I went over your blog. Its good stuff there. I am a newbie on photography as well and i feel we have many things in common. I had D40 for about 6 months, and sold it after my trip to Nepal. I got a D90 now with 18-250 lens. I am a CS student as well. As i can see some pictures showing DC, i guess you are living somewhere around here. I was thinking about, we could meet up and go out for a shoot together. How about that?