I may be nit-picking here, But but Is there a way to change the icons that show that there is a new post\thread in a particular section?....The slight color variation between the 2 icons just don't do it for me

There no way you can change it that I know of...
I know with some forum softwares, different icons can be uploaded.
I'll see if I can get up with Patrick to see if we can make a change to it.