Hello, vidders on the f-list--teach me your wisdom?

I spent three hours last night installing Sony Vegas on my desktop, because I want to make a vid that's been bugging me for ages. Every time I make a vid, though, I end up unhappy with what I come up with. It's not only not what I had in my head, it's not even an acceptable alternative. So I figured this time, I'd ask the internet for help.

How do you vid? Do you have imported, broken-down clips of the episodes in your media manager, or do you import only what you need? Do you storyboard your vid, or do you just go with your instinct and throw together what looks good? Do you match the images and the lyrics? Do you match the images and the music? Do you vid chronologically? Which transition do you use to gain which effect? What about effects/cropping/speeding up or slowing down a clip? In which format do you render your vids? Go on, vidders, tell me all your secrets. :D

( Here are my secrets. )

So... that's all I can think of. If you have any tutorials for vidding with Sony Vegas 8.0, I'd appreciate a link enormously. I want to finally figure out how to vid so I can be happy with what I come up with. >_>

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