Second shave went much better... Way less irritation, when I used the alum block after (my informal way of telling how well I did, in addition to smoothness). It seemed like the following helped quite a bit (all from advice here)...

- using more water with the TOBS cream.
- applying fresh lather to the quadrant that I was working on.
- keeping the spine about 2 widths away from my face.
- desperately trying for a very light touch.
- not going over areas too much, trying to get it BBS.

At a minimum, I've got to still work on...

- trying to figure how to position my hand, for certain areas, especially to do XTG (it's a lot easier to maneuver a DE).
- keeping the angle consistent over jawline/chin.
- making sure to pull skin tight.
- have the guts to go a bit faster than turtle pace (took me about 40 mins this time).

The lather came out much better and it felt like I got a slicker coating on my face (never realized how forgiving the safety razor was with some of this). Probably was starting to dry out.

I had periods of time, where, even on the first pass, the blade just seemed to slice right through the hair with little resistance. It was a bit surprising, given my first shave experience, and I thought that maybe the blade was gliding over the face and not cutting at all, but sure enough it was. I need to work on getting that feeling consistently.

There were other times, mostly on the first pass, where there was resistance and it was harder to move the blade along my face. Like it was having a hard time cutting the whiskers. Clearly, it's my technique. Lots of improvement to go there.

Thanks for the advice folks! It really is helping!