[jfaucett]

I can only suggest some things that have helped me become better over the years - and maybe they'll work for you :)

1. Scratch the really high level stuff and start digging into some C or x86 assembly ( with GCC and binutils), read the coreutils and glib source and program some of your own system tools ( like find or ls ). This will give you a really solid understanding of memory and hardware internals which you can use to your advantage in other software apps.

2. Start programming games. It doesn't matter if its in javascript for browsers or python but I would say do NOT use any external libs - program yor own solutions and read other libraries source for ideas. Nothing has helped improve my math and algorithm skills ( not to mention AI, physics, and graphics ) like programming html5 js games.

hope this helps and good luck!

[lurking_lurker]

Both of your suggestions have been lingering at the back of my head. Your encouragement is all they need to resurface and I think I'm definetly going to go trough Learn C the Hard Way and I might start making small game (not the biggest fan of gamedev but I do like the AI side of it).