I found myself being seduced into FORTH. Conceptually.. so
   _close_ to the inner workings of the machine yet so simple
   because it allows you the power to create and name such basic
   processes as "IF/THEN" statements.. make them your own.. oh I
   was tempted. I had to get back to reality though before I
   learned too much of it. Had a similar experience with LISP.
   Erlang is grabbing my attention because it's in _practical_ use
   daily serving millions... and it's also quite simple. Not just
   telecommunications but quantum cmoputers..

   I thought about learning Awk but I've noticed that I need to see
   everything laid out in front of me - hence, spreadsheet. I never
   trust the data I'm handed.

   A lot of stuff I do requires cleaning up dirty data - and in
   fact, that's what I prefer to do. I like cleaning up a mess.
   Once I can automate something completely, it gets kinda boring.
   "Oh look, it works perfectly everytime, then I'm bored. tongue
   emoticon

   The challenge I enjoy is having a notion and working through to
   completion. I suspect any tools would work for that. If i was on
   a Unix box or Linux machine, I suspect I'd be using lots of Awk.
   But I don't hang around programmers, and most Linux ppl I know
   online are of the GUI times rather than the command-line times
   and wouldn't know Awk.

   [in the end, it's probably because I have all the tools I need
   to accomplish things and don't need to reinvent the wheel. I
   counted a few months ago - 550 installed programs on this poor
   laptop. Not that I use them all, but I have enough to turn
   anything into anything. And lisp... when I heard about Quantum
   computers and LISP I thought, *I HAVE TO LEARN THIS!* - and I
   started learning it.
   [1]http://www.schloerconsulting.com/quantum-computer-q-lisp...
   Lisp somehow led me to Erlang. But I guess in the end,
   programming language interests are conceptual only. Once I get
   the 'gist' of the thinking behind them, I end up going back to
   "whatever I have on hand" - or "download a tool that does it"
   routine.

References

   Visible links
   1. http://www.schloerconsulting.com/quantum-computer-q-lisp-programming-language