Here are a few quotes that keep kicking me. — KK

“If you’re not ready to find exceptional things, you won’t discover them.” — Avi Loeb

“I don’t explain — I explore.” — Marshall McLuhan

“Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” — Sigmund Freud

“The genius is the one most like himself.” — Thelonious Monk

“There is only one difference between a madman and me. I am not mad.” —Salvador Dali

I bought these dark chocolate bars for my wife as a Christmas present, and now we’re hopelessly hooked. They’re a bit like peanut butter cups, but in bar form, and less sweet. A 4-pack runs $25, but if you order them via Amazon subscribe and save, it’ll cost you $21.25. — MF

I like using Google Calendar’s “month view” to plan my life, and I realized it would be helpful if I could see a weather forecast while I’m scheduling hikes and social outings. The easiest way I found to add a weather calendar was here. Now I have a two-week forecast always visible. — C

In Russian Doll, a video game programmer finds herself in an endless loop of dying and repeating the same day. Each reboot requires her to dig deeper into her own existence, relationships, and trauma to figure out the purpose of the paranormal glitch and try to fix it. It is Groundhog Day meets Twilight Zone meets a life coaching session from hell. It’s great — I finished it in two days. — CD

I am not into management or business books, but this one is an exception: Brave New Work. It’s an intelligent and readable summary of the best practices (so far) in remaking what we used to call “work.” Aaron Dignan evaluates all the crazy ideas (open books, no bosses, etc.) to see which ones are effective in creating organizations that get us to do our best. He distills practical advice, too. — KK

In addition to Recomendo, I also write a newsletter for Institute for the Future, called “News from the Future.” It comes out twice a week and each issue has four or five short news items that are signals of possible futures that await us. Subscribe here. — MF

Ever since I tried Teavana’s Golden Monkey Tea a few years ago, no other tea can compare to its bold flavor. The problem is that 2 ounces cost $22. I’ve tried other, less expensive, brands of golden monkey tea to no avail, but finally found one that is as good as Teavana. It’s called Yunnan Golden Special by Tealyra and 4 ounces cost $15. — MF

These Adirondack chair covers ($22) by Classic Accessories look really good and are made of heavyweight water repellant material. The fabric has handles sewn on so they’re really easy to pull off and put on furniture, which otherwise would be a big deterrent for me. They have a variety of covers to fit all kinds of outdoor furniture. — CD

I really enjoyed watching the Youtube episode of the Smart Couple Podcast featuring the authors of “Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples.” Harville and Helen share insights on how relationships have evolved over the last few decades and give tips on how to be present with your partner and defuse disagreements. They are such a warm and personable couple that I kind of wish they had their own show I could watch regularly. An updated third edition of their bestselling book was released a couple weeks ago. — CD

I use Google Calendar to schedule everything. Some of the tips in this PC Mag article were unknown to me, but I’m glad I found out about them. Particularly useful: “Find a Time That Works for Everyone,” and “Block Off Appointments.” — MF

When I want to find an expert to guide me around in a walking tour in a foreign city, I first look up a freelance local guide on Tours by Locals. Rates and experience vary. — KK

I’ve been writing about the future of Augmented Reality (AR), where you can see virtual things in the real world. Two short video fantasies by Keiichi Matsuda are key illustrations of what could come. One is Hyper-Reality, a overly dense packed layer of information and ads, the other is Merger, a workplace that takes over. Neither are futures I want, but the technology design seems plausible. — KK

If you don’t boil milk before using it to make yogurt, it will end up runny. But it takes time to boil the milk, then let it cool down before adding the starter. I recently learned that when using ultrapasteurized (or ultra high temperature) milk instead of pasteurized milk, you don’t need to boil the milk first. I’ve been using my Instant Pot lately to make yogurt. I just pour in a half-gallon of ultrapasteurized milk, stir in a tablespoon of yogurt, secure the lid, and press the “yogurt” button. Eight hours later, it’s ready! — MF

Maybe everyone already knows this, but I just figured out you can ask Siri on your phone to identify music playing in the background. No need to load an app; similar function is built in to Android, too. But further coolness: if you go into the iPhone’s iTunes Store app, tap Menu upper left, then tap Siri, you get a list of all your queries so that, of course, if you want to buy the music, there it is. At least it’s a way to record/remember the new tunes. — KK

In a now-deleted Reddit LPT that stuck with me, I read that in France people do not eat to the point of being stuffed or rarely say “I am full,“ instead they say "Je n'ai plus faim” which translates into “I am no longer hungry.” My French neighbor couldn’t verify if this was true, but even so it’s a good mindset to have when eating. Especially when dining out or in a friend’s home where I feel pressured to finish everything on my plate. — CD

I will never go back to analog film, no matter how retro hip it becomes. Digital photography is just better in all respects — except for one special case. When I shoot in exotic localities I carry a Fuji Instax Mini which produces small — quite small — instant prints, similar to Polaroids. Portraits done with these and instantly handed out are wonderful icebreakers. Popular at parties as a mini photo-booth, too. — KK

These look like old fashioned safety razor blades, but they’re made of plastic and you can’t shave with them. You can’t cut paper with them, either. But they excel as scrapers. Put one into the included handle and you can cleanly remove labels and stickers stuck to almost any surface (add a bit of Goo Gone to speed up the process, if you wish). I used one to clean the labels off a cigar box for a project I recently made. — MF

Google’s Talk to Books uses experimental AI to browse book passages that respond to your questions. I asked “How can I time travel?” and got back a rabbit hole of responses. It’s pretty much a dream come true. — CD

I keep this crowdsourced thesaurus bookmarked. It’s easier to navigate than thesaurus.com and the fastest way to find the word I want to use. — CD

This battery-powered headlamp ($15) has a bunch of LEDs spread across the front so it throws a very wide beam. I used it recently to bring trash cans in at night and it was much better than a flashlight or traditional headlamp because I could see everything in front of me without having to turn my head. — MF