Hey guitarheropimp2,
Okay…….

1) What phone do you have? I can\’t link you to anything if you don\’t tell me. I\’m not familiar with the Perception rom.

2) XDA is a great resource, try to find your phone there. Roms are under “Development”:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/index.php

3) Cyanogen in my opinion is the best rom out there, it\’s well supported. So if your phone is supported by them, I would recommend you try them first.:

http://www.cyanogenmod.com/

4) Basically, the ROM is the OS on your phone. The kernel tells it how to run. All roms have the kernel embedded in them. There are some secondary kernels that you can flash on top of your rom and replace the one that comes with the rom, some phones require this, some people like the way different kernels behave (Overclock, battery life, etc). Flashing is basically storing the rom to memory. Here is a link that talks about a lot of terminology used in android:

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php?title=Terminology

5) Install ADB and Android Commander to your home computer. It\’ll make your life easier.

http://androidcommander.com/

6) Most rom makers recommend that you full wipe before installing their rom for the first time, so make NAND backups so you can revert back if something is screwed up. Use android commander to backup all your apps to your computer, then reinstall after the wipe and rom flash.

Also, don\’t freak out if your phone takes 10-15 mins to boot up the first time after you flash a rom. There is still a lot going on in the background during this first boot. XDA and CM should provide you with a lot of info. Good luck.