Thanks to all who helped develop the fw and the flashsec59 as well as those who wrote the excellent tutorials. I am happy to report 1st time success using no boot tricks with the following hardware...

I spent a week reading the forums quietly.. All of the info is here! I highly recommend this approach to anyone who is just getting started with this. I then pre-purchased everything I thought I'd need to make it easy and safe. (111D, verbs, connectivity kit) Again, THANKS to all who persevered to make this hack successful!
360 w/Hitachi - v59
Xecuter connectivity kit
Abit IC7-G
Sil 3112 sata (on-board)
xtreme v59 fixed3
pioneer 111d (1.19fw) right out of the box
Verbatim MKM-001 @ 2.4x
Wxripper using pioneer 105 and Phantom Menace for swap
ss merger 1.3
clone cd 5.2.8.1
Alot of Sol and Bacardi!