Yay! New layout, everyone!! ^___^  Yayyy!!! It took me a whole week and a few days to do this layout!! Yikes! oO; Actually, I'm not really sure if that's long to do a layout... ^^; Since, well, I haven't really done a lot of layouts... I think this is my, euh, 4th layout I've ever done... ^^;; I know that's really not a lot compared to a lot of you, namely Kaithy and Sai. Sai is at her 9th version and Kaithy at her 7th, but Kaithy has a lot of versions already done, it's just that she doesn't put them up. ^^; So yeah, I really haven't done a lot of versions.

Y'know what? This is actually my first image edit! Yay for me! ^^ Thanks a lot, Nick, for having passed me Paint Shop Pro! 'Really appreciate it!! ^__^ Oh yeah, thanks a lot also for having answered all my questions about Paint Shop Pro, Nick! (Since I had no idea how to use it... oO;) I've edited a lot the background image, which is about Daisuke, hehe! ^^ Daisuke gazing at falling snow... dreamy, eh? You can see the original image by going to the links section~ 

Right, why is that in the links section? Shouldn't it be the "about" section or something? Well, actually, I've kind of forgot the links section... oO; Then I realized I forgot about it (since Nick reminded me) and I changed the "about" section I had into this "links" section. That's why I have "about" joined in my "links", if you bother to check it out. ^^;

Oh yeah, then I realized I should put this post with "December"... but in my mind, it was always "New Year's Eve" >>;; So I thought I would put it in January... 'Turns out not. ^^; 'Don't worry, I'll put this post in the December section once I'll have a post that's from January. ^^;;

Right, back to this background. It took me 22 tries to do this background image. Can you imagine that? oO; It took me 10 tries to tint Daisuke and kept the original colours with the eraser and finally made it fade into black, and 12 tries to insert that image into a black background, position it, adjust the paintbrush, add the snowflakes, soft focus and soften it, blur slightly, add the text (change multiple times the writing and size for satisfaction), position the text, blur the text, soften it... Oh god! oO; I'm too perfectionist! Definitely! >< Then my perfectionism acted again when deciding the font colors... > >; 'No wonder it took me so long!

Well, actually, another reason of it taking long is that I didn't even use Frontpage this time. I typed all the codes by my own! oO; Why? I don't really know myself... ^^; I think it's because I feel the codes are more organized that way... I mean, I'm using CCS now and when I use Frontpage, for each paragraph, it writes automatically a color and a size, and I wanted to change the size, so I went through all my codes, erasing, editing... Anyways, I prefer it like this. Sorry if you haven't understood anything! ^^;

Then I had to work out the JavaScript codes... > >; They're so complicated! T T My first JavaScript code took me at least 2 hours to make it work properly. My next looong code took me the whole night to make it work. Then I wanted to put that code elsewhere and it took me a whole morning to fix it properly the way I wanted... -____- Right, let's just hope you actually enjoy the "specialties" of these JavaScript codes.

I just hope it doesn't take you guys too long to load this page... ever since I added this new JavaScript code, the page actually takes a few seconds to load, compared to before, when it loaded immediately. oO; Oh, and I hope these layout works in all of your screen resolutions...! Oh yeah, and I just realized it's kind of hard to read this text with the snowflakes behind it. oO; I did put a brighter text color before, y'know, but I changed it because this color suits more to the layout. ^^ So, euh, highlight the text if you can't read well... Sorry! ><

So, you might have noticed this site is named "Nature's Tears"! ^^ Kari and I actually worked out this name when we were on the bus together. Nice, eh? We were actually going to the cinema for Nick's birthday that time. ^^; Well, it's mostly thanks to Kari that I have this name... ^^; But we also concluded I'll have to do a new layout each season. oO; I'll have to do like, blossoms for spring, leaves for autumn, etc. Yikes! But I think I'll make it... ^^ 

Oh yeah, happy new year, everyone! ^^ Remember, we're on new year's eve now, so it isn't out of place to let me with you a good year! I actually read Kaithy's blog, y'know, but I'm not going to thank everyone like that, sorry ^^; But I'll still say to you all : "Thanks for having been such kind friends with me this year!" ^^

