Make an alternate main page showing only specific categories in fixed order

Hi,

I’d like to start a second blog that is just a representation of a subset of posts in my primary blog. The second blog will be a kind of newsletter collecting together certain types of posts, e.g.,

JOBS
NEWS
CONFERENCES
…

but not all the categories from the main blog.

The second blog would:
* Have a different (mostly bare) index page
* Show only posts in a certain category
* Group posts by subcategories
* Have a specific ordering of subcategories
* Have a specific ordering of posts within the subcategories

Clearly, using the functionality of myblog.com/?cat=3 isn’t enough.

Is it possible to write a template that will allow me to specify what to display and where and how? Are there any examples of this people can share?

I can program, but am having troubling finding documentation & examples.

Thanks!