March Freebies Available!

Calendars and Wallpapers for the month of March are now available! You can download these by clicking the "Enjoy Downloads!" tab at the top of the page upon signing in.



Enjoy!

Video and Blog of the Week!

Hey everyone! Here we are again for a new Dream Studio video and Sanrio Town Blog user-created features. :D

This week, we have 90161010's "frou frou - let go" video. It's a really good example of modern art.:P It combines, graffiti, pictures, and really good music to come up with a very cohesive and cool video. To check the video out, click on its title if you can't view it below.



For the blog, we have shadowcat13's Brain Freeze. For those who want to relax after a hard day at school or work, you can go here and unwind by reading tongue twisters, lyrics to commercial jingles, the jingles themselves, and some cute videos. You can check out the blog by clicking on its title.


That's all we have for this week! Tune in again and you might see your own creations. :)

Hello Kitty Stationery and Stamps for Hong Kong Users

Ever thought that writing good ol' snail mail is staid and boring? With these Hello Kitty stationery and stamps, you'll change your mind.

Made by Sanrio, the items feature Hello Kitty in different designs, with most keeping up with the recent holiday celebrated: Chinese New Year! Delight your family and friends when they see Hello Kitty frolicking with cute pigs upon receiving their mail. For those who aren't really letter writers but still love HK, these can still be availed of to add to your collection. ;)

You can buy these or read on more about the stuff by clicking here. Take note: these are only available for those who live in Hong Kong.

Focus on: Hello Kitty's Park @ the Sanrio Town Forums

Ever wondered what the rest of the people are talking about? Drop by Hello Kitty's Park at the Sanrio Town Forums and get the latest news.

Sanrio: Want to know the latest news on Sanrio? How about letting others know of your huge Keroppi collection? You can talk about this and other Sanrio-related stuff here!

Chit Chat Cafe: Talk about news around the world or whatever else topic comes to mind here. Just remember: make sure that it doesn't fall under any of the other forums.:p

Gallery: Display your artistic side here! Post your poems, songs, short stories, images, and let others know what they think.

Featured on Sanrio Town This Week!

Tuesday: Focus on Hello Kitty's Park @ the Sanrio Town Forums
Wednesday: Video and Blog of the Week
Thursday: More tutorials on how to personalize your blog
Friday: Character of the Week: Chippy Mouse

The New and Improved Dream Studio!

Great news to the Dream Studio users out there! Dream Studio has been upgraded!

The following are its new features:

• Each slide will no longer have the 99 second duration unlike in the old version. In fact, it now has no duration limit at all! You can upload videos in one single slide without having to chop it up first.
  
• Each slide can now auto-detect the duration of each movie.
  
• Each slide can hold a video up to 50 MB in size, while a user's maximum storage is 500 MB. Don't worry: if you upload a video on a slide and save it, this will automatically be compressed, making the file saved on your account much smaller than when you started.

There you go! Enjoy making your videos!

All About: "Carousel Design Series" and "Cheery Chums"

Hi! Since we weren't able to feature a character last week, we'll be sharing the profiles of two Sanrio creations. :)

Carousel Design Series


Year Created: 1991

Believe these are just plain carousel horses? Think again! When these merry horses spin around, they carry their riders to their very own magical land!

Cheery Chums

Year Created: 1982

Because Chum, the main character of the series, hates to be alone, she always invites her friends to her parties! What's on the menu? What else but her very own yummy cakes and cookies!

Born on July 12, Chum is a very playful little girl rabbit.

Hello Kitty and Friends 2 Dream Studio Video

You can click here to view the video on its page.

Blog Tutorial: Advanced: Organizing Your Blog

For those who have a tendency to want to keep things neat and tidy, this tutorial's going to be especially helpful for you.

There are two things that you can categorize here: your blog entries and your blogroll.

If you have specific themes running on your blog, organizing them would be a good idea, since readers can just click on the category they are most interested to read. To make these, follow the following:

1. From your Blog Dashboard, click "Manage" (also on the gray bar at the top of the page).

2. A blue bar right below that one should appear. Click on "Categories."

3. The page you should be seeing contain the two default items: Blogroll and Uncategorized. To make a new category, click "Add New"or scroll down to the bottom half of the page.

4. Type in the Category Title that you want. You can also add a description there, although this is optional. Examples of these would be "fanfiction," "poetry," "My story."

