Java pays the bills and also has such a huge community, both commercial and open source, that you could just do Java and never run out of things to learn. Java jobs are also plentiful and potentially high paying, allowing you to move around if you wish. Also the speed and clunky issues are long in the past. The hotspot Java virtual machine has been shown to run at near native speeds, and sometimes faster if the native code wasn't optimized for the processor it is running on. The new version 6 update 10 includes the nimbus look and feel too, if you are not happy with Metal or the native GUI on the platform you use it on.
Python is easy and allows you to do the same things in Java but with much less code. If you are like me and your job and your hobby are the same thing, check it out. Python is fast and fun and makes coding enjoyable in my opinion.
David.
