i havent been on for a while soo... what are the heart things that show up by your ha? and what do they do?

It's part of the new "Avatar Likes" system. There's a board about it here, but basically, if you click that, it means you've liked that person's avatar for the day. You can like another avatar 25 times a day, and your site preferences page will show you how many times you've been liked.

ohh cool! thanks.