Like those tween bloggers, I have the same excuse/reason for not blogging: I’m stressed. Like, really stressed. Band + this school year = not mixing well. The workload has at least doubled since last year, and I actually find myself struggling to keep up. That’s never happened before.

So lately, to overcome all of this, I’ve been trying to find time to relax. It’s not much, but it’s worth it. If any of you are worrying about grades (like me), don’t worry about it. I’m not saying that you should just stop trying and fail everything, but don’t worry. Here’s a lovely quote from my Spanish teacher:

“Grades and GPA won’t get you that far in life. Sure, they’ll get you far, but not that far. It’s the heart that will take you where you want to go.”

Pure brilliance. And a great excuse for parents.

Just find what you like to do most or what relaxes you the most, whether it be watching TV, sewing, reading, sleeping, sculpting, sleeping, eating, sleeping… you can guess mine. Just kidding, I actually do more than sleep. Playing the piano really relaxes me. I wish I had access to a piano 24/7, that would be nice.

Really, in 10 years, are you going to care what you made on that Calculus test? Are you really going to care about how you did on that AP English quiz? Probably not. Again, I’m not saying you should give up (because giving up is for losers!), but don’t degrade yourself. You aren’t better or worse than other people because of a number written on a sheet of paper.

(I’m a little off my game, this is so much shorter than my normal posts. D:)

But really, the heat isn’t the worst part. Band camp is four days. Get there at 7:15 AM, leave at 8:30 PM. Hooray… 13 hours of endless marching and music. Somebody, please save us.

Now for some people, I realize marching band has some stereotypes. One of the biggest stereotypes is that we’re all scrawny weaklings that can’t do crap. I’d like to rectify that stereotype. I would also like to say that I’m positive most bands work more than their football team.

Bandies are intense.

1. We deal with heat

You see that picture? Yeah. It’s the sun. Like I said, my band is outside for 8 hours a day during band camp. When school resumes, we’re outside for 3 hours in that sun. No shade. We’re on black pavement. What does my school football team do? They hide under the shade in that soft grass tossing a ball. Do they work on pavement? No. And when they’re training and running into each other, they’re inside with air conditioning.

And when we have Saturday camp, we’re outside ALL day. 9 hours. Even if we do go inside, it’s for 30 minutes for lunch and bathrooms.

2. We exercise

Don’t you love this clip art? I do.

…a LOT more than everyone thinks. Here’s our morning schedule during band camp and Saturday camp days:

First, we stretch. Easy. 100 jumping jacks come next, not that bad. Then, we do crunches. 3 sets of 45, to be exact. After that, we do 100 Russian twists, plus 10 push ups right after. Repeat that 2 times. That’s a total of 300 Russian twists and 30 push ups. Right after that, we get up and run around the parking lot 3 times. Oh right, we do all our exercises on pavement. Black, hot, pavement with glass and pebbles from everybody’s cars.

And those aren’t the only push ups we do. When our instructor gets mad, down for 5. If we don’t listen, we’re on the honor roll, down for another 5. When our director gets mad, down for 10 or more. Keep that up the rest of the day, and we’ve done at least 75 more. They get mad at us a lot.

3. We deal with cold

Not only do we deal with heat, we deal with cold as well! Band season runs from June to November. So when it’s not hot, it’s freaking cold. We have Saturday camps in winter as well, and we still have to run. Running + cold makes us all sick, but we deal with it and keep on going.

4. We have muscle

Well, everybody except the clarinets (my instrument), to be exact. Clarinets don’t need to hold up their instrument. Everybody else does. Sousaphones, saxophones, trumpets, flutes, euphoniums, trombones, and mellophones all have to work. Flutes have to keep their flutes parallel to the ground, which means they have to hold them up for hours on end. Think about those poor euphoniums/baritones. They have to hold up that thing with their arms. After 4 hours, it gets tiring.

Most importantly…

5. We don’t care about what others say

I know that I used to care what others thought of me. After joining marching band, I’d feel comfortable going to school dressed as a clown. Why? My friends, my band family, would laugh with me and not at me.

Oh, and we also have to memorize our extremely hard music, while remembering where to march in the field, while staying in the form and remembering our marching technique. (And then, only then, do we go do our homework.)

