I think you're too hard on people. Not every conversation has to be some deep and meaningful meeting of minds. There's lots to be said for a night of crude jokes and chasing women. I'd argue that it's a lot more human experience than deep conversation. It really sounds like you need to relax.
Meeting people on the internet is no substitute for honest-to-goodness human interaction. Also, it's a good idea to have lots of friends that you have nothing in common with. The perspective you get is invaluable.
I heard of a guy who modified his friend's .bashrc to contain a sleep command with a variable time limit. Every time the .bashrc got run, the sleep command would run for a second longer. The first couple of times it was unnoticeable and after a few weeks he would log in, then go grab a sandwich before he could do anything. Subversive!
This article was terrible. Staying fit is easy if you can have a great time doing it. I work out with friends and try to play as many sports as I can with people whose company I enjoy. The self-discipline with respect to eating can be tough, but he's right, if you can keep your intake low for a couple of weeks you won't find yourself wanting to eat so much all the time.
Like schtog said, I think python is a great choice. You can easily write programs that actually _do_ things without having to get too deep into the ugly details.
Most of all, write programs that are fun. For my third year software engineering class we wrote a 3D implementation of bomberman. It was a blast to write and I still hack on it now and then to add crazy over the top powerups.
Also, it looks like you've found a good place to get your news from. Being aware of cool new projects / languages / ideas is always a good thing.
Meeting people on the internet is no substitute for honest-to-goodness human interaction. Also, it's a good idea to have lots of friends that you have nothing in common with. The perspective you get is invaluable.