In general, Java and C# are parallel tracks. I would pick the one you enjoy working with (probably C#) and learn the support languages that go with it. Definitely pick up a database language (SQL Server can be downloaded for free) and if you want to do web development, pick up MVC, JavaScript and JQuery. Plan on projects that you want to do at home to build skills. The easiest way to get ahead is to spend time outside of work doing what you enjoy doing with skills that will help you at work. Coming from soul-crushing jobs, you will want to find a job that is a good fit for your temperament and happiness. Programming can be soul-crushing as well, so this is absolutely vital. It may not be in the skills you have chosen, but you will have to choose which is more important to start. You can always market those home projects for changing jobs to get into the area you want to work in once you have some experience.

More likely New Orleans!

Working in WinForms myself, albeit with DevExpress widgets. WPF was supposed to replace it, but haven't seen people really cotton to it.

"Lurch" your boss. That proposition is untenable, even after reading all the replies below. If he is your friend and cannot understand the position he is in, he is doomed to be stuck anyway. Anyway, your better bet is a senior programmer looking to retire in an "adventurous" town on the "sexy" gulf coast who thinks hurricanes are a thing of the past and retirement with some income with evening sailing is the cat's meow. Drive home the Mardi Gras home seat option.

Jargon is always scary until you know what it means!

Honey, ascenders and descenders are letters like 't', 'l', 'h' that ascend above a standard 'a' type character and descenders are 'p', 'q', 'y' that descend below a standard 'a' type character.

Nah, never found a need for one - you are not alone.

Agreed.

That is because readability becomes less important when publishing. Vertical space means $$$, so it trumps readability.

Besides, "cryptic" usually is a matter of who wrote it and how, not what language it happens to be in. Some of the most cryptic code I have run across was SQL written as a single line. Without parsing it, I would never have figured it out.

Yes. Do it often.

That is a different situation than posed. The overhead of a function call could be justified in this case.

Is that like trolling fish???

Also yes. The app is called Church Windows and can be found on-line. Building a web version begins in September.

Also working desktop apps in VB.NET. Using NHibernate and SQL Server.

Just need better shoes...

First company was restructuring and attrition. Second company was a mixture of constant firings, attrition and dictatorship Agile driving good developers away. Three developers left my first month and the rate reduced a bit, but was still constant. I was a contractor let go after 9 months.

I have run into the same Agile mentality at my last two companies. It seems that developer interchangeability is "the elimination of siloed skills" that is the Agile buzzword of the day. Both companies were experiencing developer turnover and reductions.

I started as a Mac programmer and loved the proprietary and super stable software. Apple worked hard on the user interface and it is a shame that it was never adopted by Apple and others. Although the beast has changed, and I have given in to the 'dark side' of Windows development, there is still a soft spot in my heart for the Mac. If you go that way, keep the information valve open on how it works for you.

No flames. Venting can be very helpful. I do have a question though. Do you have an alternate platform you wish you were developing on??