HK and the Millennium Now series revisited.

This may be a "wrapped up" edition but there's a few things going on such as the closure of Sanriotown.com and the associated email service some of us adored in the earlier part of this century where we could play games and talk about everything in the Hello Kitty world.

A few months back Now who gives many hundreds of compilations resumed a series originally undertaken in 1999 called the Millennium Series that covered 1980 through 1999 in two cd sets.

They decided logically to start at the year 2000 but strangely rather than having stand alone editions per year  decided to make each set a pair so we have have on the third and forth cds, 2001

I did buy a fair bit of music during this era but I never bought the Nows as much of the chart music they featured was Electronic Dance and HipHop which generally doesn't do much for me but as a reminder of what those hits were like and there are some I really did like it's a handy set.

On Friday the follow up emerged which pairs 2002 and 2003.

There is actually more on this set I do like although as before I tended to buy individual artist albums by people I liked such as Jamiroquai and Katie Melua so I can see this being played a fair bit.

One of the things I noticed in the early two thousands was the wide gap between sales between the most popular albums artists and what was in and promoted for the singles charts, wider than it was between 1971 and 1974.

It was the start of the TV talent show acts being pushed into the charts often by producers and labels owned by the tv production company

Spooky Times

This week is spooky week and even in the crazy mixed up world we're living in right now I have noticed spooky stuff about in peoples windows, doorways and even gardens so expect batty bats and groovy ghoulies to be coming near you!

Miss Kitty was always in on the action, enjoying fun with friends and supporting friendship around the World that's why she makes a clean sweep of being with Halloween, having her own range of goodies.

Obviously this year it's a little different as "Trick And Treat" is being discouraged  due to concerns about social distancing and transmission of that virus through handing over candy although I suspect it'll carry on with people just calling round a few per-detirmined neighbours who will leave a package of candy for each child to pick up as they're waved at through the windows.

We need a bit of fun and excitement in our lives.

 

Sanriotown.com R.I.P?

It was with some shock to find on Friday last an activity that had been a part of my internet life for a long time just wasn't available outside of the other business talked about elsewhere and still isn't available as I type this.

For almost as long as this blog has been going, Sanriotown.com was the first port of call not just for The Game but also things such as the busy forum where by design discussions were never 18+ which suited me as most adult conversations go over my head and don't really fit in my life, offered wallpaper and screen-savers.
They also has something I just adored, a oh so kawaii email with customization of the domains for whatever sanriotown character you liked  which for me meant I had a me @hellokitty.com email address that linked directly to things such as ecards you could people at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas plus  cute stamps that you could apply to your emails too just as if they were actually letters sent between friends.
 On Friday I couldn't access the email account and found it was due to the Security Certificate being out of date but a week on it hasn't been changed. Many people had written on the forum about this, had even tried to email from other accounts the sites Service people only to get a auto responder and even the official twitter wasn't being replied to.
This morning in a email I accessed minutes ago they're saying it's due to a combination of system and server upgrades plus other other technical issues adding they don't have a estimated time for the work to be complete.
Looking around the signing up button was missing and people had been complaining you couldn't download the Game  from the site even but only from a independent download site that to me suggested this obviously was the last version developed in 2012.
I also noticed the number of the other features had been really trimmed back or missing.
All this was on top of last Decembers much publicized hacking of the sites database which impacted all of us.
The overall impression is that sanriotown.com and Hello Kitty Online is for all intents and purposes dead joining other sites we used such as experience project, friends reunited, beststuff and the GeoCities blogging platform in the internet graveyard.
  

May Edition

So the White Rabbits have been around overnight and we're into Mae, oops May now so it's the first post of the Month and Monday is in the UK May Day so I might as well write the entry today.
Seeing that Christine had mentioned Hello Kitty Colouring books elsewhere my thoughts went to something else such as pretty messenger style bags, cases and so on and yes a plushie to take away with you although I wouldn't miss out on taking a dolly with me anyway for company and playing with.

Going back a bit in time Saturday Morning cartoons were what we got up for between all the fuss about when we setting out to get the shopping done very much in tow with Mommy who always held my hand to keep me safe as I get lost and aren't good with road sense (still aren't either).

