First Holiday pic!

The first holiday picture for Squimpleton & Friends has been made!

It is about Caroling, and will have Squimpleton, Sileghea, and Horgeeman! It took me a lot of time, especially since I’m not as good at digital drawing as I wish I could be.

The design itself is viewable right here.

I also have a paper draft Xmas picture for Pog, but I do not know if I will finish it in time.

The design is slowly but surely being added to nearly every Cafepress product. See?

Difference between Cafepress and Zazzle

For anyone wondering why there are no unique pictures on my Cafepress store, it’s because I haven’t made any so far!

The only “picture” is a collection of the original 5 Sileghea pictures.

See, the Zazzle Store is called “Squimpleton & Friends”

But the Cafepress Store is called “Squimpleton & Friends: Special Events”. There’s a reason why I called it that. I had decided long before I actually put up any pictures whatsoever on either site that I would use Cafepress only for limited edition pictures. These are more intricate and will be available on any item where the picture fits.(I’m not one to go according to the recommended pic sizes. I do what is best for me as I design) .

Currently the Cafepress store only has a collection – 5 Sileghea pictures that were put together into one. All of the Sileghea collection items will eventually be taken down sometime early December.

However I will be making a xmas picture! It’ll be available at the beginning of December and will be taken down in mid January – hopefully to make way for a Valentine’s day picture?

Official Squimpleton & Friends Lens

Will Post Nov 17
While there already was a Sileghea lens, there was no full Squimpleton & Friends lens up yet.

Until now.
The page is really more of a main navigation for extra lenses, but I’m sure you’ll find some interesting info there.

Speaking of Lenses, there is also a lens for Emoti Moto!

True, Emoti’s technically an extra character, but you never truly know what the future may bring!

Also, check out the gallery’s new look! Bright colors and a new button system to fall in love with.

Horgeeman, Pog, and Emoti Moto

For anyone out there who has seen the Zazzle shop, you probably are aware that there are multiple characters out there. While Sileghea may be my favorite character, there are three current others: Horgeeman, Pog, and Emoti Moto.

Horgeeman is supposed to be a main character, but I’m actually having a hard time coming up with stuff for him so he may drop down to an extra.

Pog is a true extra in the sense that he wasn’t even created for Squimpleton World! He was just a little project I did to practice on Fireworks, but I loved him so much I made him into a Squimpleton character. However, because he is so different in style, I couldn’t make him part of the main world. Instead he is Squimpleton’s favorite comic book character.

Emoti Moto was an extra in concept, and will probably always remain one. Unlike the other characters who have short sayings that are somewhat humorous, Emoti Moto gives a poem according to her mood. There are three moods: depressed, angry, and happy.

Causes Lens

I have now create a lens for all of the Squimpleton-supported causes. Yeah, there’s not much now but someday there will be!

See if for yourself

Better Late than Never

I never got around to uploading my design for Breast Cancer Awareness month, but now I have TWO versions of that design done.

I can’t seem to pick one. They’re not that different, only the background, Sileghea’s smile, and Sileghea’s saying changed.
I guess I’ll put them both up eh?

Here they are: What do you think?

I might keep both. Later on I’ll have to remember to upload these to Zazzle and to Sileghea’s lens, as well as the future Causes lens.

Yes, the pics are HUGE. They have to be to look good on T-shirts.

Sileghea lens

When I created Squimpleton & Friends, I only had two characters: Squimpleton & Sileghea (pronounced Suh-lee-jah).

Since Squimpleton is me, I decided to make her special by NOT making designs for her. She’ll only appear in group specials.
So Sileghea was my first actual designable character and I loved her; I made 5 pictures right off the bat.

Even though I have more characters in my head, and even on my computer, I’ve decided to celebrate my Sileghea with a squidoo lens all about her.

I know I don’t have much in there (hey, I have college to worry about!), but be sure to take a peek!

Music Review: Fly on the wall

When it comes to Miley Cyrus (and Hannah Montana) ’s music, people tend to either love her or hate her. There’s rarely any middle. I was one of the ones who didn’t like her music. However, around the time of the Disney Channel Games, I did see a clip of her singing Fly on the Wall and for the time I fell in love with one of her songs.

