Ok so this is my first css style sheet and I can't seem to get the background to show up. Here is what I put for the style sheet:

<style type="text/css">

A:link
{ text-decoration: underline; color:#FFFF00; }
A:visited
{ text-decoration: underline; color:#FFFF00; }
A:active
{ text-decoration: underline; color:#FFFF00; }
A:hover
{ text-decoration: underline; color:#FFFF00; }


h1 {font-family: arial;
color: #FFFF00; }


p {font-family: arial;
color: #FFFF00; }


body
{ background-image: http://www.geocities.com/risingsun_charis/3d.jpg;
background-repeat: repeat;
background-attachment: fixed;

font-family: arial;
color: #FFFF00;
font-weight: normal;
font-size: small; }


td
{ font-family: arial;
color: #FFFF00;
padding-left: 2cm;
padding-right: 2cm;
padding-top: 2cm;
padding-bottom: 2cm; }


input, textarea
{ background: http://www.geocities.com/risingsun_charis/3d.jpg;
font-family: arial;
color: #FFFF00; }

</style>

how do I make the background show up... and if there are any mistakes please tell me.

Are you using an embedded style sheet? If so, take out the <style> tags surrounding your stylesheet.

The only other potential problem I see is:
background: http://www.geocities.com/risingsun_charis/3d.jpg;
You should probably try changing it to:
background-image: url(http://www.geocities.com/risingsun_charis/3d.jpg);

no the suggestion you made worked. thank you

No problem. :)