ok, this is bothering me: I want to make a distro. LFS I looked into, and it was a bit on the odd side (I'm still looking into working with it), but would like to take a LiveCD distro, and basically remake it into something more like what I like. I know nothing of modifing ISO files, and would like some help if anyone could possibly share their knowledge.

That process is called remastering, I believe. Here's a guide to remastering Knoppix (note I've never done it). But I would google for "remastering your_distro_of_choice" if you're interested in something else...

Another alternative I use since I like Debian is to install a base system (just a bare install, no x or anything). Then apt-get myself all the programs I like. Then I just do a dpkg --get-selections > myselections.txt. Then you can just carry around a text file when you install. Once you've installed your new bare system, you can just do a dpkg --set-selections < myselections.txt && dselect update && apt-get dselect-upgrade to install all the same packages. Then the only thing you have to do is fiddle with configs.

Anyway, it sounds a lot more painful than it actually is...

doesn't sound too painful to me, just long.

I'm thinking of trying to work around to build something new, but I'm still somewhat new to Linux in terms of ther "superuser" bit. I've had some ugly boots, and don't know how to fix it (heck, I don't know where half the config files are, which is a bit anoying, plus I don't know what I'd need to change to do anything in them anyways).

Config files can usually be found in /etc (or in a directory inside /etc).

Boot config files for grub are usually found in /boot/grub directory. I think you're usually looking for menu.lst. The lilo boot config file is /etc/lilo.conf