Well from what I can tell I would be able to render directly to a buffer which I can then make my set of textures that will be combined after to create the bloom effect. Kind of like how the picture above shows. I believe it's saying that I'd use an FBO to prevent making this process too slow. I guess if I'm using a buffer for what I want to glow I could easily draw what will be normal under the bloomed stuff (direct to screen), then do my bloomed stuff (to the FBO then onto screen) and on top of that I could put my interface things such as text and whatnot. (again direct to screen as per normal)

Not sure if I'm just making this up or dreaming, but this is what I'm hoping the referenced technique will allow. My trouble is the functions I need to use to make each of this happen. First the FBO stuff (creation and setting it as what GL will draw to), doing the Gaussian blur, then taking the FBO and applying it to my screen. I've been looking up this effect in some of the official references for OpenGL. In fact I just ordered the 4th Edition of the OpenGL Buperbible (blue book).