Getting started with electronics - virtual breadboards with IC's?
[This started as a comment, but I ran out of room.]

@ForceFlow  It does make sense to be cautious; I'm not going to argue with that.  It also sucks when you fry the last chip that you have on hand, and shipping costs 10x more than the chip itself.  However, the remedy for that is physical practice, as opposed to increasingly realistic simulation.  

555 timers are $0.25 on Jameco.  Run-off-the-mill OpAmps can be bought for $0.25 too.  Buy an ample supply like 10 or 20.  Build a few dozen of 555 circuits in a short amount if time.  Build them at noon and at midnight.  Build the on caffeine and without caffeine.  See at what rate you destroy the ICs.  At $0.25 a pop, you can afford the burnage (just compare it to a price of a cup of coffee).  Over time (like 3 weeks or so), you will see what you fail rates are, and what the trend is.  Probably, it will be smaller than you're afraid.

That would be better than analysis-paralysis, which you are currently setting yourself up for.  No offense.