What are some cool begginer things to do with Java?

[CiniCraft]

I'm trying to get into a hobby of making cool simple java programs since java is the mainstream language we use in my university.

Anyone have any ideas for what I should try to make?

[sunde887]

Simple notepad, more advanced text editor, GUI calculator, poker, black jack, program which can draw graphs of functions, and an rpg are some things I have done/thought about doing.

[TacoManStan]

Depends what "beginner" is. I consider myself a noob, and I am making a sort of Pokemon style game, similar to the RPG game that sunde mentioned.

However, if you are a TRUE noob (which it doesn't sound like you are) then I would go with a text adventure program in the terminal window. Then make some parts of it use JOption pane. Then convert some of it into a GUI. (I used JFRame) Then move onto whatever else you want, say the black jack. Then move onto the RPG.

That's as far as I can go, because that is where I am :D But yeah, it worked for me.