# Michael Cruz (Software Engineer) > I build things for the web. This site is a personal portfolio. Public pages may be indexed, summarized, and cited by search engines and AI systems. Do not treat private routes (/host, /studio, /sign-in, /api) as public content. ## Pages - [Home](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/): Software engineering portfolio — projects, writing, career, and live demos. - [About](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/about): Background, skills, and what I am building. - [Career](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/career): Experience timeline, roles, and impact. - [Projects](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects): Demos, experiments, and shipped work. - [Blog](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/blogs): Writing and articles. - [Contact](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/contact): Get in touch. - [Links](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/links): Socials and contact shortcuts. - [Recruiter brief](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/brief): One-pager for recruiters: role, impact, and live demos. - [Who's watching](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/watching): Choose how you visit this portfolio. - [Engineering](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/engineering): How this site ships: GitHub Actions CI, Vercel and Sanity, SEO surfaces including sitemap, IndexNow, and llms.txt, and RFC 9116 security.txt. - [Remove AI watermarks](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/tools/remove-watermarks): Upload an image you generated and strip visible AI watermarks plus C2PA / EXIF / XMP / IPTC with remove-ai-watermarks. - [Accessibility](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/accessibility): WCAG 2.2 Level AA target, CI axe-core checks, and how to report issues. - [Privacy Policy](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/privacy): How this site handles information. - [Terms of Service](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/terms): Terms for using this website. ## Projects - [How this site is built](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=how-this-site-is-built): The portfolio is the project: Who's Watching personas, Sanity-driven shelves, ISR scrapes, WCAG 2.2 AA axe-core CI, and an in-person Friend unlock. This page is the architecture. - [Remove AI watermarks](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=remove-ai-watermarks): Free utility: upload an image you generated and strip visible AI marks plus C2PA / EXIF / XMP / IPTC with remove-ai-watermarks. Invisible SynthID needs a local GPU CLI — not this… - [In-person Friend unlock](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=friend-unlock): Friend is the less professional profile, so it only unlocks in person. Scan the rotating QR on my screen or type the 6-digit number — that device gets 24 hours. - [Barva Overlay](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=barva-overlay): Strava energy, zero cardio. Dial in a night out and download a transparent Stories PNG — drinks, pace, “elevation,” and a fake bar-crawl route. - [WholesomeChat](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=wholesomechat): A self-moderating AI chat system This system is able to automatically detect the sentiment of a user's given chat and automatically score it. It is able to assist moderators by… - [Tailwind Snowflake Generator](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=tailwind-snowflake-generator): Tis' the season, or at least it was at the time of writing. A case study in Tailwind CSS. Dynamically creates random snowflake patterns in real-time using a bit of React and CSS… - [Agreement Maker](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=agreement-maker): A dynamic framework for filling, validating, and securely selling PDFs—built to turn static documents into interactive, encrypted, and monetizable experiences. Plug in your… - [Interactive Minecraft Recipe Visualizer](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=interactive-minecraft-recipe-visualizer): A data-intensive project to map a 3D graph of which items are the most frequently used in a recipe in relation to each other. This example is using the Vanilla set of Minecraft… - [Resn Flowers](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/projects?project=resn-flowers): Resn Flower is a Next.js site built with TypeScript, Sanity CMS, and Tailwind CSS. It features server-side rendering, optimized image delivery, and incremental static… ## Blog - [Identity and Roles](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/blogs/identity-and-roles): A response to “Learning to Trust Yourself Again” In Learning to Trust Yourself Again, Sunjay Chopra describes uncertainty like being in a boat in the middle of a lake at night: unsure which direction leads to shore… - [AI Is A Reflection of Us](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/blogs/ai-is-a-reflection-of-us): AI Is a Reflection of Us Recently I read an essay by Dan Luu titled “Why It’s Impossible to Agree on What’s Allowed.” The article walks through a simple thought experiment: Imagine a park with one rule: “No vehicles… - [Don’t Try to Be Someone Else](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/blogs/don-t-try-to-be-someone-else): Every so often someone asks me: “How do I become a software engineer?” or “How do I get to where you are?” It’s usually followed by questions about what languages to learn, what bootcamp to attend, or what framework is… ## About Hi, I’m Michael — I design and build for the web. It all started back in 2008, tweaking game mechanics on ROBLOX. What began as a creative experiment turned into a deep passion for building digital experiences. Since then, I’ve engineered software for a startup, the U.S. Navy, and a global tech giant. These days, I focus on crafting accessible, inclusive, and user-first web products — most recently at Disney. ## Files - [Sitemap](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/sitemap.xml): all indexable URLs - [RSS](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/feed.xml): blog feed - [llms.txt](https://www.heyitsmicc.com/llms.txt): this overview