n00b question

I'm fairly new to the SEO game and would like to get a list of tools and learning references together. Sifting through google can be a bit of a nightmare if you don't know what you're looking for, so i'd like your input as to what, or where is the best resouce for learning SEO. Your top five...

ok, so i'm a total n00b when it comes to blackhat (as you can see from my username :D). I have a question about proxies. If I want to use something like (a cracked version of) SENuke, and don't want to use my IP for obvious reasons, could I just use the IP of any proxy (via the Proxy thing...