Every time I think of a new hobby project I want to start I think about learning a new language alongside. Inevitably before I start a library or tutorial comes along that brings it back to Javascript.
This is one of my favorite aspects of JS. It won't win many prizes for its language design, but the community of people and the proliferation of projects & libraries is worth a little struggle.
Soon, the programs for our space shuttles will be coded with JS :P