I just got A+ certified

I know you'll all scoff and regard me as a scrub, but I'm making /prog/ress towards achieving Satori. It's not much, but it's a start.

I've messed around with Ruby before, but what language would be good to take up seriously and learn in-depth? The most I've done with Ruby is make some shitty text-based games.

I'm not sure if this will impact your suggested language for me to learn, but I'm currently enrolled in CIS introduction classes for next semester, planning on getting into database administration later on. However, I want to learn how to program as a hobby.

I know I'll have to learn SQL some time in the near future, but I'm wondering if there's anything else I should take up.

In before elitist sages, conflicting suggestions, and inane comments.

>>26
* You don't always need to know C. many programming jobs don't even touch that nowadays.
* You can certainly use Lisp in "real life", as many companies have done, and will continue to do.
* Java and C++ are probably good to learn even if you never use them, if only to learn why people dislike them.

The last bit is sound advice, though: definitely get involved in open projects. Learn from others. Spend time getting your code critiqued. Get patches rejected for entirely plausible reasons, and learn from the experience.