i'm absolutely lost with movable type. i have no idea how to install it, but everyone says that's better than greymatter. could someone help me install it?

Download the zip file. Extract it. Open the main folder, then 'docs' and open mtinstall.html. Follow the instructions there.
It's not that difficult if you read everything through carefully and take your time :P

er...i'll try. thanks.

i don't get this stuff about.....databases?

You don't need to, the database support is optional.

well, my host isn't creating a new database for me. does that mean i use the support? or i don't?

i got as far as going to http://till-three.net/blade/mt/MT-LOAD.CGI.

once i got there, this showed up:

Loading initial data into system...

An error occurred while loading data:

Your DataSource directory ('/FULL/PATH/TO/DB') does not exist.

If you got that error, then you must have did one of the steps involving the databases. You most likely won't be using database support since you don't have the info, so just skip those steps.

This is what you should be following:

Configure path to Database directory (for Berkeley DB).
If you are not using Movable Type's Berkeley DB support, skip this step.

In the text editor where you are editing mt.cfg, change the line

DataSource ./db

to instead read

DataSource /FULL/PATH/TO/DB

where /FULL/PATH/TO/DB is replaced by the full filesystem path to the db directory you just created. For example, if you create the directory at /home/melody/db, the above line would read

DataSource /home/melody/db