A lot of new pages and content, but no time to write it down
Who the hell am I
I'm Thomas (or alias tomk), just a regular 29 years old guy living in Poland. Studied economics for a while and I learned that R and VBA languages are not that fun like HTML/CSS/JS. Nowadays, my main "project" is the real life which is a bit exhausing but full of sweet and joyous moments since I have my wife and baby daughter โค๏ธ. The rest is TMI.
My 'world' tour :)
But before I become completely enveloped by my new family life, I used to travel quite extensively across Europe! The only time I step outside my home subcontinent I've been in Tunisia once, and almost got to Turkiye, but I was apparently too young for a brief tour to Istanbul ๐น๐ท from Burgas ๐ง๐ฌ, imma get there somehow and someday! Other non-European countries also look promising and achievable, like Georgia which is very easy to enter for Poles as they like us there, lots of cheap flights and we can enter with ID card instead of a passport!
In case you if you don't use Firefox, that's how this section supposed to look:
For some reason the flags emoji don't show up on browser based on Webkit, like Opera, but in Firefox (my daily browser) flags work fine, both mobile and windows version. I have to fix that with some javascript hack and external emoji pack someday somehow but before I do...
Section constantly work in progress, too much stuff. In general, if something is closely related to computers and/or maps, I'm in!
Geography - mostly socio-economic, but every mention of geography catch my attention!
History - mostly XIX, XX and XXI century, as I like technologies, and there is no other time in history with that many inventions!
Computers - mostly software but electronics is on my list to invest time. I love old computers, accesories and software, but not when I have to do the actual work with it. Oh and I viciously hate printers
Making simple graphics - some maps, posters, leaflets, science book covers, nothing special, I like to use Inkscape, Irfanview, Gimp and sometimes even plain Paint to quick fixes like cropping down to a pixel
Riding a bike! - before I got completely dad mode, as I need car to move around the family, groceries and stuff all the time, I used to ride a bike almost every day: to school, then to work, and for fun at any time. I own a MTB bike that is fairly average and used mostly as a slightly 'faster' commuter vehicle rather than a typical city bike, I sometimes ride unpaved forest roads too. I'm not Tour-de-France level fast and durable cyclist, but I can easily ride 10 km to work (often without breakfast, I like to sleep as long as possible) and 10 hours later 10 km back home with occasional spin around the city. I know it because I did it for years. For leisure I can ride about 50km on a single day with ease (unless the road is too hilly or congested), 100 km a day with somewhat exhaustion, and at more than 120 km I am getting totalled. I know this because I was on a few expeditions like that, including one across the border to Lithuania. On the other hand, I basically cannot run more than 3 km before my brain gets turned off and legs burned inside. That's why I love riding a bike, it's like hovering a few inches above the ground and flying 1 km per 3 minutes with you just own muscle force with the smoothness of your own well oiled chain. Unlike toddling 1 km per 7 minutes with absolute pain and going nowhere. Maybe I'm just not prepparing well enough to run with joy and no side effects, but I just don't like running more than just a quick rush to the train or bus. Oh and e-bikes and e-scooters are also quite fun, but a bit too heavy or too dangerous.
Traveling - City tours and national parks with beautiful nature are my jam, I can walk for hours, but give me the bike and I'm outside all day, everyday! My top cities are: Lisbon ๐ต๐น, Copenhagen๐ฉ๐ฐ, Budapest ๐ญ๐บ, but many many other European cities are strong contenders like Gdaลsk ๐ต๐ฑ, Ostenda ๐ง๐ช, Heraklion ๐ฌ๐ท and so on
Infrastructure - closely related to my whole geography thing - I like railways, airports, highways, metro lines, aqueducts, power stations, internet fibreglass lines, etc. etc., all stuff that can be considered a system!
