Electoral and Popular Votes?

i could be wrong but the way I understand it, is popular votes are just for fun. To see who really got the majority and confuse people and make people mad. Electoral votes are the ones that count. They take a popular vote from each state and whoever wins each state, that states electors vote for that person. I don't know if this is completely correct but I do know it is screwed up. Thats why Al Gore didn't become president back in 2000. Coming from oregon I know everyone will vote for Obama, so if I were to vote McCain, it really wouldn't count because my vote wont even make it out of the state because then the electoral college takes over. Whereas, if it was popular votes that counted, then my one little vote would count all the way to the end.