Hello,
I'm Axel.

Writing

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

• 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.

  Thought #20  •   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.

  Thought #19  •   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.

  Continue reading →

  mental health reflection  •   Aug 14, 2025

• 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.

  Continue reading →

  reflection life  •   Aug 01, 2025

• 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.

  Thought #18  •   Aug 01, 2025

• 

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

  Thought #17  •   Jul 18, 2025

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

  Thought #16  •   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.

  Thought #15  •   Jun 05, 2025

• Memories

  With time, our memories start jumbling up, tangling, getting fuzzy.

  I feel like I lived a lifetime from 15 to 20, then from 40 to 45 it was a blink. Some people say it’s the percentage of your life those years represent. I don’t think it works like that. I think i’ts a problem of us not being mindful of the things we live.

  Continue reading →

  reflection tools  •   May 26, 2025

• I just realized it's been 5 years since the COVID-19 lockdown. All events from that time on are tangled up in my memory as a drawer full of old wires.

  Thought #14  •   May 19, 2025
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Web Rings

I participate in several IndieWeb and SmallWeb webrings.

If you don't know what a webring is, you're probably too young and/or too cool. Here's an explanation.

• IndieWeb Webring

  A webring to find (and be found by) other folks with IndieWeb building blocks on their sites.

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• Generation Lissa

  People who started making websites in the late 90s/early 00s and are still here.

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• CSS Joy

  A webring for people who take joy in messing around with CSS.

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• Retronaut Webring

  "Some of us miss the messy old days of the Internet where we tried to get along and we'd link to each other's sites and it was all so much fun."

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