Thanks for the welcome.
As for your questions:
I learned early on that I needed to remember my dreams before I could even start trying for lucids. Currently, I only write down my most vivid or "important" dreams - but I spend time every day after initially waking up going over the details of the dreams I just had. I really need to get back into the habit of writing each one down. :
If I can't remember a dream, but KNOW I've had one, I've found that 'blanking' my mind often helps (up to an hour after waking). A single dream image/scene will often pop into my head, and I can "string" large parts of the dream (backwards/forwards) from there.
Stabilization has been nothing short of an act of will-power for me. The realization of
"I am dreaming!" has thus far been a very volatile act. In my earliest attempts, I got so excited when I realized that I was lucid, that the adrenaline rush woke me up immediatly. I literally felt like Neo seeing the Matrix for the first time -- and my subconscious reflected that. In some of my early lucids, after I intentionally melted the 'world' around me, I got a little too drunk on power. 
Over time, I guess I became more hardened to the idea of lucidity, and the problem has instead switched to maintaining focus. I often find myself going lucid, but I have "fake" wakings (where I dream that I have woken up), or else find myself distracted from the lucidity by events in the dream. From what I've read here, that is fairly common.
Right now, I'm working on improving my 'reality checks', and dream signals. One of the most common images that occurs prior to me going lucid is that of a guide, leading me up stairs. The most recent example, from my little journal:
"I am outside, on a grassy field. Directly in front of me is a tall, medieval tower. Standing in front of that, facing me, is a tall woman in red cloak. I cannot see her face, but she beckons to me, and I know I am to follow her. We go inside the doorway to the tower, and begin climbing a long spiral staircase. While climbing - I feel that I have done this many times before, and instantly go lucid. I KNOW I am dreaming...."
As for what I have learned... a LOT. This reply is already longer then I intended though... so I'm going to stop rambling now.
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