The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, and inform them of the time the error occurred and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
when I try to "edit" a menu item. and when saving articles and other random times in the back end.
what can I do to make sure it's not something I installed or if it's something on my host...
Check your folder permissions here: Admin -> Site or System -> System Information -> Directory Permissions to ensure they're writeable.
They should look EXACTLY like this:
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To check Ownership issues, which do you have -> Admin -> Site or System -> System Information -> System Information Tab-> Web Server to PHP interface: apache2handler -or- CGI / FastCGI?
A "500 internal server error" is a very generic error that means a URL you've requested couldn't be accessed. The error is actually on the server side and NOT in the Joomla/Theme code. One of the more common occurences that can raise this error are if you've updated your Joomla/Theme installation and are using a newer PHP version but some code references an older version of PHP. Also installing a new plugin, if not well written, could corrupt the .htaccess file. And there are MANY more than can cause this error.
The best way to get a handle is too work with your hosting provider. Start by reviewing your Apache error logs. You could also do some basic debugging by backing up your current .htaccess file to your HDD. Then on the server copy delete all the code and save. See if this resolves the issue. If so then it's one of the lines of .htaccess code that is causing the issue.