Aparently I didn't explain very well. I do understand the concept of the whole manipulation process.. I really think (being the type person that I am) I'm really going to like the extra control that I will have by shooting in RAW.
What I was hoping to do was take advantage of the experience that some of you have that prefer to shoot that way and find out if you have any *go to* basic settings for just everyday photos that someone like me that is wanting to learn the ins and outs of not shooting in auto provide.

Photogrl,
As a working pro I use RAW a lot, not all the time, it just isn't necessary. Now if I have to have work spot on with all things required to be perfect I shoot in RAW. Your settings in the camera will be the same ones you use to shoot JPEG, I know that in the Tents for Fashion Week my settings are as follows. ISO 800, Shutter Speed 1/200, Fstop 5.6, White Balance 3200K. The above settings are used no matter whether JPEG or RAW. You still want to get your photo as close to perfect in the camera as you can, see you photo in your head, then try to get that exactly the way you saw it into the camera. As an old time film man you had to do that since you had no feedback until it was developed. Today digital makes things a lot easier and faster.

I think the basic problem that most "newbies" have is that they expect or would like the camera to do everything for them; and have trouble understanding that with modern DSLRs they are working with a modern marvel of technology, that is as much computer as camera. If one doesn't have the time, energy, or interest to learn how all the available settings interact, the best setting is full automatic; and to be prepared when the dumb computer/camera cannot figure out what the human pushing the shutter expects. There is no simple preset that works all the time. The more one is willing to compromise the results, the more one is willing to solely use the jpeg setting and avoid setting ISO, Aperture, Exposure, etc. Sure, it's complicated and confusing at first, but after a while much becomes second nature while the results keep improving. One last word: If one cannot see the difference between a "snapshot" and a well crafted photograph, ignore my advice.

I'm not sure you have a firm grasp of what the RAW format is. A RAW image is simply one that does NOT have any of the in-camera processing done to it to convert the actual sensor image data into a JPG file.

ALL DSLRs that output JPG will do some sort of processing to create a JPG file - some of the info is thrown away, adjustments are made to white balance, brightness, contrast, etc etc.

If I'm shooting RAW, I use as 'neutral' a set of settings as possible - ISO 100 unless conditions dictate otherwise, CLOUDY white balance, -2/3rds Exposure Compensation.

The idea with RAW is that you take your file into a post-processing piece of software, where you then can tweak things like white balance, brightness, contrast, sharpness, RGB settings, and so on, to produce the final image that you want. Then you save THOSE changes to a TIFF or JPG style file.

So there's no real "learning to take photos in RAW", so to speak - it's learning HOW to manipulate and massage the original 0s and 1s to produce the final product that you want.

In other words, YOU do the processing, instead of the Camera.