Just wanted to create this topic here for anyone to leave recommendations for anything — books, tech, games, food, gadgets, sites, whatever strikes your fancy.
I’ll throw out the first recommendation — Jitsi, a free & open source video conferencing platform. You can use it to create your own channel. I was able to create a channel quickly & have a 3 hour conversation with 6 other friends over the weekend. Just what I need in times like these!
I love this thread! 
I will go with one of my favourite books:
Flowers for Algernon
The 1966 novel by Daniel Keyes
This is a sci-fi story in which the main character, Charlie, is a man with a very low IQ and gets signed up for experimental surgery (previously tested on a mouse) that would improve his intelligence.
The book is very touching and the themes are the value we place on beings based on their intelligence, the way the mentally disabled are treated, and the impact on happiness of the conflict between intellect and emotion.
Thanks for the recommendation! I remember reading an excerpt out of Folower for Algernon for middle school English class — it’d probably make more of an impression on me now than when I was younger.
Speaking of books to get lost in, I have a comic book series — The Sandman. As someone who usually isn’t into comics, it’s one of the only series where I bought/read all the volumes. It’s such an awesome story & universe to get lost in. A healthy sort of escapism reading for these times!
I don’t think Algernon is the type of book that can be fully appreciated by reading excerpts.
Also, I have a theory that school just makes you hate anything they have you read… I was always an avid reader, yet most books I had to read for school I only liked after I re-read them by myself.
Flowers for Algernon sounds like a very interesting book. I’m adding it to my “to-read” list.
A friend recommended me an awesome for digital hangouts — Kosmi. The crazy part is that you can do video & voice chat while playing Youtube videos, SNES/NES emulators, card games, & even Quake 3, all within a web browser!
Privacy friendly software alternatives lists:
)I also have a source for alternative software. 
You can search for alternatives and filter by platform and type of license. I also find comments very useful to figure out if something will indeed work for me.
Some more reading tips:
Origins (how the earth shaped human history) by Lewis Dartnell. A very interesting book that literally puts humans in perspective.
Also, this might not come a s a surprise, I would recommend basically all of Yuval Noah Harari’s writing. But… start with Sapiens.
For lighter but also very recommendable reading: Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. (But yes: all his books are simply great.)
https://patrickness.com/books/
eInk typewriter: Freewrite is an all in one e-ink screen digital typewriter with mechanical keyboard. I have been writing first drafts pencil to paper, but struggling to get them typed in, so tried this. So far, I’ve been amazed by how much like writing pencil to paper it is compared to even my Qwerky keyboard with my iPhone’s small screen dimmed way down. If you write a lot, this is a great tool. If you don’t, it’s unnecessary. https://getfreewrite.com/
a few more:
I’m currently reading the book Cultural Amnesia by Clive James where he literally goes through history talking about multiple historical figures. It’s a real tour de force
Sandman is fantastic!
Currently reading Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol which I highly recommend.
A bit different, but I wanted to recommend the kakeibo method for managing finances.
I was horrible at this stuff, but this system taught me to actually track my expenses and be mindful with money.
There are notebooks you can buy every year, non-dated notebooks, apps and printouts, even free: as this is a technique, it is not a product.
Personally, I buy the yearly notebooks (they don’t cost much) as working with a pen and paper helps me focus a bit more on what I am actually writing: with files online, numbers are just numbers and they tend to lose their meaning for me. It is easier for my brain to process that the number I am writing is money I spent if I do it with pen and paper.
Nice! I enjoyed his take on Batman with Arkham Asylum. Never heard of Doom Patrol before but I’ll have to check it out — looks awesome. Thanks @veyne!
Thanks for sharing this @Melyanna! We currently use an app for finances but I love the idea of this method & writing things down with pen & paper. I think I tried doing that a couple times to no avail. Maybe I needed something like the kakeibo method to help!
The first time I tried it I lost interest and stopped updating it, because the set up is somewhat tricky - not complicated, but you have to get into the right mind-set.
Once you get into the habit though it only takes a few minutes of your time, and it’s definitely worth the trouble.