Returning player, need some guidance. :)

[Arale]

My last time playing was around September 2011, so please bear with me. xD

I logged in and a lot of things are different. Ive adjusted to most of them (hunting down all the achievement guys, losing 25 animal and not caring because of it, getting that cool goobbue mount, CNJ/THM spell changes, etc) but I'm confused on a few things still.

1. How do you get your first chocobo? I want to get the ball rolling on this.

2. What's the best way of leveling now? I want to get into the jobs and what not, but I don't have a few disciplines quite where I need them to be level wise. Preferably 1-30 and 35-50? I have 100 leve allowances if that makes any difference heh.

3. Is materia worth all the gil it requires?

4. What's a good website now? Yellow Gremlin used to be good, but it doesn't seem to have updated recipes or anything else. I checked yesterday briefly, but I'm interested in seeing the new items that can be made so I can ditch this dated gear and reoutfit my crafting classes and well every class basically...

Thanks for the help, it's appreciated. I really want to get back into the game and get things going for 2.0, but just a bit lost on how to do so right now. :/

Edit: one last thing: I thought they removed adding attribute points? My CNJ can distribute like 16. I assume they'd go into mind for more healing, but has anyone experimented with this to see whats what?