Why did I get happy??

I've been playing with my XT on AV and I couldnt figure out how to get the slight bokeh. I was taking pictures of my phone on the sofa and put a book behind it, and it had it. I was soo excited. The pic had what I could see nice color, and the background had slight bokeh. I took picture with the flash on, automatic just to get another prospective and the color look grayish dull. I am excited. Now I am going to figure out why there was such a difference.

I think you misunderstand the term Bokeh.
It sounds like you are describing just background/foreground blur caused by shallow Depth of Field. You get this by having larger apertures (meaning low numbers in Av)

Bokeh is a term to describe the quality of this out of focus blur, it is not the blur itself.

Thus there is good bokeh and bad bokeh.
Good bokeh means the out of focus areas add to the quality of the image.
Bad bokeh means the out of focus areas disctract from the image.

Hope that explains Bokeh a bit better. It is actually a very complex multi-layered term to describe the out of focus areas. I have only given you the simple explanation.

There's a huge thread with pictures in them about good bokeh.

Regarding the photos you took. Was it of the same object or thing? Differences in the objects with respect to lighting and contrast can change a look.

I understand, I was just excited to actually get the blur. Now I am working on getting quality shots with it using objects around the house.

I saw the 44 pages on bokeh,I have nothing on those, they are simply amazing, I have looked at it and others. It was the same object. I had it on a tripod in the same position. I was playing with the manual settings to see how each picture came out dfferently.

There's a lot that goes into the blur and the quality. Of course the lens. Also the background helps and how far away from it you are with respect to how close you are to the subject.

Keep in mind, when you use flash, P is usually a great mode to use. However, your aperture generally isn't wide open anymore, so you lose some of the blur.

I'm sure someone has a better explanation.

Sounds like you're learning the right way and having fun. Keep going

Congratulations! It is great fun every time you discover how something is done.

Thanks Grego, for the lesson. I really appreciate it.
Thanks Condyk and Az2Africa, I am trying, this is my first time using the manual settings on a dc. I am really excited.

Excellent. If it is fun, that is why we do it.

I think you may misunderstand. Bokeh actually comes from the Japanese term which means fuzziness. There are differing degrees of bokeh, but if it is out of focus, it is bokeh. It may or may not be "quality" bokeh, but it is still bokeh.

Thanks Doc, I'm beginning to see the addiction forming

Just make sure you have fun.

Always Doc

Wait until you get your first L... I cha cha cha all week.