I just don't get why you should say "Why do you want to do that? Do this instead".

Right now I've disabled my user menu block and instead I've put some links in the page header. Everything works except that pm notification stuff, of course. I would REALLY like how to make the link turn into another color or show the number of unread messages. Blocks are nice but sometimes it gets too "blocky". Please post if you have any idéas. Just remember that I'm a newbie and don't know jack s**t about php coding.