> and in the process i noticed that i don't need any of the
> add-to-list's in order to run the (require '...)'s manually (via
> ^x^e), but i do need them if i want the require's to run in my
> .emacs!

Call (package-initialize), as explained at http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/ELPA

> now, to use incf i also need:
>
> (add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/local/share/emacs/24.3/lisp/emacs-lisp")
> (require 'cl)

You shouldn't need these lines. (require 'cl-lib) and use cl-incf.