Hello fellow noob. You should also take a look into LTC as well, since that one is looking ready to rise due to an MTGOX announcement and such.

I should say that at the moment BTC is looking like its on a downward movement so I would be a tad bit more patient on getting some.

If you are trying to be a day trader and like being risky you should try some of the alt currencies they are pretty interesting as well.