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Cool tools really work.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
Digital hygrometer. Turns out my comfort’s much more about humidity than temperature. I plug this into a custom-made calculator that calculates my microlocal dew point and then where that falls on dew-point comfort charts.
Fidget slider. It feels remarkably well-engineered and solid for a $10 purchase, and helps me when I need to surreptitiously get some nervous energy out of my system.
These might as well be called “ear canal scratchers.” Q-Tips will tell you they’re not to be put in your ear. I’ve never found something that so satisfyingly scratches the itches that occasionally develop inside my ear canal. (Neither me nor WIMN are responsible if you push yours too far! Take caution!)
DIGITAL
Inoreader is an excellent RSS reader, but does a lot more. It lets me monitor YouTube, non-RSS pages, and a lot more. The user interface is extremely intelligent, and it’s very well-featured. The only criticism I have, and it’s a significant one, is that if you have a suggestion for them, you might as well drop it into the Darvanza gas crater for all it’s worth - they proceed on their own plan and timetable.
Tetr.io is a fantastic tetronimo game with multiple modes. I have been diagnosed with CPTSD, and even if you don’t have a formal diagnosis, nowadays we are all dealing with stress that’s been quadrupled in amount. Studies show that visuospatial interference tasks (like playing a tetronimo game) can help with trauma and stress - and I find playing it when I am stressed, or have had a real bad day, a great way to help towards resetting my brain.
INVISIBLE
“This too shall pass.”
Originally from an English translation of a 19th century Persian poem. It does the dual duty of giving you inspiration to truly be in, and enjoy, the good moments, for they are not forever; and letting you know that although these bad moments feel like they will stretch out into eternity, they are impermanent, and an end will come to them as well.
