Ask HN: How do I learn C and C++ when I love high-level languages?

I've been developing using languages like Python, Java and the like with automatic memory management for the past few years. The way I learned these languages was - read their language definition from learnxinyminutes.com, think of personal projects I wanted to make/port, google the API and done.

C/C++ is different, I'm afraid of pointers. I can't think of anything that I will like to make in C/C++ since it is so low-level. What I can do in one line in Ruby will take dozens.

I will really appreciate any pointers on how do I learn them. (no pun intended)