Action issues

So I’ve been trying for a while to understand the action system in blender. After 3 (hour long) tutorials its still pretty much voodoo in certain areas. So I am here to ask about a specific problem I’m having.

Multiple actions. I have a rigged character. For some reason unbeknownst to me I can’t seem to assign it multiple actions. I have an Idle and a Run animation. Both at 40 frames. I can only seem to get one to be actively attached. This is an issue because in order to port over a character into unity the actions all need to be attached.

I’ve tried to date:

Using Dope Sheet Action Editor to:
add actions
Change actions between F and non-F versions (Which I understand to be actions that are independent an object to act on, and actions that are dependent)

I’ve tried using the NLA editor to:
Add action strips
Add Tracks
Neither of these even gave a response, I assume this is a selection issue.

I have also tried:
Praying to the Blender Gods
Sacrificing my keyboard on a alter made of the bones/armatures of my enemies
and
Baking my copy of blender a cake, which it refused to eat or even acknowledge

Any ideas as to how to solve this issue would be great. Also a link to a tutorial that specifically deals with how to create multiple animations on a single object that can be exported in FBX as a whole would be stellar! I realize this is rather specific and probably just daydreaming but the former would be just as helpful. ^^

Have a wonderful if you read this, regardless of being able to answer.

i am not sure if this will help completely, but i just found out, in 2.60, if you do not have the “F” button in the action editor selected, when you roll over it it says, “Save this Datablock even if it has no users” to save all the actions you make.
if this button is not selected, you will lose everything when you exit Blender with no normal hope of recovery(unless your good with data forensics).
this was my problem, and as i work more, if i come to understand your problem, i will try to help out some more. Good Luck.