Blake Watson
Blake Watson — Software engineer and side-project enthusiast
Software engineer on web development, accessibility, game dev, and 20 years of personal blogging.
blakewatson.comI found it relaxing and freeing — the writing didn't have to be great because it's a game and it's for myself.
Twenty years of personal blogging from a software engineer who writes about whatever catches his attention — CSS deep-dives, indie typography, solo tabletop RPGs, and the joy of tinkering with software. Blake's writing is warm and approachable, the kind of blog where you come for a CSS tutorial and stay for a thoughtful post about note-taking workflows.
Written by Blake Watson since 2005.
Regular
Publishes weekly or bi-weekly
3
Independent Blog
English
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Recent posts from Blake Watson's RSS feed.
I used Claude Code and GSD to build the accessibility tool I’ve always wanted
Because of a severe mobility impairment—spinal muscular atrophy—I use a Mac for almost everything I do, and I have a particularly unique way of interacting with it. One of my biggest challenges—aside from typing—is the rather mundane act of scrolling. I’m unable to manipulate a scroll wheel or perform a swiping gesture. That means the usual methods for scrolling on a mouse or trackpad are out. The method I do use is probably something you haven’t thought about in a long time—I click on and drag...
New: link blog and RSS feeds
A bit of website housekeeping. I’m constantly finding cool things on the web. Usually I end up sharing them with different group chats or via direct messages. But I figured I’d start off the new year by finally adding a link blog to my website—something I’ve been itching to do for a while. RSS feeds I started by publishing my link posts on my main feed, but I think that is a bit noisy. So I’ve reverted the main feed back to journal posts only. Links have their own feed and if you really want to...
Default apps, 2026
I first published this list after seeing a similar post by Robb Knight (2023, 2026) and many others. For each category, I’m listing the app I’m using now, plus my response in 2023 for comparison. Mail Client 2026: Fastmail.app 2023: Mail.app Mail Server 2026: Fastmail 2023: Pobox (Pobox has been owned by Fastmail for a while; they eventually discontinued it and migrated all the accounts to Fastmail proper.) Notes 2026: Obsidian, iA Writer 2023: Bear, Tot, Bike, iA Writer To-Do 2026: T...
I tried solo RPG with Ironsworn: Starforged
You may already know about tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) like D&D. They typically have a lot of rules and mechanics and one player serves as the game master, adjudicating these rules as the players describe their actions and roll dice for their various abilities. Solo RPG is when you play games like this by yourself instead of in a group. This sounded kind of depressing to me when I first heard about it. But there are a lot of reasons for wanting to do this, not the least of which bec...
2025: my year in review
I always feel like I didn’t accomplish much during the year until I start looking at my notes and commit history. Then I find myself pleasantly surprised. I’m eternally intertwined in a battle against routine. I need it—routine—but as the years fly past me, I feel an urgent need to break up the monotony. I want to slow time down. I tried to embrace some spontaneity this year. I managed to push myself out of my comfort zone on several occasions. It didn’t slow time, unfortunately, but I’m still g...
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A personal blog in the best sense of the word — genuine curiosity, no algorithm chasing, and the kind of writing that reminds you why the indie web matters.