Reading

Non-Fiction and online investigation and opinion pieces mostly nowadays, but i’ve read much of the classics and have deep appreciation for fictional, humanistic literature. Specially Latin American authors such as Borges, Benedetti, García Márquez, Rulfo, etc.

Software

Been writing code for most of my life. Started at around 12 learning BASIC on a Texas Instruments TI99-4A with no permanent storage in the late 80’s. Had to re-type hundreds of lines every time I turned it on, to output a dancing ASCII figure on screen - absolutely loved it. It also cemented my love for Video Games (along with the Famicon console) with classics such as Parsec.

Graduated to PASCAL and 8086/Z80 Assembler later in life in my College years - and I started taking it seriously when I deep-dived in Delphi 1.0 for Windows. I got better at it in eventual iterations, until I got myself a Developer and Instructor certification on Delphi 7 which gave me a footing in the industry. It’s a shame nobody hears about it anymore.

Moved to C#, ASP.Net and had a short brush with C++. Settled long term with back-end Web Development using Java - and its most well know frameworks such as Spring and Micronaut, which is what I work on nowadays.

I’ve also written lots of tooling, QoL and helper scripts in Python, GDScript, Processing and Windows command line. I avoid JavaScript and PhP when I can, and occasionally dabble in functional stuff like Scala or Elm.

Hardware

I’m an Electrical Engineer by formation, turned Software Engineering by circumstances, and love, which is what I do for my living. Yet, I still have a lots of interest in Electronics, specially embedded technologies for consumer applications. hobbyists and makers such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino. My specialization was in Control and Automation, focused on regulatory and servo-driven 1st/2nd order systems.

Cinema

Directors like Tarantino, Nolan, Peele, Cuarón, Scott, Spielberg - but also “classical” ones like Kurosawa, Leone, Bergman, Fellini.

Music

Can’t deny I’m a Jazz/Rock Fusion enthusiast with a soft spot for Funk, Soul and groovy beats. Steely Dan is the soundtrack I go back to more often than not.

Space and Undersea Exploration

I have a lifelong fascination with exploration and new frontiers in any major knowledge discipline. As we are becoming more of an interplanetary species, Space exploration remains the unknown frontier, where the old desires and mythos of heroes and explorers can still be realized. I follow major Occidental Space agencies news and developments, including NASA, ESA, SpaceX and such.

Video games

  • XCOM and XCOM2
  • Hitman 2 & 3
  • Surving Mars
  • Frostpunk
  • Subnautica
  • Jurassic Park World 1 & 2
  • Tropico 4,5 & 6
  • Total War (many iterations)
  • KSP (Kerbal Space Program)

I’ve enjoyed Kerbal Space Program - shorthand ksp - since its launch (struggled, would be a better word) more than 10 years ago, but I have played it on and off on a number of occasions with long hiatus in between. I’ve written a Scrapbook with a collection of notes I’ve accumulated and will be improving.

Board Games

I am a fan of regularly playing “Euro” style Board Games, generally light to mid/heavy weight games as ranked by the BGG.