HK investagations
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6:27 am
Where did the summer go? It was June just a few days ago and now we’re in mid August?! When did that happen!! Oh well at least we have Labor Day to look forward to; but after Labor Day we have another special occasion that calls for a more personal type of celebration: Back to School shopping extravaganza. Most children shriek in hearing those three lettered words. I personally enjoy watching the staples commercial ads of jubilant parents frolicking down the school supply aisles while the children trail behind with grim faces. I even had the opportunity to take part in this torture with my sister and her own two children. I have to say that all of my back to school shopping during my undergraduate studies in college, consisted of Hello Kitty spiraled notebooks, folders, pens, post-it notes, and book markers all provided by Target and purchased by yours truly.
One of the essential back to school purchases are sneakers. I went to public school throughout the entireity of my childhood. I remember begging my parents to’ please, please, please’ buy me pink Barbie sneakers to strut on my first day of school. Now in 2009, Sanrio collaborated with another leading sneaker company: ASICS. This collaboration came about in celebration of Hello Kitty’s 35th anniversary. These sneakers come in an array of different colors, graphic designs so little girls like my past self can beg their parents to purchase to strut on their first day of school. ASICS has allowed Sanrio to make a canvas out of their sneaker line. I would have given ANYTHING to have had any kind of Hello Kitty sneaker available to me and my parents for purchase fourteen years ago. However, as a Hello Kitty enthusiast I covet the new foot wear that is made in children’s sizes. Not only has ASICS alike Champs a while back collaborated with Sanrio but Crocs has also collaborated with Sanrio to create Hello Kitty Crocs; the only downside is that it is only available outside the U.S. Ofcourse anyone in the U.S. can buy them online; however for a pri$e. The limited edition Hello Kitty Kids Cayman Crocs are available in Maylaysia. Unfortunately I do not have remotely a foot size that could fit into a child’s sized sneaker or croc, but I can buy Hello Kitty Jibbitz on Ebay for my grown up sized sandal style Crocs.
I conclude in a happy note, in that this year’s back to school is indeed “the most wonderful time of the year,” Hello Kitty style. As always come back next month for the continuation of Back to School.
Until then,
Love , Peace, & Hello Kitty <3
-HKMar
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HK investagations
AT&T, Cellphones, fun, Gadets, Hello Kitty, humor, Summer, T-Moblie, Verizon ribadeneira86report
8:52 pm
Hi Everyone, long time no Blog post!
We all know that it is summer, and if you live in New England your most likely whining about the rainy days that don’t seem to end and all you think is ‘that arc better make a stop at my house!’ But it wasn’t always raining; although it felt that for the month of June it rained 27 days out of the month. However, now in the month of July I have found out about the new pink Hello Kitty OKWAP A316 cellphone.
I am DREAMING about this phone!! i came across it while searching for a new phone. I unfortunatley have Verizon, i say unfortunately because they are the devil incarnate!! I am due for an upgrade soon and my contract is almost over and I am looking to switch over to another cellphone carrier… & then I found it… The new Hello Kitty Flip phone; in it’s gloriously pink exterior with Hello Kitty’s face and a mirror. There are even more features like one of ebay’s auction description about the phone having:
- Support English/Chinese keyboard input (i’ve been meaning to learn mandarin..)
- Built-in Hello Kitty English/Chinese Flash Menu, Wallpapers, Ringtones and Animations (YAY!)
- Built-in MP3 player, Video player, Internal antenna & Speakerphone (keep going I like I like..)
- 2.0 Mega Pixels CMOS camera for taking pictures or videos in various sizes and qualities
- Chinese-English dictionaries for language learning
- Supports Messaging EMS/MMS/SMS, Mini SD memory expansion(Up to 2GB), Bluetooth V1.2 & Macromedia Flash playback for downloadable pictures, animations, ringtones and games
- 500 Phonebook entries, Call vibration
- JAVA MIDP 2.0, recording & command function
- Personal Organization Tools: Alarm Clock, World Clock, Calculator, Calendar, Notepad, Photo Album, Photo Editor, Wallpaper and Fun Games (JACKPOT!!!)
