Ok, so I tonight i figured out that you CAN load a rom from your sd card. No more putzing around with stupid RUU. Now I can just rename the nbh file from the rom of choice and pop it into the root of my sd. No files need to be move or anything. Loads up correct the first time.
1. Flash the HardSPL
2. Download the
SSPL-Manual-PantherCDMA.zip file
3. Copy the exe to the root of your sd card
4. Download the ROM of choice
5. Rename the ruu_signed.nbh to PANTIMG.nbh (case sensitive))
6. Copy it to the root of your phone's sd card
7. Boot into bootloader mode with the CAMERA+POWER+SOFT RESET
The process should take over from there and tell you how to upgrade.