I've been teaching myself Ruby and I'm pretty impressed with it - particularly its metaprogramming capabilities and implementation of code blocks. However, I'm not so happy with some of its scoping rules. I also would like to see a formal grammar and specification rather than the current definition by implementation route. Here are some pointers if you want to give the language a shot:
InstantRails will get Ruby and a bunch of goodies installed on your machine. Add the \ruby\bin directory to your path and run the default editor \ruby\scite\scite.exe to start trying out the language. A good tutorial is why's (poignant) guide to Ruby.