Okay, I've been messing around with the date() string. I made the timestamp field a normal text field like the title and the body, and just created a variable that is loaded with date() and the values I picked from that page.

Is this what you were talking about David? If so, I see no way to tell it what time zone I'm in. There are a few variables that will report how far out of GMT I am, but none that will get me there! argh.