It’s no secret that we needed a lot of snow during the Christmas reunion. I thought the snowmen were hilarious and secretly desired to plant them all over my farm. However, I’m not a terribly dedicated farmer so I only planted three.  I collected bit by bit and my guildmate, Astroasis, would bring me her leftovers as well. I went to thank her and to my horror discovered this!

She had raised a snowman army and by the looks of it she was recruiting!!!* Emi RUN! I had to get out of there quickly before the snowmen got me too! I raced to Alesana_Kitty’s farm.

As I got closer I could hear chanting. ::you will join you will join:: I became dizzy and lost track of time. When I woke up I had joined Alesana’s snowman army. She was preparing an attack on Astro’s farm. Knowing we were outnumbered, I sneaked away when no one was looking.

Once back I looked at my 3 snowmen and knew there was no way I could defend myself. Sometimes desperate situations call for desperate measures. I had to raise my own army and fast….

 ”Mwahahahahaha….oh. Come on guys. Carl, this is serious!”

 ::ahem:: “Mwahahahaha! My army will crush you!”

Unfortunately my army wasn’t very intimidating. Astro visited while I was afk and played amongst them. Perhaps I wasn’t clear on the definition of “crush them” during training.

*And by raised an army I really mean she selflessly continued to harvest snow once she was done with the quest and gave it to me. Astroasis is the greatest! ^__^

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! I hope you have had a good 2008 and will have an even better 2009. Thanks to everyone in my guild, you guys are awesome, to everyone that has helped me in game and to those who come and read/comment on this blog! You have all made my 2008 that much better! ^__^ Have a wonderful (and safe!) New Year’s!!!

 I am so excited about the Founders’ Reunion! 

 Christmas is my favorite holiday! I love the decorations, the holiday spirit, spending time with my friends and family, time off from work and presents (giving and receiving!!). So you can imagine how happy I am to kick off Christmas by returning to Sanrio Land! I believe my reaction looked something like this:

  haha!! ^__^

I’m most excited that the Founders’ Reunion is going to have a holiday theme! From what I can tell we will be saving Christmas by going on holiday missions, plus the maps are going to be changed and have a Christmas theme to them! Not to mention the opening of New York and finding out where our names will be permanently enshrined.

With this happening it doesn’t look like there will be an Open Beta in December. But I’m hoping they will still have one sometime soon. I miss HKO when it’s gone, but I spend waaaaay too much time playing when it’s around. Hopefully when the game is officially released I’ll be able to manage my time better. In Beta I stay on all the time because I know it won’t be around forever, or at least that’s how I justify it to myself. ^__^

Anyways, here are some things I hope we’ll be seeing at the Founder’s Reunion:

New Clothes

Decorations

and SNOW!

I forgot to warn you about my awesome MS Paint skillz! ^__^ HA!

 In order to get into the Christmas spirit Sugar chan and I will be baking cookies. I have cute Hello Kitty cookie cutters, so if they turn out well I’ll post pictures of our results! I’m also going to see if anyone in my guild wants to do an in-game secret santa. I thought about asking the whole forum, but I would probably get in waaaay over my head. I would love to do something across guilds, but it is probably best to leave big events up to the GM’s!

I will see you all in Sanrio Land soon!  

During Founder’s Beta my farm was my sanctuary. A place to hide when lag got to be too much or if I just wanted to chat. To my surprise it attracted others too. Their arrival remains a mystery but I have documented their presence.

During the New York build I left the game on when I went to sleep so others could continue to build on my farm. This plan backfired during the competition, but oddly enough worked once the contest was over. I went to bed one night while several guildmates worked away on Grand Central Station. When I awoke something was different.

A strange dog named Vincent was guarding the station. I say “strange” because he was not mine. I tried to offer him food, but he would not budge. I went into Londan for a bit and when I came back he was gone. I later found out he belonged to a guildmate who had been working on my house, but she had left hours before. Perhaps there was a strong force keeping Vincent with me.

Then, the last day of FB I was running all over the place helping people with last minute quests, finishing up houses and emptying my inventory. (I feel that last one might have been a mistake on my part >__<)  I made frequent stops to my farm and discovered I wasn’t alone!

