So for the longest time I've been telling myself that 3D modeling is beyond my abilities...without ever even trying it, just assuming that it was. Today I decided to put that theory to the test. I downloaded the latest version of Blender from www.blender.org and installed it. However when I launch it, it comes up with this warning message:

Compiled with Python version 2.6.2.
'import site' failed; use -v for traceback
Checking for installed Python... No installed Python found.
Only built-in modules are available. Some scripts may not run.
Continuing happily.

I had (and still have) Wrye Python installed on my system, but apparently that doesn't qualify (not sure why it doesn't count, or maybe I'm doing something wrong) so I went and downloaded Python 2.5.6 64-bit from Python.org. No dice. So I got Python 2.6.5 32-bit, and that seemed to work. Some questions:
1) Is there any benefit to leaving the 64-bit version of Python on my system?
2) Why doesn't Wrye Python work for Blender?
3) What's this 3.1.2 version of Python, and does that work with Blender?
4) How do I use Blender? Is it like MS Paint?

...that last one was a joke, I'll go find a tutorial

pyffi nad blender and whatnot need 2.6 python, wyre bash runs from 2.5

each build is different, and most often not backwards compatiable. You can have both 2.5 and 2.6 installed side by side no problem.

Each application version will want the specific version of Python it was compiled for. You could install another Python version like 3.1.2 without problems, but nothing would be using it, and that's the hard part, knowing when you don't need an old version any more.

I believe Wrye Bash has moved on to a later Python, so if you want to get down to a single Python installation, pick your release carefully!

Sounds reasonable. I guess I was thinking Python was more like Perl, wherein the latest version will support stuff written for older versions. I guess the only question I have left is why Python Windows 2.6.5 x86-64 (as it's called on the site) won't work for Blender but the 32-bit version will.