No, it isn't. U is clockwise and U' is anticlockwise, and D is clockwise and D' is anticlockwise. Is it really that hard to understand?
Going with how it turns when the stickers are facing you is pretty retarted, yes. Since when you're turning a D face you'll never have it facing you in the first place. It's just super counter-intuitive.
anyway, I guess I'll just rewrite the algorithms in a book for myself. I don't think I can re-learn this at this point.