(Or how to create a web site without spending a lot of money....)

In addition to not spending a lot of money, it has been my goal to make this site accessible to people who use non-graphical browsers.  This has led to some redundancy of information on a page, but I know that my site is viewed by people who don't have access to a graphical browser.

The majority of the HTML was created using Navipress by Navisoft.Com, which was purchased by AOLPress.Com and is no longer around. It was free and I thought it was a nice tool, I miss it. I am currently using HoTMetaL Pro v6.0 by SoftQuad. It has more features than AOLPress did but is more awkward to use and is a major memory hog on Windows ME.

Touch-up are done using Microsoft's Notepad and in fact I am using it more and more as time goes by, mostly because HoTMetaL is such a pain to use.  (You can just use this or any text editor to create HTML code, but not being able to see immediately what you are doing is hard on beginners.)

My main resource for learning to write HTML code was "Teach Yourself Web Publishing With HTML 3.0 In a Week", Laura Lemay, 2nd Edition, Indianapolis, IL, Sams.net Publishing, 1996.

I also use "Dummies 101: HTML 4", Deborah S. Ray and Eric J. Ray, Foster City, CA, IDG Books Worldwide, Inc when my brain fails and I can't remember how to do stuff. This book doesn't seem to be in print any more.

When these resources failed me, I ask Bruce Keever or Dennis Smith for help.

Original Graphics were done with the shareware version of Paint Shop Pro v.7.0 by JASC.  This program is available for free download at Winfiles.com, C|Net, ZDNet and Tucows. (It is also available on America Online and CompuServe.) I however actually paid for my copy through Amazon.Com. (No comments, my sister works there...)

Image mapping was done with Map This! v1.3 by Todd C. Wilson (Molly Penguin Software). This program is freeware and is available at Winfiles.com, C|Net, ZDNet and Tucows. (It is also available on America Online and CompuServe.) I love this program!

Backgrounds were obtained from:

Aki's Recent Artwork.  Aki was a student at MIT who did Japanese Background art on the side. The site is now gone, so I assume Aki graduated. (Congratulations?)

Julianne's Background Textures provided some of the other backgrounds used.

Gini Schmitz's. Bold, colorful and unusual background designs. She created the background used on my home page. I spent over three hours trying to find where she's located now, but to no avail.

Heather Champ's web site (Jezebel... A site for sore eyes.) provided some of the backgrounds I used on pages attached to the  Book of Lists page.

My computer system is composed of the following:

An Alienware Hivemind with Athelon 1.0G chip in Conspiracy Blue. I love this computer! It's components are gloriously well balanced. Sometimes however, it is just a little too fast. <g>

US Robotics 56K Modem. What? No DSL? Life is unfair...

A 17" ViewSonic 17PS monitor. Old, yes, but still a nice monitor.

I run Windows ME. Still deciding if I like it. It's a little quirky and it seems to have problems shutting down with my fast processor. I get protection errors despite installing Microsoft's patch that was supposed to fix this.