New Programmer

I got my favorite shirt covered in paint today, Hi I'm Rigel.

I have little experience in programming, i used visual basic a semester ago briefly in a computer course and I enjoyed it a lot.  I was wondering if you guys can help me with choosing my first Programming language that is effective, easy to get tutorials for, and mostly Free. My friend is pushing Java on me but i want to know what you guys think would be good.

>>12
Don't learn scheme with SICP. Lean scheme with HtDP. SICP was developed for electrical engineering majors looking to learn how to program.

Also Real World Haskell is designed for people who know how to program OO and want to learn how to program in a functional language.

Although both of these books can be read by a novice, if you don't know the background to the books you're going to hit a steep learning curve near the middle of the books.