After I realized that I would rather have a div based layout, instead of a table based layout, I've fooled around in notepad a bit (maybe half an hour for the design), and finally came up with this. there's very little graphics, so the page loads faster, and the only images are the logo, and the gradient backgrounds.
The site is still offline, contrary to what the screenshot may lead you to believe. There's still quite a bit of backend work that must be done before I can even think about putting it online. The screenshot is viewing the design in firefox. Internet Explorer looks just as good, except that the input box's magically have one extra pixel margin around every input. I'm gonna go and use a css hack for that minor issue.
Well, since this design is way better than my old bland one, that's all I care about, but I would like to hear what minor (or major) alterations you guys would make to this layout if it was yours.
PS. My alternative design, which I choose to scrap at this moment in time, can be partially viewed
here