AVR-Chat

Greetings,

Does anyone know what the best way to start out in AVR programming 
is?  I've heard from a local hobbiest programmer that there was a way 
to do a 6wire parralel port programmer, but I wasn't able to find 
this from google.  Does anyone have a link to this, or other simple 
programmers?   There doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there for the 
student budget that I have been able to find.  Also any other advice 
for begining avr programmers would be very appreciated.

-
Michael Haisley