"LIFE, GAMING, AND FANDOM ON HRD MODE...."

Thanks for logging-in! Hi. I'm PHILSpecialMeter [Internet Variety Streamer / Gamer] ...

Or...

Phillip Shaun DeVone [Actor/ Writer / Model / Fight Choreographer / Casting Director / etc. - I'm sure you're as tired of slashes as I am.] ...

Or...

you can just call me, "Phil" [Guy / Some Dude].

Each is accurate. I utilize my life-developed skills in arts, entertainment, education, listening, advocacy, and problem solving to give people, especially marginalized people, a bit of a buff to stay in this life campaign, with stuff to look forward to. However, I too, have boss battles, everyday trying to trap me every instance and deplete my health bar to zero; 10+ Chronic Conditions (In order of appearance):

1. Sickle Cell Anemia Genotype SS

2. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder [A.D.H.D.]

3. Perennial Allergies

4. Asthma

5. *Bipolar Disorder Type II [*note - currently being re-evaluated due to overlap with A.D.H.D. symptoms]

6. [Severe] Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease [GERD]

7. Narcolepsy Type 1

8. Cardiomegaly

9. Avascular Necrosis

10. Migraines

11. Bilateral Proliferative Sickle Cell Retinopathy (PSCR)

If that sounds like a harsh, damning experience. Like, it's just... a lot.. It is. Disability and Chronic Illness are not just a "plight of the less fortunate", "a setback", or "a tough situation", they are human lives working out of a 24/7 deficit AND being punished for it by capitalist systems of oppression that devalue human life, particularly when said human life appears to offer "suboptimal" productivity for the machine.

I'm not just getting tormented by physical pain, mental anguish, overwhelming fatigue, and sensory overload; heart-rending as it may sound, those things I can endure as I am well practiced by necessity of my continued will to live. It's the social systems we live under, taxing me for every second of "underperforming" life.

When I can't make ends meet, I don't have the luxury of internal resources that allow me to just "work harder" or "Pick up another job". I don't get to take vacations every year, or two years, or three years... I don't go on camping trips or attend every wedding, party, or event I am invited to and not even just due to the financial instability that is part and partisan with my confluence of conditions, but other innate aspects like a lowered immune system, poorly timed brain fog, crippling depression for no particular reason or very obvious reasons beyond my scope to fix alone.

"No one said we were victims, honey

No one said we had to keep the things we get..." - Rob Thomas [Cradlesong]

I'm not here to complain or simply cry foul. I have life's work to continue. I almost wrote, "complete", but there is no complete. I go until I can't. With your help though, I, PHILSpecialMeter, can and will-- CONTINUE. Together with the incredible community I've been fortunate enough to help foster, we've raised well over $2,100 for Sickle Cell Anemia support & research, educated viewers on chronic illnesses, advocated for mental health, and centered marginalized communities in a positive atmosphere where everyone gets to be a valid and cherished human being, without qualifier. All in effort to live up to the video game pun that is my name, and build each other up with positive energy to pull off the special moves we need to face the boss battles ahead.

... Mostly... We play games, do silliness, get real geeky, and talk about [nearly] every aspect of life under the sun.

Here's where you can help: By sharing this fundraiser and/or donating to this personal relief fund to help ease the burden, your contribution [ongoing or one-time], keeps my special meter charged enough to continue through everyday's never-ending-battle. I can stay housed and healthy enough to continue my online quest to foster a community of entertaining creativity, empathetic support, educational empowerment, ethical activism, encouraged self worth, and everlasting visibility for marginalized people. I mean, I'm making it sound all lofty and important; really we do A LOT of silly stuff on my channels... still, the other stuff is baked in there.

Immediate concerns are maintaining the housing that many of you helped me get in the first quarter of this year, through this Fund. My body is still adapting and the next phases of PSM and HRD Mode Selected are just about to take shape. Staying housed, transitioning out old equipment, transitioning in new streamlined more accessible equipment, keeping medical supplies along with dietary specific nourishment stocked, and keeping me in this work, away from punishingly unhealthy work scenarios born of desperation --- All of this allows me to breathe easier and focus on my work.

Hopefully, we'll lay some of the foundation for a world where communities don't have to trade life resources to dig each other out of despair, but instead people will just have what they need without the socioeconomic equivalent of having to raise your hand to go to the bathroom.

