I know im not the only person on her who uses GIMP, and i have a feeling im not the only one with some questions. So lets just kinda help each other out and answer each others questions all that good stuff 
i was wondering how you can select a person, or any other irregularly edged shape, with out having to use the scissors that kinda do a good job, but not good enough?
The magic wand is amazingly useful, sometimes, other times it is a lot of work.
And select-by-color is like the magic wand but it doesn’t just select stuff that it’s touching, it selects anything in the entire picture of the same color or colors.
i use the magic wand often too. to outline a person or whatever, you just use the wand, and click the backroud that you want to get rid of, and use the eraser. you can scribble the eraser where ever, and it will only get rid of the section in which the wand had selected.
Does GIMP have an equivalent of Photoshop’s pen tool? That is the single most powerful selection tool…and it makes vector cutouts.
IN Photoshop, there is a tool called Extract. I use that a lot with a high amount of zoom and a small pixel selection. Works great.
But, seeing how this is GIMP, and I have never used GIMP, I would suggest getting the best amount of zoom you can use so you can be exact with your selection, and use the pen tool, which is very standard, even in MS paint, so I am sure it is in GIMP.