Those are the key tools in most of the I have professionally developed. Not that I have anything against Net Identity, I like them, but my area of speciality is with working behind the scenes, programming and coding, not graphics and layout. Besides, this is a personal page. I don't need to draw businesses here. With my plans for this site, I have to manage what I am given carefully.
Nothing eats up space and delays downloading like GIFs and JPGs.
Most of the graphics I have are backgrounds, icons, with the occasional picture. So I guess what I'm really trying to say is not to judge my internet programming skills by this page alone. My resume has links to better examples. The purpose of an internet site is to provide information on a particular subject. Now I'm going to assume people are more interested in what I have done and what I have to offer than who I am.