after 677 games I am 311-340 rated 1000

I do not wish to be doomed to patzer level, and I know I have the intellect to play the game well. Yet over time I am not improving. 

I want to go back the rocking horse, and start over formally learning the game. Where should I start?

You must be neglecting the fundamentals on a regular basis.

Chernev's Logical Chess, Move by Move might help.

Okay. Very first thing: stop playing fast games. I know you play standard and so forth but if you really want to get stronger play slow games (maybe 10-20 turn based games, the idea is to have serious slow games to study and learn from) then follow these steps. 2. Study endgames. Basic, simple positions. Nothing fancy. But learn them thoroughly. Especially king and pawn endings and rook and pawn endings. 3. Study pawn structures. Learn them inside out. You don't have to memorize a bunch of openings of you know the pawn structures. Why do you think higher level master can be put in ANY opening and find their way through it. Next, The serious, SLOW games that you play: analyse those. Not with a computer! Think on your own. At this point it's okay to look through opening books to see where you went astray. Next, read and play through annotated GM games that YOU can relate to and understand. Not all GMs are good teachers. You want annotated games that explain WHY that bishops on that diagonal. Why that Knight is covering this square and not that one, etc. There's millions more but thatll get you started

Second:

focus on the endgame. Thats how I started out. forget the opening, just learn one basic e4 line and be done with it. The endgame is where its at

Yes, Chernevs book is good. I read it. It one of those that explains everything. Get others just like that

I improved today a rating of about 80+ because I employed repertoires that I am familiar with or opening which I had left long time ago. I also took serius the fundamentals or principles of chess such as pawn structure and dynamics, files and so on. I calculate and take time to analyze the positiion. Read about MY SYSTEM  NIMZOWITCH. it is easy and helps alot. 

good luck

do tactics puzzles or forever be doomed a patzer

Yes. My System by Nimzovich is great. A bit hard to understand because of the translation bit I think there's a modern, up to date version that sounds more normal. That one will take you many level up, hold on and prepare to become a chess beast if you learn that one inside out. And go through it 3 times

Oh yeah. I forgot tactics. Very important. Early on get a book (very soon) by Eugene Znosko Borovsky about the art of combinations or something like that. Its been many years. You want to learn the stepping stones to tactics. Have them explained WHILE you do them every day

Wow, it's been a long time since I studied chess formally. Kudos to you to want to begin. As far as I recall, this is the way to progress upwards:

1. Play long games. At least 30 minutes long. I used to regularly play 30|0 OTB tournaments (back when there was no such thing as increment or digital chess clocks.) Try not to go below that time limit.

2. Focus on tactics. At that level, all games are decided on hanging pieces and/or hanging kings. I noticed some of your games had really cheapoesque mates in there: avoid those. After your opponent moves, always think "What does he threaten? What do I need to keep defending against? What can I threaten?" IN THAT ORDER. Don't play chess specifically to threaten cheapoes if it compromises your game, but always take one if you can get out of it safely ahead.

3. Opening principles. NOT OPENING LINES AND VARIATIONS. This is going to sound cliched, but always play 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 or Nc3. This is the simplest way to soundly demonstrate opening principles. White plays for d4, black for d5. If your opponent deviates, follow opening principles (plenty of articles on that around here.) Chances are neither of you can handle other openings accurately at that level, so just focus on that one very instructive line.

4. Endings. Learn a few basics like K+Q/K+R/K+P against lone K, and stop right there. Those teach you square control and how to restrain your opponent, and will get you far enough for now. Return to study other endgames first thing when you and your opponent stop dropping pieces.

5. Never resign. Yeesh, when I started out nobody gave up. Put it to your opponent to prove they mastered the basics, or you'll all be stuck thinking "I have a winning edge" but not knowing how to actually convert. It's painful to lose like that, but always try to believe your opponent is weaker than you, and never give up.

Beyond this, I'll recommend a few other random bits of advice.

- Screw pawn structures and such. You'll learn from experience, but they're not even a factor at this stage. Minor things like the bishop pair, doubled and isolated pawns don't matter at all if one side is down a rook.

- Always make moves with a plan in mind. Take material or mate if you can, but otherwise just slowly improve your pieces (especially idling ones) and don't just randomly thrust pawns to wait.

- Try to find some RL friends (failing that, online) who are slightly better than you (hell, far better works too) and play against them. The best way to learn cheapoes and tactics is to have them thrown at you. This extremely painful way of learning brought me to competitive xiangqi (Chinese chess) standard in one year. And improved to my friend's level to boot.

I think the mistake that I made was that when I started learning I went with a book on openings, it made since to me that since the game starts with openings, I should start with them. 

The advice here is to work on tactics, and just be fundamental. I think perhaps I have been trying to be too much "grand scheme" and that's when I overlook something really basic. 

Slower and more fundamental chess. Just get the job done for now, worry about being impressive later.

I can tell you the three things I did that got me to the 1400s fairly easily.

1. I bought AND READ Silman's "Reassess your chess"

2. I made sure I balanced my time spend playing with solving tactical problems (at least 1/3 of my time devoted to tactical problems). The main app I used was Shredder for the iPhone, which contains many great problems, as well as chesstempo (the website) and tactictrainer (again for the iPhone). I find the iPhone is an invaluable tool for tactics training. You can do it anywhere,

3. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I stopped playing 5/0 blitz (which was just reinforcing bad habits) and started exclusively playing 30/0 live chess games (the longest standard live chess game offered on chess.com). AND after playing each game on chess.com I clicked "share" and then emailed the PGN to myself. I then opened that email on my iPhone, selected the text and copied it. Then I opened the CHESS PRO app on my iPhone, selected "import from clipboard" and then compared the moves I made in that game with the computer selected moves. This last post-game analysis tip is probably the most valuable for seeing the mistakes YOU are making and improving your play quickly.

Hope this helps and hope to play you soon in the 30/0 pool :)

  Well, I was rated considerably higher in this one, but I just had time for one game before bed. This time I really slowed down and focused on just being solid. I crushed the guy pretty good I think even with ratings considered.

I do think however, that I could've played to a quicker ending. Maybe not? the nature of the black pieces seams to be that it's best not to go for a quick mate. 

Anyway here it is:

Find Dan Heisman's "Novice Nook" columns and start reading them from the beginning (started in 2001). After a dozen or so of his articles, you'll understand what you're doing wrong and what you need to improve.

Great stuff. This is exactly it. Look at how after 12. Qb2, all your pieces are developed, your king is safe, your centre is imposing. Look at how white's king is stuck in the middle, most of his troops sitting at home, his rather airy pawn shield about to fall apart. From that point on, you just naturally kept improving the position to a win, as the developmental advantage you had made itself felt. 15. d4 was suicidal, opening the position severely underdeveloped and hanging e4 as a bonus; another testament to the importance of getting your pieces out actively.

Play like this every game and you'll be moving up. Consistency is key.

Yeah I think if I just go steady and quit messing with stuff like the Kings Gambit Bishop variation, I'll be a lot better. The time for that stuff will come later. Lets get consistant baby!

Do the Halloween's gambit opening in fast games