C# as it comes to XNA 3.0

[Flask]

Hello Clock Crew.
It's been a while since I have posted, and while I am trying to get my post count up, life intervenes on a pretty much constant basis. However, in between installing dish network systems 14+ hours a day (meaning on my day off), I have been making an effort to learn more about this remarkable little tool. As someone who wants to learn to make games primarily and other things second, I'm very interested in it. However, the textbook I'm using seems to be very lacking, and as a result, I am kind of in a rut. I am focusing on 2d games at the moment, as honestly, I don't want to move on to 3d until I feel confident in using the framework (learning the intricacies of the classes like the vectors, how to best utilize the draw() and update() functions, content pipeline, getting those soundbanks and wavebanks to work properly, learning more about how collision detection works, and many things like this. ). Basically, I'm looking for someone who wouldn't mind me asking a bunch of stupid questions. Also known as a mentor. In all seriousness, I've been working very hard on learning this, I have very much a working knowledge of how C# works (syntax, classes, member access, using directives, namespaces, etc.) Here's a brief list of what I know as it comes to XNA:

1.) Most ways to declare spritebatch objects (Need some clarification on members)

2.) the basics of the Content Pipeline

3.) Sound cues and playing music loaded straight from the pipeline (mediaplayer class)

4.) Basic (extremely) collision detection

5.) Input (The easy part, I suppose)

What I am looking to learn is as follows in no particular order:

1.) Basics of animated sprites (Things like swinging a sword, firing a laser, etc)

2.) More advanced collision detection basics (Making the sword / beam do damage)

3.) This is a long one, related to lasers etc. What I am looking to make for kind of a stepping off point is an asteroids clone. Nothing in the form of complex art or anything. I'm sure I can figure out most of it. What I can't wrap my head around yet in this application is firstly how to make the laser beam load from the front of the ship, and proceed to the edge unless it hits something. I have the pseudocode for such an action, but the actual code escapes me. Secondly, I can't seem to understand how to make the asteroids subdivide, would I delete that object and load 2 separate objects in it's place? and if so how would I put that into update()? And thirdly, How does a score system work, so it can be displayed on a screen? Are there open source spritefonts out there, like for example in a big database like findsounds? That actually encompasses my huge and crushing questions. I hope someone wouldn't mind helping. Thanks in advance.