Current things - Dabbling with this website, with no frameworks
Lists of stuff that I like or watch
Click one of the button to see the content. Sorry about the clutter in every section, gotta make a dedicated page or at least wider windows for each entry
Music
Have you ever seen those youtube videos with some DJs in the yellow tiled room and caption "I listen to all genres"? Yeah that's my music taste. Also, a lot of silly stuff and I can't play any instruments, even Guitar Hero.
Here's the list of a bunch of my most defining favourite songs. Those are just examples, this list will never ever be complete.
I used to dislike songs in my native languages (Polish), I found the lyrics of many popular songs to be corny or too stupid. Songs in English are often excessively silly, but when it's not your native language, the feeling is not striking. Nowadays I appreciate Polish songs way more as the lyrics even when corny, more often hits home as an adult and my better understanding of English uncovers the silliness of some songs that I enjoy musically.
Krzystof Krawczyk & Edyta Bartosiewicz - Trudno Tak
Zbigniew Wodecki - Lubie Wracaฤ Tam Gdzie Byลem
Brathanki - Czerwone Korale
O.N.A. - Kiedy powiem sobie doลฤ
Gedz - Chaos (Prod. Grrracz)
Mata - Szafir
Taco Hemingway & Otsochodzi - Nowy Kolor
Abradab - Miasto Jest Nasze
ลona i Webber - Co tam, mordo?
Golec uOrkiestra - Crazy is my life - don't be fooled by the title, it's not a song in English, it's the pure fun energy of Polish mountains that could be enjoyed by the entire world!
Paweล Kukiz i Jan Borysewicz - Bo tutaj jest jak jest I would like to explain why I love this song, somewhat ironically! If I were to make an English cover, the chorus is:
โซIt's just the way it is โซIt's simple โซAnd you know that all along
The whole lyrics are just a very melodic way of saying that everything is the way it is, and I don't know why, but I hope it'll change. The quintessense of saying nothing in a profound way. Also, the vocalist or the original record Paweล Kukiz (Paul Cookies - not entirely true translation but sounds almost the same) has become a prominent politician in Poland, found it's own party, long time ago once had the third most parliament seats.
Books
The ratio of words that I've read in books to the words in all articles/news/websites/tutorials/wikis is about 1:100 and that's not great, but at least it's something.
Here's a bunch of books that I actually remember:
His Master's Voice - Stanisลaw Lem
The Star Diaries - Stanisลaw Lem
Tales of Pirx the Pilot - Stanisลaw Lem
The Doll - Bolesลaw Prus
The Spring to Come - Stanisลaw ลปeromski
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Plague - Albert Camus
Ninety Eighty-Four - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
God Is Not Great - Richard Dawkins
The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice - Christopher Hitchens
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind - Gustave Le Bon
So yeah, some Polish required readings, very basic political novels and a bit of Lem's sci-fi. Oh and "The Picture of Dorian Gray" thanks to PewDiePie's recommendation ๐
Games
I'm not an avid gamer but there were a couple of games that I played for hours and hours
SimCity 3000 and 4 Deluxe
The Sims 1 and 2 - I might think I'm just a house developer but I can fall into playing with sims too
The Crew - you know, the one that got shut down by Ubisoft
Black - FPS on PS2
Just Cause 2 - fantastic tropical map exploration
Crazy Taxi - game was wild and the map was so awesome! I remember that game now as Tim Walz was playing the game with AOC lol
Need For Speed Carbon, Porsche Unleashed (free demo version, no money for games back then and now too)
Test Drive 6 - love tracks based on major world cities
Forza Horizon 4 - briefly as it was free on Xbox windows app
Grand Theft Auto Vice City, Java version on phones and most notably San Andreas
Euro Truck Simulator 2 - stunningly beautiful, after all newer DLCs like Iberia, East Balkans etc.
