Resources for branching out into CSS / Web design?

[moonpools6]

I am prepared for this to be deleted because I am sure it is in the memories somewhere but I am too exasperated to dig through all of that stuff.  The design world is really really big and I never realized it before because I have always been in my little After Effects and Flash corner of the world. But CSS?!? I don't know what I am doing. What the hell is Ajax?  When I heard the term ruby on rails I thought it was some sort of children's book. I find non-vector based technology so fustrating because a bunch of letters and numbers get in the way of a idea coming to life. That is the same beef I have with photoshop! Just make a circle damn it! Ok, so I think my question is: if you did not take a lot of css / web / all that classes, how did you get started? I know there are a lot of sites/ books out there but is there one in particular that really helped you learn all of this?
Also wordpress.com 5 minute installation my ass.