Ok, okay - I got it now.

The long end (technically, I believe it's called the standing end?) is the one going off to the left in your diagram; and the short end, or running end, is the one going straight up. Presumably, it wraps around a fixed object that's out of the picture, then comes back down to finish the bowline in step 3.

I just tied one your way, and another one my way. After examining them both side by side, I realized they were identical. (Except - being pedantic here - I believe the illustration you have actually ties a "left-handed bowline" - one in which the short end lies outside the loop. In a "true" bowline, the short end should lie inside the loop. (In step 3, the running end should be fed through the loop from the bottom, instead of the top as you have it. But I think that's a very minor nitpick - I've never heard that a left-handed bowline is either superior or inferior to a "true" one.

I'll have to learn this - I'm not sure that it's any easier for me than the way I already know, but several of the cadets at our Wilderness Survival camp in August were extremely frustrated by their inability to learn (or rather, the instructor's inability to teach :< ) this "simple" knot.