ok for the skill bar thing:
For every skill you have no training in currently, you have a big yellow bar followed by a big red bar.
As you use PP and money at trainers, the yellow bar fills with a big green bar. When the green bar totally fills the yellow bar, you have enough theoretical experience to start learning some practical experience. So, when the green totally fills the yellow bar, and the blue bar goes away for that skill, and all that is left is green and red, you have to go out and use that skill till the green fills the entire bar. Once that happens you rank up, you get one more added to the number beside the bar. And the yellow and red bars return. The little blue bar is how much theoretical experience you can get if you spend all of your current PP\'s. And when you are done learning the theoretical experience for that rank of that skill the blue bar disappears leaving only the green and red bars.
Hope that helps some.