2025 Recap

Inspired by Michael Fogus’s The Best Things and Stuff of 2025, I figured I’d toss together a quick list of the stuff I read, watched, or listened to this year that was genuinely cool or just sent me down random rabbit holes. This definitely isn’t some official list. Just a handful of things that made my year a bit more interesting, made me nod and smile, or had me googling for hours. Here’s a little roundup of the posts, articles, and videos that stuck with me in 2026.

Favorite websites discovered

• Michael Fogus’s The Best Things and Stuff of 2025. The post that inspired this page.

• explore.marginalia.nu. Great website for discovering new sites. Most of the sites on this page were discovered there.

• artvee.com. Nice website to browse for paintings.

Favorite YouTube channel discovered

• kallmekris. I stumbled upon her channel this year, and it quickly became one of my favorites. Her “Unsolved Cases” series especially stood out. She’s such a good storyteller, effortlessly blending her comedic skits with more serious and endlessly fascinating content.

Favorite non-technical books read

• The Electric State, a Graphic Novel by Simon Stålenhag. The original book (pre-Netflix adaptation) was given to me as a birthday present by my best friend. I’m so lucky to have a copy without the Netflix logo slapped on the cover. The movie adaptation of this book was denounced by its author as non-canon. Probably the most embarrassing thing that can happen to a movie adaptation. Anyway, the drawings and story are equally mesmerizing.

Favorite musicians / albums discovered

Favorite show or series

• 3 Body Problem. I tried to read the book but is too dry for me. I’ve enjoyed the 1st season. Looking forward for the next season!

Favorite movies discovered

Favorite podcasts

• SciShow Tangents Podcast ends this year. It’s a really informative podcast with hilarious hosts. I also appreciate that they eventually make the Patreon-only episodes available to everyone. Such a thoughtful move.

Favorite games discovered

• Delta Force Mobile (Garena). Finally, a Battle Field like game that I can play on mobile. I’ve been playing this the whole year along with Mobile Legends.

Programming languages used for work-related projects

• Java. Still my most used programming language used for QA automation. I’m transitioning to dev though, and our tech stack mainly used:

• Go. This will be my most used programming language as a Developer.

• Python. Mainly used for CI/CD of our QA automation projects.

Favorite papers discovered (and read)

Still haven’t read (but wished I had time to)

Favorite code read

Life-changing technology “discovered”

People who inspired me in 2026 (in no particular order)

Plans for 2026