5. Sub-categories can also be made. Type in the title you want to use, and under the Category Parent, look for the option you want the new classification to fall under. An example of this would be creating a "Vacation" sub-category under "My Story."

Congratulations! You've made categories. To make use of these, whenever you make a post, be sure to tick which box your entry will fall under. Otherwise, the default category would be "Uncategorized."
What is a blogroll? This is the list of links appearing on the right side of your blog as it is displayed in public. You can add your favorite websites or blogs here so that these can be accessed with just a single click from your Sanrio Town blog instead of typing the entire URL on your browser.

When you get your own online journal here in Sanrio Town, the following links are the ones that are automatically on your blogroll: Sanrio Digital, Sanrio Town, and the Sanrio Town Blog. Add your favorite URLs by clicking "Add Link," found on the blue bar. You can type whatever name you want assigned to the link, and then paste the actual URL on the address. Again, you could add a description to this, although it's optional. You can also classify what your relationship is with that person who owns the URL. Advanced options are also available, but these will be discussed in another tutorial entry.

To further classify the Blogroll links, you can combine its options with the Categories. Go to the Categories and make new ones according to the order you want to set for your links. Go then to Blogroll and Add a link. Like posts, you will see the Categories box on the upper right side of the page. Check which tab the link should fall under to classify it.

That's about it for today's post. Check out next week's entry, same day, to read more on how to maximize the use of your blog.

Video and Blog of the Week!

Hello! After quite some time, we're back again to feature your own works.:)

For the Video feature, we have looxingyu's True Friendship. The user played around with all the effects, including the position of the text, making this video actually professional-looking. You can view this video below, or if you can't see it, you can click on its title to be brought to that page.

For the blog, we have janette74, who is a big fan of baking, if her blog is any indication.:p She's made cookies and chocolate, and she's also interested in arts and crafts. To view her entries, you can click on her name.

Focus on: hello Kitty's Corner on Sanrio Town Forums

Ever wondered what the categories of the Sanrio Town forums stood for? Let's take a closer look at the sections for the following weeks and find out what these mean!

Hello Kitty's Corner: Get introduced to the Sanrio Town features and the other people. Don't be shy: no one bites.:)

Staff Lounge:Imagine having tea and crumpets with your favorite Sanrio Town Moderators.:p Here, you can post your questions, comments, suggestions, and reports of bad users. You can even make avatar requests or queries about anything and everything Sanrio Town. We'll get to you in a heartbeat. Just stay nice, and don't flame the moderators, pretty please? :D

Friendship: Introduce yourself to the other Sanrio Town users and make new friends! Look for people who are like you: sporty, punk rocker, Californian, Badtz Maru fan. Whoever you are, give a shout out!

Dream Studio: Ever had a secret dream of being the next silver screen director? Make your film debut here with Dream Studio! Not sure how to go about it? Ask the experts and get tips on how to make your video even better! Want to display your work of art proudly? Post it here!

Blogs: Not sure how to create your very own online journal? Post your questions here and let the other people help you out. Share your thoughts here too, by posting the link to your blog.

Gong Xe Fa Cai!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! Our wish is for all of you to be blessed with good fortune and happiness this year.:D

Here's our gift for all of you! A collection of videos made by the users of Sanrio Town. Just click on the links to view these. Enjoy!

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year

Kong Hai Fat Choi

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Hello New Year

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year

Hello Kitty and Friends Chinese New Year

Here Comes the Purr-fect Train!

Ever thought trains were stuffy, noisy, and greasy? Have you always had that secret fear of trains, believing these to ticking timebombs? You won't have anything to fear of this one. In fact, what you could say about this is the complete opposite: it's incredibly adorable!

We still have a bit of a Valentine's hangover here in Sanrio Town, so instead of the usual character feature we do every Friday, we'll instead be having the spotlight on the first Hello Kitty MTR Wedding Train of Hong Kong that the newlyweds Jamie and Horlick rode in.

The train had decals of Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel as little cupids designed all over it, both in its interior and exterior. Inside, the compartments are filled with flowers and ribbons, making the atmosphere definitely romantic.

Here are some pictures of the train :

Front of the train

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Side 1

Interior 1

Interior 2

Side 2

Back

White Wedding

Here comes the bride, all dressed in white... Oh wait! That's not the bride, that's Hello Kitty!

Here's the story of the lucky couple who celebrated their matrimony with their favorite white cats.

