Thanks! And yes I completely agree, with any new sound you have to spend a lot of time getting the physical fingering part down but more importantly you have to work on really hearing that sound in a musical context. As you said, it's only when you start to really hear it that you can use it in an organic musical way.
Aside from the neo-classical use the revelation for me was when I realized the relationship between a dominant chord and a diminished arpeggio - that really opened things up.
It's great that you use the diminshed sound on the blues.