I'm trying to come up with more project ideas for intermediate learners, somewhat along the lines of
http://bit.ly/intermediate-python-projects .
So here's a question for people who remember coming up from beginner: as you moved from exercises like those in Learn Python the Hard Way, up to your own self-guided work on small projects, what project were you working on that made you feel independent and skilled? What program first felt like your own work rather than an exercise the teacher had assigned?
I don't want anything too large, but big enough that there's room for design, and multiple approaches, etc.