I just felt playing with just discreet components was going to get a little old, but I am glad I did it.
This is a great place to start. In a relatively short period of time, you are going to move to a point where you need external hardware to make a project and you've already got an understanding of some of those discrete components.
On another forum someone asked a similar question, "what should I do to get started."
Seems like most people start with an LED and go from there. Set a small, or what you think is small 
, goal and go for it.
LEDs, Motors, and Random sensors are always fun to play with...
Oh... welcome to the Electron Addiction.