ok..got it..
what impulse used to do with an update was restart itself after an update.
but this did not happen this time, and so without realizing it, i tried to update elemental without impulse restarting.
so i closed impulse manually and restarted it, only to learn that an update for impulse was available (again). this is when i sighed like i had never sighed before...that kind of sigh.
so i closed everything up again, but this time didnt start impulse tray, only stardock impulse (if that makes any sense) and got elemental to update to 1.2a...
now impulse tray keeps telling me that an update is available for impulse... i click ok to update and i keep getting an error for that.
it seems like i am worried about nothing important but yet i find it really hilarious that you have read this post up to the very end. so now i dont know what is more sad, you reading this or my impulse error.