This American series was one I loved for the personalities, girlish appeal and yes, simple enjoyable beat music you could sing along to imagining yourself playing the tambourines with no MC rapper or keyboard in sight. 
I used to record their songs on a small spool tape recorder from the television to play in the days before we had video recorders.
Pretty much the Catgirl band too!

Now back to some 2015 Frozen colouring...

Card edition

Just a few more posts to go before the end of year and as I'm slowly getting there, here's something for all of you.

Regards Jo.

There should be one other post before Christmas Day then probably a bit of break over that period  as I'll be with family.

Advent edition

The countdown begins to the big day today that's a must  for all littles and there's even a connection from last weeks post and this too!

 As ever this little counts it all down with a little help from Miss Kitty and friends plus a small helping of chocolate per day! That whole ritual is one the strongest memories I have of Christmas as a child.
As like last year my Calender is in the front room directly visible to the house across the road but I don't care as I often go out laden with kitty attire as next doors kids know!

Rewinding to ones computing past

I'm not feeling that great today to be honest with what feels like a winter cold coming on that I hope clears in just over a weeks time but be that as it may, I was looking a bit at the statistics Google give you about what posts people read, where they're from, any sites they used to find this blog and so on and one thing that struck me was actually some of you do read the older posts. It was that which got me thinking.
I think must of us are aware of how our experience of the Internet has changed over the years, how that's fed into what we use to access it and the different programs we've had connected with our use of computers.
I suspect many of us have what you call a desktop that after some seconds, comes up often with a colourful design.

Well as some of you have been reading posts from 2008, here's one of mine from December that year that tells you quite a few things.
To start with like now in 2008 I also was in love with Miss Kitty so I made it the main image rather than that bland Windows XP Pro  screen.
Also look at the dimensions specifically the aspect ratio, it's 4:3 that tells you I had more traditional CRT monitor the time compared to the near universal 16:9 or 16:10 Widescreen Lcd ones we have today.
Also, it's resolution is 600x800 which is very low by modern standards.
Looking at the toolbar you'll spot firstly Microsoft were highlighting an urgent security issue with that shield with ! mark and Skype was set up on the machine although I didn't use it much.
Like today you'll spot the Avast antivirus program (the blue ball with an A) that I've always used, a program for a separate webcam I no longer use, the Nero 6 Smartstart cd writing program and Yahoo messenger that I suspect a good number of us had back then as we used Yahoo's services like Geocities, messenger and email. I seldom log into Yahoo today with services from Google being that much better overall.
Also you'll spot a trio of Mozilla Foundation programs such as the browser Firefox which was much better at the time when it came to security and features than Internet Exploder 6  (I.E to some), the email program Thunderbird which I used with a lousy Internet Service Providers (I.S.P.) email services until I moved to web based mail exclusively, that organized my mail and allowed me to have coloured backgrounds and text that help my dyslexia and Sunbird, a desktop based calendar to help me with organizing my life which is effectively replaced now  by the Google cloud based Calendar.
I now use Pale Moon a Swedish forked version of Firefox as my main browser on my laptops and the old desktop is gone!
The keenly eyed will also have spotted the installation files for the free cd copying program, dbPoweramp and the shortcut for music player Winamp both of which are installed and much used on my newer laptops. There was no iTunes installed as the machine was incapable of running it although it was very popular back then.
I wonder how many of view still have pictures of your old desktops and can tell the story behind them?

Something's afoot!

He he, that got y'all excited didn't it?
Mommy excelled herself this week with a couple of unexpected gifts for me

Cute bunny furry slippers for keeping me warm during the winter months.

And some cute kitty socks too!

Our day out

As kinda hinted at last week, the week was gonna be busy as I was going out twice and also has the effect of putting out of sync chronologically what should of been the next post but anyway after getting Chat  and Tumblr to work fine in Pale Moon, my default browser we come to this weeks post.
Going out had it's own ahem difficulties thanks to Cheshire East's decision to rapidly move forward resurfacing work requiring closing our main road off completely with very little notice so setting off required literally walking a mile and a bit through the fields to catch a bus to the areas super important rail station catching the train where upon its arrival I met with Jennifer.
Shock alert: I sent a text to Andi on the cellphone!
Traversing the road network in South Staffordshire isn't bad considering the population density outside of the peak hours obviously and it may surprise some but there are a  number of really nice buildings in the towns we went through such as St Peter's, the Parish Church of West Bromwich and the delightful Sandwell Nature Reserve.

