Be Privacy Conscious:

[ https://www.torproject.org/ ] and [ http://hotspotshield.com/ ] are two things you should consider.

They allow you to remain anonymous while you browse the internet, albeit at a slight cost to your connection speed (you are bouncing off of other computers, after all).

I encourage other users to be aware of exactly how the internet works - my [ privacy policy ] notifies you that the folks I've partnered with as advertisers may track your activity. Facebook does, [ too ].

I've probably mentioned this sort of thing before - but knowledge is more than half of the fight.

Also relevant: SOPA and PIPA and the imminent threat they pose.

Expanding the network.

This has been in the works for awhile, to be frank- Clean Cut / Well Kept is no longer the singular blog- I seek writers and photographers and artists alike to join a group of like-minded content publishers.

Our aim is to establish a readership and create an attractive, networked team of bloggers.

Cross-contamination to increase audience is common enough these days- note the rather daunting number of pop tracks that are of the format "Title - Artist A w/ Artist B feat Artist C" - A, B, and C are potentially exposed to all of the others' fans.

The idea behind the network is something like that, I'd suppose. If you're interested in joining, shoot me an e-mail at [ disposablenamenlos at gmail dot com ].

200th post!

A milestone! For me, anyway. Is that a kilometerstone in countries that don't adhere to the customary system?

Here is a picture I took. It is of an apparently unremarkable white door. Make of it what you will, I suppose.

I'm just kidding, I know units! The door will make sense later, I promise.

On the slight decline in visible activity:

I'm slaving away at decent guides!

Maybe I should publish portions of them, and then a summary post later?

I'm also working on getting a few other sites up.

Until then, I'll post occasionally and with tidbits I think you'll like:

[ http://reddit.com/r/aww ] is just a colossal collection of cute.

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Self-improvement September.

I've taken it upon myself to self-improve during September.

I'm teaching myself the basics of Russian and Greek (two completely foreign languages), and hitting the gym on an almost-daily basis.

To that end, I'm interested in the Rosetta Stone programs for the two languages- I learned German through immersion in the country, but I don't have that opportunity for Russian or Greek.

Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone is almost prohibitively expensive without a discount of some kind, so that's not even an option.

I'm doing these things to level up IRL. What will you do?

Finally back stateside!

So I'm finally back stateside.

Posts will resume at a slightly slower pace, but will begin to pick up speed over the next few weeks.

While you're waiting, have you seen Sara Bareilles' Uncharted?

Also of interest is [ http://turntable.fm ]. More on that later.

I'm so so excited:

A family friend (who reads this blog, perhaps?) has lent me a Nikon D70 with a NIKKOR 28-80 AF Lens with which to experiment. I'm updating this from an expensive satellite connection, so I'll keep this short:

I've been taking street fashion pictures while touring through the Baltic. There'll be lots of scenery shots, and some people shots too.

If you're one of the folks that received my card and had their picture taken, you're welcome to leave a comment (with your name, if that's okay).

Gotta sort through something like 3,000 pictures.

I'm sure I'll get better at this as I go.

Pictures!

These are just a sampling of some photographs I took in Germany (after the break, to save homepage loading time).

I wish I had a Nikon D5100 or something, but all I've got is a tinymode point-and-shoot.

No complaints, just pictures: (Click here)

Still semi-hiatus.

Something something something, HIATUS.

Sorry about the tremendous cessation of content flow for the past few days. I've been busy in Deutschland, so I'll try to make up for that with a few longer posts.

For the record, posts will be put up on an as-I-can-write-them basis, but will always go up at 12:00 AM Texas Standard time.

In that vein, here are some things I thought you might like:

Picasa (and Picnik) - [ http://picasa.google.com/ ] is an extensively-featured picture management and modification suite, all of which is available online and for free. There is a limited amount of usable space if you're not willing to pay for more, but it's well worth the exchange, especially if (like me) you need an alternative to photoshop/paintshop that is available virtually anywhere.