Set posts on pages?

Categories are exactly for that.

So when I make a new category, it makes a new page as well?

Not really, but clicking on the category’s name it takes you to a “page” (not Page with capital P as in Pages!) where you see all the posts from that cat and nothing else.

And using a plugin, like Advanced Category Excluder you can exclude any category from showing up on the home/main page.

you rock

To avoid opening an entirely new case, is there a way to get posts organized old to new, versus new to old on my category “page”?

Yep.
Category_Templates
Template_Tags/query_posts

Ok, I read it but it didn’t mention how to do it? I want all posts to list old to new rather than new to old. Those links mentioned adding text and stuff, but I didn’t see modifying how the posts were displayed

Ok, I read it

No, you didn’t.