@John: I don't intend to be mean-spirited at all, only helpful, when I say that it is hard to imagine how one could lose all four of their lives so early on. There must be something you aren't catching on to, certain techniques or advice you could benefit from. A few suggestions, to get the most out of your playing experience:
1) Stay away from PD's all together. You've already unblocked

, so you don't need to go into PD3 anymore, and you shouldn't if it makes you die. Only go into PD6, and PD16 if you can survive it most of the time.
2) Consider using HyperCam to record your games. This way, you could have more experienced players see how you're doing things and how you should be doing them.
Of course, maybe you just need more practice. I remember, about a month after I started playing, my high score was around 300k, and the lemons seemed revolutionary, so I wasn't much different from you. Time will tell.
