Dropdown Menu's Or No Dropdown Menus.

I've always wondered. I myself prefer a drop down menu rather then a category listing of my links. From what I've read and hear on other sites. It's not a good idea to use them but I find they help a great deal. They provide me the advantage to neatly organization my links and provides a faster page load. However, The category type link-list gives us the advantage of sharing the exchange of links with our peers and index back-links with all the major search engines. Not able to decide, I am hoping to get input and advise from my readers. For the time being, I created and neatly organized drop-down menu's at the end of this blog. This way my readers are able to quickly jump content from my homepage. For my sub-pages, the category listing remains the same and offer me a way to exchange links with my peers that best fit their category. I would love to know your opinions, thoughts, and criticism on this topic.