oh, I can hear them saying, keep on dreaming even if it breaks your heart

I found another "Meet the..." video for Team Fortress 2! Meet the Sandwich.

Yes, seriously.

To celebrate the coming Year of the Tiger (which, this year, is accompanied by the element Metal, making it the ideal year to perfect your armored takeover beast), Miss Risusipo Jun has completely redecorated her sim, and a lovely job she's done of it, too.


(The fire on the beach. Don't forget to pick up an acorn to roast!)

She's set up several little homes, made of acorns, naturally, and the adorable factor is very, very high.


(Nomming the piano. I told you. Did I not tell you? Twee, I say. TWEE!)

The homes are simple, with comfortable furnishings, pillows, futons, and simple fireplaces. Very few sculpts, all in all, but very cute. Homey, even. Peaceful, with the water rushing past the mini-waterwheel, and the barely-there chimes heard near the shrine.


(Chipmunk on the bridge. Konbanwa, Acorn Valley!)

Everything's in epic Tiny scale--by which I mean, huge, in comparison to the average Tiny size, where bridges and landmark pushpins are involved, yet scaled appropriately for most things one can sit on and nap in (there are a few cases where this is not so, but they're truly exceptions to the main).


(Small but sumptuous arboreal creations abound. Including the cute little chipmunk toes seen here.)

There's a lot of just plain nifty little details, too. A spa for Tinies. Leaf shadows underneath the standard Linden oak trees. The caps of the acorns generally match the bark on the larger trees, and while that's not standard for RL acorns, here, we buy it.


(Wandering a sim devoted to acorns? At this point, expected in SL. Wandering a sim devoted to acorns in a chipmunk avatar? Priceless.)

The point of the thing, though, is not to laud the invention of one acorn-obsessed Japanese lady. No, no no. Did I mention there was an acorn hunt? For kimonos and yukatas, designed for men and women, to be used in conjunction with her chipmunk (and, quite likely, her otter) avatars.

And if you don't have one? Find the box with the yellow pointer and pick one up for L$7! How cool is that?


(In addition to being cute as all get-out, did I mention blinking is standard? Though there is a head included that doesn't blink at all.)

This is the Black kimono found in one of the acorns, for girls, naturally. It comes with the head bow.


(Yukatas for wee Asian mammals. Hajimemashite yoroshiku onegaishimasu. And there's at least one additional yukata color.)

This is one of the mens' offerings, a yukata in blue sized for Tinies, with one of the male wigs she's created (though it's somewhat hysterical seeing a 'bald' chipmunk!), available at the Shrine (more on that later). There's also a yukata in black, and a male-wrapped kimono named "Iono" (making seven acorns in all).


(If you're a wee chipmunk lass covered in pink flowers? I think the greeting starts and ends at Domo! Or maybe Kawaii! Don't you think?)

She's even made a lovely little teahouse, with shoji screens, low tables, and oranges in a tiny bamboo bowl. (You can even pick up a Tiny orange to take home.)


(The adorable Tiny-sized Japanese open-air vacation hotel.)

She's really outdone herself. The hotel, the comfy hostel up the hillside, and the waterfall beneath, heaped lovingly with bamboo--it's wonderful.


(All the decorations you see here? In terms of the year-festival ones, the simenawa donguri over the door, the two variants of donguri kadomatu outside the door, plus some things inside? All free. There's a small variety of really great freebie items to pick up and cherish, here.)

Three-room cottages are unusual, even on the grid, but this one is just charming. A lone sock drying by the fire, the low table for eating, an ice pack if your head hurts, and plenty of options for sleeping if you get tired--plus pictures of your 'host family' on the narrow shelves. It's a wonderful little dwelling, I wish she had it for sale.


(The gachapon selection at the Shrine.)

That's Mr. Lobelt Farrjones, to my right, who happened to be in the Shrine when I took this pic. He's wearing the black yukata for men, and he's standing next two two gachapons and a shoe-base giver. Gachapons are catching on in a big way on the grid, though they're still mostly restricted to Japanese sims.

The usual way they work is to pay them a set amount, which will then give you a random toy, item of clothing, bit of food or candy--what-have-you. On the grid, they've expanded the concept to everything--homes, outfits, avatars, hair, eyes...it's absolutely limitless. In Miss Jun's case, once per day, while she's running this, you can stop in and touch each gachapon twice, and get a free Tiny-wearable sandal (either the left, or the right, and at least geta or zōri, if not waraji or okobo>--or you can get one of seven Asian hairstyles designed for Tiny avatars.

(I'm assuming the twice means you could, conceivably, get a matching pair of sandals, but it's a gachapon, sometimes they just don't work like that.)


(The Shrine to the Radiant Acorn.)

And don't forget to check the Radiant Acorn at the shrine!

In other news, Blizzard, home of WoW, is apparently developing a new MMO. They say it will be "significantly different" from WoW; sources close to the company, how'ver, dismiss the "new MMORPGFPS" format as simple hype around a title Blizzard has already announced--namely, Starcraft II.

I'm not entirely sure how "space-based MMO" equals the new social/interactive MMORPG (with FPS tendencies). I am amused at the sarcastic reference to "Mr. & Mrs. Smith Online". Though to be fair there, if we don't have the chance to play Angelina Jolie with a gun? Not interested.