Im in the same boat as u mate, just joined and ive been learning maya for a couple of days too.

Its funny, because u have idea's in your head of what u would like to create but u just dont know where to start first or which part to learn, if u get any good tutorials for us newbie's please PM me them as i could use some help like u, or else ill just keep an eye on this thread =].

G'luck mate

/Maz