BlondeBlueEyes from Sailoria had come to my farm, but was now immobilized! I tried to unfreeze her but nothing worked. Perhaps it was a spell from the Kevs or maybe she was trapped in a time warp. Either way, she figured out how to escape!

It is a strange phenomena indeed and one I will keep a close eye on when the game continues!

In the spirit of giving I would like to talk about the Food For Friends event. It was my favorite event of Founder’s Beta. Hello Kitty Online is my first MMORPG and with my easily addictive personality I rapidly began spending more and more time in the game world. It is totally fun, but afterwards I would feel bad about other things in my life I had neglected. (Which is something I’ll really have to work on when the game is released) But Food For Friends alleviated that guilt. I was playing with a real world goal in mind. Sure there was a lot of farming involved (>__<) but it was for a good cause! I didn’t even mind staying up past midnight to deliver our food….much. (I was dragging the next couple of days, seriously)

Food drop off screen cap courtesy of Sugar chan

 Super Cute donated almost $200 worth of food! I know that’s only a drop in the bucket, but I am proud of everything we accomplished. We knew early on that there wasn’t much chance of us winning. (A guild of 28 against guilds of 150-200?? no way!) We worked on this out of kindness and a wish to do something for others. Everyone, across all guilds (and players that donated indiviually) did amazing work! I am always very excited to share that I was part of something that raised over $12,000 for Unicef and the Asian Youth Orchestra.

Also in the spirit of giving I would like to share a couple of websites where you can donate free food everyday!

At freerice.com you can play games that donate food to the UN World Food program. You can play and donate as much as you want.

Free Kibble and Free Kibble Kat donate pet food to different animal shelters across the US. You can answer 1 question a day at each website.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I am anxiously awaiting Open Beta and with all the christmas game rumors that are circulating I am super excited!

(I know Thanksgiving is over, but this is too cute to pass up!)

I had a tremendous amount of  fun playing Hello Kitty On-line Founder’s Beta. Sure, some things were annoying ::cough::farming::cough:: and the big events were a learning experience for all. But, the overall experience was profoundly enjoyable and I have nothing to complain about except:

THE HAIR!!!!!

I loved the brown hair I started the game with! I was disappointed to see all the buyable hair was in non-natural colors so I decided to keep mine basic. However, after battle with the hedgehogs I discovered blue hair in my inventory. I figured I would try it on, just to see what I looked like. I clicked the blue hair and it appeared on my head, only my brown hair was nowhere to be found! It was gone forever and I was so so sad. I guess some things you just have to learn the hard way.

 Luckily, a guildmate told me that the Lynxs dropped black hair so I went on a stunning spree. I was no longer sad and blue. (Sorry for the pun, sometimes I just can’t help myself!!!)

AND luckier still, amongst the madness that was Hello Kitty’s Birthday Party a GM randomly opened a trade and gave me my dream hair! I forget who it was, but thank you so much!!!

So, my sugesstion for Open Beta and beyond is to please make hair interchangable like clothing!!! I’m hoping new styles and colors will be avaiable in the future and I don’t want to miss out because I’m too scared of losing my old hair! ^__^

I became interested in Hello Kitty Online after my friend Sugar_Chan talked about it non-stop. Everything sounded so cute and it seemed like it would be a fun game to play. I was very cautious because she has dragged me into many websites before (orkut, IMVU anyone?) only for both of us to lose interest. I constantly vow that she will never pull me in again! Luckily, I let my guard down and it turned out to be an amazing experience.

I entered the game and worked very hard. Sugar_chan kept talking about this guild she wanted to form. I knew I had to join. We’ve known each other since the 2nd grade and saying no wasn’t an option. I didn’t have anything against guilds, but I was enjoying the game on my own. HKO is my first MMORPG and I didn’t know what to expect. Sugar worked very hard to earn the $30,000 all by herself and thus formed Super Cute! ^__^

I participated in Guild Chat while I worked on the endless supply of missions. I couldn’t believe some people had completed everything already! I waved hello when I saw people, but I didn’t really understand what being in a guild meant until I needed help with Pochi for the New York event.

