Sorry, the 'git am, git reset, git add --interactive' is a sequence for interactively applying a patch, you won't ever need to use it.
The sequence of making a patch is:
<edit the files>
git add <files>
git status # make sure all the files are marked to be committed
git commit
<type a good commit message>
git format-patch origin/master
Some ancillary command sequences:
When you have local commits, use 'git pull --rebase' instead of 'git pull'. You can also use 'git rebase' separately.
When someone applies your local commit to the main repository, you can remove your local changes by doing 'git reset --hard origin/master'
I'm not sure, but 'git pull --rebase' might take care of this for you.
You might find this useful:
http://try.github.com
The way you learn is by doing. Make a scratch repository, clone it twice, and see what happens when you push from one or the other.
Former programmer for the TMWA server.