thank you for the quick reply. after some tinkering, i came to the conclusion i probably need a new sd card.
the problem i was having when i plugged the usb into the phone was that my computer was saying i didn't have the right drivers. so my computer recognized the phone, and the phone was getting a charge, but it couldn't establish a data connection. i removed the sd card, and then it worked. so right now im backing up my sd card/music/pics etc and gonna do a clean reformat, then see if it works. glad i didn't have a faulty phone, although it did freeze on me earlier on its first full charge (blank screen, buttons lit up, no response, had to pull battery). so far so good though.
now i'm loading up on apps. i seem to be able to find every app i used to use on android so far. one of my favs isn't there though, ringtone shuffler. i'm waiting patiently for instagram. and i'm hoping to find a flipboard alternative soon. it'd be cool to have a swype type keyboard too, but i am surprisingly doing well with this touch keyboard, being an avid qwerty user for the past few years (sidekick lx/g1/3g slide/g2/mt4gs), making the transition to all touch phone was a big step for me. lol. happy to be rocking a nokia again though (i remember my 5160 with original snake, hooked up with flashing antennaes, batteries, keypads, and the coolest cases lol.)
i tried finding the nokia ringtone app, but couldn't find it, but managed to figure out how to edit a song on my laptop, and upload to skydrive, and use an app (ringtone from skydrive i think?) to set as a ringtone. but now that i can hook my phone up to my laptop, i can just drag and drop directly then
cool wp8 app recommendations anyone?