Don't know why this is being downvoted, it certainly resonates with my experience. I write C by day, but I found that making a webapp that compared offers w/ cost of living and tax treatment to be an eye opener. I learned a great deal about how the internet works from just that weekend project, and I would heartily recommend making a webapp. Like it or not, HTML/CSS/JS is about as cross platform as C (don't do anything fancy and you will be fine).