The first few episodes will help you get setup with an actual development environment and set of tools so you can code on your own machine (as opposed to the magic "just type things into this web browser"). The series is also a very good introduction to testing and TDD.
If that is too overwhelming, try some of the Code School Javascript courses - they are similar in that you will be typing code into the browser but they should have some new material.
This isn't the first time that I've tried to learn JavaScript. I understand the syntax fairly well (loops, arrays, functions, objects, etc.) but I still feel as if I haven't made any progress at all when it comes to knowing how to build something useful. I'm comfortable with HTML and CSS, and I've added basic jQuery functionality to simple web apps, but if I had to write JavaScript from scratch that actually does something helpful I would still be totally lost.
The assigned readings in this course are extremely tedious, and make it seem as if it would be impossible to retain much of the information, because none of it seems to apply to a beginner. I understand everything I've read, but it seems more like I'm delving into obscure technical details about the ECMAScript standard and less like I am learning how to do anything(It's almost like reading an RFC). Definitive JavaScript is allegedly better suited to beginners, but it seemed the same to me. I'm still going through the suggested lesson plan, but when exactly am I going to feel as if I've learned how to write a program?
IMO this is the only answer.