Hello there and welcome! My name is Carlos. I was born and raised in southern Spain in a household where electronics were a constant presence. My father’s electronic endeavors, fueled by an 80286 PC running MS-DOS 6.2 and Norton Commander, were a significant part of my upbringing. I found myself helping him with PCB UV light curing, assembling and soldering components, even though I never quite got into the fundamentals of electronics myself. The shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot, I guess…
During my teenage years I was always tinkering with the computer any chance I got. I went from reading my cheat sheet on how to extract files with ARJ, to installing Windows 95 from 28 floppy disks, to the far superior Windows 98 SE. My cousin would be the one feeding my gaming habit. Doom was the game I played the most, until I developed an interest in strategy games after, my cousin introduced me to Magic the Gathering and handed me a copy of Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness. Having internet at home wasn’t a thing back then, so I spent a good amount of time at the cyber café playing StarCraft and Quake 2 with friends. Looking back, we should have arranged more LAN parties. Then the internet revolution hit, which mean I could get DSL at home: Netscape pointed at AltaVista, and IRC downloaded to chat with friends about music and concerts.
After dropping out of my physics degree (majoring in electronics), I decided to study a diploma in Telecommunications and Networking. Shortly after, I started working at a local wireless ISP as a field engineer while simultaneously pursuing my Cisco CCNA. This opened doors to supporting WAN networks, which in turn led to years of intense battles with the good old Frame Relay, ATM, T1/T3, and Metro Ethernet lines.
I eventually went back to university to study Information Systems and Management, submerging myself in the theoretical side of how information systems align with business objectives and the intricacies of management. During this period I pivoted to cybersecurity, delving into Network Security and dipping my tippy toes into the world of Malware Analysis. Time passed and I eventually landed in a managerial role. However, my passion for the technical side of things (getting my hands dirty) never waned. That led me to pursue a master’s degree in Computer Science with Cybersecurity.
Motivated by people in the IndieWeb like Nuno Coração, Michael Sass’ Shellsharks and Autumn Skerritt, I decided to build my own page: a humble attempt to embrace my creative side, keep wrestling with technology, learn along the way, and get better at documenting things. Here I started writing about how I organized my studying to obtain the CISSP certification. You can check the roadmap section to see what I’m currently tinkering with.
Outside the world of screens and CLIs, you can find me listening to a myriad of music styles and going to concerts. I enjoy exploring new cultures through food and travel. I have been lucky enough to travel around the world (Montréal → Málaga → Prague → Manila → Osaka → Kyoto → Tokyo → Montréal) with nothing but a backpack holding my work laptop and a carry-on with a few clothes in it. I enjoy capturing street graffiti and architecture through photography. I also collect and play Magic: The Gathering, poorly. Lastly, in the pursiot of becoming a better version of myself, I spend time delving into science based podcasts and picking up heavy iron things just to put them back down.
Thanks for stopping by and joining me on this journey.