Hmmm... Me... I don't like the background.... too 'busy' which draws attention away from the purpose of the actual content. Try something that doesn't have attention draws.
Here...
http://www.admiraltigerclaw.com
I keep my main areas on the pages as simple boxes of text... The fancy stuff is around the outside, and even then, it's not so BUSY as the eye does the back and forth insanity bit like trying to look at the picture on your Xanga.
Also, you can use shapes in images to draw attention. The horizontal part of the image, and the verticle in the image on my site menu bars, tends to draw your eye to the top corner where the image displays whatever character or person is the 'person of the page'.
Check out the different sections of my site to see how variations on the exact same theme using color schemes work.