Wow, this is so cool to read!
It reminds of exactly how I felt two years ago, before I quit my job chopping up bloody cows at a meatworks and "became" a programmer. If I can do it, so can you!
Like you, I thought my lack of connections or programming friends was the biggest hurdle. I came up with the following plan to get started:
1. Build five small apps that I can put on my resume, and are built for some specific end-user (or group).
2. Regularly contribute to an open source project I believe in
3. Attend programming meetups to be around "programming people" (I attended Python and Functional Programming meetups)
I did not spend time on stackoverflow or blogging about code because they weren't the biggest thing I could do to get business. They were part of my plan originally but someone pointed this out and I took them off.
To build my resume I would build demos for small job adverts on Elance. I wouldn't apply for the job, only slowly complete it and put it on my resume so I appeared valuable. Later, I earned $1,350 over 5 months, before a small startup in Australia found my resume, liked the look of it, and asked me to join their team (earning more money that I've earned in my whole life!).
I didn't make any friends at the meetups but I'm 100% SURE you could. The groups were sponsored by local software companies, who provided office space and pizza in return for advertising their job openings. Other attendees would let everyone know about openings at their own company etc. The friendly, honest vibe will give you a much better chance than an interview, where there's a ton of pressure on the interviewer to pick a good person.
Read this, it's a great discussion about getting hired without "on the job experience":
http://www.quora.com/Computer-Programming/If-programmers-are...
Also read this, don't get scared by the high level answers:
http://www.quora.com/Programming-Interviews/Whats-the-best-w... - While you should definitely try learn as much as you can, at your stage you should concentrate on demonstrating your creativity, problem solving, willingness to work hard and ability to get results. Those questions are for programmers with high salaries on the line (but definitely read them)
Ramit Sethi's Earn1K course also helped. It taught me to communicate, sell my skills and find freelance work:
http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/announcing-the-ear... (It paid for itself in 3 months)
The funnest way I've ever seen to do this (but expensive) is to completely immerse yourself during a programming bootcamp and surround yourself with the industry and like-minded people for a few weeks. Check out the following thread and scroll down to "Physical Academies":
http://www.quora.com/Learning-to-Program/What-are-the-best-w...
Edit: If you've got time for a podcast, here's the story of a hollywood filmmaker (Jesse Lawler) who quit his job during the recession, became a programmer, and now runs a successful development agency:
http://www.tropicalmba.com/distributed/ (I liked the interview so much that I emailed him my "plan" back when I started. He gave me great advice and helped me refine my three steps above :)
Wow, sorry I babbled quite a bit, but I hope I shared at least one new and helpful thing with you!