Amanda Alvarez
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gecky.me
Amanda Alvarez
@gecky.me
3.4K followers 460 following 1.1K posts
tacos 🌮
data 📊
bees 🐝
mountains 🏔️🏕️🧗🏽‍♀️
fiber arts 🪡🧵🧶
baking 🧁🍰🍪🥐🍞
helping my kids collect hobbies 📷⚾️💃🏽🎶🤸🏽‍♀️🪴🎮
trying to keep it all together 🙃🍷

she/her/ella
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gecky.me
(Totally messed up the threading here, but oh well)
It wasn’t long before dogs wanted to go out again, since I’d cut their earlier walk short. The colors had waned a bit. Kids joined me for this walk, and the sky lit up again, featuring what my middle kid dubbed “the big pink.”
“The big pink” behind some very tall pine trees. The sky shifts from hot pink peeking through the lower branches of the pines, to a softer pinkish purple, to dark purple. The stars are most visible in that dark purple part of the sky, including the constellation Cassiopeia. Color! This time, the pine trees rising out of the gulch below me in the foreground are illuminated by a porch light. The light on the horizon is kind of a seaglass green, shifting to hot pink (with light pillars) across the middle of the image, fading to a purple that’s almost black. Stars dot the sky.
November 12, 2025 at 4:36 AM
gecky.me
I rushed back to the house to call the kids out, and the colors exploded. The clouds were moving quickly, so the scene changed dramatically in just a few minutes
Pines, aspens, and a distant mountain (all in silhouette) make up the foreground. The sky behind is almost neon green near the lowest elevations on the horizon. Hot pink light pillars rise up in the center of the image, until they meet a large cloud that’s clearly moving quickly toward the right of the image. The top left corner is filled with dark sky, dotted with stars. Pines, aspens, and a distant mountain (all in silhouette) make up the foreground. The sky behind is almost neon green near the lowest elevations on the horizon. Hot pink light pillars rise up in the center of the image, until they meet a large cloud that’s clearly moving quickly toward the right of the image. The top left corner is filled with dark sky, dotted with stars. The cloud shape has changed from the previous image. Pines, aspens, and a distant mountain (all in silhouette) make up the foreground, filling the bottom half of the image. The sky behind is almost neon green near the lowest elevations on the horizon, with the higher altitudes shifting from dark purple to hot pink to light purple, moving from left to right.
November 12, 2025 at 4:21 AM
gecky.me
I first saw a pink glow while walking the dogs. I sought higher ground for a better view. From the street end of the driveway, it looked pretty spectacular with the clouds.
A dark driveway, lined with bare aspens and pines leads uphill. Through the break in the trees at the top of the driveway, a pink glow radiates upward, shifting to a light seaglass green, which disappears into a dark grey star-studded sky. From the top of the driveway, the dark silhouette of a mountain a few miles away sits between the pine trees and aspens that line the road. The sky is painted with fuchsia and almost a lime green, with line and dark grey clouds playing higher overhead.
November 12, 2025 at 4:08 AM
gecky.me
Best “to my naked eye” aurora yet!
(More coming!)
Pine trees in the foreground, lit by my patio light. In the background, the silhouette of a mountain is visible through the trees. The sky is a green to indigo to hot pink to dark purple to black gradient, with stars dotting the darker parts of the sky. It’s the aurora!
November 12, 2025 at 2:26 AM
gecky.me
In about 44 hours, I'll be wrapping up my @databsconf.com talk. Full conference schedule is at databsconf.com/schedule/ and (free!) tickets are available at ti.to/databsconf/d...
screenshot of the title page of my Data BS Conf talk black text on a mint green background reads: There Are No Data Emergencies*
September 22, 2025 at 9:46 PM
gecky.me
C wants you to know that you matter.
My mini chocolate piebald dachshund is wearing a red fleece tube with yellow and white flowers. She’s sitting on a cream colored carpet, gazing soulfully into your eyes with her big brown ones. Her goofy snoot is close enough to the camera that it’s out of focus.
