Blake Watson
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blakewatson.com
Blake Watson
@blakewatson.com
810 followers 89 following 240 posts
Frontend Engineer at MRI Technologies / NASA. Web tinkerer, wheelchair user (SMA), font hoarder, INTJ, Christian.

https://blakewatson.com
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blakewatson.com
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
September 10, 2025 at 1:37 PM
blakewatson.com
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
September 1, 2025 at 4:42 AM
blakewatson.com
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
August 13, 2025 at 2:56 PM
blakewatson.com
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
August 8, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Blake Watson
neathobby.com
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
January 18, 2025 at 8:34 PM
blakewatson.com
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?
August 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
blakewatson.com
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.
August 8, 2025 at 9:42 PM
blakewatson.com
It took two hours of debugging, one of which included 3 developers on a screenshare... to find a misspelled attribute.
August 7, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Blake Watson
magnolia.boo
🎟️ 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
August 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Reposted by Blake Watson
magnolia.boo
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
August 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
blakewatson.com
Think I’m going to stop cross-posting from Mastodon. I don’t love having a bunch of truncated posts.
August 7, 2025 at 8:13 PM
blakewatson.com
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
August 6, 2025 at 7:23 PM
blakewatson.com
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
August 5, 2025 at 6:13 PM
blakewatson.com
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
August 5, 2025 at 4:36 PM
blakewatson.com
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
August 4, 2025 at 7:17 PM
blakewatson.com
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
August 4, 2025 at 6:10 PM
blakewatson.com
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
Minimal character sheet
Your freeform character sheet for D&D 5e.
minimalcharactersheet.com
August 3, 2025 at 10:46 PM
blakewatson.com
Like synthwave? I just added a bunch of mixes to https://synthwave.live.

https://social.lol/@bw/114954447888139317
synthwave.live
The best synthwave mixes, updated weekly.
synthwave.live
August 1, 2025 at 4:30 PM
blakewatson.com
Found this website which is similar to the HTML for People vibe. Love it! https://www.htmlhobbyist.com/

https://social.lol/@bw/114943644522991487
The HTML Hobbyist
Learning HTML to build your website, fanzine, or personal site.
www.htmlhobbyist.com
July 30, 2025 at 6:42 PM
blakewatson.com
If you are reading this, you can do it. I believe in you! https://htmlforpeople.com/
https://mastodon.social/@ethanschoonover/114939346322019002

https://social.lol/@bw/114939810963339207
HTML for People
HTML isn't only for people working in the tech field. It's for everyone. Learn how to make a website from scratch in this beginner friendly web book.
htmlforpeople.com
July 30, 2025 at 2:27 AM
blakewatson.com
Spent nearly all day yesterday refactoring the autosave function on my digital character sheet app. It handles edge cases more betterly and shows a save-status indicator so that you can have the warm fuzzies of knowing everything is saved (and know when s... https://social.lol/@bw/114931682387589515
July 28, 2025 at 3:59 PM
blakewatson.com
Tomorrow I’m gonna start procrastinating for real.

https://social.lol/@bw/114910110467382136
July 24, 2025 at 8:33 PM
blakewatson.com
I made a thing for D&D peeps! It's been a thing for a while, but I'm just now writing about it after making a bunch of updates.

https://blakewatson.com/journal/your-freeform-digital-character-sheet-for-dd-5e/

https://social.lol/@bw/114908676180504999
Your freeform digital character sheet for D&D 5e - blakewatson.com
Six years after launching it, I introduce Minimal Character Sheet and its features.
blakewatson.com
July 24, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Reposted by Blake Watson
andycarolan.bsky.social
One of the most fun projects I've worked on recently was the illustration for htmlforpeople.com/ with @blakewatson.com

I especially love how Blake animated the SVGs I delivered!

(note to self... I really should add this to my portfolio!)

#Illustration #Work #Design #Animation #HTML
HTML for People
HTML isn't only for people working in the tech field. It's for everyone. Learn how to make a website from scratch in this beginner friendly web book.
htmlforpeople.com
July 23, 2025 at 4:10 PM
blakewatson.com
I've submitted two talks to MagnoliaConf 2025. One about building a static websites with @11ty (https://neighborhood.11ty.dev/@11ty) and one about webdev without a frontend build step. Anxious to see if I will be selected and if so which talk I'll be doin... https://social.lol/@bw/114900186456076658
Eleventy 🎈 v3.1.2 (@[email protected])
212 Posts, 9 Following, 4.06K Followers · 🎈 A simpler static site generator 🐀 Created/maintained by @[email protected] (this account, too) 📦 Team HTML/Jamstack 🤝 Team Font Awesome #️⃣ Use #11ty for community boosts!
neighborhood.11ty.dev
July 23, 2025 at 2:30 AM