Yeah putting the serious effort in isn't a problem, my love of all things computing attests to that. Spent the weekend installing arch and tweaking the hell out of it for no reason other than I found it the most fun I'd had in months.

I've looked into Codecademy for HTMl5+CSS+Javascript + Jquery and http://eloquentjavascript.net/index.html

I'm just afraid that I'll be looked down on with nothing but knowledge and lack of degrees I've always been told no degree = no job by parents / family / friends etc.

As for the companies that aren't sexy, honestly I couldn't care less what kind of company I worked for or for what salary at this point all I want is the practical experience to have something on my CV to say hey look I did this !