About A Train, A Garden, and A Wedding

The Train

Hello Kitty lovers, especially the ones based on another HK (Hong Kong, that is) will get a very special Valentine's Day treat this year at the MTR station! From February 5 to March 14, 2007, they will get a special something from Sanrio and MTR - and it's not just an early ride to work or school!

The Garden

Romance is in the air. Specially designed by Sanrio, the “MTR Hello Kitty Love Garden” will host Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel who will appear in their wedding attire to celebrate the joy of love with MTR passengers.

At the launch ceremony held on February 5, Ms Annie Leung, Marketing Planning Manager of MTR Corporation, and Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel put their hands together on the palm-print symbol to light up the “MTR Hello Kitty Love Garden,” filling the air with romance. Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel will offer passengers love blessings during this month.

Other than Central Station, MTR passengers travelling through other stations on the MTR network can also receive love blessings from Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel through the eInstant Bonus Terminals from today to 14 March. Passengers can obtain a blessing note from Hello Kitty by swiping their Octopus card on the “eInstant Bonus Terminals“. At the same time, Hello Kitty will also provide recommendations on hot dating spots around the MTR network. Participants who obtain blessings and dating tips at the eInstant Bonus Terminals during the promotion period will automatically be entered into the grand lucky draw to win fabulous prizes including Hello Kitty drawing autographed by the cartoon character’s designer, Ms Yuko Yamaguchi, and many other prizes.

Love blessings from Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel through the eInstant Bonus Terminals. Kitty and Daniel are with Ms. Annie Leung, Marketing Planning Manager of MTR Corporation

The Wedding

The finale of the love theme celebration activities is the first-ever legalised MTR Hello Kitty Dream Wedding in Hong Kong that will take place at MTR Hong Kong Station on 14th February when the first MTR Hello Kitty themed train will take the bride and the bridegroom from MTR Tsuen Wan Depot to Hong Kong Station on that day. The bride, whose gown will be full of Hello Kitty patterns made of Austria crystals, and the bridegroom will experience an elegant and unique wedding with the civil celebrant, Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel. The first MTR Hello Kitty themed train will run on the Tsuen Wan Line until 14 March 2007.

For more information, you can go here, or click on the wedding banner on the Sanrio Town homepage, for details about this special Valentine's event this year. You can also go to the hk_wedding blog and see what good news they bring about this special matrimony.

MTR Hello Kitty Dream Wedding

Here's our Valentine's gift for you! Hope you guys enjoy it, especially the Hong Kong users. Stay tuned for more details. Visit the Sanrio Town Blog for more info.:)

MTR passengers can indulge in a special romantic moment at the “MTR Hello Kitty Love Garden”, launched from today to 14 March 2007. The Love Garden is a prelude to the first-ever legalised MTR Hello Kitty Dream Wedding in Hong Kong. Specially designed by Sanrio, Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel will appear in the “MTR Hello Kitty Love Garden” in wedding dress to celebrate the joy of love with MTR passengers.

On 14th February where the first MTR Hello Kitty themed train will take the bride and the bridegroom from MTR Tsuen Wan Depot to Hong Kong Station. The bride whose gown will be full of Hello Kitty patterns which are made of Austria crystals and the bridegroom will experience an elegant and unique wedding with the civil celebrant, Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel. The first MTR Hello Kitty themed train will run on the Tsuen Wan Line until 14 March 2007.

Focus on: Sanrio Town Forums Rules

For those who already have Sanrio Town accounts, you most probably have logged in the forum from time to time and occasionally made a post here and there. However, did you know about the rules that should be observed here? Let's have a run-through on what things should be observed in the Sanrio Town Forums, for the good of everyone.

1. Stay in Topic
All "let's be friends" topics must stay in the Friends Forum. Those that insist will have their topics closed and/or deleted.

2. No Spamming, Flamming, or Profanities allowed
All such members will be taken cared of immediately. And what I mean by taken cared of, is that they will be banned from this place.

3. As much as possible, please avoid posting your address and phone numbers here in the boards
As much fun as making new friends can be, we don't want our users to get stalkers following them in real life. So for your own safety, please abide by this rule.

