Whilst you are declaring XHTML1.0 Strict, your code is full of invalid XHTML and actual errors.
I am aware of this, I need to recode alot of it, what you see now was basicly left overs from me trying to get a quick visual on the browser so that I could refine it from there.
With my recent projects I have stopped this bad practice though.
The paragraph text isn't in a paragraph block (you should put text inside <p> </p> tags, <br /> shouldn't be used to break up paragraphs, also note the space between "<br" and the "/>").
I coulda sworn I used <p> tags, thanks for pointing that out.
You have CSS embedded in the HTML. This is generally bad practise and means the browser cannot cache the CSS. Causes a poor visual experience whilst loading the page (especially larger pages).
I actually did not think this made a difference in speeds - I'll look into this.
<center> is completely deprecated and shouldn't be used in XHTML. Even its use in HTML4 isn't optimal. Formatting is the stylesheet's job.
Again back to my quick-dirty thing, I was having trouble using the traditional "Margin: 0 auto;" method - so I improvised. This will be fixed.
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I agree with the panel color clashing with the body, this will change and is also on my list.
Thanks for the feedback, though we really shouldn't be hi-jacking this thread, if you have further feedback lets discuss it in the other thread.
For future reference this is how my cycle usualy goes:
1. Use inkscape to sketch out the layout with labels and color codes
2. Create the css for it and then the basic XHTML page.
3. Create the images for the layout and insert them
4. Create the content and functionality
4. Make sure everything looks as it should and refine the coding.