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

• Stromae. I love Stromae’s music for its unique blend of electronic and pop with deeply thoughtful lyrics. His songs often tackle meaningful, sometimes dark, social themes but never feel heavy- handed because they’re balanced with catchy melodies and inventive production. Even if you don’t understand French, there’s an emotional energy to his voice that’s easy to connect with. Every track is creatively arranged and feels instantly fresh—there’s truly nobody else like him. His full concert [Stromae
  • Multitude, le film (Full concert)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5WgAr4B8Vo) is an art!

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 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.

Life-changing technology “discovered”

• Cursor (and LLMs overall). My workplace provided us with a Cursor subscription, and it’s proven to be extremely useful for boosting productivity.