I've never used the remote commander. Have read reviews it doesn't work. Thus, to save frustration here is my question. I want to be able to record self help videos with myself as the instructor and not having to rely on anyone else. I would like to sit in a chair with the remote commander in my hand, and not visible, and operate the camera from about ten feet away. Is this possible or should I forget it?

The remote works - just remember to turn on IR Remote Support in the menu, and check to make sure that your battery works and is installed properly.
I seldom use it to do much more than trigger the camera, though one of my friends uses it to start timecode rolling on more than one EX1 simultaneously (using it to control the menu of more than one camera at the same time) to achieve a sort of 'ad hoc jam sync' between cameras that don't otherwise sync time codes.
Of course line-of-sight from remote to camera is highly recommended

Thanks a lot.

the remote is odd in that you have to turn it on in the menu every time you turn your camera on.
Automatically resets itself to off.