Pagenavi and WP Page Numbers both not working…

I am using query_posts() to exclude categories.

If I pass in the $query_string to query_posts() pagination works but all the categories I don’t want show up in the loop.

If you don’t pass in the $query_string, pagination flat out does not work.

If use this:
$paged = (get_query_var(‘paged’)) ? get_query_var(‘paged’) : 1;
…and pass this in this variable, pagination does not work.

Kinda stumped, these are the three suggestions on most forums, and still the plugin is breaking.