All of this was enhanced by the brilliant sunshine and blue skies  on what had turned out to me a warm September's day.

(Above Miss Maisie bunny)
It wasn't long before we arrived at our destination and met with Andi.
Maisie and I  introduce ourselves, sorted our overnight stuff out and proceeded to read this weeks Beano comic  that we'd bought at the Station to the accompaniment of Jean-Michelle Jarre playing from a music server. I'll bet that beats getting up every 18 minutes to change lps!
Andi rustled up a most delicious home made Cottage Pie which was much appreciated while apart from talking about everything and anything including Camp, Andi treated us to hearing the original Captain Kremen  lp, that out of his head radio space fantasy of the DJ , the late Kenny Everett, in a series I remember well for the characters and amazing vocalizations.
I have this vague recollection of going to bed after changing into my kitty nighttime attire and brushing ones teeth sometime before Midnight and waking up around 7:30ish. Maybe it was the Elderberries??? Even Maisie was on that!
Before dashing off to catch the train back, Andi made a lovely cooked British breakfast complete with fried bread.
We'd like to thank Jennifer for the lift down and company as well as Andi for having us as we sure appreciate it all the way.

Advent 2013

As we're slowly getting toward Christmas and slowly being the operative word  having been without the internet for over 48 hours (rant) my mind drifts back to how we always used to count it down.

That's right the Advent Calender, and that's mine for this year, ready to be put up on living room wall and being with milk chocolate, also consumed!
Guessed you'd of thought it just had to feature that cat!!!

You called?

It's shocking isn't it? I've had the same cellphone a Nokia 3410 for over ten years, two employers and a good many vacations after getting tired of relying on callboxes to phone friends from and the lines that would form from each in a Summer's evening when away.
Well, the battery started to lose its ability to store the power that would not of been bad other than Nokia seemingly no longer make the battery having discontinued the phone itself  and the third party makers in China replacement models are of so-so quality at best.

I'm currently with Vodafone whose network has a very good reliable coverage, something in this area can't be relied upon by others such as Orange, and didn't feel like having to change my cellphone number but needed a replacement, not least for when I'm out on daytrips and the like quickly.
Because of my paws I do need something fairly robust and with my co-ordination I'm prone to falling over so models with thin glass screens aren't so good. 
As I don't need the Internet, I bought this, the Samsung E1200 which could be had for little more than the cost of a replacement battery which is simple to use with a very tactile keypad and very long battery life not just when making calls but also when in standby.
It was sold as unlocked to any one network and comes without your providers SIM card so you have to physically remove it  from your old phone to the new one, where after a moment it works like a treat.
The phone holds it charge well which will be useful for things like alg gatherings as not having to pack a charger does save space.
Needless to say it has had a Hello Kitty sticker applied to the back and a protective HK phone sock is coming to keep it in!

Sorting one's draws

Hi folks.
Seeing it's the start of that cold season, Winter, and I need to distract myself from some of the bad stuff I referenced last week in passing, I've been going through my draws (there's a British pun somewhere in there!) sorting through the condition of my stuff.
One discovery was some of my socks had holes starting to form at the heel and as they went back a few years where my prevalent mode of presenting was slightly different bordering more on Goth I thought it was time for a change.

I bought several pairs of these white school girl socks with bows on because they go more my with my uniform which is what I wear most of the time and the bows are really rather cute which I'm sure will look great when I'm in alg company which is where I'm increasingly headed.

Not quite 'regulation' but very pretty, I bought another pair of these thicker socks that'll work for less 'school' settings or with things like my skater skirts or possibly tailored shorts (I'm the kind of girl who feels 'girly' even when not in skirts being more tomboyish in actual childhood).