18 Wheels of Steel - my first truck simulator game, big fan of the map
Michael Jackson Game - yup it was a thing, small platform type game
Deluxe Ski Jump - favourite game on easy IT classes in elementary school back then
Icy Tower - addicting time eater, both on PC and phone
Prince of Persia first ever version
Alex the Alligator - that 8-bit lacoste game is hypnotizing
Worms - mostly by myself on the phone (Java Version on Sony Ericsson) and a bit on PC, but not 3D versions
Mario - on Windows 95, don't remember the name but it was MS-DOS based version
Youtubers
YouTube was for many years and still is my main source of conveniently delivered knowledge and entertainment, I'm getting olldscool as I refuse to use tiktok for that. I used to follow some more famous American youtubers and watched closely what's going on in Polish youtube. Many of them become pretty uniteresting after many years, even tho their classic content is golden.
Long and forever unfinished list of great youtube channels: Links, categories and descriptions are in progress, or not, I'm too lazy
Science, Geography and Trivias
Jay Foreman - London Unfinished and Map Men is pure British gold
Fireship - perfect for wannabe programmers like me, loves to watch the news, but actual learning comes with pain
Big Car
Urbanism
City Beautiful
Not Just Bikes
RM Transit
Adam Something - not always agree, but I watch everytime the episode drops
Political
Some More News - not sure about the Warmbo lore, but hell the writers of those episodes are good, the funniest one is about Tim Pool
Kraut - excellent analyses, always insightful, serious and sometimes with impressive Polandball graphics
China Uncensored, SerpentZA and Laowhy - how I know about good, bad and ugly reality of China
J.J. McCullough
Knowing Better
Innuendo Studios - excellent explanations of fascist tactics
Gattsu and Geopold
Living Unironically in Europe
Leeja Miller
David Pakman Show
John Oliver - for me, he's a youtuber, not a HBO show host
Entertainment/Commentary
Internet Historian - my goodness Cost of Concordia is the platinum of YouTube
Future Proof - a cool guy that breaks down why everhing is getting worse and more disposable
Ordinary Things
NFKRZ - that long haired Russian guy with based opinions
The Onion News - owners of the Infowars
Drew Gooden
Nerd City
Ralf The Movie Maker and the spiritual predecessor (at least in my mind) Nostalgia Critic
Pyronical
H3H3, iDubbbz, Filthy Frank and so on - only the classics
PewDiePie - still watch from time to time
Cozy Series
The Office (๐บ๐ธ and ๐ฌ๐ง) - US was the soulhealer during covid, UK version cringe is way more boring but hits much harder
Parks and Recreation (๐บ๐ธ) - watched right after The Office US, Pawnee makes any day better
Trailer Park Boys (๐จ๐ฆ) - except the episode with Jimmy Kimmel, what was that?
Keeping Up Appearances (๐ฌ๐ง) - watched repeatedly from free DVDs from TV magazine
Mr. Bean (๐ฌ๐ง) - almost all the stuff with him is great, especially the feature films and memes
Top Gear (๐ฌ๐ง) - with the classic squad
A bunch of Disney Channel serieses including: That's So Raven, Phil of the Future, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, Suite Life up to Charlie, then from TV kid I became a computer and phone adult
A bunch of Cartoon Network serieses including: Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpoof Girls, The Cramp Twins, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo and so on and so forth, no clue about stuff there after 2010
Ed, Edd and Eddy was the most impactful on me for some reason, someday I'll make a shrine on this site about the episode where the Eds have built a cardboard box city with skyscrapers, that one alone made me think about the urbanism in cartoons and silly kids shows.
A bunch of Fox Kids/Jetix shows, don't remember them as vividly as CN and Disney ones but Goosebump episodes still haunts and Andy's quotes from Life with Louis by excellent Polish dubbing are legendary
Gilmore Girls (๐บ๐ธ) - haven't watched it at all, my wife did and I just vibed to the theme song
Polish cozy series ๐ต๐ฑ
1670 - new Polish comedy series streamed on netflix, set in times of the biggest prosperity of Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth but the characters make fun of current trends and memes. The series was described by some critic as the actual Polish 'The Office' as it also tells the story about crazy boss (nobleman of a village) and the love story of two characters that are aware of his antics. The Polish adaptation of 'The Office' also exist but it's not as relatably Polish as '1670'
Ranczo/The Ranch - the series beloved by my mom about a village with ensemble of hilarious residents including good priest and evil mayor that are twins, corrupt politician, slow thinking policeman and so on. The main arc of the story is about the lady from USA that bought 'the ranch' and wants to get along with the community.
