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.

  • 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.

    Sep 17, 2025 · Read post →

  • I just listened to Cory Doctorow's Daddy Daughter Podcast, a talk with his 16-year-old daughter. His struggles to have her talking and elaborating about things, and her reluctance to be in the episode made me feel so calm about my own teenager and the dynamics of interacting with him.

    I think the earlier we dads accept that there's no way to change how irremediably uncool we are in the eyes of our teenage kids, the smoother the ride is.

    I love you, Andrés. I'm fairly sure you'll never read this, but if for some reason you do, you can bet on that.

    Sep 02, 2025

  • I just had a full conversation with my 8-year-old son about the possibility that we live in a simulation, using our brain's data as an avatar for extending life using an after-death simulated environment and the possibilities of it all. I'm so happy to be raising nerdy kids <3.

    Aug 21, 2025

  • Tengo una sensación extraña cada vez que muere una persona cercana que en alguna medida marcó una diferencia en mi vida. No hablo necesariamente de luto, dolor, o tristeza, sino de esa sensación de que sin esa persona, y con su ausencia poco a poco notándose menos hasta volverse la normalidad, el mundo ya no es igual. No es necesariamente peor, ni mejor, sino diferente.

    Aunque uno no cambie mucho, aunque las dinámicas de la vida sigan ininterrumpidas, todo sucede ahora en un lugar distinto.

    Aug 14, 2025

  • El miedo a la muerte

    Desde muy pequeño he estado asustado con la idea de la muerte en general, la de mis seres queridos, y especialmente la idea de la mía propia.

    Aunque con los años he podido ir gradualmente y a cierto nivel reconciliándome con la idea, este miedo empezó siendo paralizante. Al nivel de ser un niño de 6 años que no podía dormir pensando en eso.

    Aug 14, 2025 · Read post →

  • Matt.

    — Hi, I’m Mateo Pérez
    — Hello, I’m Axel Valdez. I just got here yesterday
    — So, what do you do exactly?
    — I’m a UI designer, and I also do front-end code. Mostly HTML and CSS, but also some JavaScript, usually for interaction stuff
    — For how long have you been doing these things?
    — It’s been like... 15 years now. Wow.
    — And what do you like the most?
    — CSS, definitely. I would be happy if I got to just do CSS forever.
    — Alright. That was your English test. You’re fine.

    That was my first interaction with Matt Perez, on my second day at Nearsoft in 2011. He kinda intimidated me at that time, mostly because I had read a lot about him on social media, and he was already a legend for founding Nearsoft, this weird and utopian software development joint in Hermosillo. At that time we were small. About 35 people including designers, software engineers, recruiters, and admin staff.

    Aug 01, 2025 · Read post →

  • I organized my vinyl records, and I found out I have 16 of them still wrapped, new, unplayed. And they're good albums, too. I think starting on Monday I will sit down and listen to one of them daily. I'll report back here. Or maybe I will set-up my music blog —The Headphonist— again, to write about them.

    Aug 01, 2025

  • Pocket notebooks with drawings in the covers

    I got a small pack of Posca paint markers and I want to draw on every surface around me. These are my pocket notebooks.

    Jul 18, 2025

  • Sometimes it gets reaaaally dificult to trust the process.
    Inhale... hold... exhale.

    Jul 04, 2025

  • I was doing some research about POSSE on an 11ty website when I landed on this post by Yuya Saito and I got my mind blown by the explanation about comment-driven development. I sometimes do the same, but how Yuya explains it is almost poetic.

    "Just like writing an essay, I need find out something to rely on."

    Go read it at virga.frontendweekly.tokyo.

    Jun 05, 2025