Not a thing pathetic about it. You did the experiment and you learned from it! Do it a few more times and you'll have developed some skill with it.

TV (when things are going right) makes it look easy because they don't have time to show the actual reality. That would waste airtime. (and be boring)

Actually doing things, trying things, learning how to actually do stuff is wonderful! The only thing that would be pathetic would be needing this skill in the future and remembering that you'd skipped the chance to actually try it.

unimogbert