I'm sure this has been covered lots of times before, but I'm a newbie to ff8 and I don't understand A LOT about this game. One of the questions I have is:
"How do I card enemies without taking forever to do so?" I mean, it's almost like pokemon, cause you have to weaken the enemy till it's almost dead, and it takes FOREVER!
Also: Faster ways of getting AP... what enemies give more, with less EXP? I've beaten a lot of enemies (Squall is Lvl. 40 and only halfway through through the 2nd disc, which I was told recently is BAAAAAD for this game), and I don't know which ones are the best to fight around this point in the game.

Yeah, you're a pretty high level, I don't normally hit the 40s until a good way into disc 3. :o Though, it's very easy to level up in this game, and the enemies level up with you so I wouldn't be too worried as long as you can keep your junctions up.

Don't want to spoil any story for you, so what's the last thing to happen story-wise? I *think* you can get to enemies that give 20AP and very little EXP on disc 2, though on disc 3 it's better because you can get to a place where you get 2-4 of them every battle.

In terms of carding, I don't really have much advice there, although if you scan the enemy you can see how much they have and work out the best way to get them low from the moves you have before carding. By the point you're at it's much quicker to actually play the card game than to card the enemies, and you should be able to find people who will play with the lv1-5 (possibly 6 too) cards around the world.

Right now I just got to Fisherman's Headquarters(?) (can't remember what the H in "FH" stands for) and I'm off to rescue the mayor of the town. On the non-story side, I actually figured out that when enemies are ready to card, they get knocked back a little bit farther than usual, which means they're close to dead. Yeah, I didn't realize it cause I'm playing on it on my psp, so when you're looking at half inch characters, you tend to miss those things. :P
Oh, and playing the card game? Yeah... I kinda hate playing card games in real life with real people (more of a board game guy myself), so there's no way I'm gonna take the time to learn a card game... in a game... with A.I... lol.

*EDIT* I'm back on the Floating Gardens, after rescuing the mayor (and preventing the city from being burnt down) and that (weird, albeit fun) band minigame that came outta nowhere. Stay tuned for more updates! No... don't lol.

Ok, if you've got the Garden moving you're at just the right point. Go to the southern-most island on the southern continent (Centra). On the eastern side of this island you should see a big desert. You can't actually land the garden there, but if you follow the coast around until you can get off, you should be able to walk through the mountains into the desert.

In the desert you should find some Cactuars, they give 20AP and not very much EXP. If I remember rightly if you go right to the far end of the desert, close to the little island it actually falls under the "Cactuar Island" area and you get Cactuars every battle there! Give it a try and see how it goes

Ah, sweet! Thanks a bunch! Yeah, I've been ripping through this game, and I just got the ragnarok. I plan on exploring the world now, cause I went through a huge chunk of the game so fast. But now I can go anywhere! So any more suggestions? If not, cool, you've helped me out a lot. Thanks!

If you've got the Ragnarok then you can reach the Cactuar Island itself, which is to the east of that desert, you might even run into the Jumbo Cactuar GF there.

If you want a challenge and also to level up fast you can try the Island Closest To Heaven at the far east of the map or Island Closest To Hell at the far west (I prefer the second one personally). There are a lot of world map draw points around both islands but the encounter rate is very high and every enemy is lv100. Can be tough if you're not prepared but early on you can gain like 2-3 levels per battle.

Alright! Those cactaurs are amazing! And I was able to defeat that Jumbo Cactaur, too, so I got a bonus GF! :D Yeah, I also checked the islands closest to Heaven and Hell, and... wow. They are freaking tough. But the monsters have awesome magic. I guess I'll just have to suck it up if I want things like Meteor and Flare. *sigh* Fortunately, I have Odin, so he kicks butt for me sometimes and lets me level up a bit. I think I'll also try the Level Down ability, see if that works.

Don't level to 100 straight away, lest you won't get the best GF in the game.

hint: check the corners of the map...

Well thanks for the help! I beat FF8 last night so I won't annoy anybody with my incredibly intelligent and thought provoking questions anymore. lol.