If JS syntax looks daunting to you, you can start at jquery, which is a js library, with much more elegant syntax.
Also, if you want to choose between Ruby or PHP. Go for Ruby, As weird as it may sound, learn some basics from other languages (PHP or Python), just because ruby is syntactically so different from other languages, that in my opinion makes ruby a bad starting language.
Most of the time, you can manage with Ruby and JS for server-side and client-side programming.
Hope this helps.
* JavaScript. The Core: http://dmitrysoshnikov.com/ecmascript/javascript-the-core/
* Learning Advanced JavaScript: http://ejohn.org/apps/learn/
* JavaScript Garden: http://bonsaiden.github.com/JavaScript-Garden/
His website has innumerable musings, explanations and interesting perspectives on all things JavaScript and he links to lots lots of videos of his various talks. His YUI Theatre videos are of particular interest as they are very comprehensive.
