Congrats on getting the camera, Upper! What was it again, a D60?
For beginning, I'd recommend putting the camera in Program (P) mode for general shots. This is similar to Auto in that it controlls the aperture and shutter speed for you, but you can control stuff like ISO sensitivity, White Balance (e.g. Tungsten for indoor lighting) and whether or not you have the flash. If you want to get that "popping out" feeling to portraits or close-ups, set the camera to Aperture Priority (A) mode, and set the camera to the largest aperture you can (lowest F-number, it'll be between 3.5 and 5.6 for your lens). Likewise, if you want to get everything in focus for a landscape shot, set the camera to A mode and choose the smallest aperture you can (biggest F-number, between 22 and 36). Be aware, however, that a smaller aperture will result in a slower shutter speed, so a tripod might be necessary. Also, it's worth noting that a lens never performs at its best at very large or very small apertures, so at f/36 you might find your images "soften" a bit (I haven't seen anything THAT bad at f/3.5-5.6).
Finally, for sports shots where you absolutely need to freeze the action, or for waterfall shots etc where you want to blur movement, choose the Shutter Priority mode (S). Wheel the command dial to change the shutter speed, and bear in mind that 50 doesn't mean 50 seconds, it's actually 1/50th. For sports, a minimum of 1/160-1/500 is necessary (depending on the sport), but you might need to raise your ISO sensitivity in order to compensate. For blurring photos, you'll certainly need a tripod. If the weather allows for it, choose a shutter speed of about 1 second. This will show up as 1" on your LCD (I say "if the weather allows for it" because you'll get an overexposed photo if you create a 1 second exposure in brigh, bright sunlight).
ISO is how sensitive the camera's sensor is, in the same way as how ISO values on a film work. Your camera's lowest ISO value is 100, so use this for landscape photos, blurred ones, or when you want the absolute best image quality. Your camera's highest sensitivity is ISO 1600/Hi-1 (ISO 3200 equivalent), so use these values for indoor photographs without flash and places where you are absolutely DESPERATE for that extra bit of shutter speed (rock concerts, for example). For sports, an ISO of between 400 and 800 is good. This will allow you to get that extra bit of shutter speed, while still giving you good image quality.
One very last thing: You seem quite into close-up photos. Bear in mind that the closer you focus, the less your depth of field will be, even if you keep the aperture the same. If you want a close-up photo to have everything in focus, you'll need to use very small apertures (large f-numbers).
Congratulations! I hope you'll have as much fun plating with your D60 as I have had playing with my D40!
