I'm grateful that there's so much I'm learning at my new job, stuff I wouldn't really learn on my own, like Perl (this one out of curiosity, especially because it's a major competitor of my favorite, Python).
I write this post in response to the fact that now I will be learning Java, what I secretly swore I'd stay away from, not because it's bad, but because it's hard to find anyone favouring it in my world (Debian, GNOME, Python), a world that proclaim it to be a disgusting pile of shit. Anyways let's see how the ride will pan out.
As for Perl, I found its string-handling capabilities exceedingly powerful but its syntax ugly and over-varied --- too much of a free-form language. That's bad for someone used to the gracious elegance of mighty Python. If I could stay away from it, I would!