Full Stack: Which direction to go in web programming, and some issues

So, through this forum I've found some information that answers my questions more or less, but I wanted to see if I could get some clarity.

Basically, and I'm not quite 100% sure on this yet, I want to be a Full Stack developer. I have a big interest in all these various areas (less so in visual design concepts, though, but I like the coding part of HTML/CSS). I already have a good understanding of HTML and a decent to good understanding of CSS. I'm mainly focused on JS at the moment. My first issue is that even though I conceptually understand the tutorials, often perfectly, when I try to write my own programs that are beyond the lowest basic level, or even try to recreate something from a tutorial for practice, I get stuck. I know I need practice, and learning more "vocabulary" will certainly go a long way, but is there any particular advice of how I could go about this? Sort of like a path-already-beaten thing or steps to help orient me.

The next issue is that I've heard that Ruby (not necessarily Rails) is much easier than JS. I know they share the same sort of concepts and structures, but which one is really easier (and more beneficial all things being equal and including Rails)? The skill set I'm going for is: HTML/CSS, JS/jQuery, Ruby/Rails, PHP, and at least some basic MySQL or similar. Is there a certain path for this? I know many, if not all, overlap, but what would be a good sequence? At this point, I'm considering running with my basic knowledge of JS/jQuery and turning to Ruby, though I know AJAX is important, as well. Am I just jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire if I do that? How much JS is "enough" before switching (such as in terms of my ability to do things with it)?

(Also, if it helps at all, I do have an interest in Linux, as well, but not so much programming it as interacting with it.)