We'll get there. I don't know if I get to live to see it, but we're making sure that train reaches that station.

Until then, thanks for your support. "One sky, one destiny." Stay charged, y'all!

Please, know you are invited to reach out for more context on my situation. I realistically won't manage to respond to everybody individually, but I endeavor to provide update posts.

To see me in action:

HRD MODE SELECTED

"I'm a lifelong entertainer; personally, then inevitably, professionally. I've used humor and geeky nonsense to alleviate pain and tension within myself and others since, roughly age 4. These days, I'm paid to do it as a working Actor / Entertainer [2013-Present], Internet Variety Streamer [2015 - Present], Podcaster [2024 - Present], and Activist / Advocate [1997 - Present ... I was a very opinionated 6th-grader]. Utilizing lifelong passions of gaming, story-telling, martial arts, communication, and self-discovery to provide entertainment, education, advocacy, and community driven relief efforts in support of marginalized peoples."

-PHILSpecialMeter "Geek & Proud!"

Actor. Streamer. Martial Artist. Podcaster. Comic Book Historian. Stubborn Underdog HRD Mode Gamer. Pro Husky Cuddler.

THE STORY SO FAR...

As a person living with Sickle Cell Anemia Geno-type SS, my damaged red blood cells have taken a lot away from my body, and currently they seek to take my eyesight and my status as "housed" by the end of this month [Feb. 28, 2026] here in the City of Angels.

With a roommate departure middle of last year [2025], I've been figuring out how to move out of a two-bedroom apartment I could no longer afford. My core personal support system [fam / friends] are out of state. Financially / emotionally they have been great aid in my 5 years of LA life, however, their resources are not endless. Moving back to Michigan is impractical for a number of complex health-related reasons and I don't really have a support system here in Cali, outside of my amazing healthcare team as well as the Sickle Cell outreach non-profit organization, Cayenne Wellness Center, but there are limits to what even those teams can do for my personal circumstances.

In the midst of this struggle, late October of 2025 [almost a year ago], I would find out from an Ophthalmologist that Bilateral Proliferative Sickle Cell Retinopathy had set in; meaning, in both eyes, thanks to my damaged red blood cells, not enough oxygen got to my outer retina causing abnormal blood vessels to form and the oxygen starved areas of my retina to begin dying. Right now, it is only affecting my peripheral vision, some of which is lost. I have to have laser treatment to burn and fully kill those areas of my retina in effort to prevent the damage from spreading to my macula (the center of my eyes) causing permanent blindness.

From birth, I have operated out of a 24/7 deficit caused by over 7 comorbid chronic health conditions ranging from disease, neurological abnormalities, and psychiatric consequences that all require consistent ongoing medical treatment. Even now, new symptoms seem to pop up almost every month. Trying to manage my ever evolving (sometimes deteriorating) health status with medical visits and / or healthcare professional communications every week, while trying to find a new home is running me into the ground. I have housing prospects, but apparently my car needs to be repaired, recently a person delivering my groceries decided to steal them instead, due to my current health conditions I need to hire a moving team, and also pay a new deposit, rent, utilities... you get it.

I have some of the funds, but not nearly enough. And even if I did...

I don't have the physical vigor & mental bandwidth to manage everything on my own as I would prefer. I also don't know what treatment, recovery, and vision changes will mean for me and my functionality at this critical time.

OCT 19th, 2026

THANKS TO ALL YOU KIND PEOPLE, I AM HOUSED! ... Now, I just need help staying that way. Raising an additional $6,000, even half that, before October 30th helps me stay in my current apartment after some my landlords made payment confusing [literally, their own accounting department were thrown by the wording of the terms corporate had stipulated in my pay agreement. I have not been able to return to work, bogged down with rigorous medical appointments and treatment, but I am starting to mend in some ways. Botox injections have been prescribed (every 6 months) to mitigate the migraines. A month in, I must say, the migraines have been less frequent and fairly dull when they do occur. Wooo! I've been taken off of NSAIDs and placed on a Low Sodium diet, as both factors were discovered to have been causing me severe inflammation. I am up to date on my Flu and Covid Vaccines for this year and have been prescribed a stronger dosage of Sunosi, a Narcolepsy medication to help me stay awake for normal daily function. I have my next Apheresis appointment this upcoming Thursday, October 22nd, 2026.