Right now I am enjoying the PvE part of EVE and blowing up NPC pirates and stuff, so I have been focusing a little more on combat, though have learned that there are a few skills I missed, but I'm making up for it.
When I found the Thorax, the first thing I did was work on the recommended certs listed for the ship before I even took it out of the hangar.
And as much as I like the Thorax, I've been looking at the following three hulls: Talos, Hyperion, and Megathron as what I would like to move into and have been looking at the projected skill and certs in EVEMon...but I'm also second-guessing myself and worrying that I'm missing out on that nebulous 'something'. There are other areas of the game that are appealing, but when it comes right down to it, I love big ships with big guns...always have and I think always will.
I know I should look more closely at ship fittings and have asked questions, but I also find that I learn better by doing. I can look at a fitting, but right now it doesn't really mean much to me. Unfortunately, learning from mistakes can be quite costly in EVE so I think that has been the cause of some of my doubting what direction to take.