C/C++/C# programming for interfacing USB to PIC microcontroller

I am a computer sciences student looking to do some PIC microcontroller programming for some small home projects .
I am fluent in C/C++/C#/Java and i also have an understanding of programming microprocessors(ALP - the 8086 ) . I plan on building a USB interface to control some lighting and a motor in one of my projects .
I have the circuit components and the layout planned out .
I have the PIC 18f4550(http://www.kynix.com/Detail/10613/PIC18F4550-I%2FP.html) in mind and I have already downloaded the libraries from the microchip website .
The only problem is I don’t know what code to write for this .
The libraries are huge and I don’t really need to go into all the details(that’s what I think) .
I tried finding other resources but it appears that the PIC is old and most of the links off of Google have only been dead ends .
Does anyone know of a blog , a video , or anything that could help me get started ?
I’m hoping it’s possible to do this using one of the languages I mentioned above .

This link may help you to understand for USB commiunication with pic microcontroller

Hello…a popular choice are the ones from FTDI. When you take the FT232R, you hook the UART of your microcontroller to the IC. Writing code to transmit / receive data is now much simpler.