Hey V.
Welcome to the tribe. It's been quiet round here's lately.
As you probably know, the trail is marked the entire way in white blazes, the white stripes of paint on trees that tell you where to go. Side trails are marked in blue blazes, so litterally, blue blazes are blue stripes of paint to mark a side-trail. Sometimes, these side-trails or alternate routes are sort of short-cuts. So, "blue-blazer" is someone who approaches the trail in a more casual manner than one determined to see "every white blaze." God, i know that this is fully rediculous, but it is actualy used as a derogitory term (lol) by purists :D There are more. I don't remeber them, but I think a black blaze is a hitch-hike, and an aqua-blazeing couple actually canoed some of the journey in Maine.

I don't have any specific advice, but feel free to ask me any questions. I hiked ga-me in 2000. It was one of the hardest and one of the most defining years of my life and I love that it happened and miss my trail days. There's a good web-site, www.whiteblaze.net with a great forum and then I just found this website of a girl, Wondergimp, i hiked some of the way with: www.triplecitizen.com/AT/
I found following web journals in real time to be very helpful in knowing how to prepare.

good luck!
No Whey