does anyone know how to get a picture into the thing on the side that says the username, number of post ect??????????????? just an intrested noobie.

It's called an "Avatar".
To add one:

At the top of this page, click My Control Panel.
On the left, under Personal Profile, click Edit Avatar Settings.
On the next page that opens, you will have 2 options:
1. Choose an avatar from one of our galleries - choose a Pre-installed Avatar
2. Upload a new image from your computer - click the Browse... button, and navigate to the file you have the image saved in, on your computer

Your Avatar can be no larger than 83 x 83 pixels in size, or the forum software will resize it to this size.
The file size of the image, can be no more than 200 KB.

Which ever one you choose to use, be sure to go to the bottom of the page and click Update Avatar, when your done.