Have I convinced you that we’re awesome yet? I hope so. I’m going to get ready for the last practice before band camp now.

Now if you’ve been Twitter stalking me lately, you would have noticed that I’ve been maniacally searching for the Sailor Moon manga/DVDs. Yes, I am that obsessed. I recently bought bootlegs of the entire series (I was well aware they were bootlegs, seller informed me), and I bought half the manga. *Yay me*

In my research, I found that there are a lot of bootleg versions of the anime. I mean, I would have bought the official versions, but they’re about $200/season, and there are 4 seasons with subtitles (they never dubbed the 5th season, so if you want subs you HAVE to get a bootleg, or learn Japanese. I’d actually love to do that)… so that in itself runs $800. Too bad I don’t have that kind of money. >.> At least the one I got was of good quality.

So the point of this post is to tell you how to differentiate between official DVDs and bootlegs, regardless of series/movie.  Now, I don’t hate bootlegs, and I see why people are against them, but I wasn’t planning on spending $800 on my favorite anime.

If you’re just getting a movie, don’t get a bootleg. The majority of bootleg movies are bad quality. I know this because a few years back I unknowingly bought some bootleg movies of extremely crappy quality. Just don’t do it.

Research

You generally find bootlegs online, in other countries, or at Chinatown (if they even sell DVDs?). I did a lot of research in looking for this series. First, familiarize yourself with the official DVD/s. Look at the disc box, the paper slip in cover, and the prices. If possible, look at the actual disc – I bet you could find photos some online. These don’t vary much in movies, so it may be harder to define a bootleg. In boxsets and series, however, bootlegs seem to be more prominent.

R1 & R2 vs. R0/Region Free

R1 stands for region 1, which plays in North America. R2 stands for Region 2, which plays in Asia. There is no such thing as R0 (region zero) or Region Free DVDs. Those are “supposed” to play anywhere around the world. If you find a DVD that says R0 or Region Free, it is a bootleg. You can find where it says this on the back of the disc  box at the bottom, where all the names and credits are. I managed to snag a few pictures of some R1 labels (because I live in North America! )

Yay! Sailor Moon (my last official DVD, back when they were on the market and still cheap -.-), Spongebob, and Harry Potter!

Number of discs

This applies to boxsets only. Sailor Moon has 200 episodes. One bootleg had the entire series on 9 discs. That’s about 22 episodes/disc! The official versions have 3-4 episodes per disc. But… 22? Imagine the horrid quality!

Prices

Last but not least, the prices. The price range of a boxset should vary minimally, if any at all. As I said earlier, the price of an average boxset of Sailor Moon is about $175-$200. When a seller has a boxset up for $20-$40, a bell should go off in your head. More importantly, when a seller sells the entire series for $40-$200, an even bigger bell should go off.

Seller feedback

If you’re looking on eBay, check the seller’s feedback. If you’re looking at a bootleg set, odds are they’ve already sold one, so check the feedback and see what other people say of its quality. And make sure the seller has relatively high feedback. I don’t buy from anybody with lower than 98.5%. It’s a weird thing I have.

In  conclusion…

There are many more ways to define a bootleg, such as difference in cover slips or the look of the disc, but these are the basic but most important details.

Now, I am all for the official releases. If I could, I would buy the entire run of the anime officially. But they’re really expensive. I heard there might be a re-release (supposedly Funimation may have the rights to SM now? Ah, totally different subject), and if there is, you bet I’m getting it. But I’m going to have to deal with bootlegs for now. ^-^;;

… And there you have it. Don’t get ripped off. ^^

Imma be, Imma be, Imma Imma Imma be… just kidding, I’m a wasp.

So, after listening to the radio excessively on the road trips I’ve been going on, I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 most annoying mainstream songs. It’s just my opinion, and the fact that I’ve heard these songs multiple times just contributes to the “annoyingness” I get out of them.

1. Imma Be – Black Eyed Peas

I hear this on the radio way too much. They keep saying, “Imma be, Imma be, Imma Imma Imma be,” and I just think, Imma be WHAT?! I know they say it later, but still. One can only take so many bees.

