Pardon me for jumping in here...
Don't mind too much about the "language wars"...but I hope you can take away one point from it all. Once you have C and C++ well in hand, take some time to learn a completely different sort of language, one that pushes you to think in a different direction than C does. Maybe one with strict typing like Pascal, or an interpreted one like Perl. That will help you to separate specific language quirks from sound general programming principles.
Your take on C seems a lot like my wife's -- she regards the code as self-documenting, and considers comments to be a distraction. I have a different view, probably colored by my experience with IBM System/370 Assembler. I'd much rather read comments, to know what the programmer meant to do, than play computer and try to execute the code in my head.
Interestingly enough, one of my lame justifications for getting an Amiga was to get more comfortable with C, as I hope to get involved with some Linux or other kernel programming. Hacking around with Amiga programming seemed much more interesting than the many other options I have.
-Ed-
