New Guild Layout and Software Issues

Hehe, what is wrong with me? I can't stop making layout for the guild. It's really fun playing with the layouts. The coding part is good too but I prefer the graphic editing part :)

Here is how the graphic for the layout looks like:

(Click on image to view it full size in Photobucket)

Pretty isn't it?

The graphics are free and easy to get. I usually get my images from the Full Screen, Collectable Cards, Sketches, Tiled, Images, Shop Blogs, Screensavers, Music and Gift Tags sections available on Neopets. But of course, you can pretty much get cool graphics from every single page there too. All of the graphics are only free to use on Neopets though.

I wonder if the layout I make would look better if I use any major graphic programs like Adobe Photoshop. Currently I'm using MS Paint as always. I do have the installer for Adobe Photoshop though courtesy of my previous diploma course session but it's the pirated version. I'm feeling a bit guilty of using it because I didn't pay for it. I feel like I'm robbing someone's paycheck.

It's the same with Macromedia Dreamweaver too. That's the major reason why I didn't update my website (real website made for an assignment in during my diploma course) even though I should. Yeah yeah I know, there's NVU and a lot of other freely available to use programs but I haven't try any of those yet.

Anyway, because of this complicated issue, I rarely touch those two programs. I used to have a lot more pirated softwares installed on my computers since everyone use them and most computer shops pre-install these free of charge. It's like a custom here. Only companies will use legit version and that's probably because they are afraid of being sued. I really feel guilty though so I removed the others except for these two because I need them for practice.

I am so hoping I can remove these or buy the legit version as soon as possible. Free softwares can be as good as the paid commercial softwares but the learning curves can be harsh. That's why I keep stalling.

Okay, enough of that rambling and back to the layout. Since the last layout I made and coded for the guild is just 5 days ago and it got very positive response from guild members, I am not going to replace it with this one yet. But, I did show this layout to Nikki and she said she totally love it! :) Me too. It's kinda hard to believe I'm using MS Paint for this.

Ha~ I so wish the day I could make earth-shattering layouts will come soon (unlikely)!