groundFungus:
The serial input basics thread may point you in the right direction.Avoid using the String objects in the Arduino code. Why? Read this about evils of Strings.
Yes. I've read both the old version and the new one. Good tutorials. It covers mostly receiving, and not so much about sending. I could go into a new method, with start and end markers, but I don't see the point of it straight out, and I don't have much time. I got to work this weekend too. Guess I'll have to use the day and try, and if not working, I will just do the simple way and wire directly into the analog ports and discard entire serial part.