me.

Barry is a deaf person, he knows that and certainly I understood completely the context on what Barry said, for example, about "deafless" which was simply to mock all the new invented words out there such as the a-wordism.  Words like that are simply not in the dictionary. It was also to point out that the word "deaf" is not all that overly important, either. Much the same way he explained in context and concept in a video on the word "ageless" of an 80 year old man still actively hiking, biking, running or swimming. The 80 year old man knows he's old but that doesn't stop him. Same way with "deafless." Though he does admit he's deaf, too.  Get it? Many don't.

Yet Barry's videos gets the number one spot on the average number of views to each of his videos (60 videos) with OhBuckaroo (24 videos), Barry's son, coming in a 2nd place. All that makes me wonder about the people who don't like Barry and his videos do not make the effort to simply block him on DVTV.  Sure, there will be disagreements. That is to be expected. People can disagree and state their arguments in a good way. Nothing wrong with that. That's what makes debating great.  But run over to Tayler Mayer to complain about Barry's videos doesn't make it all very "adult like." Staging an effort to "walk out" of DVTV over Barry's videos isn't a good thing either but they're free to do what they want in voicing their displeasure. But I think it's rather a dumb thing to do when one can always use DVTV's block feature. The first walk out was a dismal failure. That didn't stop DVTV from its goal on making it as "safe" as possible for all members.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I do understand. The problem here is that members continue to watch in DVTV knowing they have the full power to block out vloggers for whatever reasons instead of demanding the owner of DVTV to ban certain vloggers they don't like. They are an adult. They need to act like one and use the block feature in DVTV.

Oh, btw, happy 4th birthday DVTV. It all began four years ago on May 7th. It is still running strong despite to continual whining.

Barry continues to make a big impact on the deaf community. His message continues to reach out even to the hearing community and the people who don't know sign or know very little with the help of his subtitling efforts in YouTube. He continues to evolve as a person who is a part of the deaf and hard of hearing community, and yes, even the culturally deaf community as well. Love him or hate him, he belong to no one.  His journey is his own personal journey and that no one can tell him what he can or cannot do.

Adversity or Using Your Deafness as a Crutch?

Location: Dog Canyon on the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico near Alamogordo. February 2008.

I'm revisiting my "adversity" video blog that I did earlier this year and let people know that we all face adversity in our lifetime whether it's now or later. In the things that we do and the circumstances that makes us who we are, diversity is what makes the world go around. Adversity means that you have move past your fears, your shortcomings, your supposed "failures" and pull yourself up by your bootstraps rather than to blame a condition such as deafness for your supposed "short-comings" in your life. Adversity doesn't mean you dwell on your negatives but rather look ahead on the possibilities of what you can do yourself when nobody else will do it for you. It's about not using your condition(s) or what happened in the past as a crutch of an excuse for your defense. No one likes a whiner. It's about being positive in life as you face them over time and not about focusing on the negatives as seen here by one deaf person.

Adversity, we all face them at one time or another. For deaf and hard of hearing people, their adversity is hearing loss. In my case and for many others, the ability to speak and/or listen shouldn't be about the "audacity of hope" on achieving those things. Not with technology we have today or better educational understanding when it comes to early intervention for a deaf child or baby on developing better listening and speaking skills. Those things should be expected as achievable and very reachable goals and not some mundane "audacity of hope" kind of thing we're hearing about today. Maybe 40 years ago but certainly not today. And even less so 10, 20 and 30 years down the road when technology and, especially so, biotechnology will continue to change the landscape for those with hearing loss. But regardless of how you face your own adversity in life and in the case of your deafness, do not use it as a crutch of an excuse by using commonly used words in your vocabulary...."I can't."

You can.

Nobody asking you to be like Mighty Mouse but be yourself and do the best you can.