OK so I have a question about the backlight. The screen seems to go dim when I'm texting/playing brickbreaker. The keypad also goes dim. Anything I can do to keep it bright when im playing around with it? Also, what exactly does the "backlight timeout" option do?

low light is good for battery life

The backlight timeout option is to set how long the device waits after your last interaction before it turns the display off.
Diming/brightening is due to the device having a light sensor where the led indicator is, it will adjust the brightness for easier viewing/power saving according to amout of ambiant light.

If you go to "screen/Keyboard" in the options screen, there should be a "Automatic backlight" option. Turn that off if you dont like the Automatic dimming thing.