Me and Ross made a mad dash across the country, well, from around Indiana, to come and stay in the Rockies for the winter. We had originally intended to stay in Jackson Wyoming area but found an RV park in Breckenridge, Colorado on the way, and saw no reason to move on. It was fall and the aspens were neon yellow, weather was nice, sun bright and everywhere you looked was a postcard view.
We stayed in the RV park for about 2 weeks and looked for cabins in the area, some overprices vacation homes, some rentals with no furniture, but certainly a variety of places, depending on what we wanted to do for the next 6 months. There were places 20 miles out of town that would certainly have no internet, and condos at the bottom of the ski runs (but we don’t really ski). Finally we found a little A-frame cabin right near town, 2 towns actually, Frisco and Breckenridge. It was a vacation home, advertised at $160 a night but after dealing with looking for cabins in Wyoming and east Idaho, I knew that vacation home owners would usually negotiate a monthly rate. The places sit empty for most the year and most probably don’t make what they cost to keep around.
We got the a-frame for a “reasonable” monthly rate, considering the location near several world class ski/snowboard mountains. It’s also really nice inside – one wide open room downstairs with a bathroom in one corner, kitchen with a breakfast bar in the middle, and the dining room and living room flowing together. It has a huge fireplace in the living room and a woodstove between the dining and living room – and a large loft upstairs with a balcony. It also came with a 40 inch TV for extra great Skyrim playing and is fully furnished with unfinished wood furniture, newer couches and a full set of 70s stoneware (and every other kitchen item you could need).

One reason I wanted to go somewhere cold for the winter was because Ross had never experienced a good US winter and since we’re traveling around experiencing everything we can, this was a must. Also, my dog Chena is quite old now and has been having a hard time with the heat. She has diabetes and cushings disease so she’s already thirsty all the time, while the heat just exacerbates her drinking obsession. Plus she’s just laying there panting most the time, even with the AC on, and is generally uncomfortable. Now that we’re in the cabin, she has to wear a sweater most the time but is almost never panting unless she falls asleep near the fire. Her hair is very thin because of the cushings and her age so she gets cold pretty easy but its easier to keep her warm enough than it was to keep her cool enough (it’s also much drier here than most the places we go so no humidity is a plus).

Our house mouse Trevor is also enjoying the change. It started snowing about a month ago and has stuck to the ground ever since, most days not getting over 30F and nights as low as 1F. Susa likes the snow, unfortunately. Since we’re home all day working we get to listen to her meowing to go out all day. She still only goes out on the leash due to predators etc in the area so if we’re busy, she just has to wait and hates it.
Luckily Trevor requires only fresh water and food, and recently started to store food and nest in a box we gave him. All night he runs on his wheel, entertaining Susa for a while, but is generally not a hand pet, just an observed one. He’s so fast and nevervous (being undomesticated) that it would take a millisecond to lose him in the cabin, though last time he got out, he got out on our bed in the trailer and ended up running up my back and onto my shoulder trying to get back into his cage but we both panicked and it was a grab fest for the next couple minutes while I tried to catch him without hurting him. That was enough for us, losing him would be a disaster – probably at Susa’s paw/mouth.

We had one good storm last weekend where 2 trees fell in the back yard and knocked out a power line. We were without electricity for about a day and a half but at least it wasn’t all our fault, about 10k people in the area were also without for a while, most longer than us. We lit candles the first night and I brought in my gas camping lamp, the second day with dead phones and not much to do, we got the generator out of the trailer and ran everything we needed, including the TV/Cable, with power to spare.

I look forward to more power outages and piles and piles of snow so thick we can’t get out of the driveway. Going to be a good winter.

Tags: breckenridge, cabin, colorado, elder scrolls, skyrim
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We finally made it to the Smoky Mountains. I’ve been waiting for this for months and we even get to see snow like I’d hoped. I was worried it would be too late since we’ve been planning to come here since last November. We stayed in Florida for far too long, then Chattanooga for a month, now finally, the mountains. We almost went back to Alabama to stay in Oak Mountain state park with the plan to head back to Florida afterwards to get my license taken care of, but that can wait. I want Mountains in the winter, for at least a little while.

We’re headed for Asheville North Carolina right now. Apparently one of the countries most vegetarian small cities in the country, as well as one of the happiest according to one magazine (the Wiki on this place makes it sound awesome). We’ll be staying just 5 miles out of town so it looks like we wont be saving any money this month. Ross just spent allot on truck repairs and I’m almost always broke, relatively.
Moving today made me realize how much I hate moving. I love the traveling but the packing and unpacking, arranging and loading of our things is lame, even if we just do it once a month. I think it’s actually easier when we move once a week or every 2 weeks because we don’t really get that settled in.
We plan to stay a month in Asheville too, though we haven’t seen the campsite yet so we’ll decide then but I’m sure it will be fine. They’re putting us right on the river and the spots come with free wifi and cable TV so, not much to complain about. We’ll get back into our state park phase when its warm again. I’m totally a hibernator.
Here’s some photos from the drive, we’ll be in town within the hour and after a tedious unpacking, I plan to sleep. We didn’t go to bed last night because our schedule is that messed up with both of us working on our own projects after work and staying up through the wee hours, and still getting up for west coast work. Maybe the draw of the Smokies will get me out of the trailer in the morning to take some photos.

These ones are from the car or on a bathroom break so, cut me some slack.. plz.

Tags: asheville, chattanooga, north carolina, tennessee, travel
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Everyone hates watermarks (at least I hope they do). They are distracting, ugly, and often in a horrible font on top of everything. Literally, everything.
People are scared of having their images stolen, I understand, but the scenario ends up being either that your image is too ugly to want to steal because of the watermark and low resolution (if it’s too ugly to steal, it’s too ugly to want to buy) or people will just remove the watermark in Photoshop – BUT what if they don’t know it’s there? I know you’re thinking “but if they don’t see a watermark they will DEFINITELY steal it, as opposed to probably not”. It’s actually likely they will steal it anyway. Which is why having an invisible watermark will protect you down the road, even in a legal dispute if needed.
While working on some photos for Etsy today, I started making watermarks for my photos, something I’ve never really done before because it always looks so terrible, and decided to do a google search and find a debate for and against.
Many people were against using watermarks because of pretty much the reasons I listed above, It will not deter thieves, or it may, but also customers – depending on how hardcore your watermark is.
Someone on an Etsy forum posted the ultimate solution to everyone’s woes, instructions on how to make an invisible watermark and I’m sharing it with you here: Invisible Watermark Instructions

See the watermarks? good.

Using this watermark also gives you the freedom to stop squashing your images down to 500px wide as well, though that will be up to you. In my photos, details are important and the fact that my medium format images are so crisp and clear, is barely noticeable in a tiny photo. Why bother sharing if you’re not sharing the whole experience? This may mean that I add the invisible watermark all over the image rather than in just one place, just to up the chances of safety, but at least I get to display what I want worry free.

Check it out and give it a try. I know adding a watermark to all your photos might sound tedious. It will be. Also, think of it this way. Anyone who buys a print of your photo can scan it and put it in their own collection any time they want. There is really no safeguard from art thieves, so decide for yourself which preventative effort is worth it and which is not.

Tags: deviantart, invisible watermark, photography, photos, Princess-of-Shadows, protecting photos, watermarks
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