Photography Challenge: How Do I Use This Camera??

So if you've been reading my blog, you know that I recently made the upgrade from advanced point & shoot to my first DSLR camera. I am so excited to start learning more about photography and getting better pictures but there's one problem.....I don't know what any of the buttons on the camera do!!  A lot of people are under the impression that you can just buy a really awesome camera, point it at anything and BAM professional photograph.  You can't...hence the reason it is no longer called a point..and shoot.

Anyway, good thing for me I made an extremely excellent purchase last year.  For anyone who wants to learn more about photography whether you use an iphone, point and shoot or dslr (seriously they cover all 3 camera types in the book) you must own Better Photo Basics  by Jim Miotke.  It's the most basic guide to photography out there. He takes you through all the features on your camera, what they mean, how to shoot certain photos, tips for taking better photos no matter what kind of camera you have:

I read the entire book last year after I bought my advanced point & shoot camera.  Now I'm rereading it using the DSLR tips and tricks.

I've been very frustrated every time I've tried to take a picture because all my photos turn out like this:

For the life of me I could not get the camera to focus.  I read and reread the manual and it kept telling me that if you press the shutter halfway it will focus the camera.  Finally after my 500th picture and about to throw the camera across the room, I discovered a button on the side of the lens called "AF/MF" or Auto Focus/Manual Focus.  I had the camera set to Manual Focus.  Once I switched to Auto, the lens started focusing on everything. I was so excited! I'm finally beginning to learn:

It's not the most creative picture but I thought my hanging fish display was a perfect learning object.  Fun Fact, the first day I got these I dropped it on the floor and shattered 3 of the fish and had to super glue them back together. Couldn't tell right? I'm an excellent gluer, an A+ kindergarten student.