desk

there's an old, worn desk in the library with a ton of reference papers on it.
you rifle through them to see if there's anything helpful or noteworthy.

the og

internet archive

repositories for old games

flashmuseum - flash games
legendsworld - old PC adventure games
old games download - abandonware. the sims 2 is on here!
vimm's lair - old console games
bbc micro games archive

music discovery

boilthefrog - create a playlist that somewhat seamlessly blends two artists' styles together
music map - type in an artist and it will give you a visualization of how similar they are to other artists
spotalike - choose a song and create a spotify playlist that provides you with similar tracks
magicplaylist - create a playlist based on a song
dubolt - create a playlist based on an artist/musician
predominant - see albums based on the cover art's most predominant colors

pose references for artists

x6udpngx's pose search - provides a skeleton that you can pose - and the program will in turn give you photos that closely match it
adorkastock (fka senshistock) - stock images intended for artistic reference
line of action - i mostly use this site for figure drawing. provides animal, hands + feet, facial expression, still life, and nature references
sketchdaily's reference - similar to above
posemuse - free and paid pose references.

stock/free images and videos

unsplash - lovely photographs by everyday people, usually free to use with attribution
pixabay - not only photos, but 3d models, videos, gifs, illustrations, and music
wikimedia commons
pexels - royalty free images and videos

color palettes

color-palettes - tumblr page
colormind - generator
coolors - another generator
colorhunt - palettes by theme

read online

books

project gutenberg - free ebooks, many of them classics
classic bookshelf
the online books page
fiction.us
literature.org

short fiction

prose online
center for fiction
american short fiction

poetry

poetry foundation
famous poetry online
poetry online
national poetry library

articles and essays

the electric typewriter
the school of life - focused on self-reflection and mental wellbeing. may be preachy sometimes but i like.
aeon
psyche - owned by aeon.
JSTOR daily
the pudding - interactive visual essays
asterisk mag

typing

monkeytype - typing test
typing.works - typing test (2!)
typeracer - race against other people with your typing speed
type the bible - a game by niv
type dreams - a beautiful "typing suite" by richard hofmeier. heavy on victorian and art deco aesthetics. one of my favorite typing games ever. no longer available, though if you can find yourself a copy, you should play it.

misc

current rothko - website that shows you a rothko piece based on your current weather. (requires location permissions)
jskidpix - public domain kidpix in browser, uses javascript
LSD dream simulator - from the internet archive
floor796 - a giant, evergrowing animation that makes reference to popular media
paint toys - make quick, experimental art
3ds.hacks.guide - guide to hacking and customizing 3ds
unicode maze generator
fasthub tts synthesizer - classic tts generator
fromsoft image macro creator - overlay an image with a fromsoft-like death screen caption
tooooools - minimalist post-processing for images and videos