Ainwood is playing hooky this weekend. I'll keep an eye on you in case specific questions come up, but I think you're on your own as far as organisation is concerned.
Re. the 'what will the AI research next' thread, I never got to grips with it either. But let's look at it:
The 'Empty tech' figure is the base value. That's 256/turns. So if a tech is going to take 16 turns the base value is 256/16 = 16. If it will take 8 turns the base value is 32. Quicker techs are preferred if all else is equal.
Then there are additional values. Some that are likely to be relevant in the early game are:
Defender (no resource): 198 - bronze working, and they love Nationalism
Attacker (no resource): 134 - warrior code
Defender (resource reqd): 70 - see why the AI loves to research Feudalism?
Naval Transport: 34 - Map Making , and add 2 for map trading
Resource: 16 - iron working
Allows Diplomats: 8 - writing, and add 2 for communications trading
Attacker (resource reqd): 6 - puts HBR fairly low priority
Map Trades: 2
Communications Trade: 2
So you need to add the factors together to see which ones are most liely to be researched. Big numbers make the tech more likely to be researched. Small numbers tell you which ones to go for to get the best chance of trading profitably.