Axel Valdez • Stream of consciousness

2026-04-16T08:00:00-07:00

It's been a long time since I was as excited as I am for a single piece of software: Antinote by Johnson Fung. I even stopped using my home baked ephemeral note system for this awesome thing.

2026-04-13T08:00:00-07:00

Give me ADHD and a timer and I will conquer the world.

2026-03-20T08:00:00-07:00

It is in a state of pain that we find most answers to our own unknowns. If we keep avoiding pain, steering away from painful situations out of fear of discomfort, we remain static, just watching life pass us by.

2026-03-09T16:28:09-07:00

Starbucks isn’t a coffee chain. It’s a global network of clean restrooms with a coffee side hustle. Overpriced? Charge me double, I don't care. Some heroes wear aprons and misspell your name.

2026-01-05T21:36:58-07:00

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.

2025-12-16T09:59:00-07:00

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

2025-12-11T23:08:39-07:00

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.

2025-09-02T18:45:43-07:00

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.

2025-08-22T01:26:55-07:00

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.

2025-08-14T19:43:03-07:00

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.

2025-08-01T19:21:17-07:00

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.

2025-07-18T16:00:38-07:00

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

2025-07-04T18:11:47-07:00

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

2025-06-05T19:22:17-07:00

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.

2025-05-19T10:58:10-07:00

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.

2025-05-12T11:32:31-07:00

Dadstache or pornstache?

2025-05-01T13:14:22-07:00

AMOR FATI

2023-09-20T15:50:29-07:00

Yesterday I launched the website for one of my podcasts, Ferulita para el Alma (in Spanish). During the long weekend here in Mexico I hacked a bunch of stuff together to build the site automatically from the podcast RSS feed, and it worked!

11ty is awesome, and the nerd community sharing their how-tos more so ♥️.

2023-07-10T06:50:48-07:00

A cashier at a Circle K noted my "memento mori" tattoo and we had a quick but wholesome chat about it. I'm liking this kind of random connections way more than the ones that happen online. They feel more... authentic? organic? I don't know, but I like them.

2023-05-31T16:34:04-07:00

Cory Doctorow writes the most compelling essay about blogging I've read, and for me the effect of the message is amplified incredibly because it reaches me at an excellent moment.

There’s a version of the “why writers should blog” story that is tawdry and mercenary: “Blog,” the story goes, “and you will build a brand and a platformthat you can use to promote your work.”

Virtually every sentence that contains the word “brand” is bullshit, and that one is no exception.

2023-05-04T19:37:47-07:00

It’s funny how the old ways of thinking have been flipped. If I want to get work done, I stay home. If I want to socialise, I go into the studio.

From Jeremy Keith.

2023-04-28T05:40:46-07:00

I'm currently reading Building a Second Brain from Thiago Forte and jumping again into the bandwagon of note organization. This time is making more sense, though.

2023-04-24T09:31:50-07:00

I just finished watching Beef on Netflix. It’s so perfect I’m hoping it’s not renewed for more seasons. Let that story end there :)

2023-03-31T00:57:38-07:00

I just added a dark mode switch to the website :)

2023-03-30T07:35:57-07:00

The month without social media is over in 4 more days. Now I know I won't be reinstalling Twitter in my phone, but I'm on the fence with Instagram.

2023-03-20T01:14:07-07:00

Adding blogs to my RSS reader like it’s 1999. I like this so-called demise of Twitter 😅

2023-03-18T09:08:57-07:00

A lot of work in my personal website today. Added the stream (where I’m typing this). Feeling good (And sleepy).

2023-03-18T07:00:01-07:00

Not using social media is more difficult that it seems, and it seems pretty hard already. I'm not sure if I'm more depressed than before, or I'm just bored.