Blog settings: background colour

(In most cases) you'll be doing a lot more blogging, starting now. When you form groups in September and start copying each other's posts you want to avoid any issues with font colours, so you'd be well advised to all stick to the plain Simple template, the first in the list. Otherwise what you get is a standard black font on one person's post appearing invisible on anothers' (who has chosen a black background).
I did put in the instructions for setting up a blog not to select a black background.
You can, as per those instructions, apply your choice of background image to personalise it, and start adding gadgets too.