I've so far shopped my ingredients from Beer, Beer, and More Beer in Concord, CA, USA and have had no flops, no worries, and I now live by the montra; "Relax, have a homebrew." 
My current batch which I kegged tonight is a signature beer, a la Jason Petros, a.k.a. JP from morebeer.com, called "JP's Imperial Porter." I am force carbonating, and hope to try this brew this weekend. The uncarbonated beer tastes great! I would whole heartedly recommend this kit. It is an extract kit, albiet it can be also obtained as an all grain kit. There is a wealth of information on the web for all of us "newbies" and if you are into yeast propogation, as I am, I recommend the following URL:
http://www.maltosefalcons.com/tech/MB_R ... turing.php
I can tell you from my experience, there is no such thing as pitching too much yeast starter. I use White Labs liquid yeast. I've typicaly pitched starters from 1100ml to 2000ml into a five gallon batch. I've enjoyed very fast starts, from 1.5 to 3 hours and use a blow off tube on my plastic bucket primary fermenter due to the typicaly agressive yeast fermentations. After about 3 to 4 days I can switch the blow off tube to a three piece airlock for the remainder of the ferment, according to style.
The thing that I appreciate the most about homebrewing, is the amount of control that you as a brewer have over the outcome of your batch. Commercial beer seems sterile, and "cookie cutter" in comparison. I appreciate the yeast, and how they interact with my brew.
There is a religious experience to be had in making homebrew. Entertain this thought for a moment; When all of the causal conditions are right, the yeast will convert fermentable sugars in your wort into alcohol. No scientist can explain the mechanics of how this is possible, but only that when conditions are correct, alcohol will happen with wort and yeast. This is why I believe that there is a God who loves us!
