[etal]

Another way is to pick a top-notch library or framework in your target language, and learn to use that. For Clojure, I'd try making some clever charts with Incanter:

http://incanter.org/

(Incidentally, the only new language I've been able to stick with after learning Python is R, because it solves completely different problems. Which means R is now my Blub for stuff that I'd like to, given some free time, try with Clojure/Incanter...)