Pokรณj 107/Room 107 - short series about living in dormitorym with a bunch of weirdos and fun ladies
Mostly Serious Series
I've never watched that much TV serieses or Netflix, that's why that section is pretty empty and misses some key shows that everybody watched.
BoJack Horseman (๐บ๐ธ) - the deepest animation I can think of
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (๐บ๐ธ)
Dexter (about 4 seasons) (๐บ๐ธ)
The Wire (first and second season) (๐บ๐ธ)
House of Cards (๐บ๐ธ) - the first Netflix original series I've watched, makes huge impression when you're young, get sadder and less appealing to rewatch when you get older
Dr House (some episodes) (๐บ๐ธ)
Samurai Jack - when it aired by the time when I actually watched TV I didn't liked it, maybe it was too slow or something. When I got back to some episodes because I saw Samurai Jack's review by Dem3000, the show as I get older got much more sense and its pace is healing.
Fun Movies
The perpetually unfinished list of international movies that I think that are quite fun to watch, I guess I'll have to divide movies as aaction movies and comedies are mixed here
Baby Driver (2017 ๐บ๐ธ)
Robocop 2 (1990 ๐บ๐ธ)
Die Hard (1987 ๐บ๐ธ)
Grimsby (2016 ๐ฌ๐ง ๐บ๐ธ)
Banlieue 13 and Banlieue 13: Ultimatum (2004 and 2009 ๐ซ๐ท)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006 ๐บ๐ธ ๐ฉ๐ช ๐ฏ๐ต)
La soupe aux choux (1981 ๐ซ๐ท) - classic Louis De Fines movie that I think about every time I eat cabbage soup
Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007 ๐ฌ๐ง ๐ซ๐ท ๐ฉ๐ช ๐บ๐ธ) - that Bean movie in France
Bean (1997 ๐ฌ๐ง ๐บ๐ธ) - that Bean movie with Whistler's Mother iconic painting
Rat Race (2001 ๐บ๐ธ ๐จ๐ฆ) - that Bean movie where Bean is actually Italian
Rush Hour 1 and 2 (1998, 2001 ๐บ๐ธ ๐ญ๐ฐ)
Dumb and Dumber (1994 ๐บ๐ธ) - Jim Carrey was an institution of comedy
Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty (2003 and 2007 ๐บ๐ธ)
Shrek 1, 2 and 3 (2001, 2004, 2007 ๐บ๐ธ) - Shrek transcends the category of kid's movie and any category of that matter, the legacy of the franchise into the global culture is stupendous - Shrek is love, Shrek is life
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010 ๐บ๐ธ) - no idea about that Cera guy but the style of that movie, Brie Larson's song and that lady with colorful hair is very memorable
Project X (2012 ๐บ๐ธ) - that movie about a huge party caused several flashmob parties across Poland and made Facebook much more popluar here. I get bored of the song "Heads Will Roll" because of that film, as it still gets too often on my auto playlists
Wedding Ringer (2015 ๐บ๐ธ) - one of the best movies to watch with wife
Guardians of the Galaxy 1, 2 and 3 - I don't want to put all the high-budget franchise movies on that list because there's a lot of it and pretty obvious, but the Guardians are the best out of them, especially thanks to Chris Pratt (as he's also a pillar of Parks and Rec too)
Deadpool - yeah, it's fun, haen't seen the newer ones
Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick (1986 and 2022 ๐บ๐ธ) - just pure corny awesomeness, US success propaganda, happy endings and great soundtracks
The Room (2003 ๐บ๐ธ) - classic so bad that it's good, I also like the film about that film The Disaster Artist (2017 ๐บ๐ธ) - it's pretty well conveyed story
Placeholder for all the Monty Python movies, every film is sacred
Polish fun movies ๐ต๐ฑ
Pieniฤ dze to nie wszystko/Money is not everything (2001) - the story is super funny within Polish reality and the soundtrack of this film should be a global Polish phenomenon
Kiler 1 and 2 (1997 and 1999) - Buenos dias, seลor Siarra. - Buenos Aires!
