I like the name Rumplesnakeskin too, it's as cute as him!
As for your thermostat probe, my first thought was that perhaps you could keep the cord attached inside to the back of your tank and just file a small notch in the hard plastic border of the lid. This way the cord fits snugly and there's no gap when it's closed.
Would that work?
Also if you're worried about the placement of your thermometer, maybe consider getting a tempgun such as
http://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-ETC-8.../dp/B00837ZGRY because you can point and click those anywhere for instant readings throughout your tank.
Lastly, most computers come with Microsoft Paint or a similar image editing program. After plugging in your SD card, you can go directly to MS Paint and open the file you want there. The new versions have a "Resize" button right on the home bar up top, but I think that in the older ones you had to go to "Image" and then "Stretch/Skew". You can then enter what percent you want to shrink your image down to. Try out 15% to start with, but if you're not happy, just hit "Undo" and try a different percentage next time.
Once you're satisfied, go up to "File" and hit "Save As" to save it in your computers photo library or where ever you'd like. Now you always have the properly sized picture on hand and can attach it to your forum posts here or upload it to hosting sites such as Photobucket. Speaking of - you can also resize pictures in your Photobucket library just by hovering over them and clicking the "Edit" option once the gear icon pops up.
Best of luck to you and Rumple~ 