Remote

Blake Watson

@bw@social.lol

mastodon 4.7.3+glitch

Frontend Engineer at MRI Technologies / NASA. Web tinkerer, wheelchair user, font hoarder, online extravert, IRL introvert, (non-judgmental) Christian.

1449 Followers

209 Following

50 Posts

Joined January 06, 2023

Website:

https://blakewatson.com

How to make a website:

https://htmlforpeople.com

My browser extension:

https://afinestart.me

Gravatar:

https://gravatar.com/blakewatson

· 3w ago

Boosted by @neatnik@social.lol

I wrote this little web book in 2024 because I wanted to express the simplicity of HTML and show how easy it is for anyone to get started by making their own personal website. As of today, HTML for People is available in three languages! English: https://htmlforpeople.com/ Español: https://victorhck.gitlab.io/htmlparapersonas/ Português: https://htmlepessoas.com/ Many thanks to @victorhck@mastodon.social and @pablo@murad.social for their work translating and hosting the other versions!

HTML for People

htmlforpeople.com

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.

198

0

189

0

· 1w ago

Boosted by @neatnik@social.lol

One of my favorite things is when someone becomes obsessed with a craft, no matter how trivial, and makes it their Thing™. This guy was one of those people. https://blakewatson.com/journal/polyhedral-dice-showmanship-and-loss/

Polyhedral dice, showmanship, and loss - blakewatson.com

blakewatson.com

Polyhedral dice, showmanship, and loss - blakewatson.com

I got a little nostalgic and wistful thinking about a small dice manufacturing company and the mythical man who started it.

3

0

1

0

· 5mo ago

When I wrote HTML for People, I envisioned non-tech people learning it because knowing HTML is a generally useful skill in information work. But AI kinda ruins that. Fewer non-tech people want to learn HTML. But it seems to have found a niche audience among people who still want to learn HTML despite having access to AI. That makes me feel better about it. I’m glad I wrote it when I did because I’m not sure I could have stayed motivated to write it in 2026 with the proliferation of AI options—whether for writing HTML or for learning it. https://htmlforpeople.com

HTML for People

htmlforpeople.com

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.

688

33

464

0

· 2w ago

Boosted by @neatnik@social.lol

The absolute worst use of AI imagery I've seen is restaurants using it for pictures of their food. Show me a real picture of your food, or don't show anything, please.

8

0

3

0

· 1w ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol What’s the HTTP status code for bye felicia?

2

1

0

0

· 2mo ago

I appreciate more and more that my otherwise incredibly dumb self in 2005 decided to get a domain name and start hosting a personal website. Every time a platform rises and falls, this becomes a better decision. If you are on the fence about getting a domain name and creating a personal website, just do it! If you think for some reason that it's too late, it's not. I always think about what @chriscoyier@front-end.social said about starting the CSS-Tricks blog back in the day. I once had an idea to start a blog about CSS. I sucked at writing. I sucked at designing. The vibe at the time was that everything important about CSS had already been written. Nobody told me. Even me quoting this after all these years is possible because he put it on his personal website! https://chriscoyier.net/2013/10/18/mediocre-ideas-showing-up-and-persistence/

chriscoyier.net

37

2

16

0

· 2w ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol Love this guy's elephant videos.

1

0

0

0

· 2mo ago

Boosted by @neatnik@social.lol

I blogged about the SLAP stack (SQLite, Linux, Apache, PHP) and about my first time setting up a VPS. https://blakewatson.com/journal/the-slap-stack-is-the-last-server-stack-youll-ever-need/

blakewatson.com

15

0

6

0

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol not only that but, inexplicably, you can host a static website with them! https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000280141-How-to-set-up-a-website

8

2

1

0

· 2mo ago

RE: @bw@social.lol

SLAP stack blog post in progress...

8

0

0

0

· 1mo ago

Boosted by @neatnik@social.lol

Really enjoyed this guide by @neatnik@social.lol about making a website on the cheap where you are 100% in control. https://blakewatson.com/links/2026-08-23-hardcore-indieweb-run-your-own-website/

blakewatson.com

2

0

2

0

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol @justincox@social.lol Yeah I think the policy should be limited to 100% (or 90+?) genAI output. I'm sure opinions will be all over the place, but to me it's a bit burdensome and maybe even a bit icky to require someone to label content that may have used AI secondarily or tertiarily (this may not be a word, but I want it to be) upstream of the output. It's like, if I share a website I've made and I was using the Copilot auto-complete feature to help me code in VS Code, do I have to label my post with a hashtag? On the other hand, if what someone is sharing is essentially just output from an LLM, whether words or pictures or music, I think a hashtag policy is fair enough. (I probably need to blog about this but there's something that rubs me the wrong way with AI-shaming and I think it has to do with turning the focus on each other instead of the huge companies that make all this stuff and make all the decisions. It's like if someone uses a smartphone that's got cobalt in it—or has any cheap clothing bought at any large chain store—or uses gasoline—etc etc—I kind of don't want to hear them complain if I used some AI assists somewhere. We're kind of all part of the problem. The entire mass production economy has ethical dilemmas, but we're not ostracizing anyone and everyone who participates in it even a little bit. This opinion is still a work in progress lol)