Chลopaki nie pลaczฤ /Boys don't cry and Poranek Kojota/Coyote's Morning (2000 and 2001) - two seemingly unconnected movies about gangsters and loosers, a load of polish specific catchfrases comes from them
Sarnie ลปniwo, czyli pokusa statuetkowego szlaku/Roe's Harvest, the temptation of the statuette path (2006) - totally unintelligible for anybody with most sense of humor types and foreigners except Finnish ๐ซ๐ฎ people maybe
Dzieล ลwira/Day of the Wacko (2002) - 'grey is the color pallete of Poland' type of comedy, everlasting classic and that's how my dad taught me English
Seksmisja/Sexmission (1984) - it's Polish Space Odyssey, trust me
Miล/Teddy Bear (1981) - movie filled to the brim with deep comedic lore of Polish reality under communism, to hard to explain by amateur like me. The actor that played the main character passed away
Motรณr/Motoorcycle (2005) - not well known, low budget film about a bunch of guys that made their own little cult of motorcycles as the everyday life during Martial Law of 1981 was too depressing.
Kogel Mogel 1 and 2 (1988 and 1989) - absolute classic story, the third movie made in 2019 is total shit, lame reinvented reboots are not only the plague of American blockbusters
C.K. Dezerterzy/Imperial-Royal Defectors (1986) - the theme music is a true marching jam, it's The Bridge of The River Kwai of Poland, or following the plot: Austria-Hungary
Karol ktรณry pozostaล Karolem film series - that franchise as well as the leading actor Piotr Adamczyk deserves its own โ๏ธshrineโ๏ธ
Mostly Serious Movies
The perpetually unfinished list of international movies that I think are at least somewhat meaningful for me, I must divide all those movies better as teenage dramas with somewhat serious topics are mixed with more mature stuff Polish films with descriptions are in progress
Don't Look Up (2021 ๐บ๐ธ) - the first movie I was able to watch uninterrupted in 2025, super funny and scarily relevant, it also confirms that Leo and Jennifer Lawrence are so well paid actors
Alla vi barn i Bullerbyn (1986 ๐ธ๐ช) - not necessary serious movie but definitely a pure Swedish nostalgia
Scrooge (1970 ๐ธ๐ช) - absolute classic and memorable musical
Jump In! (2007 ๐บ๐ธ) - one of those very few Disney feature films that have somewhat meaningful story
Honey (2003 ๐บ๐ธ) - basically the Jessica Alba movie that my sister really likes
Crossroads (2002 ๐บ๐ธ) - basically the Britney Spears movie that my sister really likes
Kontrol (2003 ๐ญ๐บ) - the film that single-handedly made me go to Budapest on my own, that dark yet absurd and hopeful climate of the underground.
City of God (2002 ๐ง๐ท) - forever defined the way I look at Brazil
Tropa de Elite (2007 ๐ง๐ท) - after watching 'City of God' I found this series of films about Brazilian police, now I know it stars the guy that played Pablo Escobar
Lord of War (2005 ๐บ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ท ๐ฉ๐ช ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐น ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ง) - how Nicolas Cage and Jared Leto sell guns
Goodfellas (1990 ๐บ๐ธ)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014 ๐บ๐ธ ๐ฉ๐ช)
Drive (2011 ๐บ๐ธ)
John Wick 1 and 2 (2014 and 2017 ๐บ๐ธ)
Whiplash (2014 ๐บ๐ธ)
Logan (2017 ๐บ๐ธ ๐จ๐ฆ)
Ronin (1998 ๐บ๐ธ ๐ฌ๐ง ๐ซ๐ท)
Robocop (1987 ๐บ๐ธ)
District 9 (2009 ๐ฟ๐ฆ)
God Bless America (2011 ๐บ๐ธ)
Lรฉon (1994 ๐บ๐ธ ๐ซ๐ท) - came for Gary Oldman's 'Everyone' roar, stayed for everything else!
