Well good news it works! I don't know what I did, so I'm sorry that I can't solve it for others with this issue, but I don't think it's that common of a problem.

Thank you to all who helped!

Well it doesn't need an id because I'm loading an xml as a view. Also if I copy and paste that line into another file, it complies, so it 's quarantined to that specific file. Gah, how frustrating. And any and all calls to R.java in StatusActivity fail.

And I added the line in R.java that states that it's in there and should be working.

So I've been trying to quarantine the issue, and I think it's an issue with my StatusActivity.java because other files have similar function calls but not receiving an error. Here's something that I hope will clarify the issue quickly.

The StatusActivity.java:
setContentView(R.layout.status);

The R.java

    public static final class layout {
        public static final int status=0x7f030000;
    }

And I have a folder named layout with an xml file named status. And that's the case with all other calls to R.java in StatusActivity. This was a working statement until the issue flared up. If it makes things easier here's status.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<!-- Main Layout of Status Activity -->
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:background="@drawable/background">

<!--Title TextView -->
<TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:textSize="30sp"
    android:layout_margin="10dp"
    android:text="@string/titleStatus"
    android:textColor="@android:color/white"
    />

<!-- Text Counter TextView -->
<TextView 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_gravity="right"
    android:id="@+id/textCount"
    android:text="000"
    android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
    />
<!-- Status EditText -->
<EditText 
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:hint="@string/hintText"
    android:id="@+id/editText"
    android:gravity="top|center_horizontal"
    android:background="#cfff"></EditText>
<Button 
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/buttonUpdate"
    android:textSize="20sp"
    android:id="@+id/buttonUpdate"></Button>
</LinearLayout>

So I've been deleting xmls to see if things would work, and it isn't. I'm starting to really get frustrated with this crap. I'm really disappointed in Google in such a poor design scheme.

I renamed it and it didn't work.

well here's my onCreate method:

public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
    {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.status);
        

        editText = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.editText);
        updateButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.buttonUpdate);
        updateButton.setonclickListener(this);
        
        textCount = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.textCount);
        textCount.setText(Integer.toString(140));
        textCount.setTextColor(Color.GREEN);
        
        editText.addTextChangedListener(this);
    }

it's aggravating, because I'll even comment out what I had added, and it still fails.