Somehow I had gotten it in my head that Pochi would disappear before I finished the quest and my dreams of building New York would be squashed. I was so close, I just needed to make oat biscuits and roasted veggies. However, I had no cooking guides for either of them. I voiced my fears in guild chat, that Pochi would miss out on his succulent feast and I would miss out on the Empire Key. Immediately I had an offer from a guildmate to make these items for me. I asked if there was anything she wanted in return and she said no. Red flags went off in my brain, there had to be a catch. People don’t do things for nothing. I waited to see what string was attached to this favor. I mined coal for the veggies and she did the rest. I thanked her profusely, yet waited for the demand for money or items. It never came. I was thoroughly shocked by her kindness! It then became my mission to pay that kindness forward.

I discovered that most everyone in my guild was just as helpful. The guild events really helped us bond and I am still amazed by how awesome we worked together as a team.

I came into this game expecting to indulge in cuteness, interact with Sanrio characters and relax through gaming. How surprising it was when I realized I had gotten the added bonus of friends. Not only that, but these people I had known for less than a month were what I was going to miss the most.

My favorite moment came at the very end of FB. After the Kevevent I decided to hide in Madame Tussaud’s and spend the last few minutes with Hello Kitty. In guild chat I mentioned  where I was and everyone thought it was very sweet and sentimental. I wanted to ask them to come join me, but I knew people were working hard on last minute stuff. We all talked about what we would miss and said to keep in touch. With about 10 minutes left, Astroasis walked in and sat next to Hello Kitty. I was so happy. She was followed shortly by ~*LeReiNa*~. It was such a touching gesture, moreso than anything I could have imagined when I started playing.

I came into HKO alone,

but did not leave that way. ^__^

So, my guild had spent the whole day gathering building materials, a feverish hour and a half hunting down the mystery materials and had waited on pins and needles while I got the land certificates. Everyone was so excited when I right clicked the certificate and the base structure appeared on my farm. All that was left was to get the materials on there and begin hammering away. Unfortunately the materials did not come with instructions. I got them all in my inventory, right clicked on the building and hit the DROP button thinking it would drop the materials onto the base. A box popped up asking if I was sure. I clicked yes and the entire structure disappeared. I had dropped the building from my farm. >__< Guild chat went crazy. Everyone was running to the now vacant lot and wondering what had happened. In the meantime, my heart had jumped out of my chest and was flopping around on the floor.  I managed to get out an “I’ll fix it” before heading back to GM-Neverender’s farm. I found him there and explained my situation. He said he could help as long as I promised him my first born child. I immediately agreed and the deal was done….just kidding. ^__^ I did explain what happened and he was very understanding. He was extremely generous and gave me another land certificate for Grand Central Station. (thank you!!)

Luckily Astroasis had figured out the pesky transfer of materials and everyone had gotten to work on the Statue of Liberty. She came to my farm and placed the materials on the new base because I sure didn’t trust myself to do it! ^__^ Now by this time I had a pounding headache, and I should have been in bed already. My job requires a great deal of energy and losing sleep is never a good idea. I wished my guildmates good luck and headed to bed.

In the morning I logged on bright and early only to find out that we had lost. BUT, the Statue of Liberty had been completed! Many helped with the build, but Astroasis, ~*LeReiNa*~ and OKGirl pushed themselves to the limit and finished it. ^__^ Great work everyone!

Next up was Grand Central Station on my farm. Even though we hadn’t won the competition, everyone wanted to see the event through. ^__^ I was very thankful for all the help. We had all been excited to learn that these structures also functioned as houses. I wanted to get mine done before FB ended! Luckily my friends felt the same way. I had many guildmates help, but again, after I went to bed Astroasis and Malaree took turns working on Grand Central. I woke up the next morning to discover I only had about 150 whacks left! I decided to finish it before I went to work.

ALMOST THERE…….

and done! AND I wasn’t even late to work! haha!

As much as I wanted to complete the event, I never saw Cutie Jewelz online again and the Empire State Building was on her farm. Perhaps we’ll get the chance in Open Beta!

We all did our best and I am proud of my guildmates for their time, effort and selflessness! This was such a fun event and we got to be a part of building New York!!! How cool is that?

I was so engrossed with playing HKO up until the last moments of Founder’s Beta that I haven’t taken the time to update my blog properly!

