Life In 19x19

Wow, thanks everyone for the responses! This board is awesome. Kirby's post in particular was very valuable to me. I worried there was some easy answer I was missing. But Bill Spight summarized it best:

Bill Spight wrote:
Go is hard.

But also fun!

Ok, this is my first beginners question. It is probably obvious, but it has been bugging me! In this situation:
$$c After hitting the head, white cross cuts!
$$ .........
$$ .........
$$ .........
$$ ..XX2b...
$$ .cOO1a...
$$ ....o....
$$ .........
$$ .........
$$ .........

Here, black hit the ...

cdybeijing wrote:Just play as many games as possible without concern for the result and you will improve as rapidly as any beginner.

I think the 'without concern' Is the part that I missed the first time.

I am just a beginner. This is my second time trying to learn the fascinating game of go. First time I played with someone who was pretty good (not sure of his rank) and lost (and even won, with enough handicap!) many games over lunch. However, I could not improve, and got frustrated when it seemed I ...