One other discover was my spare grey pair of slipper socks were showing some signs of wear at the heel and as my other oldish Hello Kitty pair had gone down well at GHS as well as helping me dropping straight down to age appropriate behaviour to the point I could drop my 'groan up' guard, I bought a couple of pairs of these. Anything that aids that has to be good for me in the longer term.
They are also easier to pack than slippers for things such as alg meet ups and camp.
Finally I found a grey ragged sweat shirt that was definitely ragged in the elbows, one I'd bought around 2004/5 when much of this ten and half year adventure as documented here was starting and was in two minds as to do a like minded replacement or not as I have another grey one in much better shape.
Following a conversation at GHS around my green skirt and my explanation on why I didn't bring that, the suggestion was that actually red would go with it, I decided to get another red one from my usual school sweatshirt supplier like the one I'm pictured in a few entries back.
No doubt quite a bit of this will feature at the upcoming GHS meet up where I'll be in attendance.

Round and round

Do you know officially this blog has now had over 36,060 page views since its conception and a average of over 1,500 views per month? Well that's what the statistics that Google provide to anyone using their platform inform me and that is pretty good given there's no 'cheap thrills' on this site.
As anyone who ventures out is aware it's very much the back to school season with stationery stores stocking such essentials as Compass sets, pencil cases, note books, as well as obviously pens and pencils.
I've gotten a new Green pleated school skirt and a matching netball skirt with the pleats at the side and rear as well as some rather cute Hello Kitty socks.

Pretty traditional rather like me and it is very similar to a blue one I have had for a few years now the story of which is told on one my 'Pre-blog' entries here which are just unabridged notes I made some being almost ten years ago with no added commentary that just talk of things that lead me into the community of littles. They are just the things that I'd of talked with you about before we all met each other and it's a shame we weren't in a position too.

Moving on a little topic wise, the subject of ones age as a little came up at Tumblr where it appeared the notion people having just single fixed age as a little appears to be doing the rounds.
Let me say from the outset, there is nothing at all wrong with having just a single little age say 10 years if this is the age you feel when you are in a little (or Middle) Headspace but this is by no means the only situation. For a good number of us, we do vary a little having a 'Upper age limit' which is as old as we can feel and a lower point we may regress further back to in certain situations, getting a little 'silly' at times. This is when you think about it, is little different to that of actual children who can go back a few years especially at periods of great stress. 
I would like anyone who does find their 'age' is fluid to understand this is quite normal and certainly doesn't make you less of a little.
Although I hover around the 10 to 12 bit most of the time I go go back to around 8 or 9 or even younger sometimes and my littlest little would really like to be dressed rather like this:

See I can admit to it, having an even younger side to the girl within  and does she surprise any of you?

Jo visits the North!

Yesterday, I was out on a trip out as in a hundred odd miles out and also out as with my Pink Hello Kitty  t shirt, shorts and cute cat socks with bows and frilly tops with naturally my H K Tote and  Child's travel bag.   In my world I'm always out as me.

We were going some 312 Miles round trip from where I live to Whitby in North Yorkshire, England  which is a old Port and seaside resort although you have a long walk to get to the beach. Our route involved travelling along the M6, changing to the M62 Trans-Pennine motorway and then getting on the A64 in North Yorkshire a little South of York.The traffic was really bad travelling along the A64 just south of York along the Scarborough road for  miles. It took us Two hours twenty to travel through this four mile stretch! Travelling horseback would be quicker.
In consequence we only had a very limited length of time to do anything as the driver had used  up all ready five of his allowed 8 hours driving under UK law. 
The scenery along stretches of this route took us over Saddleworth Moors in Lancashire, a very hilly area with sheep farms even though it's near to the Towns of Oldham and Rochdale and also well into the North Yorks National Park where much purple Heather and horses was spotted. They were beautiful at this time of year.
Because we were really late arriving the first step had to be fix food fast as I was starting to space out -the perils of running short on spoons - so I called in at Trenchers fish and  chip restaurant on New Quay Road, Whitby for fried plaice, English chips and several drinks of tea with brown sugar while I took some tablets.
It won awards in 2011 and 12 and upon tasting my late lunch, it is not hard to see why for the fish caught on the day  by fishing line was most tasty and the chips had a good not greasy taste to them.
Time was running short as because of drive hours issue with the driver we needed to be back at bus for 17:00 hrs I only had the chance to look at a couple of charity stores briefly before getting something to eat as we wouldn't be stopping off on the return trip.

That's the Bridge that links the harbour to the old town where many of the shops are  to be found in small streets, some cobbled. As befits a Port, there were places selling fresh fish!

Whitby Harbour. As you can see it was  very sunny day with quite as number of boats moored.

