Post installation

How do I change the text that shows up on the main page after installing?
(once again) I can't find anything that explains how to do this

I'm looking for a module that allows users to create and join clubs or groups. Kind of similar to myspace but without the forum. If a user belongs to MENSA, I want him to be able create that group and add it to his profile. All the other MENSA members on my site would join that group too, so when you clicked on "MENSA" in one of thier profiles, it would show you all the members.

If there is no module out there like this, then I will try to create one, but I'm really a cut-n-paste programmer... so I'm wondering if anybody has any ideas for a module to start with.

I think i'm almost at the point where I'm starting to understand Drupal. This has been the hardest software for me to understand so far, but I'm so impressed with the functionality that I'm still trying. Part of the problem is the terminology used and me having a hard time remembering things.

This is a long post and I would appreciate some insight into best ways of doing this.

My background
I can code some PHP and have played with some databases etc. I am not an expert, but I can grab stuff from a database, organize it, and display it. I'm good at figuring stuff out as long as I know generally how to get started.

What I'm trying to do
I'm trying to create a restaurant type of review site, more of a blog review site. I could use Wordpress and be up and running a lot quicker but I want to learn drupal and feel this is a good starting point.

Here's what I've done so far
1. Added WYSIWYG htmlarea with image upload so we can post nice looking reviews with pictures
2. Figured out how to add menus and submenus for the various categories (asian, neighborhoods, etc). I'm guessing drupals categories abilities will come in handy here
3. Looked at some xtemplate files and I believe I understand the basic concents (basically columns with blocks).

Questions
I'm not 100% sure of the best way of doing things.

Q1: For example, if someone clicks on "Asian" restaurants. I want to list all asian restaunts in a nice link list with dates next do it. Similar to:

Hey, I'm trying to set this all up, I've created two "pages" with content. How do I "edit primary links" to put those in the navigation? The other site that I've worked with drupal on had a checkbox named "static on front page" that seemed to create a link for it up there automatically. I have the option set to "sticky at top of lists" but that doesn't seem to do anything

If I click on "edit primary links" or "edit secondary links" it just takes me to the main configuration screen for the theme but I have no clue what to type there.

I would like to add 3 access roles to my users' blog entries.

Global = everyone in the world can read, anon etc
Public = based on role or group (if organic groups is installed?)
Private = only the user can read it, possibly with the ability to give permissions to selected users by name, like from their buddylist or such

Has anyone played around with this? or have suggestions for this?

thanks

I have a small question for the drupal gurus. I was just browsing through theonion.com and loved the way the site is set up. Now my guess is that the site is using e-publish.module. Of course it is just a guess since I haven't used the epublish myself (yet).
My question is, is it possible to replicate the front pages for each category in a similar way as it has been done at theonion.com?

Regards
Pankaj