resizing components

sorry to ask for help on this topic, but i've looked at the tutorials for this and no matter what i do or tweak, it never seems to compile properly, so clearly i'm missing something.

all i really want is to make the journal entries and components smaller in width so that you can see more of my background image. any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated because this is driving me a little crazy. i took a break from my geekdom for too long and now i have to suffer for it.

be my hero for the day? please?