Noob: Some basics things I'm apparently not getting

[eluser]parrots[/eluser]
Addressing your question about the DB it is ok to mix active record and regular queries. Personally I stick with one way of dealing the results (array vs object, I favor object-based result access) but mixing would work there too. Sticking with one way for each just makes your code easier to read and more maintainable in the long-run.