I assume you're interested in the latest 2.6x version so you can use the new Cycles renderer. You can get some really stunning results with it, but it requires a new way of thinking about things. You'll probably want to go find some tutorials on creating Cycles materials, because it's nothing like doing it for the internal renderer used on 2.49b (and also available in 2.6+).
Getting the current version of Blender is actually pretty easy. Just go here:
http://www.blender.org/download/get-blender/ and and download the appropriate version. For Windows, they provide installers that take care of basically everything for you.
You can have Blender 2.49b and 2.6x installed at the same time without any problems (just make sure you don't install them to the same directory). In fact, I usually have 3-4 versions. I keep 2.49b, the last 2.5 before BMesh, the current release version, a Freestyle build, and a bleeding edge trunk build.
Now, if you're looking to render nice looking characters, there's a feature in the nightly builds that's NOT in the the current release of Blender that you may be interested in. It's called subsurface scattering. This allows the renderer to simulate the way a small amount of light penetrates into other layers of the skin before being bounced back to the skin, and also simulates the effect of light shining through thin parts of the skin (look at the ears of somebody lit behind and you'll see this phenomenon that's referred to as "backscatter" by 3D artists - or, hold a flashlight up to your fingers and notice how some of the light makes it through).
If you want to use this feature, you'll need a more recent build than the one linked above. You can get the developer nightly builds here:
http://builder.blender.org/download/. Note - these don't come with an installer, so they're a little less idiot-proof, but I've generally just been able to unzip and run them with little or no problems.
If your'e really adventurous you can build off Blender off of trunk (the current in-development version), which gives you the latest and greatest features as soon as they're available. It also means you're sometimes using an unstable piece of software. I don't necessarily recommend this for most people, but if your'e tech savvy and want to live on the cutting edge, you can read the instructions for building Blender yourself here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:D ... ng_Blender
id really appreciate it 
that is really helpful 
still getting nothing T^T
