My Water Heater is Not Staying Lit!

Craig, where've you been man? I was on Craig's list, doh! How can you not think of that? Hey listen man, I have a problem with my water heater and thought you could give me a hand in this. My water heater is not staying lit so I don't know what the issue is. Oh, I see. Well I think I have an idea of the problems you're dealing with. Oh please enlighten me man, I've been going crazy looking for advice online, but didn’t find jack. Usually there's a thermocouple that’s designed to be in the pilot light flame. But if it's not hot enough, then it shows it has been blown off, so feeding gas to the pilot light is no longer safe. So why did this happen in the first place? There are many reasons to why thermocouple isn’t registering the temperature. Such as? One of them is the fact that the pilot light gas nozzle is only plugged in partially so the flame is not as hot, or big as it should be, and it's also not heating the thermocouple. So, can I clean it? Yes, you can use a small pipe, but be careful when doing so. Anything that doesn't require me to pay money is good advice to me. Hehe, it could also be that the thermocouple was broken or bumped and it's no longer in the right place so it can be properly heated by the flame. Is that it? Another thing is that you may also deal with a thermocouple wire that is unattached at the right end or just plain broken. And that’s all I know about water heater problems. I think this is a good start for me, so I'll go home and see what I can do. Thanks a lot mate. See ya!