help with pagination

I have been staring at this for days. I just do not understand the pagination code. I really need to apply this to the articles plugin. Can someone help me out?

Hi! I am glad you are taking this up! I will gladly donate if you want to retain help -- also, I'll stare at the pagination code too tonight!

I am sure I will get it. I have had to teach myself from the ground up. I think some things should be standard and if I figure it out I will write a nice tutorial on how I did it. But if you present a list of things it is always nice to paginate and sort.

Just not so well versed with object yet but I think I am getting there.