ok, so I ran the memory test again and it came up with lots of errors this time, and Gentoo started crashing just as much after I started running multiple apps. at once. I think 2damncommon may be right on this one. I just ordered new ram, I'll post back if that was the problem. Thanks all.

ok, so I got tired of messing with this particular amchine and decided to install Mepis on my MacBook. It's been running for about a week now with no problems at all. It must have been the RAM after all. Thanks.