Ok a bit of background
OS .134

I tried opening up a picture i sent in the body of an email. It took a long time and then afterwards i get the clock (new hourglass) showing that something is loading every couple of seconds, even though nothing is happening. This persists indefinitely. I've tried battery pulls but when i turn the bold back on i keep getting the loading clock. The only apps i have on it are facebook, jive and googlemaps. Anyone have any possible solutions? I'll even hard reset it (anyone know how to do that?), because it is that annoying.

I would say backup and restore the OS, it's probably the best solution. A hard reset is pulling the battery out, which you have tried quite a few times. Soft reset is hitting ALT+Shift+Delete.