Customizing content displays in Joomla

It took me a surprisingly long time (and a custom extension) to figure out how to make a custom page in Joomla to display content from two different categories (or sections or whatever) side by side. Argh. (Hint: it involves making custom modules and module positions.)

On the bright side, I have a better understanding of how things are organized in Joomla now, as a result of trying to figure out how to do that.

Another thing I've learned recently, that seems like it should be obvious but really isn't, is where the Frontpage settings can be found -- basically the idea is that the "front page" is simply the link to "home" in your "main menu"... the thing that makes it counterintuitive for me is that it doesn't show up anywhere else as a content page.