4. No advertising of other forum sites and no soliciting
Advertisements will be deleted without warning. Non-offensive homepages are ok, depending on the situation. Please ask for permision first before posting.
5. The Forum is Not a Chatroom
Please do not use the forums as a personal chatroom between you and your friends. This includes personal topics meant only for specific people(ex. "For Keroppi only". If you want to chat with your friends, you can do this by sending E-Mails to each other or via Instant Messengers.
6. "Hate Topics" are not allowed.
This is a forum to meet and make friends, not to quarrel and flame someone. Users who start or support these topics will be warned by the admin thru email and may be even banned from the forums.
7. Obscenity is not allowed.
This includes not only text but also images. Posting these not only will be deleted immediately, but the one who posted this will immediately get banned from the site.
8. Observe proper netiquette.
This includes avoiding using ALL CAPS.
9. Multiple Posts aren't allowed.

Only quote what the person whose comment you want to include in your post said, and not what s/he also mentioned in her own reply.

These last two are technically rules under the Love forum, but it's better if we observe these in making our posts in other topics.

10. Profane sex talk is not allowed.

Users who started the topic and users who support the topic will be banned without warning.

11. This is no place to pick-up girls/boys for that matter.

Asking people if they could be your girlfriend/boyfriend is not allowed in the forums. Topics such as these will be automatically deleted.

We hope you'll observe these rules. Enjoy posting!

Special Valentine’s Treat For You!

Guess who’s going to be celebrating a very special Valentine’s Day this year?

Here’s a clue: It has to do with a big red bow!

Stay tuned to Sanrio Town to find out!

Birthday: January 5

Year Created: 1977

Although Trish is her real name, everyone calls her Button Nose because of her button nose.:D Always happy and nice, she is always shown with strawberries because she's famous for her homemade strawberry jam.

Trivia: Button Nose is one of the characters of Sanrio given an animated series. Hers, called, "Yume no Hoshi no Button Nose,"played from OCtober 19, 1985 to April 26, 1986. It had 26 episodes, and Button nose was voiced by Sanae Miyuki. The Opening theme ("Kiss wo Sasete Yo!") and closing one ("Be-tsu!") were both performed by Masagoro.

This was also released in English, Danish, German, Swedish, and Arabic, aside from Japanese. Some of its alternative titles include "Dream Star Button Nose" (English), Prinzessin Erdbeer (German), Sockernos (Swedish), and Tuta fe al-mareek (Arabic).

Blog Tutorial: Basics (2)

We are now the second part of the Blog Basics Tutorial. We'll be focusing on the layout of the entries that you will be making.The Sanrio Town Blog format is essentially the same as word processors (ex. MS Word, Open Office Writer, Notepad, Wordpad). This means you can change the alignment, the font effects, indentation, etc. as well as insert bullets or numbering if you're listing things down in your blog. You can do these by clicking on the appropriate buttons at the top of the Composer.



Font effects are usually changed if the writer wants to emphasize a point in his/her entry. Some also use these effects as default for everything that they've written, like a personal trademark. Whichever case, the text on your entry can be italicized, made bold, or have it crossed out with strikethrough. In addition, although the option is not seen as one of the buttons on top of the Composer, can also be underlined by selecting the passage you want (either by clicking and dragging or holding shift down and then controlling the selection with the arrow keys) and then pressing "Ctrl+U."

As a side note, the other buttons also have hot keys; you can go and access these functions with just your keyboard. You can hover your mouse over these to see what these are, or you can check the list below.:P These are the following:

Ctrl+B - Bold

Ctrl+I - Italics

Ctrl+K - Strikethrough

Alt+I - List with Buttons

Alt+O - Numbered List

Alt+W - Outdent

Alt+Q - Indent List/Blockquote

Alt+F - Left Align

Alt+C - Align Center

Alt+R - Align Right

Alt+A - Insert/Edit Link

Alt+S - Unlink

Alt+M - Insert/Edit Image

Alt+T - Split post with "More" tag

Alt+H - Help

For those who like sharing online articles they've read to other people but want to make their blogs look neater without having long URLs to distract them from the rest of the blog entry, they can use the Link option. Like Text Effects, they have to select the word/s they want and then pressing the button (looks like chain links) or using the hot key. A window will pop up. This is where the user will input the URL of the article they want to share. Click "Insert" and the text will be blue and underlined. People can then click on this link and they will be brought to the other site.

For the one who changed his/her mind about linking the selection, they can always unlink it by pressing the button next to it or pressing the hotkey.

That's all for this week! Next week, we'll begin with the Advanced Tutorial.

VIdeo and Blog of the Week!