It was a crazy week in Sanrio Land. 2 guild events and a lot of mini-events sprinkled throughout. I will say I missed out on a good bit of sleep. I didn’t realize the lasting affects of this until I took a 4 hour nap today! @__@

Anyways, the building New York challenge was just that, a challenge! But my guild totally stepped it up!

        SUPER CUTE REPRESENT!!!!        

Once the main resources were posted everyone went to work mining, chopping and gathering. We ended up with twice the amount of building materials we needed!

Next was the mystery materials hunt. @__@ We had all been saving random things like crazy, but nothing could have prepared us for the complete randomness that was in store. I immediately offered to slaughter hermit crabs for the 5 copies of Wizard of OZ pg 21 since I was already in Sanrio Harbor. It was a nightmare! Tons of guild members fighting for a small amount of crabs and I’m pretty sure that page was the rarest drop of them all. It was pandemonium! I managed to get 2 pages before deciding to move on and come back later. My guildmate, Kimberly, turned out to be a crab killing phenom and grabbed the rest. I don’t remember how many of us there were gathering materials, but it wasn’t a whole lot. We all worked tirelessly because it was a race against the clock. And oh yeah, we had to write and submit a poem too! >__<

“A guild event, oh how nice
A chance to work together
But building New York comes at a high price
These oxalis are taking forever
Thank goodness we won’t do this twice”

I wasn’t joking! The oxalis really did take forever!!!! As the guild representative, I took the materials and keys to GM-Neverender’s farm and obtained the land certificates. Along with myself, my guildmates, Astroasis and CutieJewelz, allowed us to build on their farms. We all convened on my farm to begin construction on Grand Central Station. However, I couldn’t figure out how to get the materials onto the building. And that is where I made my epic fail of a mistake…….

To be continued!

First off let me start by saying:

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

I hope everyone had a good holiday! Unfortunately I have bronchitis and have been stuck at home for the past 2 days. I missed the Halloween party I planned for my students and I only had one trick-or-treator. But I do love Halloween and have been super excited about all the HKO events!!!

I completed Monster Wrangler on Thursday and received the Liberty Key. How exciting was it to see Keroleen?

Then today:

How exciting is this?? Kitty sure knows how to decorate! And she said she thought everyone forgot her birthday!

I finished the cake and delievered it to the party. The party room looked awesome! I was a bit nervous about baking the cake. Someone on the forums posted that you had to be cooking level 15. I’m just a mere 7 and was dreading the 8 levels I would need to gain. Luckily it was a typo.

I also found it completely hilarious that Thomas had broken his ankle, was screaming for help for hours…but once you find him all he wants you to do is bake a cake. Is everyone scared of Hello Kitty? Would her cake dissappointment be worse than bodily harm? I sure hope he went to Sanrio Land Hospital after the cake was finished!

Keroppi and I hit the buffet.

And I danced with Cinamaroll. ^__^

I’m looking forward to the guild events that are coming up. I’m curious though, if you build the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building on your farm, does this mean you can’t build a house? Will the monuments last forever?

The Unicef charity event makes me so happy! I think it’s awesome that Sanrio will donate real life money based on our in game play. I wish all the guilds good luck!!!!!

 PS:

I <3 CHOCOCAT!!!! ^__^

A few days ago I ventured out of Londan and found myself in Paris. I love the city they have made in HKO and I especially love that I can go there and rarely meet anyone else. Figuring that will be changing soon I decided to take a tour and enjoy having a city to myself. ^__^

 First up, a scenic look out at the Seine.

I see that Bagle and Scone are waiting for me in Paris. No doubt they will have tons of chores for me to do! I think it would be best if I avoid them on my tour.

Next stop, The Louvre

Look, it’s Grandpa Anthony! I call it “Portrait of a Bad Pet Owner.”

Obligatory shot by the pyramid!

I popped into the Moulin Rouge only to be unexpectantly brought on stage by My Melody!!!

Luckily, It wasn’t hard to pick up her moves.

I still had a desire to perform so I went to L’Opera. I enacted a scene from the infamous French play “El Fromage.”

Needless to say, it would have gone better had I remembered to remove my face mask! I will have to remember that for next time. ^__^