Trouble starting the server, HELP PLEASE!

can anybody tell me what is going wrong from the information taken
from the development log below. WHen i start WEBrick and try and view
a page on the localhost i get the following error, “We’re sorry, but
something went wrong.We’ve been notified about this issue and we’ll
take a look at it shortly.”
I’m a complete beginner and really want to start learning Ruby on
rails, but cannot at the moment get past the setup phase despite a
long time trying and i feel I’m almost there. Hope someone can help.

Logfile created on Wed Mar 24 17:13:17 +0000 2010/!\ FAILSAFE /!\

Wed Mar 24 17:13:27 +0000 2010
Status: 500 Internal Server Error
uninitialized constant Encoding
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/
active_support/dependencies.rb:443:in load_missing_constant' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/ active_support/dependencies.rb:80:inconst_missing’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.5/lib/
active_support/dependencies.rb:92:in const_missing' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-0.0.8/lib/sqlite3/ encoding.rb:9:infind’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/sqlite3-0.0.8/lib/sqlite3/
database.rb:66:in initialize' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite3_adapter.rb:13:innew’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/sqlite3_adapter.rb:13:in
sqlite3_connection' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:223:insend’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:223:in
new_connection' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:245:incheckout_new_connection’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:188:in
checkout' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:184:inloop’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:184:in
checkout' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:insynchronize’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:183:in
checkout' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:98:inconnection’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:326:in
retrieve_connection' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb: 123:inretrieve_connection’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_specification.rb:
115:in connection' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/query_cache.rb:9:incache’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/
active_record/query_cache.rb:28:in call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.5/lib/ active_record/connection_adapters/abstract/connection_pool.rb:361:incall’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/
action_controller/string_coercion.rb:25:in call' /Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/head.rb: 9:incall’
/Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/
methodoverride.rb:24:in call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/ action_controller/params_parser.rb:15:incall’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/
action_controller/session/cookie_store.rb:93:in call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/ action_controller/failsafe.rb:26:incall’
/Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/lock.rb:
11:in call' /Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/lock.rb: 11:insynchronize’
/Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/lock.rb:
11:in call' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/ action_controller/dispatcher.rb:114:incall’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/
action_controller/reloader.rb:34:in run' /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/actionpack-2.3.5/lib/ action_controller/dispatcher.rb:108:incall’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails/rack/
static.rb:31:in call' /Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/ urlmap.rb:46:incall’
/Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/
urlmap.rb:40:in each' /Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/ urlmap.rb:40:incall’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/rails/rack/
log_tailer.rb:17:in call' /Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/ content_length.rb:13:incall’
/Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/handler/
webrick.rb:50:in service' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/httpserver.rb:104:inservice’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/httpserver.rb:65:in run' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:173:instart_thread’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:162:in start' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:162:instart_thread’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:95:in start' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:92:ineach’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:92:in start' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:23:instart’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/webrick/server.rb:82:in start' /Users/peterorpete/.gem/ruby/1.8/gems/rack-1.0.1/lib/rack/handler/ webrick.rb:14:inrun’
/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.5/lib/commands/
server.rb:111
/usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:in
gem_original_require' /usr/local/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/rubygems/custom_require.rb:31:inrequire’
script/server:3

dont worry about this, i just stopped trying to have a version of ruby
in my local folder and everything seems to work fine now