Hi all!
I'm new to Arduino and physical computing in general. My overall knowledge of electronics in minimal (simple circuits is about all) and my programming knowledge is minimal. The last class I took was BASIC in 1986! So I'm pretty much a blank slate.. or empty head, however you like to look at it.
I got my first Arduino a week or so ago, and have really been enjoying it. Nothing major yet (nothing like the fantastic example in here!) just flashing LED's, turning servos, etc. My first independent (meaning that I did it all myself!) was just a simple two button servo control; one button to turn it forward and one to reverse it, and both to reset it. Happily it worked, better than I expected, and so easy to do.
Kudos to everyone's great ideas on here - there are some fantastic projects out there. I'm looking forward to stealing borrowing some of them and learning even more!
Edit: After playing around a bit more I think my first real project will be to make a joystick controlled "targeting system". Some lego's, a spare Atari joystick, a laser pointer and it will be fun for myself and the cat!