New To S2

Hi All :) I am looking for a tutorial / how-to for creating my own top-level layer (not a layout-specific or style layer).

I'm new to the idea of customizing my liveJournal and I want all in. I have the HTML and CSS for the layout I want. I've browsed the S2 Manual and I've learned the most from looking at the public layers but I am still somewhat confused. I program PHP and VBScript for a living so it's not the language that's going over my head. Maybe my problem is that I AM a programer, or maybe it's that I never programmed in S1.

Some of my confusion is around functions, when I declare them they tell me they're undeclared, but when I copy and past declarations from the public layers they work fine, but those functions aren't included in the list of functions in the manual. *scratches head* Why does lay_print_header() compile but not printHeader()? Also, I don't see any function CALLS anywhere. I assume they're happening on a layer beneath the core layer? But I can't find a list of what those functions are.

Am I way off here? Can someone please point me in the right direction? Thanks.