Trying out the new 1.6.1 release (v 8.9.0.751) (Edit: while writing this, a new version was put up, I'll check that one), but every time Minecraft is restarted, I connect to servers as a new player.

It was a fresh install, as per the instructions I found here: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1873892-updating-installing-mods-in-161/

Aside from this issue, it seemed to load just fine--the mods were listed on the Minecraft game window.

 

In the log, I noticed this in particular:

2013-07-02 01:52:45 [iNFO] [sTDOUT] Completely ignored arguments: [MY-USERNAME, token:79f9baeddeac4090bc909961dc7dcd6c:1f18210167cb455d927549bf24e86a08]

 

Here is the full ForgeModLoader-client-0.log:

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=ceJEWYeB

 

and here is the new launcher's development console:

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=q0F3KuUy

 

The json you created is wrong.

Use the installer.

Installer seemed to work just fine. Probably wasn't necessary to change the entire .json file like it said to do in those instructions. Thank you. Cheers.