Last week I revived my blog with my first post in two years and boy did that feel great. I feel the old writing juices stirring again.
However, I realize now that I jumped straight into the weeds about things like my intended writing cadence, the web framework I used, the IndieWeb crowd I’ve been hanging out with…
…but I completely forgot to introduce myself. Whoops.
Let’s try this again!
Who I Am Now
👋 Hi there! My name is Al.
💼 Professionally, I’m a designer and product guy at early teams. After a whirlwind 15 years at SF startups, I moved back to my hometown of San Diego.
🚴 Since moving back, I’ve gotten into old passions like Disneyland, photography and cycling, as well as new outdoorsy hobbies like camping and bikepacking.
Bikecamping in Ventura & Santa Barbara
Desert camping
My Origin Story
🇹🇷 Turkish-American and close to my family back in the old country.
💻 First computer experience was writing a chat program in BASIC on a TI-99/4A in grade school.
🧠 Was pre-med in college and worked in a neuroscience lab.
⚽️ Played soccer my whole life until I blew out my knee trying to go pro in Istanbul.
Things I Love
❤️ My wife, even if she won’t let me take pictures of her.
🐕 My two little chihuahuas, who can’t object to having their pictures taken.
🏄🏻♂️ The ocean. I haven’t been able to do watersports lately because of a neck sprain, so instead I’ve been getting my kick by doing photo shoots of others.
My buddy Joe going bodysurfing
Surfers at Sunset Cliffs
🏔️ The mountains, especially in the winter.
Cooking breakfast
Car camping
🤓 Grassroots artisanal web creators.
The IndieWeb group recently met in San Diego
🤳🏼 Candid photos of interesting people.
A fisherman in the San Diego River
My neighbor with a rich life story
A young man at Crystal Pier
Friendly couple & their perfectly restored Willy
🧬 Science fiction. I read seven of the Dune books leading up to the movie. Last year I was blown away by The Three Body Problem and am currently reading more from Liu Cixin.
🚀 Space exploration. It’s happening and we should do it right this time.
That About Covers It
This was fun to write! I have an About page in a fun slideshow format that I haven’t updated in years, so it was fun to do a newer expanded version in a different format.
Thanks for reading! Cheers 🥂