Is there a better way to stay In sync with OHBs and OHCs than randomly checking this site as often as possible? A notification system maybe? That will post and update somewhere for the user to see that a OHC/OHB has been created/started?

Please excuse the outlandish NOOBish nature of my query.

No problem. As we say here, "all n00bz!"

Announcements, including ones for OHBs/OHCs (they're the same thing, but "OHB" is the new term for it; "One Hour Battle" and "One Hour Compo", respectively), are available via Twitter

, a RSS 2.0 feed, and Facebook

(I assume so; I never go on Facebook). These links are found on the front page under "BotB News".

However, OHBs are rarely scheduled in advance and pop-up with only 2-15 minutes of lead time, so that may not be the most effective way for you.

Our (active) IRC channel (a.k.a. "chat room", but do me a favor please and never call it that, heheh), #botb on EsperNet, is the best way to stay in touch with OHBs. In there we have an announcer bot named "BotB". You can sign-up for a service with it, which will highlight you (says your nickname, which can trigger a auditory or visual alert in an IRC client) when a OHB is announced. You should be in our channel during an OHB, as communication via IRC is critical to your involvement.

I'd go more in-depth about how our channel is an important part of an OHB, but I'm tired, so I'll just leave this somewhat mess of an explanation at that. I hope you find this post helpful!

You pretty much have to idle in IRC, and follow the instructions on the BotB lyceum entry to have it call your name when OHCs and whatnot are announced.
Our IRC channels aren't supplementary to the site, the site is pretty much supplementary to the IRC channel.