I am always docked down for using too many commas and not enough ;... will you please explain when using a ; is appropriate, and I guess the correct name, as well. Thanks!

; is a semicolon. It is not a comma. Semicolons are used as follows:

Punctuation Made Simple: Guide to The Semicolon (http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~olson/pms/semicolon.html)

This basically boils down to the connection of two sentences that are related.