It even has a PHOTO EDITOR!!!! .. but i can’t get it because the only phone plan carriers are: AT&T/Cingular & Tmobile, because Verizon isn’t cool/chic enough to service this treasure dome of phone, just like it didnt service the gold Dolce & Gabanna flip phone either. In the end i’ll most likely switcth to Sprint… which means i can’t get the new Hello Kitty phone =(… but i will be dreaming about it Night & DAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Until Next time,
HKMar <3
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HK investagations
art, culture, entertainment, fun, humor, random, shopping ribadeneira86report
10:04 pm
FINALLY! Girlies & Geeks unite. It was only a matter of time before our generation joined forces with their enemies/compeitors to merge and become a new stereotype: Geek Chic. Girly girls aren’t the only Chic girls on the block, the geeks are sharing the spotlight. Sanrio has released a new line of Hello Kitty collectibles in partnership with Lounge Fly: HK <3’s Nerds
I think Hello Kitty is following me on my crazy career journey…OR there really is an up in the nerd/geek community! Either way, this new line is simply cute! I cant wait to go to the new sophisicated ‘high end’ HK sanrio store: Sanrio Luxe. I will channel my girly HK loving freak & my inner nerd/geek to buy the HK nerd coin purse that I am in LOVE with. I have recently been dubbed a “geek” because of my new job: Jr. IT specialist. YEP that means I deal with hardware, software, installations, configurations, you name it and I have most likely done it!
I was always a closeted “nerd” for a long time, dating back from middle school ..lol .. hence my degree in English Literature aka: nerd that loves to read and talk about books. I hope to teach someday, i can see it now…my high school students having to use a hello kitty restroom pass and ofcourse they’d use the same pass regardless of the sex of the student… my students using Hello Kitty book marks, stickers for their A or B papers….It’s going to be awesome!!
In the mean time I’ll just be me and unite with fellow Hello Kitty lovers and have the new generations hooked on HK. Who knows… maybe Disney will merge with Sanrio and have Hello Kitty incorporated into the theme parks!!!!! …… Day dreaming away like Anne in Anne of Greene Gables…
Till next time folks,
<3, Peace, & HK,
-HKMar
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Random Yet interesting
art, culture, entertainment ribadeneira86report
2:04 am
Since my last post, I spoke very briefly about the new up and coming cartoon icon from Japan, & kin to Hello Kitty: Domo or Domo-Kun. I couldn’t find a site that had ALL of the info I needed on Domo like I did for Hello Kitty. Domo is still new and not too ‘big’ in the states… yet. I happen to come across my friend BMary’s facebook group called Domo-Kun . The creator is a big fan of Domo and gave me the information on Domo’s origins that i was searching for. The group says that :
“The name ‘Domo’ was acquired during the second episode of his show in which a TV announcer said, ‘Doumo, Konnichiwa’, which is a formal greeting meaning something along the lines of, “Well, hello there!”, or “Hello, Domo!”, and thus is a convenient dajare. The kun suffix on “Domo-kun”, the name used to describe the character in the Japanese versions, is a Japanese honorific often used with young males.”
This being said, I realized that Domo is Hello Kitty; but in a strange/cute version of her character! The group also provides a website link called Domomode. This site has Domo and his friends that are really cute! Domo’s friends have small bios when you click on the character’s bodies. Domo is a little monster that “hatched out of an egg.” He is described as ” a strange creature.” Domo hatched in 1998 from a satellite broadcasting service in Japan called NHK. No actual artist/puppet master is known as the actual creator of Domo, but one thing’s for sure; this sketch alike Hello Kitty went from an idea to a (soon to be) global cartoon icon.
Domo’s character is both cute and awkward. He’s socially insecure and may have ADD since his bio says that he “often causes trouble by daydreaming and not paying attention to things.” He is also known to have awkward/uncomfortable social mishaps by “let[ing] out explosive farts when upset.” I dont know about you, but I wouldn’t want to upset Domo, I also wouldn’t want to be near or around any explosions much less a ‘fart’ one. It’s a good thing Hello Kitty is cute and friendly and wouldnt upset Domo if they ever encountered!
Well so Far it seems that Domo is cartoon that is climbing up the cartoon icon ladder. I will keep tabs on this “strange creature” because as a Hello Kitty fan/lover I, know a cute thing when I see one!
Until Next time ,
HKMar <3
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HK investagations
art, culture, entertainment, humor, random ribadeneira86report
6:14 am
And the Hello Kitty Investigations persist! …Sorry it’s been sooooo long since my last post. I ‘ve been busy with the usual work, family, personal life things & on top of that , I’ve been pre-occupied over the fear of getting Swine flu or H1N1. Poor piggys, they are getting a bad rep! ….Anyway, Im just glad that Hello Kitty’s rep is still intact… or is it? A few months ago while writing this blog that mainly concerns Hello Kitty & her existence and all that she encompasses, I was told about Hello Kitty’s encounters/partnerships?! Especially with a certain mythical character by the name of Cthulhu. Cthulhu was created in 1926 ( two years after my father was born on this day May 11) by H.P. Lovecraft. Somehow this old sci-fi fantasy inspired monster got a makeover from ugly to semi-cute.
