I'm sure this is the absolute dumbest question, so I apologize in advance.

I accidentally removed my Gnome panel at the top of the screen... which, unfortunately, means I can no longer open a terminal window, as I 'always' opened a terminal window using the icon on the panel. I would think that logging out, then logging back in, might restore my desktop to the way I'm used to seeing it, but I don't know how to do that from where I am either. Like I said, I know this is idiotic, and I am sorry.

I managed to do this while I was trying to associate the mpeg player (xmovie) I installed with apt-get to the mpeg file type, so I can play mpegs easily. Which brings me to my next question: how on earth can I figure out where xmovie was installed, so I can browse to it in the 'associate file types to applications' interface?

If you have a bottom panel or any other panel, right click and select the option to add a new panel, or add the bits you need on the panel to access whatever it is your wanting on it.

Ah, that helps. Thank you.

You wouldn't know how I can find the install directory for this package I just installed, would you? I think I'd be good from there, once I get past these issues that are so simple people don't usually have to ask

How did you install this package? Most programs will install or rather the executable will be in either /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin

Try using a locate or find or whereis