project ideas for a noob
klahnako: IMHO, it is hard to find a domain that is challenging, useful, and small.   But a couple of examples listed above are pretty good:
1) Write your own web server, blog software, etc:  By leveraging existing libraries (or not!) you can get a lot of effect for very few lines
2) Script your daily chores:  It does not matter what language you write the “scripts” in.  Choose your current favorite and get a feel for how you can interact with the OS