How to get a free city.state.us domain for side projects (opens in new tab)

So you've got a side project. Maybe it's a personal homepage, maybe it's a hobby API, maybe it's the third iteration of your "this time I'll finish it" todo app. You need a domain. You hit the registrar, pick something reasonable, and... $12. Per year. For a project that might get five visits, all from you. I've been there. After racking up something like 14 domains over the years (most for projects I never shipped), I started hunting for alternatives. Free TLDs like .tk and .ml are dead — Fr...