2025 Year Review

Asgas Ambarki!

A new year, new blog post, new habits and all in numbers, but first here's the tl;dr

built allergy against dark-mode on desktop with large screens.
built a heavy use habit for the calendar, colorful than ever
goodbye WearOS, hello Garmin
started running regularly and finished three half-marathons
hiked four summits, two were 4k
drove in heavy snow the first time ever
new favourites bands and discoveries: Zeppelin, Aerosmith, King Crimson, Tuber and Tools
appeared once in a geeksblabla episode

2025 marks many minor life updates yet with a heavier impact; actually, the most impactful things that happened this year were health-related, both physically and mentally and professionally. we'll get into that in a bit.

Web, Apps & Gadgets

starting with trivia, so you quit reading earlier than you expect, I've been a light mode person for over two years primarily when coding, but this year it has been developing that it makes browsing the web even more annoying, and finding out afterward, and maybe only myself, that I became very, very comfortable reading things on big screens like a piece of paper, docs be it or code (twitter too if you ask), whenever be it day or night.

the cherry on the pie was of no "sudden light tab" or "unsupported darkmode", meaning no more brightness shock for the eyes at midnight.

as said, big screens only. the irony.

work, is a pain in the apps.

if you know, you know. it's not about work thought but my daily driver apps on my phone, some changed, some remained as is, but essentially I was heavily using them:

Google Calendar / tasks: the integration is so good that i couldn't continue using TickTick
Spotify: remained my music player on the go
HabitKit: tracking my micro habits
Fuelio: car expenses tracking, marking two years
Capacities: a simpler note-taking app with different organization philosophy compared to notion app
BitWarden & its authenticator app: don't put your eggs in one basket
Sum Up AI: resume your notifications and messages with your own generous gemini API key

on my both work/personal machines, nothing really changed, the same IDE PhpStorm, kdeconnect for broadcasting notifications and transferring files.

what's changed thought is my main browser (sadly), I've been using zen browser over FireFox (not a chromium fork btw).

hardware wise, the same keyboards (K7/K6), the same mouse, the same machines, the same usb hub and the same monitors.

the only change or improvement is actually my home setup desk, switching from 150x75cm to 140x80cm, because I figured out length didn't matter but the width (that's what she said).

2024	2025

in terms of wearables, I switched from Galaxy Watch 5 to garmin ForeRunner 255, then later to the Enduro 3, and im never regretting it. one thing I'm missing is the voice call communication via the watch. However, it's totally worth it, I could have chosen the Fenix, but it's unworthy of the additional cost, another reason is I love MIP (Memory in Pixel) screens after using FR255. my taste, don't judge!

Health and lifestyle

consider the rollercoaster, the whole track is having ups and downs with neither road signs indicating when there's a danger turn next, nor how much longer the track will be stable and safe, well the last one is a bit exaggerated, but that's the representation of life in general as much as we get older, and 2025 was a real rollercoaster of emotions and stress.

surprisingly, I managed it and learned that one is much stronger than he thinks.

Loving Vincent

anyway I've started running, regularly! pumping both my body and heart a bit as I'm on my keyboards all day long, and in Q2 something clicked, or should I say my second work-wife introduced me to garmin watches and how very relevant they are. I was very hesitant at first but convinced afterward.

the only thing I knew about them was how expensive they were, but after searching found out they have many, many models depends on your budget, LITERALLY LIKE SAMSUNG PHONES.

thus I've started planning and learning the different types of runs, not right away of course; you get many "aha!" moments, learning about scientific terms and so on.

this resulted in a consistency of running from four to up to six times per week depending on the plan period and race target, thus completing two half-marathons (alongside another one with my dumb Galaxy Watch 5).

one last thing is that seeing your own progress is actually fascinating, like gym when you're lifting regularly; it also applies to running, the only difference is the metrics! LTHR, MaxHR, Cadence, VO2max and more. and yes, it helps modestly with mental health stability. not much, but it helps and it gets easier.

Outdoor

I'll be quick:

4k: Biguenoussen and Iferouane
3k: Bouiblane (Moussa Oussaleh)
Tazekka parc: twice
Imlil: Tizi Mzik

I lied, that's not a tweet.

I came up with two realizations:

one: it wasn't interesting in terms of numbers of peaks or peaks themselves, as much as interesting the journeys: pausing, deep starring to the horizon, meditating the huge rocks, the far away peaks, the total silence, listening to your breathing while stepping on the rocks on a steep track, that is the journey.
two: there are only two 4k peaks left for me to complete all of them, 10 in total if recalling, Akioud and Afella(x2).

"you've just said the number of peaks didn't matter": yes, and if I was, I'd have done them way earlier, but the real challenge (journey) is to do them at once, from tazaghart, not separately. as far as I've been told, Akioud is easier if done from park toubkal. plus I take things slowly so I can enjoy the journey.

another "unplanned" hike was, as initially was going to oukaimden as soon as heard it has snowed there (low IQ move) and gambling with doing so in the middle of the week, so I'm not stuck in traffic (4D chess move), but destiny made me contact with a close friend going to imlil, and we went with the conclusion: why not doing them both? and that resulted (again) in two outcomes:

that was the first time ever I drove in snow, sadly to oukaimden mid-road only, because I needed an AWD for the steep snowy road.
a mini hike to Tizi mzik in Imlil, a popular place for skying.

Entertainment

for the first time this year I enjoyed Jazz music, always thought they were boring, and that was a terrible take, I discovered some great (and old) bands: Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson.

I've also been recommended some others, and the highlights were Tuber and Tools.

my taste always had some old rock and roll and instrumental and soundtracks, hence they became my favourites.

tastes are not debatable

I'm not a cinephile, and here's the proof list:

Interstellar
F1
Tetris
The station agent
Good will hunting
Se7en (hence this post's thumbnail)
TV shows: none! but I'm planning to watch the Sopranos if you asked.

anime should not have been mainstreamed

two highlights:

Frieren: I hate isekai and elves genre, but that piece specifically was surprisingly good, only because of the idea of "try to fully enjoy being with your closed ones before it's too late", as elves are known for their long lifespan, but friending with humans will cost you watching them, all of them, go to the other side one by one.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventures parts 4/5/6: remember Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and King Crimson? the author, Araki, was really flexing his taste of music with naming his characters after those music bands, and many others (yes, that includes AC/DC and Metallica too); hence I continued watching the said parts after a hiatus back from the covid lockdown. wait that's 6 years ago... shieeeeeeeeeeeeeet.
I also rewatched Monster, I hate to say it, but it's not overrated at all. and that's three.

talks and apparition

in real life: no talks, only meetups.
virtually: no talks again, but appeared as a guest on an episode of @geeksblabla

plans for 2026

taking it easy, and the planning will be on the go.

and after making this post (which was unusually non-technical), I'll try to write more, alongside running and, most importantly than ever, focusing on my career.

cheers!