craftgrrl | circular needle trouble..

i understand how to knit with 2 needles...i'm trying to learn circular needles. supposedly this is supposed to be easier? I'm having trouble..

do you have to cast on a certain way (i know there are several differnt methods..)? could this be my inital error?

I'm using a 10 mm needle. it seems to be a lot chubbier than circular needles i've seen pictures of.. could this be adding to the difficulty?

to my understanding the point is to connect the first one in the chain the the last one you knit?...it seems as though i don't have enough stitches cast on---i'm PULLING on the yarn to try and connect them. am i going about this all wrong? is this part of the process?

help!
i'm not sure if i clearly illustrated my question/problem, partly b/c i'm not exactly sure what's wrong. any help would be greatly appreciated :]