Proposal - sample Drupal website(s)

As a noobie (Drupal noobie that is, I have been programming C/C++ for over 10 years now, PHP for about a year), I am finding my way around the tons of (mostly outdated) documentation, quite difficult. I can see that the Drupal offering is a powerful proposition, but it needs to be "sold" (or to use a better marketing term - repositioned), much better than (IMHO), it currently is.

Case in point, I am a seasoned developer, and I love the philosophy, concept and feature set of Drupal, and I desperately want to fall in love with it and be a Drupal evangelist - telling everyone involved in website development, what great software it is. However, despite all this, I find myself "pulling my hair out", when trying to set up a simple website (as a proof of concept) for example.

I would like to propose that either one (or better both), of the following, would help raise the profile of Drupal even further, and help increase its uptake among recent converts (like myself) even more, whilst simultaneously, drastically cutting down the learning curve associated with "building your first website with Drupal".

The proposals are:

1). A simple "hello world" type video (or static document) that shows how to set up a simple website - clearly showing how a useful page with the following (standard) components :

Title
Meta tag info
Header section
Navigation menus
Footer section
Pictures
Single external style sheet link

Can be put together, using Drupal. An additional "nice to have" would be further info that would show how to create a simple theme to 'skin' the sample website described above.

last but not the least, it would also be useful if the sample tutorial showed a page that shows how to create a form. IIRC, there is a module that allows DP users to create a form - but there is nothing quite like a "hand crafted" form made from HTML, maybe some PHP, and CSS for formatting.

It would be fantastic if the tutorial could show how to use such a "hand crafted" form in a Drupal web page.

AND/OR

2). A link that has (complete) sample Drupal websites, so that new users can see how a "working" website can be put together using Drupal, and also use the samples as a quick starting point for building their own websites.

A bit similar to those found at:
http://www.asp.net/community/projects/

If there are any experienced Drupal users out there who would like to produce such a video (or hard document) tutorial, feel free to contact me personally at takashi_949REMOVE_FOOT_FROM_MOUTH_to_reply@hotmail.com, for suggestions tips etc. as to what information would be most helpful to include in such a tutorial. Alternatively (maybe better), we can discuss it out here in the open, so that other people can put in their ideas as to what they think would be most useful in a "sample Drupal website" tutorial and/or sample starter website kit(s)