Projects
One of the best parts of being a web developer is working on side projects. On this page, you will find the projects of mine which have seen the the light of day (unfortunately, my list of failed or abandoned projects is much, much bigger). These projects represent hundreds of hours of work, much of which is given away for free. If you like these projects and want to see them keep going, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee on Ko-fi. It’s much appreciated.
A Fine Start
The minimal new tab page you’ll actually use
Born out of an assistive tech tool I made for myself, A Fine Start turns your browser’s new tab page into a classy list of links that you can group and sort however you like. No obnoxious screenshots or other cruft. You can use it for free—all your bookmarks are saved in your browser. If you want to have an account that syncs your bookmarks between different browsers and devices, you can get Premium for $5 a month.
HTML for People
Beginner-friendly guide to making a website with HTML.
HTML isn’t only for people working in the tech field. It’s for anybody, the way documents are for anybody. HTML is just another type of document. A very special one—the one the web is built on.
I’ve been building websites since the early 2000s. Though I work professionally in the field, I feel strongly that anyone should be able to make a website with HTML if they want. This book will teach you how to do just that. It doesn’t require any previous experience making websites or coding. I will cover everything you need to know to get started in an approachable and friendly way.
synthwave.live
The best synthwave mixes, updated weekly
In 2019 I discovered the synthwave music genre (I know, I’m late). I’ve become increasingly obsessed with it; specifically mixes on YouTube where channel owners curate tracks from SoundCloud and Bandcamp. I created this site to get a bunch of these mixes in one place and to add some music-focused features. Check it out, give it a listen, and get an account if you want to keep track of your favorite videos—it’s totally free.
d20
RPG dice roller for Mac (and web)
I’m a D&D player and oftentimes game master and I rely on my Mac for doing things I can’t physically do (like roll dice). There was a distinct lack of good dice rollers on the Mac App Store, so I decided to make one. d20 is now in version 3 and includes the ability make complex dice rolls, as well as save them as presets. And it does it all while looking clean and modern. Version 1 of the app lives on as a free web app.
Minimal Character Sheet
For D&D 5e
https://minimalcharactersheet.com/
Another tool I made because I needed it. There are a lot of options out there for character sheets. Personally, I’d just as soon use paper. But because of my disability, that’s not really an option. There are form-fillable PDFs, but they are clunky and don’t provide enough space. There are digital character sheets but many of them enforce strict rules that limit what you can write on your sheet. Minimal Character Sheet combines the flexibility of paper with just enough automation to handle the more tedious parts of managing a character sheet. And, oh yeah, it’s totally free. 😄
Initiative Tracker
A tool for gamemasters
https://blakewatson.com/initiative/
This one does what it says on the tin—it helps game masters track initiative during encounters. You just add all the characters involved, give each one an initiative value and hit “Sort.” You can still manually adjust the order if needed. And it includes a mini dice roller for any quick rolls you might need to make (and it’s integrated with RANDOM.ORG for true randomness based on atmospheric noise). Also free!