Karen Alma

Managua: Part One

Karen — Fri, 24 May 2013 03:40:52 +0000

Jellybeans Galore

Karen — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:53:27 +0000

I never win anything. But the other night at a local tech function I won this mega pack of jelly beans. Lucky me.

Going Home???

Karen — Sun, 19 May 2013 14:32:37 +0000

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time pondering the meaning of home. You know, the home that people refer to when they say, “We’re going back home for the holidays”.

I don’t really have a home in that sense. My parents don’t live in the house I was born in, much less the house I grew up in. We moved so much that my siblings and I really don’t have a place we identify as Home in that sense. I wonder, is it the place I was born? The place we lived the most years? The place my parents live now? The place I lived when I got married?

I was born in Managua, but since my family moved away from there when I was 6 months old I have never thought much about it. Other than that it’s where I was born I’ve never felt much of a connection. If you ask me where I am from my heart answers Panama since that’s really where I spent my formative years. I imagined I would never visit Nicaragua and I wasn’t that concerned. I cavalierly passed up the offer of citizenship when I was 17 or 18, thinking, why would I do that?

When I got the opportunity to speak at the upcoming WordCamp in Managua I jumped at the chance. Mostly I love to travel. But a chance to do what I love (talk to people about WordPress) and a chance to travel back to the place where I was born? Count me in.

As the trip gets close and closer I find myself getting more and more nervous. Why, I wonder. I’m not quite sure. I’ve begun to call it home in my mind, which I find funny as I know nothing about Managua. I have no memories or connections of the place, other than the people and places my family might mention from back in a day.

It will be interesting for sure. Even as I am nervous I am so excited for this full circle experience I get to have thanks to my fantastic job.

For a bit of fun, here are some pictures I dug up from my parent’s things:

WordPress: Not Just for Beginners

Karen — Sun, 19 May 2013 04:30:02 +0000

This is a presentation I did some time ago for httq:)).

Presentation Notes

Backroads: Las Huertas Canyon

Karen — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:28:17 +0000

We tried to hike on the Crest today, but it was a bit too cool, so we took the van down Las Huertas Canyon instead. We haven’t done that in years and it was quite fun. Spring flowers are all gone, but it is so green (for New Mexico). There were a lot of folks out enjoying Las Huertas Canyon and Sandia Man Cave, including a woman who told us her last visit was 40 years ago. She told us that back then there was no semi rickety metal staircase, just a rickety ladder. Gulp.

Spring and a Kitty in My Backyard

Karen — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:23:25 +0000

I’ve been gone from home for a little over a week and my garden has undergone a transformation.

Also, the kitty did a good job of keeping an eye on things.

The Roots of Microsoft in Albuquerque

Karen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:47:58 +0000

A few years after we moved to Albuquerque, I was working as a contractor for a small print and web shop. The owner was a long-time Albuquerquean with a million stories about people he had run into over the years both famous and not-so-famous.

One day he said, “I knew Bill Gates.”

“You did not,” I said.

“I did,” he said, ”he lived here when he started Microsoft!”

“He did not,” I said.

“Yes,” he ascertained, “he really did.”

And it’s true! Bill and Paul Allen messed around with computer equipment only a few blocks away from where I now live between the 1965 and 1979 and my old colleague delivered print material to someone in the building or something like that. Can you imagine how different Albuquerque and Seattle would be today if they stayed in New Mexico?

There is an amazing permanent exhibit at the natural History Museum that showcases and details the story of their time in our fair city. I recommend you check it out, it’s pretty cool. But there is also a plaque which I didn’t know about until the other day, when my husband and I practically tripped over it on one of our neighborhood strolls. It’s on a street corner just off Central and California, next to a little old nondescript building where they presumably worked on their stuff.

Dry Grass Riverbed

Karen — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:15:09 +0000

This river is dry more often than it has water in it so the grass grows up tall and thick during the growing season. Then when the rains come, the water mattes the grass down. Apparently this year the grass dried up and stayed smashed down. It’s such a cool effect, a river of dry grasses.

Volcanic Rock

Karen — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:09:31 +0000

Albuquerque from the West Side

Karen — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 19:53:09 +0000