You can check out this guy
Code:
http://www.youtube.com/user/phpacademy
He's got all basics of php covered with some good tutorials.
He also wonders of into the basics of creating a login etc etc.
Learned allot from that when i just started.
This guy also has some great stuff.
Code:
http://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston
From java to c+ he explains it all.
Code:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/snippetmanager/
This is a snippet library.
You can store snippets from any code language in here.
Just google php snippets and you'll find that the most ideas you got have already been coded by someone else.
You only need to "glue" them together.
You'll need an working environment some people use wamp etc.
I use Eclipse for php framework;
Code:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
Because it's easy just install and create new project.
It also allows you to import other languages and create apps.
For starting a blog or website i'd advice to first check out some very small cms like these;
Code:
http://php.opensourcecms.com/scripts/show.php?catid=9&cat=Lite
These so called Lite cms are like very simple wordpress.
You can mod them to your own needs and you can get a good look at how everything works before you create a monster.
All php functions can be found here;
Code:
http://php.net/quickref.php
And a php cheet sheet can be found here; (PDF ALERT)
Code:
http://www.addedbytes.com/download/php-cheat-sheet-v2/pdf/
Good Luck
