Pixelmania 2023

zackiedawg said:
Hey all - thought I'd check in - even though I can't make this Pixelmania, I've been away from the boards for quite a bit. Wanted to let everyone know I'm still around - just been a few hard and crazy months. My stepfather had been physically unwell for years now, on a walker, but this year, descended to not being mobile at all - my mother was basically doing home-nursing for most of 2023 - starting in July, he was popping back and forth to the hospital, then nursing home, then back to hospital - and 'finally' on Aug 17 he passed away. Anyone who has been through that process knows why I say 'finally' as for him, the quality of life wasn't there, and for my mother and the family, it was stressful and maddening. For the week after he passed, it's been family flying in, services, burial in Massachusetts, then helping mom clean out the house - the last 4 years he had become a bit of a hoarder, so the garage, attic, spare room (which had become his live-in room), and closets were jam-packed with stuff. 3 800-Junk truck loads, 2 charity box van pickups, and dozens of things given away to family and friends later, the house was finally emptied out. The past 2 weeks have been helping her paint, re-carpet, and convert that spare room into an office for her, plus a spare guestroom. All that, plus trying to stay caught up at work, helping her with the financial transition, and still squeezing in a Disney trip last week...and I'm finally starting to pop back around the boards to see what I've been missing.

Wish I could have made it, but I'll have to wait for the 2024 Pixelmania, which hopefully will be back to Christmastime. And maybe if any of you want to go for a Birdmania 3, which I'm always ready for. Anyway - that's it - just wanted to get back in touch with y'all!
Click to expand...
Hello and it's great to hear from you! I'm sorry for your loss and relieved that you and your Mom are past all the troubles.

Just a heads up, if you look on the boards, you'll see a thread entitled Pixelmania West. So far between definitely four and perhaps six of us are planning on meeting out at Disneyland from December 10th to the 16th.

You are more than welcome to join us If you can make it and you can find out all the details for that trip on that thread as well as the Pixelmania West 2023 official announcements thread.

So far Dennis, Nancy, Gary, and myself are staying at the Candy Cane Inn. Michael is also planning on trying to make it, as well as Don, but they have to figure out their schedules.

Dennis has done this trip before so he's got some things figured out that are very helpful for executing this trip.

It's not too late to join us, so jump in if you can.

I have a photo charter to Arches National Park in Utah planned for March 2024, so I'll be skipping Birdmania this year. We will be in the park overnight photographing the Milky Way, so I'm very excited about that opportunity. That's one of those Lerro photo charters that Michael and Gary really enjoy going on. It's almost like the Lerro photo charters are the official photo charter operation for Pixelmaniacs.

I am definitely interested in doing Birdmania again in the future, perhaps for 2025...

Otherwise all is well with me. Before Pixelmania in October, I'll be taking the family down to Universal for a family vacation. We'll be meeting up with one of Evan's high school friends and then just the boys and I will hit Halloween horror nights with Dennis. Karl is a scaredy cat so he will be staying back at the hotel that night.
We are going to be getting our Cabana Bay vibes on, so I'm really looking forward to that trip. Cabana Bay is my favorite hotel in all of Orlando. Then I'll switch hotels and do the Pixelmania portion of this trip.

So that's all the news that's fit to print for me. Daisy and Buddy are doing well and they are keeping me busy with their doggy enrichment activities. So far they really like all the walking I've been doing to get in shape for my Universal/Disney trip. We are a regular sight in my neighborhood as we do a number of laps around our block. I'm wearing my giant backpack filled with all my camera gear and the dogs are on their leash that is tied to my backpack waist belt. When the neighbors see us coming they know that I have a Disney trip on the horizon.

Take care and tell your Mom I said hi!
~Joanie
 
Last edited:
Joanie Eddis-Koch said:
Hello and it's great to hear from you! I'm sorry for your loss and relieved that you and your Mom are past all the troubles.

Just a heads up, if you look on the boards, you'll see a thread entitled Pixelmania West. So far between definitely four and perhaps six of us are planning on meeting out at Disneyland from December 10th to the 16th.

You are more than welcome to join us If you can make it and you can find out all the details for that trip on that thread as well as the Pixelmania West 2023 official announcements thread.

So far Dennis, Nancy, Gary, and myself are staying at the Candy Cane Inn. Michael is also planning on trying to make it, as well as Don, but they have to figure out their schedules.

Dennis has done this trip before so he's got some things figured out that are very helpful for executing this trip.

It's not too late to join us, so jump in if you can.

I have a photo charter to Arches National Park in Utah planned for March 2024, so I'll be skipping Birdmania this year. We will be in the park overnight photographing the Milky Way, so I'm very excited about that opportunity. That's one of those Lerro photo charters that Michael and Gary really enjoy going on. It's almost like the Lerro photo charters are the official photo charter operation for Pixelmaniacs.

I am definitely interested in doing Birdmania again in the future, perhaps for 2025...

Otherwise all is well with me. Before Pixelmania in October, I'll be taking the family down to Universal for a family vacation. We'll be meeting up with one of Evan's high school friends and then just the boys and I will hit Halloween horror nights with Dennis. Karl is a scaredy cat so he will be staying back at the hotel that night.
We are going to be getting our Cabana Bay vibes on, so I'm really looking forward to that trip. Cabana Bay is my favorite hotel in all of Orlando. Then I'll switch hotels and do the Pixelmania portion of this trip.

So that's all the news that's fit to print for me. Daisy and Buddy are doing well and they are keeping me busy with their doggy enrichment activities. So far they really like all the walking I've been doing to get in shape for my Universal/Disney trip. We are a regular sight in my neighborhood as we do a number of laps around our block. I'm wearing my giant backpack filled with all my camera gear and the dogs are on their leash that is tied to my backpack waist belt. When the neighbors see us coming they know that I have a Disney trip on the horizon.

Take care and tell your Mom I said hi!
~Joanie
Click to expand...

Glad Daisy and Buddy are doing well. I’m dealing with the almost year old lab puppy aka The Wild Child. Arches sounds like a great trip. We love Cabana Bay too. See everyone in about 17 days for Pixelmania.

@Joanie Eddis-Koch is there going to be any use of a communications app any nighttime shoots or MNSSHP meetups?
 
Nancy AK said:
Glad Daisy and Buddy are doing well. I’m dealing with the almost year old lab puppy aka The Wild Child. Arches sounds like a great trip. We love Cabana Bay too. See everyone in about 17 days for Pixelmania.

@Joanie Eddis-Koch is there going to be any use of a communications app any nighttime shoots or MNSSHP meetups?
Click to expand...

We are definitely going to be using that GroupMe app that we always use for communication purposes.

As far as night time shoots, there is usually not a schedule for that and that seems to happen on the fly as we go about our day and see how much energy we have at the end.

We will definitely be getting together to do Halloween stuff, but again we're going to be communicating in that Group Me App to figure out what we're going to do, since everybody has different priorities for that evening's entertainment.

We will probably get together to photograph the parade and then we may or may not figure out how to run around, either individually or in small groups, depending upon what people want to shoot.

Basically it's like trying to organize chickens who are going every which way, so we will see how well the chickens want to line up and do things together for Halloween.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top