I am back and I'm sorry for the prolonged absence. I have had a bit of a rough go, but things are ok now. My husband had his grandmother pass away while I was out of the country (first time he has lost a family member) and I was not there to help.

My dear friend's (who hosted our wedding in June) mother took a very bad stroke shortly before I arrived in Canada. She never regained speech or movement and passed on Dec. 24. Cathryn was a vibrant and lovely lady who had visited us in Beijing (I walked the Great Wall with her) and was full of life and love for her children and new grandchildren. It was a real blow to lose her.

I regained contact with a cousin who I had not spoken to in a few years only to learn that his Mom had passed away as well. A triple whammy all in one fell swoop.

The icing on the cake was that despite the fact I was back in Beijing late on the 24th, none of my bags arrived with me and so Jeff and I spent Christmas morning staring at an empty tree.

One bag arrived 48 hours later and the other arrived a week after that.

All of this had made me realize what is important in life and what isn't.

While my friends here are of real importance to me, the site itself has all but lost my interest completely.

The blinding white background is still with us and it appears they simply don't give **** that the majority of us have complained about it.

In the meantime they have clearly added more advertisers and it must be that user numbers are sufficient enough to justify not giving one rat's ass about how the rest of us feel.

At the end of the day, this is their site and they can do what they please. And they do and will whether it pleases us or not.

My enthusiasm for taking things to the next level has been dampened considerably as I have had family issues and career expansions to deal with. However, if sufficient support remains, I do plan to at least give it another go.

Because frankly either this horrible and very unpleasant white background goes, or I do. I simply can't stand it and while it might seem like a small reason to give up on the site, the simple fact is that Danmod swore up and down that this was going to be one of the first design changes and it has not been.

Like other users here I am prone to migraines and while this site has not yet actually triggered one, the background is so stark, so blinding white and so unpleasant that it causes me enough stress that I just choose not to put up with it.

My request for now is a simple one, EVERY time you log onto this site, use their "PFO" link that implies they actually care enough to want to change (it is called "Help Improve TV.com - Send Your Feedback), click on that puppy and demand they do something about the background.

Tell your friends and your friend's friends.

The link really should be called "We placed this here to look like we give a **** - Send Your Feedback (to a place that no one will ever read and/or act on"

I could respect the honesty of that a lot more.

I have missed you and I will try to here more often now.