I had to use the 105mm moderate telephoto of this camera to capture this and carefully crop it later. Thankfully the more megapixels your image has, the better the result even if you use only a small proportion of the original image.

Kerrera caught my attention  while moored with its bold colours and flags

Finally an overview of the harbour.
It was a interesting day out even though it had taken rather a lot out of me physically as I hadn't been in the North East of England ever. One just wishes to had the time to see more of Whitby.

Times past and present

I've a little time to kill today so I thought I'd work on this weeks entry tonight instead of leaving it until later and I'll start of by thanking those of who read and remarked on last weeks entry.
One recurring theme from the last seven days has been how you can be transported back in time by such things as rewatching tv shows or  hearing and  maybe discussing such things as music as you recall people, places and events from that period that link in with your childhood. There's a phenomenon people call the 'Earworm' that enables to you recall the sounds and tunes when they are heard again even if it may of been decades since you last heard them. It may even be one reason people listen to and collect recordings from the past apart from the joy listening to music can bring.
I had a number of those moments this week listening to some downloads of albums I hadn't heard in eons like the Miami Vice tv album.

Then talking some more around the subject of schooldays and the notion of being a schoolgirl with a few people in a more personal way proved interesting for the similarities in what we get from it - being the child, the love of uniforms and structure, finding an inner peace and when we first realized we were different than our peers.
The observant will note its no coincidence the red sweatshirts shown are just like mine!
Of course this week something special usually happens involving Bunnies who Elspeth dear aren't only fit for soup or pies.
It's Easter which means lots of things from the deep religious side to the side that's often seen in stores this time of year.

The bunny should be dropping this off for me to nom at Easter!

In honour of Little Evie

I suppose I am many things to a good number of you and as you know I do not hold myself so in awe of myself that I have the kind of vanity that to want to know what that might be but  I'm a little reserved both online and as well as in real life.
I don't jump in two feet first shall we say! But today I shall having finished reading Elizabeth's adventures in the Naughtiest Girl series remaining in my little girl school uniform all day for the same reasons she would.

This fine person joined GT recently being as I understand it friendly with Priss and something about her immediately caught my attention.
The first thing I'll say about Little Evie  is (as much as I  dislike drawing distinctions) is she is an adult little girl  who has a beginning as a biological female, something that is remains more a minority in the alg world although I'm personally aware of a few and am extremely grateful for one.
While I'm very aware of the negatives  as well as the positives of the Internet to the point I won't post a persons job title, employer etc here, she works with children which is super awesome in my book  as I don't so much work with them myself as they come at times with those I do, both of us get to spend time with children doing stuff like playing. Having an personal insight to how a child sees the World is a jolly useful thing that I used as a School Governor.
The third thing and the reason why I absolutely had to - having an Elizabeth impulsive moment-  jump in with two feet is she did something I thought was very brave.
She came out to her colleagues as a little and what is more they were supportive of her.
How many of us hand on heart could actually be in a groan up staff area and just do this?
I'm extremely fortunate my colleagues do know and so long as it doesn't get in the way of what I do are cool with it. I've had situations where I have been supported  by people outside of the alg world when people have tried to bring a "shock horror she's a little" drama in other organizations life.
It takes courage to do what she did, the same kind of courage Elizabeth found in the stories, that also I had to find for myself to be as I am.
That is why I'd like to say her site is listed here,  hope all the GT people will welcome her and  say I will do whatever I can to support her in  all the things she knows she needs to get fixed to fully enjoy life as an alg.

Love, Joanne.

More cat madness!

There will be two posts today, the first is this ,about  a Hello Kitty grey long sleeved top I bought recently as went enter the fall it gets a bit cooler so long arms are appreciated.
It is an actual children's top  cos I'm small enough to fit a UK age 14 for added authenticity and looks really cute although with a base colour of grey it'll go with a lot of things I own.

Joanne returns to school

Well I did leave a bit of a hint a few weeks back but I will be undertaking a bit of learning this term brushing up on my numeracy, penwomanship and English as for one thing I'm a litle rusty part from my dyslexia, dyspraxia and other learning disabilities I'm not too good at this stuff.Really I'm not.
I'll be doing some UK KS1/2 worksheets as appropriate to my needs each week sat at a desk suitably dressed which no doubt Jennifer would wholeheartedly approve off although sadly I won't have a Games Mistress. The rotters!!!   Playtime will happen though.
But that means I need some new tools as my tools well, there a bit old really dating from the last time I set foot in a classroom.