September 18, 2025 at 4:10 AM
gecky.me
@databsconf.com is just over 2 weeks away!
It's a one-day, totally virtual, single-track conference centered on the real stories of data work from the folks in the trenches. Speakers and talk descriptions are live on databsconf.com, along with the link to get your (free!) ticket.
#databs
Dark teal and mint invitation for dataconf.com It's happening 2025-09-25, online, and it's free!
September 9, 2025 at 5:21 PM
gecky.me
Ooo ooo ooo someone said “topology” and I get to whip this out
Hand drawn explainer for the Hairy Ball Theorum
September 4, 2025 at 2:33 AM
gecky.me
What happens if I push this button in my new-to-me ride?
I would say “wrong answers only,” but I do also actually want to know.
Black background with white logo showing a firefighter helmet, ladder, and tools, with white text in all caps reading “emergent enable”
August 24, 2025 at 5:00 PM
gecky.me
July 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
gecky.me
Cautious. Curious. First fox we’ve caught on our trail cam, though we saw footprints in the snow throughout the winter and frequently see them trotting down the street where we live.
July 1, 2025 at 4:13 AM
gecky.me
Today’s trail cam visitors hung around for a while!
July 1, 2025 at 4:08 AM
gecky.me
The columbines are blooming. I think it may officially be spring!
Five light purpley-blue petals surround smaller white petals, which in turn surround a cluster of yellow stamens, on a flower that looks like it could be bowing toward the camera. It’s a columbine! A few more in bloom are behind it, and the rest of the background, in soft focus, is filled with leaves and stems.
June 16, 2025 at 2:20 AM
gecky.me
My favorite sign from Park County #NoKings
A fuzzy photo of a sign being held overhead. It reads: N🚫 KINGS YAS QUEENS
June 15, 2025 at 12:22 AM
gecky.me
No king, no king, lalalalalala!
Clip from the original animated The Lion King. One hyena sits on the floor, clapping, while two others prance joyously around it. The text at bottom reads “no king no no king la-la-la” — which isn’t quite how the movie audio goes, but close enough
June 14, 2025 at 6:40 PM
gecky.me
Guess who’s back
June 13, 2025 at 1:46 PM
gecky.me
June 12, 2025 at 1:07 PM
gecky.me
Well, that didn’t take long.
June 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
gecky.me
A #beekeeper nightmare. I am devastated.
A wooden pallet and parts of a beehive are strewn in the wet grass thanks to an overnight bear attack
May 26, 2025 at 1:42 PM
gecky.me
Yearling black bear, a bit on the scraggly side, faces the camera. Yearling black bear, a bit on the scraggly side, in profile. Yearling black bear, a bit on the scraggly side, seen in profile as it walks away, just behind a large propane tank.
May 23, 2025 at 5:50 PM
gecky.me
Ran off this small visitor a few minutes ago.
May 23, 2025 at 5:44 PM
gecky.me
I gotta pocket
Got a pocket full of sunshine
A honeybee rests on a wooden pallet with a rusty nail head in it. Her pockets are full of bright yellow pollen. Slightly fuzzy super closeup of a honeybee on a wooden board. One big eye seems to be looking right at you, and an even bigger yellow-orange ball of pollen is stuck to her visible back leg. A honeybee carries yellow-orange pockets of pollen toward the entrance of the Langstroth hive she calls home.
May 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
gecky.me
The average American has three friends.
The main cast of the movie Mean Girls
May 2, 2025 at 3:49 AM
gecky.me
Ooo, I’ll play!
My black and tan bloodhound is practically laying in the snow, trying to get my little silver dachshund puppy to play. He’s thinking about it, but a little freaked out by her gigantism.
April 22, 2025 at 2:42 AM
gecky.me
clip from the movie Burnt — an irritated male character in a suit is standing in a restaurant kitchen. He throws up his hands and yells, “Everything is fucked!” over the sounds of clattering cutlery.
April 10, 2025 at 8:03 PM