Axel Valdez

Design Engineer

Hello,
I'm Axel.

I'm a Design Engineer living in Hermosillo, Mexico. I've been working in the software development industry for pretty much my entire adult life, in roles related to both front-end development and design. I lived through the browser wars, the web standards movement, social media becoming mainstream, and the decay of privacy online. Today I'm very much into the indie web and the small web movements.

This website is my hub on the web, from work to hobbies and everything in-between.

Hi

Axel Valdez w

Writing

This sections contains both medium-to-long blog posts, and short and quick thoughts from the stream of consciousness (stream for short) section.

  • Notebooks

    For years I’ve tried to have a digital-only note system, but it’s difficult. It’s easy to have an organized archive for quick-reference in...

    Mar 04, 2026 · Read post →

  • It is ridiculous to watch a season of a TV series and then having to wait 2-3 years for a new season. Something has to change, and I think it will as soon as someone figure it out and the rest have to follow through or lose audience.

    Jan 05, 2026

  • The magnetic particles in a mixtape hold much more than just music. Baked into the tape is also the person’s intention. They’re in their room, hovering over the pause button wondering if you’ll catch the meaning behind that lyric they chose. Hoping you feel what they felt when they first heard that guitar solo. Each moment on the tape is a moment spent thinking about you.

    From Digging the Greats: Mixtape series

    Dec 16, 2025

  • IIIMGS

    This blog is built on 11ty, and I use Decap CMS to update it (editing code directly gets old reeeeal quick). I don't love image management...

    Dec 12, 2025 · Read post →

  • CCCOLUMNS

    I’m a huge nerd for notes. A long time ago, I learned not to trust my memory, so everything that comes to mind and needs to be remembered...

    Dec 12, 2025 · Read post →

  • Vibe Coding (look ma'! I'm a developer!)

    I've been vibe coding again, but this time I took a different approach. I focused on stuff whose workings I already understand. It was a...

    Dec 12, 2025 · Read post →

  • I gave vibecoding a second chance this week, this time sticking to technologies I'm familiar with. Instead of trying to make an iOS app (a completely unfamiliar territory for me) I made some web apps for very specific needs of my own. It was like night and day. A few hours here and there over the week, and now I have two really really useful web apps that I'm sure I will use every day.

    I'll make a proper post as soon as I can get to it, but I wanted to save this note as a reminder that this stuff can be good.

    Dec 11, 2025

  • Drugs and Normality

    I never did drugs in my youth because I was too afraid, but I always had this curiosity of how it would feel to be high. I imagined pure...

    Nov 27, 2025 · Read post →

  • Headphones

    I love headphones. I love them because music has always been my safe place and headphones were my way to carry that with me in public,...

    Nov 25, 2025 · Read post →

  • Making my phone boring

    I removed Instagram from my phone two weeks ago. Well, all social apps, but Instagram is the main one for me. I didn’t stop using it,...

    Sep 17, 2025 · Read post →

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Axel Valdez
contact[REMOVE-THIS]@axel.mx