Alright, I've been bitten by the Ruby bug, but I haven't yet had that
"Eureka!" moment that has me thinking in blocks and metaclasses.  I've
read lots of documentation and articles, but I'm lacking in practical
hands-on knowledge.

My question is, if you were stranded on a desert island (with a laptop
and power supply), and you decided to use the time to become a Ruby
guru:

What resources would you want with you?
What types of programs would you want to attempt?
What programming exercises would you want to help you practice new
Ruby things as you learn them?
How would keep track of (benchmark) your progress to know you were progressing?

Assume you have no Internet access, but you know the impending
desertion is coming.  You'll have time to collect books, articles,
code libraries and a why action figure before becoming shipwrecked and
wishing you'd also packed sunscreen and a raft.

Sean