Pulp Fiction (1994 ๐บ๐ธ) -
T-34 (2018 ๐ท๐บ) - first movie that I've watched with friends via discord
The Pianist (2002 ๐ซ๐ท ๐ต๐ฑ ๐ฌ๐ง ๐ฉ๐ช)
Spirited Away (2001 ๐ฏ๐ต)
Truman Show (1998 ๐บ๐ธ)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004 ๐บ๐ธ)
Blue Lagoon (1980 ๐บ๐ธ)
The Island (2005 ๐บ๐ธ)
The Social Network (2010 ๐บ๐ธ)
In Time (2011 ๐บ๐ธ)
The Time Machine (2002 ๐บ๐ธ) - that machine looks sick and the scope of the story is epic
Terminator 1 and 2 (1984, 1991 ๐บ๐ธ) - movies about the Governor of California that tries to destroy and then save the future of Los Angeles
Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018 ๐บ๐ธ) - watched just recently, fits perfectly to the current situation in the US
Stuff that I don't like that much
This section is going to be without specific categories cuz when it's hard to make me really dislike some piece of media so much, that I specificaly have some thoughts about it, usually I just ignore.
Smoleลsk (2016 ๐ต๐ฑ) - the film as disastrous for the status of Polish cinematography, as the actual plane crash of the President of Poland in 2010 was for the entire nation. It's more focused on how the evil media of the opposition covered the news and conspiracy theories than what exactly happened. It would be funny but it's also a bit distasteful, regardless of political views.
Patryk Vega - Polish director that makes dumb and vulgar movies about serious topics
Avatar 1 and 2 (2009 and up to 2022 ๐บ๐ธ) - you know, the blue people and stuff, first was ok, second was worse, but overall those are prime examples of overhyping to the brim.
Fox News - specifically that ensemble of prime propagandists like Tucker Carlson, Linsay Graham and that smug Jesse Watters. I didn't follow those American shananigans before covid that closely so I didn't expect that the propaganda is USA is so powerful, I want to go back to times when the the only Fox TV channel I know was Fox Kids.
Tik Tok - that's the true and literal brain drain. I already saw in real time how not tech savvy people are enthusiastic towards some very weird AI slop. The AI powered kids dressed as politicians and disfigured dancing couples combined with America's Got Talent show footage watched on the loop by my grandpa truly terrified me. I'm of course I will never fall for it, I'm way more smarter and responsibler, I watch Instagram and YouTube Shorts instead...
Ads - the unskippable ones, like death and taxes
Bots - now I can't even come up with a single good thing about them, like the technology itself is fine, it supposed to be useful, but 99% of usecases is just spam and shit.
Mess - I can't live like that, if I can't find something in my house within 10 seconds, I'm pissed. With a kid, sometimes it's inevitable.
Human Resources - we are not resources, I hate these two words combined.
"Common Sense" Racism - it's sad, infuriating and makes so hard to talk back the people that say shit like: I don't have anything against black people but I would shoot them on the border. Fuck it
News articles based on twitter (or X if you care) - I deleted my account on twitter because the bird is killed and what is left stinks, I'm always pissed off every time I read some news that have embedded twitter post with photos/graphs/anything that I want to see zoomed in, but I can't. Dear news outlets, drop that god awful social media dumpster fire and put everything newsworthy inside your portal, thank you.
Agressive dogs - especially when they bark for no reason