Welcome to the forum, Keego. I too am looking forward to seeing what you do with that new bit of kit. As for hosting sites that don't manipulate too much you might want to try Flickr or Smugmug or a host of others that are targeted at photographers vs targeted at everyone.

As for me, I got started (yes I read to the end) in a real way back in 1984 when my father passed away and I was given his Canon TX-1 film camera. He was not a photographer really; once in a while he pulled out the camera and took photos but I think he felt more at home with a Polaroid than an SLR. I really enjoyed capturing moments back then but got away from it for a few years due to the cost of developing and being busy with other things in life. I got back into it in the days of digital (2002-ish) and I've been going at it ever since in one way or another.