Professional career

My name is Julio Ernesto Rodríguez Cabañas, and I am a software developer born and raised in Spain who has been living in the UK since 2015. Currently, I specialise in Android development.

While I could say that I started building websites as a kid, or that I created my first Android app as soon as I got my first ever Android device back in 2012, I think that my CV will provide a much more accurate picture of my trajectory as a software developer.

Thus, in case you want to take a look, you can see my CV here.

A little bit more about me

Interested in technology and computers from an early age, I created my first website by the age of ten (a silly Pokemon website), learned the basics of programming on my own when I was fifteen, and successfully monetised a couple of my own websites when I was sixteen.

Old picture of me playing on the Nintendo 64
Me, playing on the N64 like it is 1998.

Since then, not only have I continued expanding my range of projects and interests, but I have also grown into a professional software developer who is able to live off pressing keys all day.

It must be noted that the above isn't just a corporate pitch, I truly enjoy programming and building things. For example, you can see some of the projects I have done here, or you can take a look at my Github and notice how I have been obsessively completing the coding contest Advent of Code every year since I first heard about it back in 2020.

That said, there is life beyond programming, luckily. And when I am not coding, I enjoy very basic things, such as cooking, eating (especially fine dining), running, listening to podcasts, or simply wasting time on the internet to no avail.

OK, but why does this website look so... ugly?

This about page is supposed to be about me, not about the website. However, I am glad you asked!

This website follows the style of the personal sites you would find all over the web between 2000 and 2005 or so. Granted, most of those extinct websites had more personality and character than this one (this one is admittedly a little bit dull), but I cannot really emulate them faithfully without committing several crimes against all design principles in existence. Those strident colours and animated GIFs were often too much!

There are a couple of reasons why I decided to do this. First, because I was inspired by a talk given by Sophie Koonin about going back to the era of quirky personal websites displaying a maximalist, unique design. I thought the talk was great, and the idea of building my own site in the style of the early 2000s sounded very appealing and fun to me. And second, because I was tired of dealing with a bottomless pit of problems called Wordpress – sometimes, simplicity wins.