Right, new year... That reminds me of new year resolutions. oO; Does anyone actually keep them? ^^; I kind of forgot those I did last year... =P Euh, yeah... Let's see, I'll try and be less forgetful, less perfectionist, and more kind to my friends! ^^ I think I'll keep the kindness part, but I'm not sure about the "less forgetful" though... ^^; Well, let's hope I keep them this year... ^_^

Oh yeah, thanks for all your Christmas presents! I really appreciate them! ^^  (Yeah, I know, I was kind of out of subject ^^;)

I went skiing today! Yay!! Skiing instead of a normal school day is way better any day, especially as the last day of school before the winter break. Definitely. The snow was nice for skiing. ^^ That means that the snow wasn't icy or anything, just perfect for skiing. The wind was icy though, but that's quite normal.

We departed from school at 8, I believe, and we arrived there at Bromont (the mountain) at 9:40. Kari and I decided to rent our skis, and we wasted probably a whole hour doing so. So finally, we put on our ski boots and our skis. The problem was, I had a lot of difficulties putting on my skis. Why? Was it because I was stupid enough to forget how to put them on? Fortunately, it wasn't that. ^^; The ski boots didn't fit very well to the skis, and as we were about to return to the renting house to fix them, I actually succeeding to put in my skis. So we finally did our first descent of the mountain (me with a few falls, but yeah), then, we went to the renting house because when I fell down a couple of times, the skis kept flying out. ==; 

Then, since we took out our skis and everything, we decided to eat. And that's when I realized my lunch box (yeah, that flashy yellow one) was gone. I wasted around 20 min. searching for it, and we finally concluded it was stolen so I just bought something to eat at the cafeteria. Then, I realized I had to call home because I told my dad I'd return at 4, when in reality, I'd return at 5:30. So I went to call, and realized it was a long distance and had to pay 3.90$...! We've actually tried paying, y'know, but after, they asked something else there, then something else after, then we just gave up calling. I learned one thing : long distance calls are complicated! I just felt sorry for my dad there... Oh, and we wasted a lot of time just trying to call, I believe.

Having concluded we kinda had a wasted morning, we went back outside to ski at around 12:15, I believe. Luckily, the people had done a good job re-arranging my skis so when I fell down there, they didn't fly out anymore. ^^ Oh yeah, at a time in the afternoon, when we were in the chair things that takes us up the mountain (what are they called?), Mila took something out of her pocket and her five-dollar bill which was in her pocket fell down to the trail below us oO; And that was an expert trail, and believe me, I am not good enough to do those trails, unless you don't count the fact I would fall down a million times. We did a bunch of intermediate trails though... Ever told you I have snow bumps? When you least expect it, you just suddenly arrive on one and just kinda jump with your skis... Ahh! Especially for me who's not that good at skiing. Oh yeah, I can't believe I missed the scene in which Mila crashed into a mini-snow hill at the side and her skis just went flying! oO; Well, I was behind them, and when I arrived, I only saw her laying on the snow at the side and putting on her skis. 

At one moment there, I just saw Mila and Kari going away.
   Me : Where are you guys going?
    Them : We're going to return the skis.
   Me : It's 2:30...
    Them : Yeah...?
   Me : They said 'quatre heures moins quart' (a quarter to 4) which means 3:45, no?
    Them : ... ... Ohh...!
   Me : *lol*
    Them : ... That means we've still got an hour? We love you, Yi-Ching!

So yeah, we skiied for like 3 hours in the afternoon, and we went back to the "chalet" and took our stuff and went back to the buses. And that was when a teacher called if anyone lost a lunch box... ==; So that's when I also realized I forgot my lunch box when I was putting my ticket on since I left everything on the ground and forgot my lunch box there. I actually thought of searching there, but I think they already took it back with them. So yeah, my lunch box didn't get stolen after all. ^^;

When we came back to Brossard, I found out my dad wasn't waiting for me after all. *sigh of relief* He actually told me that he thought the return time would be rather unsure, so he just waited for me to phone. Oh yeah, and I also had two cups of hot chocolate! They're good~ ^^

