You said "People who will eventually wind up being musicians will find their way to the neccesary info"

I have just realized this. But need a ton of repetition to get me to the leval I want.

I trained my ears to recognize each interval(Count in half steps).

I am still learning the names of the notes on the fretboard, I believe that is most important. And the names of the notes and intervals in each scale. I need to work on my control over the fretboard. most of the time I limit myslef to shapes and stay in one or two postions, although I do feel I am improving slowly.

I dont listen to any "new" music, thanks to you and Jason. I dont even really listen to you all the time anymore. Recently I have been listening to chet atkins and les paul. Damn they were good. And becuase of your music, not your words, I apreciate most music, some is a little to cheesy for me to enjoy.

Here is my question. From reading above, you have to of had to think of a time when you were just like me. How long do you think it took you to construct and play melodys you wanted to. Not before you became a monster like you are now. but when you began to realize you had something different from every other player.

Another question, have you every practiced for so long and got so into playing, that you really forget about everything in the world, even who you are and where you work?

I never memorized anything, but during the course of learning to play along with TONS of songs, I slowly and unconsciously gathered that info. Don't worry about learning names of notes, etc. so much. If you can play the song well, no one is gonna ask you to explain it. Also, don't avoid new music. Old players are great and should be respected, but you are doing yourself a disservice by ignoring the music that really matters if you want to be a musician--today's music.
And yes, I get caught up in making music sometimes that I forget about the other things that are going on...Good luck!