Our generation is not only getting greener and recycling more, but we are also recycling ideas like literary treasures/ideologies of the past; hence Cthulhu or should I say Hello Cthulhu. Hello Cthulhu is obviously a closeted Hello Kitty Fan’s creation that was inspired through Sanrio’s success with HK. This fan made Cthulhu resurrect from dusty bookshelf/ comic book collector’s plastic storage bin death, and brought back to life Cthulhu, and back into the swing of things we call pop culture. This fan did this Sanrio style.
I dont hate Cthulhu nor do I love him. His hostility towards Hello Kitty is upsetting especially when he makes misogynistic remarks about her. Even though some strips are disturbing there are a few amusing strips that are easy to understand and even psychoanalyze . What I dont appreciate is cthulhu’s attempts at tarnishing HK’s rep like the Hello Kitty Gone Wild attempt, and Evil Hello Kitty. Cthulhu should be grateful that Hello Kitty’s cuteness is rubbing off on him, especially with those cute bows she put on him!: 
Regardless of Cthulhu’s hostility and misogyny towards HK he’s here to stay, but we HK fans have to keep her name clean and not let petty attempts like Cthulhu’s tarnish her cute iconic princess image. The next new character, or Hello Kitty’s new friend/competitor is: Domo.
I have no idea where Domo came from; despite my research of his origins or who created him; however, i did learn that Domo is a Japanese cartoon character that Target & Nickelodeon are making popular here in the good old U.S. of A. So far Domo is a good character in my book. He is after all derived from Hello Kitty’s native land: Japan. Domo is cute I have to admit; for instance this halloween target ad which by the way I happen to LOVE halloween and I enjoy the dying art of clay-mation. This ad is simply cute.
To conclude, lets re-cap. Cthulhu is a werid, mean, but cute by association of Hk ofcourse, and Domo is a cute Hello Kitty friend/kin that is climbing up the cartoon icon ladder. Something I personally would very much want to see is this! DomoKitty is an actual flush toy and idea. It seems to me that our generation is pretty crafty and talented, and if we work together we can do great things. Even things like Hello Cthulhu , Domo, and Domo Kitty.
Until Next Time,
Peace, Love, & HELLO KITTY! -HK Mar
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HK investagations
art, culture, entertainment, humor, random ribadeneira86report
12:57 am
Hello Again! After extensive research, i have found who actually drew Miss Kitty. It was: Yoko Shimizu.This cartoonist was inspired from the cats in Through the Looking Glass. Some say she also looks disturbingly like Miffy, a two-dimensional long-earned rabbit that lives on tissue packets and lunch boxes. I would like to believe that Hello Kitty could never live in a tissue packet and in smelly old lunch boxes; however, Yoko really hit it big drawing Miss Kitty(really big!). Unfortunately for Yoko she left Sanrio before Hello Kitty was marketed and missed out on all the money. From my last blog, I shared the reasons as to why Hello Kitty’s main demographic was targeted to little girls;little girls that like to recieve cute gifts. Now the question is .. how do you explain the masses of grown women’s obsession over a cartoon Kitty with an adorable bow? The answer is simple, Tsuji realized it wasn’t right to be prejudice of age.
In an interview with Sanrio, Tsuji is said to have “recognized early on that cute could be sold to adults, too. As early as the 1970s, he was already creating lines of products for young women who wanted in some small way to hang on to their childhood. Japan was ripe for this, as we discuss in the book, but Sanrio developed it into a unique and profitable market.” Yes, we all know she (HK) is very profitable..the Hello kitty toaster and external hard drive are on my personal wish list!
We now know who created her, and that she wasn’t just another cartoon that exists amongst several of the other Japanese cartoons like anime; but instead, she was an experimental sketch that took over the world. Hello Kitty is much more than just a trinket and object to Hello Kitty fans ; she represents youth, hope, and innocence. She reminds us what it is like to be a kid, a little girl again.
Well we’ve learned almost everything about Miss Kitty; but, what can say about how her objectification? Lets face the facts: Hello Kitty is a cute/adorable female. As a self pro-claimed feminist and a woman studies minor, I can only say this: As much as I love and adore Hello Kitty, her objectification is not pleasant. Also it’s not just all about Hello Kitty and her independent yet fun life, she has friends and a boyfriend named Daniel. Daniel seems to be the perfect boyfriend. He does not revolve around her world, he is only apart of it. Hello Kitty is the perfect idol or icon that little girl/and even teenagers should admire in this generation that is consumed by the ”Hills” and myspace. I’m hoping that with our media constantly talking about celebrities, that Hello Kitty wont be bashed or devalued in sites sites such as hellokittyhell.com.