*stretches* Ahh, that was nice. ^^ Such a busy week! Well, actually, it's not the kind of busy that has me working for a long time when I get home from school. Well, what else then it could be?  It's actually the kind of busy that has me working in the morning before school and at lunch hour. Why do I have to work at these times instead of after school? Simply because we're on this team project in which we have to invent a play out of Bilbo's and another book's characters. Speaking of which, yesterday after school (it was the only time we met after school), our team went to the library. Since we couldn't find any free rooms for us to work in, we got the crazy idea of going outside to practice our play. (Should've seen Omar fall on ice! Well, his fault of having fun sliding on the ice first, y'know) Well, at the end, I had my hand (fingers included), ears, cheeks, legs, feet frozen stiff. Oh, and I had my nose running. Then I went back into the library to warm myself up, and I met Kaithy and for some reason, we started to go through origami books and wonder at how much stuff we could do. But at the end, we didn't take any of the books. ^^;

Before yesterday, it was the last day to sign ourselves up for the activity day, which happens during the last day of school before the Christmas Break. At first, Kari thought she couldn't go to the activities day, but it turns out she could, and she would go skiing, but she didn't have any sheet for the activities day. So I asked a sheet (and I was lucky the lady didn't ask me anything suspicious) so I gave it to Kari. The problem was, we needed a parents' signature. Fake one? Exactly. Except in this case, Kari's parents wouldn't get mad if they found out. So we expected Kari's big brother to fake one. Instead, he put his own signature... > >; Well, in the hope that they don't even check the signatures, we realized we need our medical card number, which Kari didn't have with her. I suggested the secretary, since they have our numbers, so we went up to the 3d floor floor. Luckily, the lady didn't ask for an ID card (which Kari didn't have with her) and only asked why did we needed it for. Very luckily, she didn't check the activities sheet since she would've seen the signature and the lady knew Kari's brother. So we got the number safely and we went down to sign Kari for her ski day. Wow, we sure are lucky! ^^ Oh yeah, Kari's birthday tomorrow, and we're going to see "The Last Samurai"!

The weather is getting cold these days... You can feel the slight cold breeze almost every morning now. With a little luck, you might see some snow tingling the grass. This morning, the first thing I saw was a thin layer of snow carpeting the roofs, the cars, and the grass slightly white. It was like morning dew, except it's white. ^^

December... first thing that comes into mind is Christmas for me. Christmas trees, Christmas lights, Christmas decorations, Christmas carols, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas joy.  With it comes the snow. The snow... so pretty, so pure. With the snow comes nice memories. 

I remember the first time I met the snow (keep in mind I never saw the snow until I came to Canada)... It was quite a long time ago. It snowed for a few days, until around around 20 cm of snow was stacked. We played around in the snow. We did snowfights, snowmen (luckily, it was the sort of sticky snow). It was a blast. I came home with my cheeks red as apples.  It isn't only this memory. There's the first time I skied (including the tumbling downs and etc), building this snow-home with a friend of mine, or even the simple thing of drinking hot chocolate near a windowand watching the snow gently glide down to the ground. 

Next thought that December reminds me of... the thought of winter break. *lol* OK, I dunno which thought comes next. Birthdays? Last day of school before break? I simply don't know. I just hope we actually have a white Christmas this year. Santa, that'll be my Christmas gift I want this year. ^^

Wow, I've just realized how much I talked about, and only about December. Want to hear about other stuff? Hmm. The music class after school I attend is really helping me improve! I have ease playing my pieces in normal music classes now. ^^ Spanish is really coming along great. I have a high mark in something I hadn't studied for. ^^ (baaad Yuki) Math, I have this stupid stupid error that made my mark lower than what it should've been. That error was that I didn't put the "demarche" since I only saw one line there, so I only put the answer. > >; But I'm getting higher marks in Math too.

I think I'm improving in Racquetball... but my wins and losses are like... alternating. oO; Like, there's one class where I win all my matches, and another where I lose all my matches. Well, it's getting more stable now, I have like 1 win and 1 loss per match. With luck maybe even 2 wins. Oh yeah, in English, we had to present this oral, and we got feedbacks from what how we presented the oral. I actually got a comment that was "You well prepared your oral."! *lol* What's so funny about that? The thing is, I didn't even practice what I'd say even once. I admitted that to my teammates, who laughed with me, and the guy just said "Euh... then you have a natural talent of doing that." :P