4

1

0

0

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol you know what, I was worried you'd just increase a little to cover costs. This announcement reads like a renewed vigor for the service and I'm totally here for it! Easy for me to say since I can pay it, but I will continue to be a sponsor as long as I'm able to afford it.

6

0

0

0

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@heydon@front-end.social @neatnik@social.lol mind blown

2

1

0

0

· 2mo ago

Anyone have a recommended CMS that works with static site generators?

I know Build Awesome is coming and I know a little about CloudCannon and Contentful. Anything else?

For my personal sites, I just use markdown files, but if I were setting up a website for a business, I'm curious what my options are.

3

3

1

0

· 1mo ago

Replying to on social.lol

@neatnik@social.lol the problem this has caused is that every time someone mentions they're releasing an app, I wonder if it's just another vibe-coded app (of course I'm saying this as someone who vibe-coded an app once haha but you know). Somewhat related, an annoying side effect of the vibe-coded world we live in is that apps are asking to update like every day. I need to try to take stock and see which things I can drop. I would love to be able to drop VS Code, but that's one that I'm stuck on for both work and accessibility reasons. I still have a Nova subscription from like the launch date because I don't want it going anywhere. 😂

1

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Sometime within the last couple of years or so, I became totally burnt out (heh) on cool colors. I've started using color schemes and themes (in different apps that support them) that employ warm, earthy colors instead.

I recently found this one and one of the things I like about its theme for VS Codeht variant does as well, ensuring that all text meets WCAG AAA contrast standards.

It's rare to find a good light theme with solid contrast. Even more so to find a good one paired with a good dark one as well. I haven't been tempted to override any of the colors yet, which is saying something.

https://warmburnout.com/

10

16

2

1

· 5mo ago

If you are skilled with Python and Go and want to work on projects for NASA, we've got some openings at MRI.

https://mricompany.applicantpro.com/jobs/4055316

Check the full list of openings for security and cloud operations.

#FediHire #Jobs

mricompany.applicantpro.com

11

0

15

0

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@stefan@stefanbohacek.online So cool. Every time I think about the Voyager probes, it blows my mind.

2

1

0

0

· 5mo ago

Showing all opened windows on macOS will always be "Exposé" to me.

6

0

0

0

· 6mo ago

You face an undead wizard? I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a lich ain't one.

9

0

4

0

· 11mo ago

I gave a talk at MagnoliaConf in Jackson, MS today about how I am sick of frontend build steps (and what to do instead). I'm probably going to turn it into a three-part blog series. But for now I do have my talk in text form. https://blakewatson.com/magnolia2025

blakewatson.com

21

6

7

0

· 5mo ago

I know someone who is interested in making apps. Right now, she only has experience with a service that essentially uses AI to build an app for you. She's planning on finishing college, but she's looking for resources right now to help her go beyond this vibe-apping.

She has an interest in UI, how apps work, and seems to have a good eye for when they are nice and smooth vs janky. She's not sure at the moment if she's interested more in code or design or project management. So I'm trying to think of resources I can send her to give her a taste of everything.

I think she has an admirable amount of hustle, but really just doesn't know where to start.

All of that said, does anyone have any recommendations of things I can send her? What I've got so far is Khan Academy's Hour of Code and FreeCodeCamp's responsive web design course.

4

6

11

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@csilverman yeah, this is another good one and I used it for a while as well in VS Code. There is a really nice Obsidian theme called Baseline, which has a nice Flexoki variant. https://github.com/aaaaalexis/obsidian-baseline

GitHub - aaaaalexis/obsidian-baseline: A foundational Obsidian theme ― The baseline of your thoughts.

A foundational Obsidian theme ― The baseline of your thoughts. - aaaaalexis/obsidian-baseline

3

9

0

0

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@shac @netopwibby Apply ice to (sick) burn.

9

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@stefan Thanks a lot! I love your stuff as well. A lot of great resources and links to webby goodness.

