whats the trick to changing the time? Its showing an hour behind.

Well there are two places.
One is :
Control Panel » Display Options[Tab] Date & time
Or :
Mystuff>Edit Preferences

Current server time is:
The control panel option will change the default server time.
And the Mystuff option will accommodate each user in different time zones.

as far as the control panel, theres a blank white box at the top. What do I put in that box?

The unadjusted server time is showing an hour behind.

Again it depends on what time zone your server is on. And if you want to adjust it.
You should see something like:
Date & Time
Default Time Offset (Hours):
Unadjusted Server Time: 09/02/10 03:52 PM
So if say if currently your time is 2:52 you would enter a -1 to delete a hour.
Or enter a 1 if you want it to display 04:52 PM.
Or don't change anything
Then each member if on a different time zone from you can goto: Mystuff and enter a time offset same as above -? or ?:

ok...the unadjusted time says - Unadjusted Server Time: 09/02/10 06:12 PM

its really 7:12 here on the east coast, so I added a 1 to the box to add an hour. I clicked on "update general display options" button and after it updated the time it shows is still an hour behind.

Is that always going to show wrong?

My site is a dedicated to my state so all the members should be on the same time.

Probably a cache issue.
So you can wait or goto:
Control Panel » Clear Cache
and select submit,
Sometimes you need to manually delete the cache files. If you are impatient.

And don't forget your browser may cache the data for a while unless you clear it also.

Wait a minute are you saying that it is:
Date & Time
Default Time Offset (Hours):
Unadjusted Server Time: 09/02/10 06:12 PM
Because that will not change in the control panel because it just reads the server time. The time offset will appear in the posts. But you may still need to reset the cache.

I cleared the cache, and tried to change the time, still an hour behind. I'll try to clear the browser.

I like setting the adjusted server time to GMT (+0) and allowing users to offset from that.. makes it a lot easier dealing with people from other countries who have no idea where the heck EST/PST are lol