There's a new Mayor in town!

In a little over a month I'll be taking my first vacation in 4 years. I've hinted at it in past journals but it's so close I can almost taste it! My older brother is getting hitched and the family is flying out for the big to-do! 

Wow, I can't believe it's been a month since I've written a journal! That means it's been a little over a month since we've been in the new place and it's time to pay rent soon. o.o

We finally did it! We've moved in to the new place. The process took forever with a lot of hurdles to climb but we're finally here. Such a good feeling to be in your own space with your own rules and your own stuff! 

So after weeks of searching we finally found a place to stay! We even came in under budget and in an awesome neighbourhood. Thank goodness for friends. I messaged a friend of ours who works at a realty agency and she knew of a place she just sold where she happened to remembered the new owner saying they wanted to rent once they got finished fixing up the place. The place wasn't even on the market yet but she gave him a call and said after he finished renovating with brand new everythings he'd be happy to have us! We're supposed to be moving in next week and I couldn't be happier. Well… a bit more space would be nice but for the price and the area it can be over looked. 

It really does…

We've been searching for a place to live for a little while now and it seems to bring frustration and disappointment every time we turn a corner.

It's really not possible to purchase a home here unless you've got a significant amount of savings and you're married with a job that pays you more than you're worth.

You'd think renting would be easier, but finding a place within your budget that is decent to live and in an area where you won't get murdered in your sleep or have to wake up 2 hours earlier so you can drive the entire island just get to work is proving to be just as hard.

It's times like this I really wish I didn't have to move back home after I finished school.

What are you searching for? Are you having any luck with it?

It's been quite some time since I've really done anything vector related… We'll that's not true. I've been working with Vectors in my web designs and various other projects, but on dA I've been really lapse in this area. I plan to rectify this during 2013 and would really love some help from the deviantART community. I started my stint with dA by being the Gallery Mod for the Vector gallery and it was an amazing time of my life. I met so many amazing artists and featuring them was so special to me.

To help me get back in to the swing of things `ChewedKandi has given me an amazing opportunity to write for Vectuts+. I've already got a tutorial hosted with them with a few more in the works. But, what I'd really like to do is rekindle that feeling of warmth you get from featuring talented artists, so I'll be hosting some interviews with various vector artists in the months to come. What I'd love from the Vector Community is the names of some amazing vector artists you've come across in your time on dA. These can be vector artists or any style or genre, using any program from Illustrator to InDesign, Illustrators to Typographers and anywhere in between.

I'm also very much open to dailyD suggestions. I've been terrible in this department since I started working full time for dA but I plan to change that. I'd appreciate vector art for dailyD suggestions but if the work is truly amazing I'd feature just about anything. :)

I can't believe the end of the year is fast approaching. The holiday season always seems to depress me just a bit, not entirely sure why but I just can't shake that feeling of dread.

In any case, I'd like to extend well wishes to you all and a happy holiday, regardless of what that holiday might be.  May your days be devious and bright.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Where do we go from here?

I've grown to hate the adage "if it ain't broke, done fix it". People on the internet like to throw this saying around whenever things deviate, even the slightest bit, from what they consider to be the norm. Working in the digital world, things don't need to break in order to make progress. I mean honestly, nothing was wrong with the cassette tape, it didn't break, and yet everyone now owns an MP3 player. Floppy disks were perfectly adequate, but alas, we all carry jump drives that can hold more information than computer hard drives could back in the early 90's.

Just because something works, doesn't mean it can't work better. Just because something is new, doesn't mean it should be feared. Should we stop inventing because we already have something that works similar to something else? Why bother with creating what's already been recreated?

If you haven't already, embrace the ever changing digital world. Take comfort in the fact that the only norm in this future is the constant state of change we're in. We're not fixing anything, we're improving everything.

</rant>

Hands down one of my favourite films of all time. It just doesn't feel like halloween until I've watched this movie. I used to watch it in shamed solitude until a few years ago Glee did a rocky horror episode and I discovered Cory actually watched the movie and liked it also! I was stunned! Normally he doesn't watch these kinds of 'out there' films. We've made it a point to watch it together since then. If you've not seen it I highly recommend it!

This one neither of us had watched. I've seen the remake of it called Repo Men made a couple of years ago but not the original musical that was based off of. This was a pleasant surprise. It was a lot darker than I thought it was going to be and very bloody so beware if you're squeamish and plan to watch. It has a lot of singing to it... More than I thought it would. Most of the lines were done to music, it wasn't acting with musical numbers here or there, it was singing your lines with musical numbers here and there. I'm glad we added it to the list of halloween musicals to watch. Turned out pretty great in the end.

Carrying on with the Halloween Movie theme we've watched Little Shop of Horrors.  We decided to go in a musical route after the catchy song from Hocus Pocus. LIttle Shop of Horrors has so many amazing musical moments it's insane. I've not watched this movie in years and remembered every single song. Such a great experience. I only wish I could have seen it on broadway!

When I think of halloween the movie Hocus Pocus always comes to mind. It's such a classic I can't imagine going a year without watching it. It also happens to be one of `shuttermonkey's favourite movies of all time, seeing that he was born on Halloween. We've decided to watch it a little early this year so we can get some other great spooky themed movies in every week up to his birthday. I've decided to do a feature for each movie so bear with me, or be on the look out for more journals featuring artwork based on some amazing movies! 

I missed it!

Seems I missed my 9^th anniversary. Completely skipped past me this year with all the stuff on my plate. Anyway, yay me! I'll just have to do something big for the 10 year mark next year! I can't believe I've been on the site for 9 years, it's crazy to think about.

Halloweeny

This is by far my favourite time of year. Halloween is almost here and fall has officially fallen. I can't explain it. October just makes me feel giddy. Maybe it's all the candy I get to eat. During October I can buy all the candy my heart desires and not have the cashiers judge me for it.

Did you guys see the official October journal skins I posted? Was a nifty side project dA hired me to do for you guys. Hope you all dig the style. Dark skins seem to be all the rage and I just couldn't resist offering it in multiple colours.

Holidays

With the winter holidays coming up I couldn't resist taking a few days off to visit the beach. It was far too short, but I took a few pics of my time on the cay to help relive and hold me over till I can get a proper vacation. How about you guys? Any fancy vacation plans this year? You should totally come here. ¬.¬

Guilty Party!