helpful internet links
| Internet Archive | Very cool non-profit library of free texts, movies, software, music, website, and more. |
| MyAbandonware | Download old video games for free. |
| Notion | Free workspace tool with a bit of everything; tasks, calendars, notes, etc. The world is your oyster! I use its tables to catalogue my collections and track to-dos. |
| uBlock Origin | For Firefox (the best browser!) Must-have. If you don’t have any other extensions, get this one. Block trackers, coin miners, popups, and never see an ad again (good for your sanity, great for your PC’s health). Plus, custom element blocking, which is basically a free ticket to paylocked news articles. |
| W3 Schools | Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript (or any number of other web programming languages). Where I learned HTML/CSS; and where I still go for reference. |
art resources
| Butkus.org | Have a vintage camera you have no clue how to use, or just need to reference a manual? This man is doing God’s work. Find any manual you need in this camera manual library. (or, search your camera name + ‘Butkus’ on Google. Ex., “Minolta SRT101 Butkus”) |
| Camera-Wiki.org | Handy wiki for cameras; great for helping you identify your camera, determine year made, and see common problems. |
| Flickr Commons | Collection of global, historical photography and print media scans. Provided to the public domain by cultural institutions like museums and libraries. Use for free, with no copyright restrictions. Great for collages or for design reference! |
| The Language of Flowers | A reference ebook for the art of communicating secret messages through flower arrangement. Though practiced by cultures all of the world, this ebook is specifically adapted from an original published in Victorian England. |
| Museo.app | A visual search engine for the archives of several, globally-renowned art museums. Usually free to use (but check with the museum for specifics). |
| Old Book Illustrations | A massive, visual catalogue of (lovingly restored) pre-20th century book illustrations. |
| Salvaged.nu | A site that recovers, repairs, and reuploads Photoshop resources from lost personal blogs of the mid-2000s. Brushes, textures, actions, etc. |
| The Spriter's Resource | A library of pixel art sprites from video games: arcade, PC, GBA, PS2, Switch, etc. |
artists I love
Work in progress! Nothing here yet.
design resources
| Coolors | Generate, make, and explore user-generated color palettes. |
| Degraeve | Get a color palette from a photo. |
| Google Fonts | Free, open source font library for download or web use. |
| Google Material Icons | A library of modifiable, free, open source icons. Also with a Figma plugin! |
| The Noun Project | If you can’t find what you’re looking for in Google’s Material Icons, try The Noun Project. Free (with attribution) library of community-created iconography. |
| Unsplash | Free, high-res photos and illustrations from contributors. |
| Whimsical | Lay down the blueprint for a screen before you design it. Free wireframing tool to begin visualizing a layout or userflow (also handy for flowcharts & mind maps). |
| Feminist Design Archive | An open-source, community-generated digital archive of work from feminist designers from around the globe. |
| Letterform Archive | A nonprofit archive (digital and physical in San Fran, CA!) dedicated to sharing lettering, typography, calligraphy, and graphic design from around the world and throughout history. |
| The People's Graphic Design Archive | A crowd-sourced virtual archive with the goal to expand, diversify, and preserve graphic graphic design history. |
recommended listening
| 99% Invisible (Podcast) | A podcast about the (oftentimes unnoticed) design and architecture that shapes our daily lives. |
| Shadowatnoon (Music) | I love listening to video game music while doing work: it’s designed to carry you through a task! This is a playlist of curated Nintendo (and others) game music compilations to get shit done to. |
| Spooked (Podcast) | Firsthand paranormal happenings as told by the people who experienced it. |
tasty food
| Budget Bytes | Recipes made with cost in mind; every recipe also lists the cost of each ingredient. Mostly hits, a few misses. |
| Just One Cookbook | Authentic and modern Japanese home cooking. The chicken curry is my favorite cozy winter dinner. |
| RecipeTin Eats | My favorite recipe blog ever. Has a toggle that will specifically show quick & easy recipes. The no-stir creamy lemon & herb baked risotto is amazing. I’ve never made a recipe from here that turned out bad. |
| Sally's Baking Recipes | My go-to for any baking recipe. Highly recommend the chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodle cake. I learned to make macarons from here! |
| Easy Overnight Focaccia | Tasty, tasty bread. Quick and incredibly easy. Add the rosemary, too. |
miscellania, cool stuff
| Behind the Name | Database of thousands of first names from around the globe, with etymological and statistical info. Also has sub-sites for the etymology of surnames and place names. |
| Find A Grave | Cemetery records from around the globe; helping people find, record, and present information of their loved ones. Incredibly touching: people share biographies, photographs, family information, and memories. Visitors can also leave virtual flowers on memorials they visit. Many users also make effort to map local, forgotten cemeteries and restore and document graves. |
| (we)bsite | Internet dreams: what does it mean to leave our presence on the websites we visit? (Read a letter, write a letter.) |