Survival mode
Previous year could be summed up as just single word: SURVIVAL.
Lessons learned
Just jump the gap
In June, I've changed my workplace again. It was really hard decision, as I was in the middle of all-around crisis that was happening in my life (fortunately, almost everything is settled already).
Personal growth stats
108 contributions to personal coding projects - mostly related to my website, just small tinkering here and there. I've also migrated it to NUXT (just for fun, the version you're browsing here is still being run on my very own static site generator). NUXT is being used at my current workplace and that was a good exercise to refresh my knowledge about it.
As usual, my Stackoverflow profile lives on its own and still somehow received free 30 points - so I have 6010 reputation points in total at the moment of writing this article and this is the final reminder about this score as (which is sad) this website became so irrelevant in the past few years.
Social media
I've basically abandoned any activities in social media in previous year. I just passively browse facebook local-social-related groups, open bsky/xitter/mastodon once a few months and that's it. I think the AI slop and everyone-wants-to-be-an-influencer-not-a-creator-mindset made me bored of using it.
Entertainment
Here we go
Books:
It's really a bad book year for me - I've finished only 2 books:
Project Hail Marry by Andy Weir - can't wait for the upcoming movie that will be released in 2026 as book was awesome!
Elevation by Stephen King - great short novel that actually made me cry at the end of it (but it wasn't that bad as The Road where I've just got shredded by pieces and cry like a baby 🫣)
I've also started 3rd book in the very last few days of December 2025 - Cell by Stephen King but I'm just in the 1/3 of it at the moment.
Movies:
Frankestein (2025 by Guillermo del Toro) - great movie, that wasn't horror at all, but more like a fairy tale 💛
Weapons - Crazy movie, but I was expecting something way more scary/sinister, but in the end it was IMHO mediocre, unfortunately.
Napad (2024, Netflix, eng. assault) - great Polish crime movie with great cast and dense atmosphere.
Deliver Us from Evil - good B-class horror movie with an awesome Sean Harris performance 💛
Druga Furioza (2025, Netflix, eng. Inside Furiosa) - great sequel to an awesome Polish movie about a footbal hooligan, who climbs the career ladder in criminal world - it has a phenomenal performance of Polish actor, Mateusz Damięcki who usually play roles in romantic comedies and here is a psycho.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025, Netflix) - 3rd establishment of the criminal serie - it was OK-ish in my opinion, better than the sequel, but worse than the first one.
The Bad Guys 2 (animated, 2025) - great sequel 💛
Metal Lords (2022) - funny story about group of teenagers who wants to setup a metal band
_My Neighbour Totoro - I've FINALLY watched that movie (and my kids too!) - really magical animation, love it! 💛
Zootopia 2 - a perfect example on how sequels should have been made 💛 If those two won't be together I don't believe in love anymore 😅
There was probably more titles I've seen, but for some reason I wasn't good at tracking stuff like this last year 🥺
Movie series:
Stranger Things - after soo many years the story has been finished - and I'm surprised that the writers was able to satisfy me with the finale!
Wielka Woda (2022, Netflix mini-series) - great Polish mini-serie about flood in Polish city, Wrocław in 1997. Great cast and proper budget that has been used for making it.
Recruit - really good comedy/drama that I've started watching with my wife (at the moment we are at 2nd season of it)
Alien: Earth - oh gosh, why it has happenend. I should be happy that we've got another title from Aliens world, but it was very, very MEH experience imho 😞
Squid Game - a good finale for a great serie - I like the open-ending sequence at the very end of it, would love to see more stuff from that world.
Love, Death and Robots (Season 4) - not that astonishing and suprising as previous seasons, but still keeps a good quality.
The Pitt - I've watched it after recommendation from a friend of mine and oh boy, what a great series it is! (imho the best one I've seen in 2025 💛)
Games:
I think this is the year that I've played most in recent times, especially in the last few weeks of it:
Horizon: Forbidden West - tried to finish it on PS4, but my eyes can't stand that low-res quality of it and I simply abandoned it for now.
Rush Rally Origins - what a gem! A great mini-racing arcade game, reminds me Colin McRae Rally 2.0 times 💛
Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - while I've played only a couple minutes in the original Deep Rock Galactic game (and didn't like it), this one is an awesome title - imagine Vampire Survivors mixed with space Dwarfs and huge insect-like aliens hell! 🤘
inFamous: Second Son - that was the title that made me go back to play on consoles last year. I've played it once in the past, but somehow it didn't "click" to me. This time I've just got sucked into it and finished it to 100% in just couple days 🔥
inFamous: Fist Light - a kind of a prequel to Second Son - I've finished somewhere around half of the story, but it wasn't that interesting to me as the first entry, and just abandoned it (maybe one day I'll return and finish it)
Jack: Move - relaxing mini-RPG game with interesting paper-rock-scissors alike mechanics. Pretty short, I think I've finished it in around under 10 hours.
Mafia: Definitive Edition - I've finally completed this game (always got stuck in hotel assasination mission). Great story and whole world building, it's a bit of a shame that this whole city wasn't fully utilized with some side-quests or acitivities.
Mafia 2 & 3: Definitive Edition - I didn't really like the main protagonist and the story of the 2nd one, and got bored very quickly in the 3rd one, so I've abandoned them both pretty early.
GTA: Vice City: Definitive Edition - finished it for the 4th time I think, but for the very FIRST time in Definitive Edition version and without using any cheats 🎮 🎮 🎮
Currently playing GTA3: Definitive Edition and planned also to finish it without any cheats (and just finish it, as I've never really beat it yet)
Small Wins
I've survived. Yeah, it's one of those years when it's the biggest win.
Small failures
House building mission has been postponed.
Plans for the 2026
Not a single plan for 2025 really has been put into reality, so this year I do prefer to not set/announce anything 🤞
Summary of the summary
It was a difficult year, but I do really hope 2026 will be better. Wish you all the best! 🙌
Best,
-- Å‚.