Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Sep 10

I’ll be speaking at MagnoliaConf (@magnolia.boo) in Jackson, MS in October. My talk, "No build tool? No problem!" is all about skipping frontend build steps and instead using the cool features supported by modern browsers.

You can get 10% off tickets with this code: SPEAKER10

2025.magnoliaconf.com

Magnolia Conf

Mississippi's premiere software development conference.

2025.magnoliaconf.com

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Sep 1

So, all Bluesky users in Mississippi (e.g., me) are blocked from using the app. I'm posting this by using a VPN. I hope Mississippi's government can come to a more practical solution for its stated goal of child safety, but I'm not optimistic.

bsky.social/about/blog/0...

Our Response to Mississippi’s Age Assurance Law - Bluesky

A new Mississippi law requires us to block full access to Bluesky unless all users complete age checks. We have concerns about this law’s implementation.

bsky.social

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Sep 1

@nona.zone This thread makes me super happy. Shoutout to @andycarolan.bsky.social who did the excellent artwork on this project.

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Sep 1

Hey, thanks for the shoutout!

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 13

I haven’t played this game in 20+ years but this song lives rent-free in my head. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lhb...

Super Mario Land 2-OST [Overworld Theme]

YouTube video by Edward Holmes

www.youtube.com

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 8

My website turned 20 today! blakewatson.com/journal/blak...

blakewatson.com turns 20 - blakewatson.com

I bought this domain as a college student using a friend’s credit card. Twenty years later, it’s one of the best decisions I've ever made.

blakewatson.com

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 8

I'm just seeing this, but thanks for the shoutout and the share!

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Reposted by Blake Watson

🍂 Scott Andrew | Neat Hobby! @neathobby.com · Jan 18

If you want to learn how to create and edit webpages (and you should, it’s fun!) HTML For People is a great modern learning resource.

www.htmlforpeople.com

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 8

Ha, I think I'm good at this too and judging from your replies I'm guessing this is a common thing people feel like they’re good at. Probably just easier being the third party like @spencercolaco.com said.

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 8

Hypothetical. Someone who doesn't code and doesn't want to learn asks you what is a good service for making a personal website and/or blog. Where would you point them?

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 8

Quick, I need some blog posts! I'm looking for blog posts/articles about why people should have a personal website.

I'm putting a list of them in a blog post. Both classic must-reads as well as little known posts from new web authors are fine.

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 7

It took two hours of debugging, one of which included 3 developers on a screenshare... to find a misspelled attribute.

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Reposted by Blake Watson

MagnoliaConf (OCT 21-23!) @magnolia.boo · Aug 6

🎟️ Tickets for Magnolia Conf 2025 are now on sale! Join us in Jackson, MS from October 21-23.

https://www.tixtree.com/e/magnolia-conf-453fc7ea2496

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Reposted by Blake Watson

MagnoliaConf (OCT 21-23!) @magnolia.boo · Aug 7

CFP for Magnolia Conf 2025 is now open! submit your talk by August 15(ish)!

if you're part of an underrepresented group in tech, we especially want to hear from you!

https://forms.gle/ceZAHzkcxXZGCo5U9

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 7

Think I’m going to stop cross-posting from Mastodon. I don’t love having a bunch of truncated posts.

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 6

Can confirm these are rad!
https://iconfactory.world/@Iconfactory/114916100504750898

https://social.lol/@bw/114983446851550327

The Iconfactory (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Every Friday we send out the week’s completed batch of pixel portraits to waiting customers. The feedback has been wonderful to say the least. 😃 Another reason to love Fridays! https://iconfactory.com/pixelportraits #DigitalArt #commissions #PixelArt

iconfactory.world

Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 5

My favorite suggestion so far is Moegi Dawn (it's one of the light variants) github.com/moegi-design...

GitHub - moegi-design/vscode-theme: 🌸 An elegant theme for VS Code.

🌸 An elegant theme for VS Code. Contribute to moegi-design/vscode-theme development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 5

You'll never have to chase down small breaking changes in your dependency chain you download the CDN versions and commit them directly to your repo.

https://social.lol/@bw/114977504714639056

Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 5

Any weirdos out there have a favorite light theme for VS Code? There aren't nearly as many quality light themes as dark themes I've noticed.

https://social.lol/@bw/114977124835327299

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 4

I just said "bro, cope" out loud to webpack running in my terminal because it was showing me an error I already fixed.

https://social.lol/@bw/114972098507528943

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 4

At certain levels, your D&D character has the option to take an ability score improvement or a feat.

Ability score improvements are great but sound boring, while Feats have cool names like "War Caster" or "Crusher" (and tbf feats are great too).

I just ... https://social.lol/@bw/114971829307993583

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Blake Watson @blakewatson.com · Aug 3

Made a bunch of updates to Minimal Character Sheet.

- Print mode
- Collapsible spells
- UI tweaks
- Bug fixes

https://minimalcharactersheet.com

https://social.lol/@bw/114967252818793092