Just a Gwai Lo - fun within prescribed limits

After taking a few hundred photos in Iceland with my new camera, the Canon Digital Rebel XTI, it's time to invest some time in to really figuring out how to take decent photos with it. Because vacation really is a bad time to learn to use a new piece of documenting equipment, I mostly just took the same photo with different settings and uploaded the best one. Not a secret or anything, as I know that even great photographers hedge their bets sometimes, but I'd like to be able to know, if not instinctively then at least through practice which settings are appropriate for the situations I'll find myself taking my camera to. Looking at the camera settings for photos people take, by clicking the "More properties" link in Flickr (for example, the cool long exposures taken from Vancouver's SkyTrain: 1, 2, 3, 4) and attempting to duplicate the shot should help me learn too. These include planespotting at Vancouver International Airport, SkyTrain (photo)walks, and live events such as concerts and parades. Can you think of anything else? Maybe I should get more active on Now Public—so that people can assign me to cover something—and Urban Vancouver and give citizen journalism some serious effort.

(I'm thinking that if I bring a big enough lens, parade organizers will think I'm media and won't ask me to stop walking in the middle of the parade route. Concerts I'm not so sure about: do I need to ask the venue for permission? Or can I just walk in without fear of camera forfeiture?)

On another note, I find it difficult to take photos of strangers because I need to get over the idea, especially in a public setting, that I'm taking photos without someone's permission. The photographers I watch in Flickr have the ability to not care what people think, or at least understand that the other person knows that the photographer takes the photo because the photographer makes no attempt to hide it.