I agree with a lot of you about PHP being quite great for the applicable job. I just tend to feel the hn community can be pretty biased at times. Either way, I appreciate the input. Lots of great points made, particularly:

"You can make a masterpiece in any programming language."

and

"Keep your eye on new things but don't forget that professional programmers -- those who get paid for programming -- shouldn't hobble themselves by insisting on only using their favorite language or tools."

I actually enjoy javascript better than PHP even though it tends to be more tedious.