I an intro level game programmer who has read a few books like "OpenGL Game Programming". Currently, I am all over the place in my study of game programming. I was wondering if there are any projects I could join, or if anyone is willing to teach an "apprentice". Its just hard to motivate urself, so I''m trying to link up with some other people. Thanks.

I guess the first question you should ask yourself is if you want to concentrate more on game design, engine design, graphics programming, or one the other areas of game programming. Even though you are an entry level game programmer, are you an experienced programmer? If not, then game programming is still an excellent way to become acquainted with software engineering, data structures and the other thousand topics that come along in this field. Games are great because they bring so many sections and practices of Computer Science together.
Most people tend to just concentrate on writing a wrapper for an API, and go on from there. Plus, once you are familiar with a certain API, it can help you in your game engine design.
If you are going to be doing graphics programming, you might need to go ahead and choose between DirectX and OpenGl for the time being so you can get some stuff done. After you become acquainted how everything works together, you should take a look at the other choices.
What is the biggest game-type program you have done? (ex: control 3D objects around the screen, etc ).
I think its important you first understand how the whole game loop works first, including stuff like timing and input issues. There will always be another version of DX out sometime, but the basic engine design does not change so much.

No, actually, writing a wrapper isn''t a waste of time. You can write a wrapper once for something like Win32, then use it every time you create a Win32 application. Just imagine having a nice function like this:

SetUpWin32Window(char *Windowname, int WindowHeight, int WindowWidth, etc);

rather than all the window creation crap Windows subjects you to. Just think of it as a way of cutting down on the amount of work you have to do. If you already have the code written, you won''t need to write it again...

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I understand the game loop pretty well IMO. Right now, I am studying 3d mathematics, but once I''m done with that I''m not so sure what to do. Making a big ole'' game by myself seems pretty daunting.