thanks Tony G. i totally took all your advice, well except for one and that's because of a coding issue.
1. i gave them all widths so now they look totally professional!

2. the way the mod is written for the Latest Topics, Latest Downloads and Latest Articles, is that it uses only one template and several <if> conditionals. thus i can't open/close them individually. bummer. i can make the open/close portion come up, but no matter if i'm at latest downloads or latest articles, it will end up closing latest topics. oh well.
3. i yanked the side table completely for now until i need the space. no need to have that much empty room.
4. shoutbox moved. looks and operates much better.
thanks again!!