My name is Lara and "moderation" is a word that I'm not too familiar with. I tend to become obsessed by some past time or other until I'm bored with it. Then I walk away and never look back.
That's the reason I purchased a WebTV unit. I figured I'd feel far less guilty letting a $70 investment sit in the corner gathering dust after I got tired of it. Yet here we are months later and my obsession with this little black box is still going strong!
However, staying true to character, I seem to focus on one aspect of the Internet at a time. During my first few days, not too sure of where to go or what to do, I discovered the Search Engine! If it was out there, I searched for it. After a while, that got old and somehow I stumbled into my next addiction, the webtv.users newsgroup.
They kept talking about something called HTML to put images and sound in email and, being a "veteran" of the Search Engine, I searched for a tutorial I could understand. Well, in no time I was driving my family and friends out of their minds with my never-ending, forever-loading masterpieces!
In the course of my HTML Education I came across Paul Erickson's treatise on Bandwidth Theft. Attempting to be a good "netizen" I registered for my own pages here at GeoCities and learned to transload. That marked the end of my email signature and the beginning of my fascination with Webpage building!
First came my obsession with tables. That lasted until I managed to build a page with 14 tables in it. After that, and after getting rid of the nervous tic I had developed on that 14-table page, understanding JavaScript was my new goal. I've never gotten to the point where I truly understand it, but I was able to write a relatively simple script. Not wanting to develop a new tic, I decided to quit while I was ahead.
But the one thing that always seemed to be beyond my reach was graphics. Computer users could buy graphics programs and make all sorts of original graphics for their sites but we couldn't. I began seeing a lot of graphics sites that had themed page sets that were made by PC users and offered for free on the Net. I liked the idea of a set of matching graphics that reflected the theme of a page or site, but none were just what I wanted. The themes were always the same...same flower, different color. Besides there were so many rules involved. Link back, don't change anything, yadda, yadda, yadda. So I decided to try to make my own.
One day, not too long ago, I began "playing" at ImageMagick. I had heard of all the wonderful things we WebTV users could do there, but I was always too confused by all the input fields to figure any of them out. I couldn't figure out what they were asking me for, let alone what my answer should be!
One of the true beauties of WebTV is the fact that you can't cause any real damage by "playing". So I just started clicking all the buttons and guessing at the numbers to put in those "parameter" areas. Slowly, I began to understand and the result of that "play date" was my first background set! I became obsessed with online tools and image manipulators all over the web and kept coming up with ideas for new sets.
Well, a person can only use so many background sets and I didn't have the heart to delete any of the files I had created...kinda like I'm their mother. Not only had I made sets that I don't intend to use myself, I'm still making more. In a way I'm getting a perverse pleasure out of the fact that I'm doing this without a computer! My solution was to put them all here and offer them to anyone who wants them.
This site is a little different than other free graphics sites.
- First, I don't need you to give me credit or link
back to this page. It's too much responsibility and
I don't want to be obligated to my URL. Someday I
may get tired of it and I don't want to leave dead
links all over the place.
- Second, you can do anything you want to with
anything you find here. Alter them all you want,
it's fine by me. This is just a hobby for me, not a
living. I won't complain about all the hard work and
countless hours that went into making them...
I made them because it was fun! If it had been hard work I would have quit after the first one! - And third, you'll probably notice an ironic lack
of graphics and sound on the index and information
pages here. I
hate slow loading pages and usually don't stick around very long at sites that are so overloaded with images and sound files that they take forever to load. I've tried to keep these pages text only except, of course, for the pages where I actually have to show you the graphics. Aside from a heading and a line or two I think I've succeeded.
Like all other free graphics sites I will add
a disclaimer:
All of the sets offered on this site were made by me
using a WebTV first generation Classic and online tools such as ImageMagick. The "root" images I used were all found at free graphics sites that claimed they were in the public domain. In the "Credits" section I've listed the sites that the images for each set came from. If you find anything that you hold the copyright to contact me and I will destroy the set. I'll be ticked, but I'll destroy it.
I have only
I originally made all the images on the graphics pages clickable so you could obtain their URLs or transload them. However, whenever the page loaded that yellow rectangle was around my "Welcome" and it really started getting on my nerves. I tried to think of another way and still keep transloading as easy as possible.
On each graphics page you will see a link to the StarBlvd Hex Transloader and to WebScissors enabling you to extract all of the images on that page and transload or upload what you want.
For those who would prefer a different transloader, such as the FreeLoaders, I've also made what I call my "Transport Page". On that page is a link to every piece of every set. Here you can isolate each image on a black screen and get it's URL, or use a transloader you have saved on an Fkey. The "Transport Page" link that appears on each graphics page will take you to the links for that particular set.
ENJOY!
{MAIN INDEX}
{GRAPHICS MENU}
{TRANSPORT PAGE}
{TRANSLOAD HELP}
{IMAGE MAGICK HELP}
{USING BORDERED BGs}