My foray into web design began around 1998, when my dad a software engineer/computer whiz) introduced me to Microsoft FrontPage, a codeless website creator. My first creation was a website dedicated to photos of cartoon cats from my Petz: Catz game. In 1999, I started a journal on Diaryland, and I began to learn the basics of HTML and CSS through customizing both the journal and my early websites. I soon moved beyond drag-and-drop tools and began building entire sites
by hand in Notepad—thanks in large part to the now-defunct but formative Lissa Explains it All. I also created all of my own graphics. I spent long hours staying up too late in the “computer room” while my parents probably wondered what I could be doing on the computer for so long.