Want to learn about God? Go to church. How to moonwalk? Find a dance teacher.
How to wear a sari? Field trip to India!
Put that wallet away. Sit down. Relax. And turn on your computer. You can learn just about anything without spending a penny or leaving your chair — just log onto youtube.com.
An overly broad search on the site for videos with the phrase "how to" in the title yields millions of hits, so odds are you'll be moonwalking in a sari to church in no time.
Tucson teen Kyle Joyner, 14, has made a few of his own how-to videos for skateboard tricks he and his friends practice at the Ott Family YMCA Skate Park, 401 S. Prudence Road.
"Sometimes you've just got nothing to do and I really enjoy filming my friends," Kyle said. "It just comes up, 'Hey, want to film a trick tip?' "
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Kyle used a hand-held digital camcorder to shoot his friends breaking down the key steps to different tricks, then edited it on his home computer using Windows Moviemaker. He said he and his friends have learned how to do some tricks from YouTube videos, too.
"Sometimes the people who know aren't exactly right there," he said. "Certain people can explain it in certain ways. Then it's 'Oh!' and it clicks."
Other videos on YouTube offer instructions on how to Jumpstyle — a dance craze made popular seemingly by a German pair on the club scene; how to irrigate your nasal passages with a Neti Pot and saline (or coffee or whiskey as one poor fella demonstrates online); how to French-braid hair; how to cheat on any test; and — just in time for a bad economy and job losses — how to do nothing at work and still get paid. Just go to youtube.com, put in "how to" in the search engine and be amazed.
Kyle said he's gotten a range of responses online from his videos. Some people have criticized him, saying he didn't do a trick correctly, while others have commented on the camera he used. Still others have said his videos helped them.
"That feels good when someone says that, 'cause you know you've helped someone," Kyle said.
HELPFUL SITES
Sites on which you can watch how-to videos include:
• www.ehow.com/ videos.html
• www.metacafe.com/ tags/howto
