Gota agree...keep it Taylor.
You can do the same things on your D40X as you can with a film camera and better yet, you can see what you need to change right away without having to wait for your pic's to be developed.
Take your time and when you feel up to it start playing with the other modes/settiings and see how each one will change a pic....
Heres a link to the user guide from Ken Rockwell....Yes is says it's for the D40, but the settings are the same for the D40X too.
This will tell you how to set up your camera to start shooting in the other modes...mostly program mode.
Copy it off and put it in your camera bag so you have it if you need to look at something.
This is in plain english and a lot easier to follow than the Nikon manual.
Nikon D40 User's Guide
Another suggestion for ya....go see if you can find some books on photography at your local library...a good one for getting to know how diifferent settings change things is "Understanding Exposure"
Heck I still shoot a lot of the time in program mode, but since taking the photography course I'm using aperture priority and shutter priority more....I still haven't used full manual mode much though...don't really need it most times.