Hey chewybaws,
Thanks for the suggestions and poking me about my progress!

I move in less than two weeks. In the meantime I've been going to the gym about 4-5 times a week and doing mostly cardio and and upper body. I didn't realize just how
bad my cardio situation really was. One of my New Year's resolutions was to really hit the gym hard. I ended up doing mostly cardio on an arc running contraption and made amazing progress. When I started, I could only do 10 minutes of running at 160+ strides/minute and that was pushing it. I then went back the next day, and did 10 again. The next day I did 20, then 20 again the next day. The day after that I did 30 and the day after that I did 45. All in the course of just one week, really. It was a huge win for my determination and I felt great for making measurable progress.
I did 45 minutes 5-7 times a week for several weeks and then tried to apply my self-confidence to another running machine in my apartment gym. I got on another bigger, fancier arc running contraption and could only do 5 minutes or so on it when I had been doing 45 on the other machine! I thought something was wrong so I went back and did the original machine for a few more days.
Then I tried out a treadmill. That was another disaster. I couldn't even do 5 minutes of running at a similar pace on a treadmill. How the hell could I go from 45 minutes on one running machine to not even 5 on the other???? I realized that the machine I had been on was a very contrived exercise that didn't really work much of anything and that I really had no idea what I was doing in a gym when it came to proper procedure. At that point my confidence pretty much crashed and I stopped going to the gym altogether for several months.
Per ralst's suggestion I got Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and have been reading it. I surprisingly like reading about the technical details of weight lifting. I've been going back to the gym and starting all over from the beginning, this time using a treadmill for cardio and doing almost only upper body strength.
My current treadmill workout is 2:3:3:2 -- two minutes of fast walking (speed setting 3.5), three minutes of fast running (8.5), three minutes of walking again (3.5) and then 2 minutes of fast running. I monitor my heart rate studiously each time and it kinda scares me. Two minutes of fast running will get my heart rate above 190 bpm (to the point where I definitely couldn't have a conversation with someone). By the end of the 3 minute break, my heart rate will be between 160-170 and I push it again to 190 in the first few seconds of the last 2 minute intense running session. Judging by my experience watching people run in gyms on treadmills, 10 minutes of speed setting 8.5 shouldn't get me to the point where I can't talk to someone. Yet 2 minutes on the treadmill does that to me! I'm going to keep doing the treadmill until I can do 10 minutes of nonstop intense running and use that as my warmup for the rest of this year at least.
Another confidence crasher in the past has been working out and seeing 0 results. This time around, since I'm focusing only on upper body, I'm essentially trying to generate results as quickly as possible just so I can get a boost of confidence. I'm using this pre-move time to learn the limits of my upper body so I can take that to my personal trainer at the new gym. I started doing 3 sets of benchpresses with 4 reps each with the most weight I could muster: 110 lbs. After watching a video online, I decided to do 12 reps / 3 sets / 70 lbs. Lately I've usually missed on the 10th or 11th rep on the last set. 70 lbs benchpressing sounds pretty pathetic but just look at my picture!

Anyway, I've been enjoying the minor results I've seen so far and the treadmill I think is a good way for me to get better at sports (which I've been playing more of) and a relatively easy way of measuring progress (like I did with the first arc running machine).
I'm still keeping at it! Expect more from me on this forum after I move.
