Update Global Settings

@mdaines-r7 (@defndaines) Can you check this PR out? I'd like to get it merged for some automated tests I'm working on right now.
Why change all the names? There a fairly strong convention across the gem to use the underscore to indicate the private methods that are meant for internal utility.

Also, I've had some problems using `private` methods in the gem. I cannot remember what the problems were, but it's one of the reasons for adding the naming conventions.