PHP/MySQL and CSS

I was a backend database programmer for too long -- Oracle PL/SQL to SQL Server t-sql to a little Sybase to reporting with Crystal Reports to using ASP .net. I worked for companies, crafting queries and functions and oh my god, I just bored myself. I liked it because it's like doing logic puzzles all day long.

But when I finally taught myself some front-end languages and, as of last year, got into PHP and MySQL programming, holy cow! What fun. Clean, sensible, always improving, with huge amounts of solid online resources, glossaries and code libraries to help you figure out how to make your site do whatever you want.

I don't know what makes some brains wired to enjoy the thrill of conditional statements and relational databases and functions and so forth, but it sure makes for a fun day of working on a site.

And CSS is the greatest -- it helps makes design clean and easy to do. (Well, "easy"). It makes sites make sense -- what a country, Yakov!