Eric's dashboard

1-- go to a hosting company that does "simplescripts" or "fantastico" scripts, in other words, simple buttons on your site maintenance interface that will allow you to install new drupal portals in just one minute. this will take the whole annoying installing/hosting question out of your learning process, and if you want to experiment with a new technique, you can just make a new portal to hack on.

For that I recommend BlueHost.

2-- from that blank slate, start learning. I found this book to be a good one for beginners:
http://tinyurl.com/dfpgbz

also do plenty of googling around for various how-tos and so forth...