Oh, I'm finding the whole world outside of the Java bubble to be mysterious, and pretty freaking simpler! Yet having only about 20 minutes a month to spend on playing with learning Perl makes me sort of a perpetual newbie, so I've always got something to learn.
Thanks for the book recomendation. Can I borrow a copy? ;)
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.