Good Question... I was readin this a few months back http://math.hws.edu/javanotes/ http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/ http://www.comedition.com/Computers/Java/ If you have any questions holler. I am no expert but may be able to help ya
Im not very proficcient with it, but I can attest to reading internet tutorials. They should help a good bit.
i found java to be the easiest of the programming languages. almost fun... what are you trying to do?
I know extremely little. I can do loops, if/then/else, and make text boxes and buttons. I know that math.floor drops the decimal and math.random gives a random number from 0 to 1... I guess I shouldn't have thrown all my school work away after the end of the semester. Cause I did learn a lot more =\