Hello gdiddy62,
I am everything but experienced compared to all the experts here at inside3d,
but I want to write you some lines regarding your last question.
It all started some years ago, when I found the need of correcting the nail gun nail position.
So I looked into QuakeC 1.06.
And what did I understand ? NOTHING

Then I asked for help here at inside3d and Sajt helped me.
From this day on, I am reading and reading and reading QC. Always comparing things with orig QuakeC 1.06 code.
Knowing what the mod makes in-game and seeing how it is done in qc.
Always trying to understand the code I was reading.
Then I copied/pasted some code from mods into original QuakeC 1.06 and sometimes it worked !
Then it worked more often, until I was able to know what I was doing.
It is a long and time consuming way to learn QC.
But you are lucky, that there are 100s of mods available, from which you can learn from.
And ALWAYS a very good thing:
Look into the "Tutorial" section of inside3d !
Nice and kind people explain things very detailed there.
Try the easier tutorials first and get the feeling to it.
You will after some time get more and more experienced until you are already able to see what a code does without compiling it and seeing it in-game.
The highest level is to see your real world in code (just like "The Matrix").
But this last level is only available for Spike I guess

Best wishes,
Seven