Hi Brian, also if you're going to do some graphics experimentation there are some libraries that have a lot of prepackaged functions that can help make things a lot easier to start out with.

Here are a couple to check out:

http://www.openframeworks.cc/
http://processing.org/

And a couple that are focused on games could also be useful:

http://www.ogre3d.org/
http://unity3d.com/


Some helper libraries like these could give you a big boost getting started.

- Michael