2. Tik Tok – Ke$ha

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s catchy. But when you hear people humming and singing it wherever you look, it gets right under your skin. I have nnothing against Ke$ha, I just wish she’d sing real songs. She sang, actually, sang, on SNL once and was brilliant.

3. Nothin’ on You – B.o.B

This song was okay the first time I heard it. Then I heard it again. And again. The chorus is okay, but the rapping… feh. I just don’t like rapping, and this got stuck in my head constantly.

4. Airplanes – B.o.B

I absolutely love the part that Hayley Williams sings. Lovelovelove to death. And then B.o.B comes and starts rapping… and I get mad. I wish it was just Hayley Williams singing the entire time! Darn those rappers, messing up songs with great potential…

5. Baby – Justin Bieber

First, let me address that I am indifferent in the Bieber lovers/Bieber haters war. And this song isn’t on the radio that much, but when I hear little second graders singing it… it makes me worry about the future generations. I also heard some kid singing some Ke$ha song, and it wasn’t an appropriate one… but that’s besides the point. It just worries me. And plus, why is Ludacris rapping?! It’s so out of place.

And that concludes my annoying songs roundup. I really do fear for the generations to come.

On another unrelated note, does anybody have a Livejournal? I do! If you’re looking for friends, feel free to friend me! I’ll have some random bits & bobs posts, mostly related to Pokemon & Sailor Moon merchandise

I’m also horribly addicted to reading fanfictions.

Yes, it’s true. I love Sailor Moon fanfictions, to be specific. That anime series (I wish I had the manga) has been with me since as far as I can remember. It’s like a way to keep my childhood alive, so to speak. Now I waste endless hours on just reading fanfictions, when I could be doing something productive. -.o

But hey, it’s summer, I get to do what I want. I just wish I wanted to do something that would help me in the future.

Major things are happening back in the works of LunaBelle. I have an entire site revamp planned. I’ll also be blogging regularly now. As for the things to be included in the revamp, I have tutorials, articles, some resources, and a couple of other things planned. Not to mention a new site design. Here’s a preview for your wondering eyes:

I’m excited. Right now, I’m about to convert it to WordPress. If you have any suggestions for content, please comment! I’m open to all new ideas. Yipeee!

1) CSS Remix

This gallery is probably my favorite because of the variety of websites that are posted. You can find anything from personal blogs to corporate websites, all of which have great designs. I also like the layout of the website — you can view previews of each design showcased.

2) CSSbake

Another favorite gallery because of its uniqueness. CSSbake allows you to view websites based on the elements (rather, “ingredients”) of the website.

3) CSSelite

4) CSS Heaven

5) CSS Drive

And yet another favorite. I like the way the websites are categorized.

6) CSS Heroes

7) CSS Mania

This gallery is updated very frequently.

8) Best Web Gallery

It’s pretty up to date, and it also includes Flash websites.

9) CSS Beauty

10) CSS Zen Garden

It’s not necessarily a gallery of websites. It’s a gallery of CSS stylesheets. This website demonstrates how versatile CSS can be. Definitely worth a visit.

And there you have it, 10 great CSS galleries.

I’m also still coding a premade layout and writing up the first part of an Understanding CSS tutorial. The first bit of the tutorial is only going to cover the basics (syntax and usage), and then the rest will get into the selectors and properties and such.

I haven’t much to say for this housekeeping post. However, I do plan on actually posting “real” posts soon. You know, of my rants and such. And this pretty much ends my “oh look I’ve updated” post. And I definitely think you should check out the new brush set, baha.

No, LunaBelle isn’t completely functional yet. There might be some kinks here and there, I don’t have a search bar ready, or a contact form, or any of that fancy sh’bang. The only page that is actually somewhat complete is the About page… woopsies. I have stuff planned, though. It just depends on how long it will take me.

I’m now hosted by the lovely Kya, and my experience has been great. I highly recommend her. This blog is powered by WordPress, which is great for the most part… except all the excess BULK. But that’s a story for another time. I’ll be getting the finishing touches done soon, and you will be able to view those updates via the sidebar. Mmm, I’m running out of things to say for this first post.

All I can say is, I’ve worked hard. I think my work has paid off, and hopefully I’ll actually have something to call “content” in a few days (weeks… months…). And if you find something that’s broken, please tell me! ^^