8/22/2024

Charity stream coming soon!! The first week of September will be my first charity stream! Now, I can not be live the entire week, obviously. I do hope to go live every night that week, though I can not promise that. I will for sure be going live on my scheduled days, though. We will be raising money for BACA International (Bikers Against Child Abuse). I am hoping to raise $5,000. We do have incentives and rewards for donation goals! 

• $100 - New channel Point Redeem
• $200 - Future Dolphin Painting Stream
• $300 - Future Beat Saber Stream (Live Only)
• $400 - Dolphin Merch Giveaway
• $500 - Toxic Waste Sour Candy
• $1,000 - Special Art Stream
• $1,500 - PC Game Giveaway
• $2,000 - New Channel Point Redeem
• $2,500 - Toxic Waste Sour Candy x2
• $3,000 - Chat decides new merch item
• $3,500 - PC Game Giveaway
• $4,000 - Merch Giveaway
• $4,500 - Toxic Waste Sour Candy x3
• $5,000 - Dolphin dyes her hair RED

Gaming has always been a huge part of my life. I've been playing videogames for as long as I can remember. My first console was the SNES. I remember playing Tennis constantly! Granted I didn't understand it and I was just happy to be playing, but hey. Lol

My grandmother had a PlayStation console when they came out, so of course whenever she would babysit me, that's where I would be. I fell in love with Tomba. Again, I couldn't quite understand what I needed to do and couldn't get very far in the game, but I loved it. I loved playing Evil Zone and Spyro. I stuck with playstation for a while, getting the PS2 when it came out. This is where my love for videogames just grew and grew. It was how I could spend time and bond with my dad. When my dad ended up getting an Xbox 360, I fell for the Xbox consoles. Plus all of my friends were on Xbox so it just made sense to stick with Xbox. Not to hate on PlayStation, as I currently have both a Xbox Series X and a PlayStation 5. 

When my dad died in 2019, gaming became my outlet. I used videogames to run away from reality and not deal with it. Healthy? No, probably not, but it's what got me through. I started playing games that we used to play together. COD was a huge one for us. My dad was a military man so, of course, we had bonded over a military game. I have so much love for the COD games now. The original Modern Warfare 2 is the one we would play the most. So when the new MWIII brought some of those maps back? I was in tears. It was like playing with my dad back when I was younger. I started streaming my gaming, and started developing a community, you guys. Seeing how much gaming has impacted not only me but so many others around me is overwhelming. The gaming community has brought me so many friends and loved ones. 

When I had my son in 2022, I went through a really rough time. Now that I had a kid, I felt that no one was going to want to play games with me anymore, because who wants to hear Cocomelon in the background and the occasional shout from a toddler? And to a point, I was right. My whole social world was turned upside down. I felt alone. I tried to stream during the day, but my streams were often interupted by my family, or I had to keep my mic muted so stream wouldn't pick up background music or screams. This is also when I had to do some re-evaluating. My family obviously had to come first. BUT, what if I just changed the time to where it worked better for (almost) everyone? I changed my streams to late at night. I'm a night owl anyways so it works. My son and husband sleep at that time, so it's quiet in the background and I don't have to worry about disturbing anyone anymore. I can game with other people and not worry about disturbing them, either. Not that all of them are bothered by the noise of a toddler, but for some people (and I 100% get it) it can be overwhelming. 

Gaming is still very much a huge part of my life, in case you hadn't noticed. And yes, when my son is of age, we will be showing him the joys of gaming. 

My challenge to you: Find something that you used to enjoy with another person. Experience that again, even if the other person is no longer here. Sometimes, it makes it feel like they're watching right by your side.