Hi Shawn.
I'd say ditch the backdrop. Also, it's a little bit of a resource hungry page. I can see CPU usage go up as soon as I move the mouse over the menus. The pulldown menus on IIS for example serve the same function but have little impact on CPU usage.
Generally I like simple clean pages, where an overview of the content is easy to take in at a glance. But that kind of thing is a matter of personal preference (and ability of one's brain to process information).
