I'm not entirely sure where the days and weeks have gone recently, but I thought it was about time for another journal. We are now 3 days into November which means a number of things.

NaNoEmo

Firstly, today marks the 3rd day of NaNoEmo. The group challenges emoticonists to fill the month with an array of emoticons and it is fantastic to see the community rising to meet the challenge. Over the last few months the emote gallery has been in a bit of a lull, so it is awesome to see so many emoticonists (and a few new faces) active once again and filling my inbox with brilliant pieces of work.

So far we have over 30 registered participants and it's not too late to sign up. Simply head to this journal for more details. If you just fancy checking out the emoticons, definitely devwatch the NaNoEmo group.

Emoticon advent calendar

With Hallowe'en now behind us and Christmas around the corner, Krissi001 has got to work and released the information on this year's Emoticon Advent Calendar. This is a community project which is hosted each year, which follows the concept of an ordinary advent calendar, with one 'door' being opened each day to reveal an emoticon deviation.

This year Krissi has doubled the number of slots and opened the project up to both animated and static entries, with two calendars running at the same time. If you want to take part and design one of the entries, head over to this page where you can find all the information.

Emote Secret Santa

This week also saw the EmoteSecretSanta come out of hibernation ready for the annual gift giving event. For those unfamiliar with the concept, the group gathers a list of participants and then assigns each person one emoticonist to make an emote for, and one person they will receive an emoticon from.

The gift giving takes place at Christmas, but the group is open to all religions, with options available for those that may celebrate other (or no) festivals in that period.

To combat past issues with new emoticonists not quite knowing what they are signing up for, this year the group are asking that all participants have made at least 5 emoticons. If you would like to join but have yet to make that many, you have a few weeks to get those pixels together to meet the new requirement.

The sign up list will be released in the next few weeks, so if you are interested I suggest watching the group for further updates.

Moustaches

And last but not least, Movember is now upon us. As I can't grow a moustache, Syn has decided to grow one for me. So keep an eye on my avatar over the next month to see how big it grows xD