[i love you]

Sup Shay. Let me try to answer your questions as best as I can.

One, what is up with the new difficulty numbers? Was my advice actually taken and numbers changed to reflect different difficulty in levels? 8's are now 30+ it seems, so I THINK I'm right, and ya I could forum search, but someone loves me and will answer me

The majority of the community decided that using a 1-100 scale made a lot of sense for organizing files much more precisely. We even decided to range our old 1-13 difficulty names into 1-20 now. If I remember correctly, I believe in the FFR engine, you could go into settings and change the way the difficulties are displayed. You might want to double check on that though.

See this thread for more information about the new 1-20 difficulty naming system. The song list is not completely updated but it will tell you all of the new difficulty names. It is no longer from Easiest to VROFL.

Two, I started long ago ( as in almost 5 years ) at 1 speed, then moved to 1.75 and loved it, BUT, coming back, 1.75 seems to drop to fast What do you guys think, should I drop back down and start ALL over again, OR, should I just start on all the low lvl songs I had already AAA'd @1.75 and learn again? Am I just getting older and 1.75 is too fast for me? I have no clue any more... hence me asking.

I would adjust your cmod so that it becomes comfortable for you to read. Seeing that 1.75 is too fast for you, I would try going somewhere between 1.25-1.50 and adjust it until it is right for you. As for where to start, just start of with files that you can actually do in your current state. In other words, something that is not too easy but also not too hard.

Also, since I SUCK ASS now, but still wanted to get back into the game by doing MP like I did WAY back in the day, is there anyone out there willing to level off me in MP KNOWING I now SUCK? I always found it hard to find a match because of my MP lvl, and I'm ASSUMING ( ya I know ) that it will be even worse now, since I can't play for a damn, but my ranks and MP make me out to seem like I am kinda good.

I'd gladly take your MP level out of your hands but unfortunately, I quit this game ages ago. I am sure there will be someone on this site who would gladly take it away from you.