Why?

It showed off her:

• Vocal maturity – the ability to adapt a voice to feelings, without going overboard
• Vocal strength – the ability to support the low and high extremes of a song just as well as the middle extremes
• Experimental Interest – This is a very different song for her. It may be a pop song, but there are so many reminiscence of early 90’s rock. The vocal range she chose is also deeper and darker than most of her other songs.

However, that was a review of her short live performance.  That would mean that if I ever went to a Miley Cyrus concert I would be able to look forward to a great Fly on The Wall, but how does it compare with the official album version? So yesterday, while I was browsing Amazon to see what songs I could buy with my Pepsi points, I remembered how much I liked the performance video and I decided I’d get the official version.

But unfortunately the album version of Fly on the Wall is extremely disappointing and childish.

How could a song be so different?

Well it starts off the same, but the refrain is absolutely, completely butchered. The effects on her voice while she is singing at that time are

1. unnecessary. She does not need to make her voice sound like that of a “fly” to captivate an audience and
2. horrible. The very beauty of the song is the clean maturity of her voice – having her sound like 3 little kids singing at once just breaks the awe and
3. the extra effects added to the men who actually say Fly on the wall also slightly break the mood, but not as much as the effects on her voice.

What else is worse in the album version?

• The Bridge (The section that starts with “a little communication” and ends with “too much she say he say”) There’s not that much oompf during the bridge, which was actually a selling point in the performance version because, while the verses are where she showed off her vocal maturity, the bridge is where she showed off her vocal strength and the control of that strength. Unfortunately in the album version there is not that much strength and it totally renders the bridge to an almost bland state.
• The End. The ending of the performance video went “don’t you wish that you could be a fly on the wall” one last time (without the whole refrain) just after she went “don’t cha”. This was a very abrupt ending that left me actually wanting for more. This teasing effect had the same attitude as the song and made it a perfect ending. Unfortunately after the “Don’t cha” sections of the album version, she goes into a regular refrain. This gives a cookie-cutter ending to a song that has so much potential.

The Verdict:
The Album version starts off well but just sinks once you get to the first refrain. If I hadn’t heard the performance version, I would probably have thought the entire song was lame without giving it hope. I absolutely regret purchasing this version. However if they were ever to re-release the song without the effects on her voice, and without restraining her voice on the bridge, and by taking off that mainstream ending, I’d seriously consider buying the song again because that would be a kick-ass song.

I now realize that she does have a great voice and could be a great singer – if she just had better songwriters and song producers.

Miley Cyrus – Fly On The Wall(Official Full Disney Channel Games Performance)

Product Practice

Personally I don’t use affiliate programs. Someday I will but right now I’m content with just my little squidearnings. However, that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t practice! I’ve figured out a great way to practice product lenses.

• Go on Amazon
• Go to today’s deals
• Pick whatever’s coolest and build a theme around it
• If nothing’s interesting enough, go to another site’s featured deals

For example: I once saw an eraser that could erase pencil and pen. I thought “that’s kind of neat. I wonder what other kinds of erasers exist”. Next thing you know I have an entire lens devoted to erasers. I even made a hub on japanese erasers because I thought they were deserving of their own pages.

Example 2: I went back to try this method again. However there was nothing of interest to me on Amazon’s deals on that day. So I went to my 2nd favorite sales site, buy.com, and saw they had USB stuff. That reminded me of how many kinds of items are now powered by USB. So I decided to build a lens around it, but I realized that there were SO many USB-items that I couldn’t possibly do a single lens on it all. Instead, I did a whole series of lenses that were inter-linked..

Squimpleton Revival

After a few weeks of inactivity, I’ve decided I should revive my blog .I know, I know..”when was it ever alive?”. This wasn’t exactly a well-known blog. However this time I’ll take better care of my blog. After all, it is my diary.

So what will I be writing about?

• My Squidoo profile
• My new Zazzle Store, Squimpleton & Friends
• The cast and production of Squimpleton & Friends
• My eCrater stores
• Anything I want…..