Does anyone remember Neopets? The heaven for early 2000s kids where you could get a neopet, feed it, put it in a hotel, paint it different colors, etc? Well I am feel no shame in saying that I was an adamant lover of Neopets back in the heyday and still occasionally log on to “zap” my neopets (shout out to readers who understand the reference).
Neopets was the beginning of my first foray into HTML/CSS and graphic designing. The makers of Neopets did a great job in making the site highly customizable in that we could create “pages” for our neopets, user lookups, and guild. In particular, I loved making themed guilds, a place where people with similar interests get together and socialize. Usually it was Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Roleplaying themed guilds that I participated in. When building these guilds from ground up, making the graphics using my nifty Paint Shop Pro 7 program was undoubtedly my favorite part of of the process. So much so that I would spend my time making graphics for other guilds too in my spare time (which I had loads of as a middle school kid). Its fun creating an aesthetic and concept for something your care about and I find myself feeling the same sense of satisfaction as I did all those years ago when I worked on my cover photos and header photo for all things Casual Detour related. I am by no means an expert, but if I had not discovered my stronger passion for Nursing, I would definitely have pursued a career in graphic design. Continue reading