I got into Perl about three years ago wanting to convert an HTML version of a Word document to TWiki format retaining links and tables and splitting the document into appropriate pages for the wiki in the process. Since then I've used Perl in a range of tasks including:

• a range of scripts for an automated build system: validating HTML, validating dialog resources, checking version number consistency across projects, ... .
• (to be completed next year) the whole build management system re-written in Perl (currently C++) to allow coordinated build management across multiple computers and Operating Systems and managed through a database backend.
• a Tk application to draw teams for social games for a badminton club.
• a Perl application for generating Windows .msi based installers for our next product release (and a support module soon to be released to CPAN).
• An application that parses Microsoft Visual Studio compiler logs and presents an error summary using a tree control
• Lots of tiny utility apps for all sorts of daily drudge work.
• A very light weight emailing tool when our ISP decided spam could be prevented by limiting the recipient list for email to 20 addresses - which completely bollixed sending out a society newsletter I distribute.
• A web application that calculates diets given isotope data from archaeological sites.

and if any of these sound familiar, it's because many of them have appeared in some fashion in SOPW.