Aha, how exciting! Well believe it or not, four months ago I didn't even know what Joomla was! I do have skills in computing, but i've learnt so much about web design and languages in these past couple of months it's all very exciting and fresh to me still!
Although the truth is, there are actually many things I still don't know about Joomla. I feel bad when I see a new post on the forums here, and I have
no idea what they are talking about! So I try to bumble in a "Daniel will be here soon" while making educated guesses and exploring a part of Joomla they are talking about - learning something new!
Sorry, I digress. I think my point was that it's pretty important to get more than familiar with everything Joomla can do as quickly as possible. Experiment with all the menu options like Blog Layout and Category View, and explore the many parameters (options) that each one has. I spent days just "playing" with Joomla and it really helped me
P.S. When I first used Joomla, I actually had to re-install my entire website three times because I broke it the first two times, haha. Don't be afraid to tinker, as long as you remember how you did it and still have original articles and things, you will be safe