my strategy when learning has always been to pick a small project that has to do with what you do and just launch into it ... the first little perl endeavor i undertook was to update the ip address for the e-mail post office at work in the windows registry, then i launched into parsing logs, which led me into database access, etc. each leads you into picking up something new, and you've got the satisfaction of actually getting something done. personally, i'm amazed at the people who can actually read through all of the perldoc pages first, i'm far too impatient for that. i have been know to re-invent the wheel as a result, but what the heck, at least i know i can do it.