Where to Start in Computer Science?

Where do I start as a person with an interest in computer science? Obviously this is a vague question, so let me clarify.

There are a few things that I have little interest in, like OS, Game Development, and AI. However, Software development, Database design/management, Server administration, Data communication... and that's just what is coming off the top of my head. I've been floundering and flailing around aimlessly in the world of computer science for a few months now, with some prior experience in very minor things like HTML, JScript, PHP (very little) and other web design related things. I am a 24 year old business student with only a semester to go before graduation and have come to the conclusion that if I could do it all over again, I would definitely be doing something computer science related instead.

I have access to resources like Lynda.com for free through my university, and know about MIT OpenCourseWare, but I sort of feel like a kid in a candy store being overwhelmed with everything when trying navigate through all the possibilities. It's simply overwhelming.

In your experience and knowledge in the field, what was the best way you found to progress step by step from one subject to the next in a productive manner? What are the things that you know that you consider abso-freakin-lutely vital to your arsenal of knowledge and skills?

I don't know really where to start exactly. I feel like I have the basic ideas of the abstraction of programming understood, but now that I'm here I don't know where to go next and what would be the most useful. The area is simply far too complex and diverse and I am simply far too beginner to try to decipher it all.

Please help. Thanks.

Oh ok well that's reassuring because those are three languages I have toyed around with in the past. From a step one scenario (where I consider myself to be), do you have any recommended learning resources?

If it where me and I where starting out I would get an Arduino board and a book on C/C++ development for Arduino. The reason I would do this is because it is very much like the early days of PC development where you are closer to the hardware and the feedback loop is quick, it also cuts away the layers and layers of stuff that can be distracting in a less focused segment. While working through learning to develop on the Arduino I would start reading foundational theory books as the theory will start to click with what you are doing. From there once I had a good grasp of C/C++ and what is going on in the hardware, I would learn a Lisp and start reading the deeper theory books on the various algorithms and start implementing those algorithms in Lisp. To me this will give you the most well rounded foundation in CS that you can get, you will learn two major branches of languages and you will be close to hardware in the beginning.

Would a Basic Stamp kit (from Parallax) be similar enough?

Seconding Google's Python class. It does an amazing job of covering the most common use cases in a very short class. I'm still relatively new to programming and whenever I'm writing code I invariably find myself referring back to the lessons from the class.

Note that the class is taught in 2.x so if you're running 3.x then the example code won't run. IIRC, updating the print statements for the new version was the only change required to make them work.