I'll openly admit that I hate JavaScript with a passion. I'll take as little of it as possible. But even still, I have found myself still ocasionally writing something in JavaScript.

As far as no longer understanding XHTML, CSS, that's completely untrue, in my case. I follow strict XHTML standards and implement everything in CSS. I'm certainly not as good as some people, but I'm a developer. That's what designers are for. It's nice to have the blend of talent and I make every attempt possible to stay current with designing standards; however, my true point in the programming world is doing development --I simply lack the artistic abilities required to be a good designer. Be it web development, some kind of service, or a desktop application, I find my energy is best spent on programming and leaving the designing to the designers. And if somebody thinks less of me for not having to write JavaScript, fine, but at the end of the day, let's compare the amount of work, that I got done with the amount of work that they got done. Development has always been about reusing code that has proven itself in the industry and I have had zero issues with the JavaScript that Microsoft has already written for me. It keeps me focused on the real problem at hand instead of worrying about all the plumbing involved.