Wishing all my Fediverse peeps a happy new year. https://blakewatson.com/journal/2025-my-year-in-review/
2025: my year in review
Cliche end of the year post. But I included some pictures this time.
Personal website of Blake Watson Online since 2005
I’m a software engineer, side-project enthusiast, hobbyist game developer, sometimes writer, and full-time wheelchair user.
Journal
I ranted about frontend build steps at MagnoliaConf 2025
Why I told a room full of people to delete Vite and Webpack.
NaNoWriMo is dead, long live NaNoWriMo!
Reflections on the yearly writing challenge that inspired me to write my first novel—and the nonprofit’s tragic end.
Understanding, not slop, is what’s interesting about LLMs
LLMs don't actually understand us. But, maybe a facsimile of understanding is good enough to make computers easier for everyone.
I changed my fonts after six years of using Cloud.typography
This is the story of how the dreaded flash of unstyled text drove me to purchase some new fonts.
blakewatson.com turns 20
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.
Your freeform digital character sheet for D&D 5e
Six years after launching it, I introduce Minimal Character Sheet and its features.
Microblog
I've been using this icon for over a year and honestly I need Momo icons for all my apps now.
https://socel.net/@heyheymomo/115690508085071064
When it comes to website backends for personal projects, I try to use just enough to get the job done. That's historically been PHP and Fat-Free Framework. But now I'm giving Flight PHP a spin.
I've also used Express/ Node and Cloudflare Workers/Hono.
I'm lazy and I don't want a maintenance burden. So I find that PHP is nice most of the time, as it can run pretty much anywhere super easily.