Morrowind, blast from the past, yeah Options

[unitself]

Have any of you played and/or finished Morrowind?
I bought it years ago, never got very far, got frustrated and put it away. Well, I took it out over the weekend and made a new character and started over. I am only a few hours into it so I have only completed a few Fighter's Guild quests. I am on "Find me a Code Book" quest for them right now.
Basically, does anyone have any pointers?
1) Is there a good way to spend money on weapons and armour? Does a weapon type have an advantage over another?
2) Is there a way that I can find out what herbs and animal parts do what? For example - What is Rat Meat useful for or what does Moon Sugar do? And how does my character find out?
3) Is it better do join a guild and do all of their quests, then join another guild and then do all of thier quests, repeat, repeat... or roam around and pick up quests along my travels? I am curious because during my last game, I FREQUENTLY got caught by much stronger opponents when I just roamed the roads.

Anyways... any tips?

[Knightsword]

Knightsword's Morrowind adventure:

Goto EB games to preorder Castlevania DS, see they have a used copy of Morrowind game of the year edition, rolled a will save a failed, so what the hell I pick it up. I get back to work to find that it only had 3 discs, the expanion discs and the construction disc. I call EB up the clerk said that she thinks it only has 3, but to come back to the store. I go back she looks through the stuff, calls another EB, (that doesn't have the game in stock new or use) and asks how many disks, from the way the clerk talked, it sounded like the person on the other end had no clue. The EB clerk again gives me the "its only suppose to have those 3 discs and I have to buy the original game." I'm standing there thinking that "yea right you stupid clerk, its right on the box, where it says includes original morrowind game" So I go back to work, grabed the phone book called another EB games and ask "how many discs does it have?" the answer 4. So I called the EB back told the clerk to call the second EB. End result I have to wait till she tracks down another used copy.