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I was a late starter as well--got my first guitar six years ago for my 40th birthday after a long and accomplished air guitar career.

I'm very fortunate because my wife always wanted to play bass, so I got her one for her 42nd BD, now she wants to learn a little acoustic so she got one for Christmas.  Now I'm up to two acoustics and an electric, and Laurie has an electric & acoustic bass as well as her washburn acoustic.  So, our guest bedroom has turned into our "music room" so if anyone ever spends the night at our house, you're going to have to sleep on the couch!

Tim I love Offspring's sound--give it some crunch and bang out the power chords.  Gone Away is the one I'm playing too loud now.

que, that's great news!  Where you at, Columbus area?  I'm a HUGE Blue Jacket fan (that's a hockey team for my foreign friends).
And Jerome, glad to hear that's OK form.  Like someone else mentioned, I'm practicing flipping quickly between G & C at the third position, A & D at 5, etc.

I love reading about all these styles!  I use my fingers on a couple songs, but for the most part I'm a pick guy all the way--a lot of the stuff we do I want volume so I bash the strings around pretty good--broke two picks on one song last weekend I'm proud to say!

Shouldn't even post this, bad form I know, but I'll just barre my A with my ring finger--just bend it at the first joint and for me, the fit is perfect.  Then I just slide that up to get my various A form barre chords.

Easier on the electric, because the action is lower. 
Make sure your thumb is behind the neck so you can "pinch" the neck between your thumb and index finger.  And make sure your acoustic is set up properly--high action can make it really tough.
OK, this is going to sound stupid, but I'm going to say it anyway:  When I was a kid I wanted to be able to wistle--couldn't do it for the life of me, but one day, a wistle just came out...and I wondered why it was so hard in the first place.  Barre chords were like that for me.  I used to wonder if I could be a guitar player and cheat on F's and B's.  But one day, they just started to ring true.  A lot of practice to move them around, etc., but your practice will pay off!

Seems like the intro to Back in Black gets a lot of play at my favorite shop.  I hear a lot of good flatpicking back in the acoustic room, and of course there's always the one nucklehead playing "Every Rose has it's Thorn"....no wait...that's me....nevermind.

Cincinnati, Ohio....today, a cold cincinnati ohio.

I'm with Cytana; guitars are such a personal thing.  Like you, I play acoustic & just landed my first electric.  I love a mean growl with a ton of sustain so the LP was the right choice for me--and to me, it's just an absolutely beautiful guitar.  I see it on the stand and can't believe it's mine.  The lead guitarist in our band plays the Fender HSS.  Has a humbucker, and 2 single coils so he gets the nice clean crisp fender sound, but can switch on the humbucker and make it sound a little meaner.  But, there's nothing like the growl you get out of a 15lb hunk of mahogony & duel humbuckers!

I think I know what part of my problem is.
Open chords, no problem.  But after a couple hours of practicing barre chords on my new electric, problems.  But I'm playing last night, and figured out (duh), that I don't have to push down nearly as hard doing barre chords on my electric.  So I started to work on technique a little--release the monster grip!  After realizing what I was doing, I couldn't believe how little pressure I need to barre on an electric.  Hopefully, this will help--got some tingling in the thumb today though...got the brace on!
And DaddyCool, I've heard the same thing.  Our keyboard player in our worship band at church has his doctorate in music, and is a professor of opra at a local college--he had surgery on both his hands due to playing so much piano over the years & he's never felt the same.  Our lead quitarist is a professional musician, and he's had the same kind of problems that I do--he said exactly what you did; ice it / brace it & deal with it.

It's a personal preference when it comes to strings, but yes, different brands sound quite a bit different.  Seems to me, most accentuate a high or low end, and I wanted a nice mid-range even tone.  I've settled on the DR's.  I use the .12's.  A lot of people use the coated strings, like an Elixer string.  I love the sound, but not the feel, and they're expensive...but they last longer. 
If anyone else has a string with a nice, midrange even tone, I'd love to hear about it...I think it's a constant quest for the perfect string!

I love it when people get very, very, VERY low end guitars, and still wind up sounding better and being more inspired than those of us who are fortunate enough to buy a decent insturment.  I was watching some TV show a few months back on the evolution of Rock & Roll, and of course it started with the blues.  There was one blues musician, wish I could remember his name, who started out by his daddy nailing strips of old rubber truck tires to the barn door, stretching each a little tighter. He used to jam for hours plucking old rubber truck tires & eventually became a great musician.  Makes you realize that great music, great musicians, are made from the inside out.