Online Abuse and How I Dealt With it.

I have suffered online abuse from a variety of people before, given I have spoken back and tried to stick up for myself which in my opinion I shouldn't have to do. Back when I had my first twitch account I made friends with some streamers one was being horrid and I said I bet your mum would be proud of you today in a very sarcastic manner as unfortunately his mum did pass but before we even knew each other. Now that does not excuse for his behaviour but by responding with something so harsh it made things worse for myself and I know I shouldn't have said what I did because it's not a nice thing to hear and ignoring would have been the better option. Sometimes people push you though they know how to upset you so things we respond with can be a normal reaction. What I said wasn't too bad but it made me leave both twitch and Twitter as this person created fake accounts to send me abuse. Not just me but my family and ex-partner too, things could have been sorted much more easily by talking but they didn't want to. They stopped in the end which I was grateful for and know now to never even breathe those words to a person because it can hurt them in a way that no other who has lost a parent would know and I'm very sorry I even said it.

A different kind of abuse experienced online is when I turned down someone advances towards me, he was one of my friends mates and because she wasn't interested he wouldn't leave me alone. When I turned him down he sent me tweets about how he would shoot my ex-fiance with one of his guns and make me watch, he sent messages to my ex saying he would rape me. In the end, he was told we would take it further if he carried on and because he wanted to join the military (he was American) he stopped. Then more so I got abuse via other people sent to me by a ringleader, this is when I said enough of was enough I had people saying my chronic illness wasn't real, my friends sent me screenshots from the persons YT where one of their friends threatened violence against me and then this same person liked my FB page and commented. I recognised the name straight away and banned them from my page as well as blocking them via my profile. I also found out people who I had blocked could still message my FB page so any message I received I would ban that person from my page so they couldn't send any more.

Review | Spektrum Prospek Blue light Filter Glasses*

Disclaimer: This product was sent to me for free in exchange for a review, all opinions are my own for more info please check out my contact & disclaimer. I'm not a doctor nor do I claim to be, all my thoughts within this post are mine and mine alone, If you are having persistent problems with your eyes or headaches please see a medical professional.

I was kindly asked if I wanted to review a pair of *Spektrum Prospek Blue Filter Glasses, I was able to choose the ones I liked best. Before I did choose I showed Sarah and we both agreed on the same two pairs but out of the two I ended up going for the Artist glasses. I did a blog post the other week on blue light and what it was exactly so here is a little recap for you all "Blue light is a colour that is part of the visible light spectrum seen by the human eye which can be dangerous, light is made up of these things callled electromagnetic particles which travel in waves, these are waves are what emit energy and each have a range of strength and length, the shorter one of these wavelengths are the higher in energy, blue light has a short wave length which means that produces a higher amount of energy and the more exposore you have to blue light the more at risk you are to damage to your eyes" To read more about blue light click here. (Natural blue light is ok, so not all blue light is bad).

I spend a lot of time in front of screens mostly my phone and it's not healthy especially for your eyes but as a blogger and gamer it can be hard to avoid how much time I spend in front of a screen and the amount of blue  light I'm looking at, that's where Spektrum Prospek glasses come into this they come in different types, to block out 50% of blue light or 99% of blue light, mine block out 50% so they arent as strong as the others you can purchase such as the Elite glasses and clip on which are 99% strength and are for people who are very sensitive to blue light. The glasses Spektrum sell that block out 50% of blue light are for those who use them during the day as blue light has less of an effect on your eyes this time of day rather than an evening when it's stronger, these glasses look like a normal pair of prescription glasses as you can see below with me wearing them.

How I Clean my Gamepads.

There are things people never think to keep clean arent always the most obvious items since James handed me his old gamepads to try and clean I have tried a number of ways to get the dirt off of them. Most people think they don't need to clean their gamepads if they don't eat whilst using them but they can still get extremely dirty and harvest bacteria just like a keyboard would. I asked on twitter once the best way to clean controllers and had a mixed lot of answers so went out of my way to find my own answers. Gamepads come in different colours they do tend to fade over time so you want to use something that won't destroy them but clean them well at the same time.

Given James and I are the only ones who use the controllers in this house but we still need to keep them clean, we wash our hands after all so why shouldn't we make sure other things we use with our hands are clean. I have a number of different gamepads I use which are mostly all blue as is my favourite colour, lucky for me they haven't faded but they do need a good clean which I did with both my blue PS4 and black PS4 gamepad today. So for this, you will need:

• Rubbing Alcohol (or Hydrogen Peroxide)
• Cotton Buds
• Toothpick
• Empty spray bottle
• Dusting cloth
• Microfibre cloth
• Baby wipes

Ableism in the Gaming World.

I've done a lot of reading into gaming guidelines and disability this year and have come across a vast variety of sites that make and provide gaming software and accessories to make gaming more accessible for those with disabilities, when I used to write for Liability Magazine I did a piece on this but I wanted to address it on my blog as I have seen a lot of people moaning about people using a keyboard or a controller when they game and I'm sick of it. People have their own preferences and there is no need to shit on others for what they prefer and maybe take those who aren't able to game due to their disability and lack of accessibility into consideration. There are game accessibility guidelines games need to follow and even though they are accessible to an extent getting hold of controllers that can make gaming furthermore accessible can be expensive and require funding.

Just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean you shouldn't care, this past year I have learnt a lot whilst looking into accessibility in gaming and I have come across a lot of ignorance in terms of adaptions for people to be able to play games,  I have terrible issues with my hands at times, they shake and have pins and needles, it makes it very difficult for me to use a controller because of this so I wait until the shaking and pins and needles stop so that I can play. Now imagine not being able to hold a controller properly at all because you can't reach or touch the buttons or even hold a controller, that is the reality for gamers who want to play games but don't have access to the right tools in order to play a game.

My friend Alice pointed me in the direction of a video with a little boy named Finlay who the BA helped with being able to play FIFA, something he has always wanted to do but couldn't due to not being able to hold a gaming controller. His mum wrote to BA to explain this and what they did for him was incredible. As well as some other treats, they took Finlay to see the SpecialEffects team in London and let him try out an adapted gaming controller to see which kind of controller would be best for his needs and made him one, no this isn't a story about inspiration, this is a story about a little boy who just wants to play a video game with his friends but once again is unable to due to a gaming controller not meeting his needs. I've said it before, it can be very expensive to be able to get an adapted controller but it's not impossible, the gaming industry has a window wide open to help develop accessible controllers like the one Finlay has been using but haven't.