The message I bestow to girls and women is that it is alright to be ‘cute’ just as long as it isn’t your sole purpose in life, because like all Hello Kitty fans know; there is much more to life than cuteness. That is why we turn to Hello Kitty, it may be our fault that we objectify her, and maybe the Kitty craze is getting out of hand; but then again, maybe we should patch up Kitty’s image a little more. It would be nice to have Hello Kitty campaigned for animal rights, or FGM of young girls. Ofcourse it would be up to us to do so. Sanrio is too busy marketing Miss Kitty, and we don’t blame them; the world needs more Hello Kitty toasters! So the next time you see a Hello Kitty product don’t be hostile or quick to dismiss theres much more to it than nicely colored plastic/materials, just appreciate it.
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HK investagations
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11:58 pm
You must be asking yourself, “Hello Kitty Queen of Consumerism?” the answer is yes, she is. Why? One might ask, and I will explain why. The phenomenon of Hello Kitty has encompassed all kinds of consumer goods. Hello Kitty’s face is on practically any thing you can imagine. It is even on European sports cars, such as the Hello Kitty Ferrari. The company that created and shelter’s Miss Kitty is Sanrio. The more pratical question for many to ask is: Who is the genius and the mastermind behind Hello Kitty?.. or Miss Hello Kitty White (her full name)? Sanrio was founded by Mr. Shintaro Tsuji in 1960. Mr. Tsuji created a line of character merchandise designed for gift-giving occasions. Forty years later, Mr. Tsuji is the Chairman of Sanrio Company, Ltd., based in Tokyo and with distribution throughout Japan and Southeast Asia, the Americas and Europe. According to the official Sanrio website, Hello Kitty’s birth/creation was solely for the purposes of “gift giving.”
Learning about this allows us to come to terms with the incredible quantities of products plastered with Hello Kitty’s face. Being on products seems to be her only purpose in life as well as to be given as a gift to others, especially little girls. I must say we’ve learned a few new things about the adorable Hello Kitty. We now must delve into her life and the actual creation of HK, how it came about.
Now that you know, stay tuned to find out who actually drew her in the sketchbooks, Hello kitty did not just simply branch out of Japanese anime crazed culture, and how it all started. Answeres to these questions will be provided very soon in full detail! Till Next time, Miss Kitty Fan.
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HK investagations
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11:34 pm
, We all know about her. We’ve all seen her at least once in our lifetime. But what do we really know about Miss Hello Kitty? What year was she created in and who brought her into this world? What is it about the that cute little kitty with that eye catching red bow and no mouth, that makes grown women want to shop any stare all the merchandise branded with her face? These are the questions most non-Hello Kitty lovers want to know everything time a Hello Kitty fanatic (like me) bursts into joyful bliss after learning about such inventions like the Hello Kitty toaster. We will have to start with the basic bio of Miss Hello Kitty and then work our way into the world of Hello Kitty and her Kitty-Dom.
First off, Hello Kitty was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1974. It wasn’t until the 80’s that Hello Kitty gained full hysteria world wide. Hello Kitty’s character is that of a friendly girl who lives in a “seemingly perfect world,” theres nothing wrong about that! who can blame her?! well this seemingly perfect utopia isnt even half of it. She also has everything. Hello Kitty has a boyfriend named Dear Daniel, she writes to him a lot. Daniel is the perfect boyfriend he’s there for Hello Kitty whenever she needs him, he is loyal and gets her gifts, and when she wants to be alone and enjoy the company of her Kitty family and friends such as Mimi and ChocoCat, Daniel gives Hello Kitty her space leaving Hello Kitty independent and happy at the same time. Not only is Hello Kitty Perfect but also we have her face everywhere! On handbags, pens, pencils, paper, stickers, cell phone covers, charms, laptops, toasters, planes, cars, EVERYWHERE!
Hello Kitty is simply cute and adorable and will make any grumpy face crack a smirk just by staring at her visage. It is my quest to figure out more about Miss Hello Kitty a little further , research and investigate Hello Kitty, as a loyal fan I plan to fill you in about Miss Kitty pretty soon. Till next time!
Sources:
“Hello Kitty.” Who2? Biographies. Who2?, 2008. Answers.com 29 Sep. 2008. http://www.answers.com/topic/hello-kitty
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