UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

How can I be the owner with complete permissions on my system? I'm running Ubuntu Linux and am the only user. Any help would be appreciated.

You don't want to be the owner of all files -- there are security implications for that. You are the owner of files that YOU create; the system files are generally owned by special user 'root', with UID 0.
You can only do admin stuff as root (e.g. by using sudo(8)), because behind the scenes you are changing the system files (owned by root).
This hierarchy of privileges is what makes linux system safe, an is to your advantage. Linux is multi-user system, so more users can be logged in at the same time (even the same users).
But if you really need to, you can, of course change the owner of the file (chown command). But don't do it unless you are sure that's what you need to do -- you can compromise your system.
Safety is not just about who can be sitting at the keyboard -- for example, everytime you connect to Internet, you get exposed.

Just work as root if it pleases you, or change the UID of your username to 0 in the /etc/passwd file and you will have full permissions as a superuser.