Hey everyone! Welcome back to our weekly feature of blogs and videos.:D

This week's Dreamstudio star is Hello Kitty MTV in Chinatown by hkfood. The cool thing about the video is that it's just in time for Chinese New Year on February 18. There's even a chocolate pig, at least, it looks like one.:D

If you can't see the video below, click here to be brought to the home of the video.:)



For the gamers out there, you will love this week's Blog feature. Made by gentatsu, there are enough PSP game features here that could make the biggest players (of games, that is) satisfied for quite some time. Click here to be brought there.That's all for this week! Check this out again next week and see if you've been featured!

Focus on: Downloads

For those who love freebies or simply Sanrio stuff, this is for you! Downloads exclusively available in SanrioTown are for you to enjoy if you go here. However, like a lot of the Sanrio Town features, this is also available only for members, so if you haven't gotten an account yet, be sure to do it now.:) Just click here and sign up and you will be able to enjoy these items as well as do the other activities of the site.

The following are the stuff you can currently get at Sanrio Town:

Wallpapers. Make your Desktop cutesy by downloading any of the wallpapers we have for you.

Calendars. Keep track of your schedule by printing this and jotting your day's activities here.

Animation Movies Trailer. Get to watch Hello Kitty and her friends in videos from different categories: from music videos to games to TV series episodes, you can get to see them all!

Screenshots. Get a sneak peek at Kitty skating the bad guys away.:D

Messenger Themes. MSN Messenger owners, you'll love this one! Make it Sanrio-personalized by downloading these Messenger icons.

Enjoy the downloads!

Focus on: Downloads

For those who love freebies or simply Sanrio stuff, this is for you! Downloads exclusively available in SanrioTown are for you to enjoy if you go here. However, like a lot of the Sanrio Town features, this is also available only for members, so if you haven't gotten an account yet, be sure to do it now.:) Just click here and sign up and you will be able to enjoy these items as well as do the other activities of the site.

The following are the stuff you can currently get at Sanrio Town:

Wallpapers. Make your Desktop cutesy by downloading any of the wallpapers we have for you.

Calendars. Keep track of your schedule by printing this and jotting your day's activities here.

Animation Movies Trailer. Get to watch Hello Kitty and her friends in videos from different categories: from music videos to games to TV series episodes, you can get to see them all!

Screenshots. Get a sneak peek at Kitty skating the bad guys away.:D

Messenger Themes. MSN Messenger owners, you'll love this one! Make it Sanrio-personalized by downloading these Messenger icons.

Enjoy the downloads!

Sanrio Town Features This Week!

Tuesday: Sanrio Town Downloads

Wednesday: Video and Blog of the Week

Thursday: Blog Tutorial: Basics (2)

Friday: Character of the Week! We'll be having Button Nose!

Stay tuned!:D

All About: Bunny and Matty

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Year Created: 1975

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Bunny and Matty are an adventurous rabbit and mouse couple.

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Bunny is a thrill-seeking little girl, able to maneuvre an airplane as easily as she can ride her tricycle. Her biggest dream would be to explore the African wilderness.

Matty is Bunny's boyfriend. He's a practical joker, although sometimes, his pranks would land him and Bunny into trouble.

Bit of Trivia:

Not only is the tandem created almost the same time as Hello Kitty (1974), they are also a rare breed in that they actually are boyfriend and girlfriend, as compared to the other group characters who are only friends.

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Blog Tutorial: Basics

You can only get a Blog account if you sign up for a Sanrio Town one. You can do this by clicking here and signing up from there. Don't worry, it's for free!:D

After getting your account, you will be brought your very own homepage. You can already create a Blog account by clicking the “Blog” tab at the top of the page (the green one). You will then be brought to the Terms and Conditions page. Read through it very carefully. If you agree to the stipulations, click the appropriate button.

Congratulations! You've just created your own Sanrio Town Blog!

You will then be brought to the Dashboard of your Blog. To begin making posts, click “Write A Post.” You'll be brought to the Editor. You can compose your entry here.

There are two ways of putting images in your post:

If the image you want to upload is on the Internet, you can paste the URL on the window that will appear when you click on the Image button on the Editor. If the image is on your computer but you haven't uploaded it on any provider on the Internet, don't worry. You can also include this in your post by uploading it on the the “Upload” area below the Composer. After choosing which one you want to use, click “Upload” and then “Send to Editor.”

That's about all for today. Check out the following posts for more Blog tutorials.