That's right Jennie, a circa 1977 Commodore 796M LED calculator that if you knew how you could spell words on it! I'll be getting a newer one with pink keys but in the mean time this laptop has one although I'll be only using that to check the answers with cos I really need to bring my mental arithmetic aka Math up to scratch.
Spelling as well as picking the best words for something in English isn't my strong point and you see, if your dyslexic like me, a spellchecker only gets you so far plus it often suggests world you weren't thinking of so I'm going to have to learn new words by rote and learn to use a dictionary from now on.

Well that's my old very battered one the girl immediately under the Head Girl at my boarding school gave me back in the day but apart from the seams going, English has gained quite a few new words over the years as well as some old words having newer, more current meanings that I don't understand.

Well Hello Kitty can help me learn as she's made this new version that's easier to follow and as well as having some tips on how to use words better which I'll be using.
Dyspraxia means in simple terms I have difficult making and co-ordinating small movements such as those you use to draw and critically write. It's a pain!
My handwriting  has never been good and for a period stopped completely following the industrial injury that further messed my life up (in some ways at least, in others it bought the inner kid to the fore).

I'll be following the exercises Hello Kitty uses to practise my letter drawing together with forming the shapes that make the top and bottom of letters which is something I'm really really bad at.
Sometimes even in this electronic age we need to write things and many people appreciate a hand written letter, postcard or birthday greetings card so being able to make a good job of it will be a help to me.

Hello and goodnight from me

Hi people.
First things first, we've a number of new visitors to this blog according to the numbers thing Google provide, and if that's you please read the About and if you wish, add a comment to the Hellos sections you click on from the top of the blog as they'll explain what this blog is really about and why I was so pleased Samantha amongst others publicly recognized the value of it.
I also wish to welcome PowderKid ,teenb101,Pickachu, tinkerbell and Noodle to my home of schoolgirlish innocence as well as Mary who returned to GT this week.
People at  Adisc and GT may have noticed something, namely my avatar yes the one form the same series as the delightful image I'm claiming this week, looks well, sharper, because when I edited it last time to fit the square 150x150pxavatar size restrictions at both sites, somehow the online resizer made it very grainy something Noodle rightly brought to my attention so I redid the resizing.
Last week I talked about sleep having lost several spoons to staying awake for longer than is good  for me and sleep is something that has been mentioned before as in Little Modes Sleep both at GT and there's a current thread running on it at Adisc plus there's my "Downsized Sleep" entry on here about talking about how and what I got from throwing the groan up stuff out of it!
Anyway peoples you'll recall I'd converted sleep into a going to sleep and waking up  as a adult little girl experience with age appropriate bedlinen, teddy bears, posters, pretty much the works really and it was wonderful.
Well, how well do you find actually switching off, closing your eyes and going to sleep? If you're like most of us maybe a bit iffy even if we turn off the Tv for a bit before getting into bed. But there's something, you might remember it, that used to work pretty well for you when you were younger and I'm suggesting you try it.
Recently faced with this, I recalled this reassuring routine of either being read a short story or maybe of listening to soothing songs -Lullabies- that from being in bed get you into a relaxed sleepy frame of mind from my own childhood.
It happens that Amazon has a pretty good recording of Lullabies in contemporary arrangements in stock that is available as an inexpensive download as well as a cd and I bought it.
Lullabies-the rainbow collection which I'm sure is available on Amazon in the States and Canada too.
It runs for about 35 minutes which is just long enough for you to start to drift off clutching your teddy and it does really help having adopted this into my sleep routine packed with favourite songs and rhymes from the past.
Until the next time and IK chat.
 Hugs Jo.

Tasty snack!

I like sweet things, I adore HK and when the two get together it's a marvellous moment as it was when on Thursday Mommy bought me this shortcake with iced HK cake from South Cheshire's finest independent bakery.
I was jumping up and down when she showed it to me. Whle my little side and her have our issues, she does in an odd kind of a way get some of my 'little' side and buys me the odd thing.