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I was raised primarily by my grandparents, who had this crazy idea that kids should have to work for things they wanted, and well sometimes just work (unheard of eh?). There were many many times I lived to regret the words "I'm bored".

Someone close to me said to learn guitar you have to "live eat breathe guitar and go to bed thinking about and wake up thinking about it". Despite the fact that this person didn't really play, it turned out to be pretty good advice. Guitar gets under your skin, you have to be ready to let it. I usually notice when you get a new guitar there's an adjustment period, even if you've been playing a long time. New guitars are like new jeans, its take a while for them to fit just right. The best advice I can give is don't give up! There will be discouraging times but you gotta stick with it

I do have to agree about the whistling out of tune... in fact anytime anything's "off" musically kind of nauseates me. This is why I can't watch American
Idol lol! i don't think its the loudness that bothers me but yes offkey/ repetitive music can be pretty annoying.

Eh I work in childcare so screaming kids don't scare me Other adults/almost adults who are loud bother me though. Now while I'm actually playing other noises can be really frustrating, but   other times I do ok for the most part.

No offence taken! I know I learned to play in wonky ways This is the best way I knew how to explain it, I'm glad you knew the correct numbering.
  I'm glad to be back and touched that so many people remember me!

You need to learn how to understand song structure/pattern. The order of the chords/pattern of a song is called the "Chord Progression". When you strum chords on a guitar, you're playing songs at its basic level: the chord progression. All songs are played in a specific key (playing "in" F, in G, in C etc.). For each key there are three basic chords (really more but just for starters we'll focus on three) that you can play together.

There's a "starter" chord, the one you'll usually begin and end on. I call it the "first" chord or 1 : the corresponding chord for a key (If you're playing in C, then the first chord is C)

A second chord (2). Each key has a specific correct second chord. In C its F. There's charts and stuff to help you remember, and over time you'll memorize which chords are for which key

A third chord (3) is usually the one you go towards the end of musical phrase, just before ending on the 1 chord. In the key of C this chord is G.

So a pretty common chord progression would be something like,

"1.2.1.3.1"

or

"C.F.C.G.C"

Of course there are always ways to switch things up and those three chords can play different roles in different orders, the important thing is that for each key there's three main chords that "go" together. Here's a few keys just for reference....

In key of G: 1=G
                   2=C
                   3= d

In key of C: 1=C
                   2=F
                   3=G

In key of F: 1= F
                  2=Bflat
                  3=C

Try looking up "nashville numbers", its a common system. I think the chords are labelled with different numbers but its the same concept. There's probably even a thread somewhere on Chordie about it.
Once you begin to understand the pattern of music, you'll start to recognize it in songs and it'll make it much easier to pick up on new tunes. You'd be surprised how many songs, when stripped down to their most basic level have super similar chord progressions. When you recognize a chord progression, you won't have to work as hard to memorize what chords go in what order! You'll be able to look and see that you're playing in a key, know what 3 chords are probably going to be there, and even what order they're most likely to fall in.
Best of luck!

Everytime I watch that show I want to go clean my house! My rooms a jumbled mess of sketch pads, hamster tunnels and acoustic guitars lol. And then I keep all these random pieces of paper and buttons and magazine clippings and wat-not in bags because I think I'm going to be really into collage art at some point (go figure) so when the hoarders on the show say "its for an art project" I start getting kind of scared! I've heard that creative people tend to be kind of disorganized, because of which side of the brain they use the most... all that said though I can't stand things to be UNCLEAN. There's a difference in lots of junk, and lots of dirt and old food and that kind of stuff.
I think the difference in being a clutter bug and being a hoarder is that a hoarder will attach value to things that don't have any value. Like, I can't throw this ballpoint pen away because my daughter wrote with it one time. I had a great aunt that was a hoarder, she kept stacks of unread magazines and newspapers all the way to the ceiling.  I think its kind of sad that people could come to the place where stuff could mean so much to them, its got to be some kind of compulsive mental problem.

Well I tried my hand a little bit last night, and even though this one was around 150$ it has an amazing sound. I don't think its quite the same as these as with other guitars: I mean you know if you spend the money on a Taylor or Martin you're pretty much guaranteed an amazing instrument. But with dobros I don't think its the price or brand that matters.
Love love LOVE the sound of this thing, I have no idea what doing but it still sounds so cool.

Well I'm definately not going to cry... but I will say its a little bit sad.  I don't know what he did or didn't do, but the music he was able to create in spite of himself doesn't lose any value because of who it came from. At the same time what he could make doesn't put his personal life above reproach. I think we get away from the contribution and focus too much on the contributor sometimes, and give them too much attention (good or bad) and don't give the music enough. Its all about the music! Somebody needs to remind the mainstream of that.