Hey everyone, and welcome back to Miss Dream! It's been exactly two weeks since my last real update, and I'm glad to be back at work around these parts. But of course, I did have a bit of fun while I was gone...specifically, with Mario Knight of Sailormoon Uncensored and Holly of Moon Collection!

We spent a night baking Sailormoon pastries (for those interested, here's a link to the Facebook gallery, it's public: The Internet gets together to make cookies and cupcakes in ridiculous shapes), and then spent a day together hiking at the Helderberg Escarpment (minus Holly, who unfortunately had a sprained ankle -- get better soon!!). Pictures of that are also on Facebook here: Hiking with the Dream Team.

Lots of fun was had, and we plan to meet up again together soon. It was really an honor to meet both Holly and Mario Knight, who were amazingly sweet and funny. I can't believe that we all live close enough together to meet up now on a semi-regular basis -- and when we do, we'll post some pictures here for those of you curious about our IRL shenanigans.

Of course, while we've been away some people have taken the opportunity to bash our site, thinking that we wouldn't be aware of it or that we wouldn't respond to it. Since certain people have called into question our translation abilities, we've decided to put the issue to rest once and for all; anyone curious about our Japanese proficiency can check out our new page dedicated to displaying the translation staff's credentials, which you can now find on our staff page. Rather than bickering with people who hide behind anonymous handles who claim to have "native speakers" on their translation staff, we've put the issue to rest by letting everyone see for themselves that we hold degrees in Japanese from SUNY Albany and the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, as well as hold level 2 JLPT certifications. So don't listen to people who say otherwise about us; check out our credentials for yourself and make your own judgment.

Lastly, check out our latest release: Chibiusa's Picture Diary #4. This release contains an extra "page" with our translator's notes, which is well worth checking out even for those of you who have read the Mixx or Tokyopop translations of this particular short story before, since the official English language companies never bothered to explain the cultural implications of the Naruru and Ruruna and the two gangsters harassing the pawn shop owner. Working with Icera of Neo Nobility has been a truly rewarding experience, and we plan to finish the rest of the short stories together, including the 3 Exam Battles, Casablanca Memories, and the Lover of Princess Kaguya. So look out for those over the next couple of weeks!

That's all for today folks. Translation requests are once again open in the forums, so we hope to see you there. Have a good day!

EDIT: Happy birthday to staff member Pat, AKA Cha0sKnight81 on the forums!!