2

1

0

0

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@MASTERBOOTRECORD @sysop wat did I just discover :-O

2

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@csilverman the metadata at the bottom is just a long-standing pattern that I've been doing for over a decade, regardless of which notetaking app I'm using at the time. Previously, I created it with a TextExpander snippet, but with Obsidian, I'm using a template to auto-generate it. The date and time is a little redundant because the template also adds created and modified fields in properties. But I've been doing it so long that I just keep doing it. If I were redoing it now, I'd probably put the tags at the top of the file instead of the bottom, but that ship has sailed lol. I'm using a community plugin called Calendar. Makes it easy to create daily notes on any day. I may have gone a little overboard with plugins (I should do the obligatory My Obsidian Setup blog post), but I'm not reliant on most of them. And then to top off all of this glorious nerdery, I have a CLI program that I made that lets me publish any note to my web server as a basic HTML page styled with Water.css. It doesn't happen often, but every now and then there will be something I want to share. Example: https://blakewatson.com/notes/951626b6/

blakewatson.com

Container queries

1

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@csilverman Nice, that font is beautiful! I'm using the Baseline theme these days. In dark mode it's the Flexoki variant and in light mode it's the Notion variant. I have a little bit of CSS to make headings smaller. The font is Die Grotesk from Klim Type Foundry.

1

2

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@spartanatreyu Yeah, gruvbox is a great theme. I've been using it a lot as well. You are probably right when it comes to the differences in colors. I was looking for something with less color variety, so it doesn't bother me, but I do take the point.

1

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@csilverman I'm really curious what your theme looks like. No pressure to reveal it though. :-)

1

7

0

0

· 5mo ago

I switched over to Numbers Creator Studio. It wrecked the alignment of a bunch of my tables in a file I've been using for years. I tried to fix it, but I finally got frustrated and moved it over to a Google Sheet. SAD!

I would love to just manage it as a CSV file, but I have a few niceties baked in that require a real spreadsheet app.

1

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@puppyfag Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions.

1

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@kjv i'm not aware of one, but I imagine there are some pretty good ones out there. HTML for People does have a bonus chapter called CSS Basics you can check out. https://htmlforpeople.com/css-basics/

CSS Basics

htmlforpeople.com

CSS Basics

Learn how to design a nice, clean webpage from scratch by writing your own CSS.

1

1

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@brennan that's great to hear. Thanks a lot, Brennan!

1

0

0

0

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@adactio I just came across an app inspired by Quicksilver this past weekend. https://tunaformac.com/

1

0

0

0

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@jasonsantamaria @adactio Yeah, I just bookmarked a handful of things. Some really neat tools mentioned in that post. Appreciate it!

1

0

0

0

· 11mo ago

Replying to

@Lowrain @mb21 One of the talks at the conference was totally D&D themed and it was great.

2

0

0

0

· 24mo ago

Replying to

@gharbeia@mastodon.social Here are a bunch of alternatives https://jamstack.org/generators/

Static Site Generators - Top Open Source SSGs | Jamstack

Static Site Generators - Top Open Source SSGs | Jamstack

Check out this showcase of some of the best, open source static site generators. This is community-drive so be sure to submit your favorite today!

1

1

0

0

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol Yeah same re: interest in software. And I used to be very interested in new apps so that’s a real bummer. Not sure if I'm ready to give up GUIs and go to the command line, but I can see the appeal.

0

0

0

0

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@ellane@pkm.social Very cool! Do you think you would still use this system if you didn't have Obsidian?

0

0

0

0

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol Nice! I didn’t know you were an NFSN fan. Also, thanks for the HTML for People shoutout!

0

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@kraft Wow, what a jump. I've been using a folder of files strategy where I'm able to use both Obsidian and iA Writer, but I don't use it for keeping scans, although I do need something for that. I previously used DEVONthink for this, but I found it a bit overwhelming for my taste. https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink

DEVONtechnologies

DEVONtechnologies | DEVONthink

DEVONthink is an application for professional document and information management on Mac and iOS.

0

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@hejchristian I will say it looks like the Obsidian theme hasn't yet been added to the directory. Looks like there's a pull request from a month ago.

0

0

0

0

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@keydelk@fosstodon.org Thanks Keith, that's awesome!

0

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@kf7ccc Nice! Yeah a simple static site is underrated for sure.

0

0

0

0

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@neatnik@social.lol @justincox@social.lol for what it's worth, I admire and appreciate that you are having this discussion in the open, rathrn than just announcing a policy. I'm also confident that whatever you choose to do will be well thought out and respectful and inclusive to everyone. You won't be able to please everyone. But I will do my best to comply with whatever you decide to do. I'm not going anywhere!

0

0

0

0

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@amber@front-end.social Hey @mhilltopple@mastodon.social someone feels your pain.:-P

0

1

0

0

· 24mo ago

Replying to

@crocodisle@woof.tech I *think* I fixed that. Give it a hard refresh.

0

0

0

0

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@eric The hook brings you back. I ain't telling you no lie.

0

0

0

0