Nathan, similar to Chuck, I'm not questioning your efficacy or aptitude.
Because most of us do learn to a degree by osmosis, the issue of samples is interesting.
I recall back in the day learning lisp, before the internet, { no laughing } I think it was easier to learn then because I had to work it out myself essentially. Currently there are examples of almost everything available on the net. The dilema facing beginners now is choosing GOOD code as a sample .. without the knowledge being discriminating is difficult.
I imagine the same thing will happen with .NET code. At this stage I think there are more examples of good C# code around than of VB.net code .. and at the risk of harping on it, while people continue to engage in cut and paste coding the situation will not improve.
2c