Q: 2. the last triplety sounding thing isn't really a triplet is it? what's that about?  help, i am a dunce!
A: imagine you took 3 8th note triplets, starting on beat 3 and then an additional downbeat on beat 4. (so 4 notes in total). now displace all of that forward in time by an eighth note. so to notate it you'd probably have to break it down into 16th note triplets with 16th note triplet spaces in between, so you can start it on the '&' of 3 and end it on the '&' of 4