Thing 2, OR Why I rarely mess with the Control Panel

NStarting off this program with asking us to familiarize ourselves with the options available in our operating systems is a very sensible, logical first step.  I get it.  Make sure everyone has the basics before moving forward.  But it sure isn't a recipe for excitement.  I am not new to my ipad2 and have changed up settings as needed when I wanted to do something specific.  I figure the rest of the options will be there when I need them (and if I never discover them, I probably never needed them in the first place).

But the assignment was to learn more about my ipad2's OS 7.0.4.  Fine.  So I spent some extra time with it last weekend.  Played around on the General tab, learning about Restrictions- 

"Well, look at that!  You can lock this thing down all kinds of ways if you're a parent whose child is using the device...  interesting... you can censor the content before it's even downloaded for books, websites, movies, tv shows.  Huh..."

I'm flipping switches back and forth, turning options on, then changing my mind and turning things off again, just tooling around.  When I realize how much time I'm wasting and head back to my home screen, I discover that all my apps have been blasted out of their folders and now sit singly on multiple screens.  Worse, the docking bar at the screen bottom no longer has five apps in it - it only has three.  Safari has totally disappeared, can't find it anywhere.

Gah!

Took me another 1/2 hour (at least) to put it all back to rights and find the internet again.  And another 3 days before I could bring myself to write up this blog.  Who says we can accomplish each Thing in one hour?!

(I am never messing with that Control Panel again.)

Several days later... GAH!!!! Just sat down to start working on Thing 3, only to realize that my APP STORE app is missing, too!  Honestly, I'm not tech illiterate.  I know how to use this thing.  But of all apps to take a hike, how do I get this one back???

another several later days... the short answer to fixing this missing app store problem is to never mess with the Restrictions settings on your device. Period.