No.
Most people add more details to what they are doing, but I find it goofy, and most of the time only describe what I'm doing when it's relevant.
No, but for me it is necessary unless I want to play once per two months. If you are playing a chatroom-based game, however, the difference is...
Most of them. In fact today I started a Castle & Crusades game and I don't own its books; also I'm playing Call of Cthulu, so that makes it two games I don't have them.
And my friends and I sometimes play OD&D, I being the only one to have the rules.
This fails with me. The worst art in D&D history is the D20 one, the first version I played. The best one, AD&D, my second newest version (The newest being my favorite - OD&D).
We're on pretty much the same situation. Last week I too played (DMed) for the first time in a year.
You can see what happened in it here: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13474
Rogério Ceni; Cafu, Daryo Pereira; Diego Lugano; Canhoteiro; Mineiro, Josué, Raí, Denílson; Arthur Friedenreich and Müller.
Subs: Zetti, Belini, Pedro Rocha, Palhina, Leônidas da Silva.
Coach: Telê Santana.