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.

  • 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 in Decap, though, and I always wanted a better and quicker solution for that. So I made my own.

    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 goes into a note. There’s this idea that the brain is an excellent processor and a very shitty storage solution. I fully subscribe to that notion.

    I already use a system in Apple Notes, heavily based on Forever Notes by Matthias Hilse, but very distilled and simplified. However, I wanted an even more immediate quick-note system that was always up front and ready, so I made just that.

    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 very different experience.

    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

    White Pills, by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

    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 awesomeness and bliss.

    Nov 27, 2025 · Read post →

  • Headphones

    Airpods Max, photo by Stephan Riedl / Unsplash

    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, except I never allowed myself to use them.

    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.

    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 22, 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