on how to start making actually important stuff...
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 ❤️. 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 TR from Burgas
BG, 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!
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
PT,
CopenhagenDK, Budapest
HU, but many many other European
cities are strong contenders like Gdańsk
PL, Ostenda
BE, Heraklion
GR 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 Wracać Tam Gdzie Byłem
Brathanki - Czerwone Korale
O.N.A. - Kiedy powiem sobie dość
Gedz - Chaos (Prod. Grrracz)
Mata - Szafir
Taco Hemingway & Otsochodzi - Nowy Kolor
Abradab - Miasto Jest Nasze
Łona 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!
Paweł 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:
♫It's just the way it is ♫It's simple ♫And 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 Paweł
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 - Stanisław Lem
The Star Diaries - Stanisław Lem
Tales of Pirx the Pilot - Stanisław Lem
The Doll - Bolesław Prus
The Spring to Come - Stanisław Żeromski
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
👍
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 (US and
GB) - US was the soulhealer
during covid, UK version cringe is way more boring but hits much
harder
Parks and Recreation (US) - watched right after The Office US, Pawnee makes any day
better
Trailer Park Boys (CA)
- except the episode with Jimmy Kimmel, what was that?
Keeping Up Appearances (GB) - watched repeatedly from free DVDs from TV magazine
Mr. Bean (GB) - almost
all the stuff with him is great, especially the feature films
and memes
Top Gear (GB) - 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 (US) -
haven't watched it at all, my wife did and I just vibed to the
theme song
Polish cozy series PL
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.
Pokój 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 (US) -
the deepest animation I can think of
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul (US)
Dexter (about 4 seasons) (US)
The Wire (first and second season) (US)
House of Cards (US) -
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) (US)
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 US)
Robocop 2 (1990 US)
Die Hard (1987 US)
Grimsby (2016 GB US)
Banlieue 13 and Banlieue 13: Ultimatum (2004 and
2009 FR)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006
US DE JP)
Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre (2002
FR)
Taxi 1 and 2 (1998, 2000
FR)
La soupe aux choux (1981
FR) - classic Louis De Fines
movie that I think about every time I eat cabbage soup
Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007
GB FR DE US) - that Bean movie
in France
Bean (1997 GB US) -
that Bean movie with Whistler's Mother iconic painting
Rat Race (2001 US CA) -
that Bean movie where Bean is actually Italian
Rush Hour 1 and 2 (1998, 2001
US HK)
Dumb and Dumber (1994
US) - Jim Carrey was an
institution of comedy
Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty (2003 and 2007
US)
Shrek 1, 2 and 3 (2001, 2004, 2007
US) - 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
US) - 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 US) -
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
US) - 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
US) - just pure corny
awesomeness, US success propaganda, happy endings and great
soundtracks
The Room (2003 US) -
classic so bad that it's good, I also like the film about that
film The Disaster Artist (2017
US) - it's pretty well
conveyed story
Placeholder for all the Monty Python movies,
every film is sacred
Polish fun movies PL
Pieniądze 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, seńor
Siarra. - Buenos Aires!
Chłopaki nie płaczą/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 Żniwo, 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
FI people maybe
Dzień Świra/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
Miś/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
Motór/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 który pozostał Karolem film series - that franchise
as well as the leading actor Piotr Adamczyk deserves its own
✝️shrine✝️
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 US)
- 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
SE) - not necessary serious
movie but definitely a pure Swedish nostalgia
Scrooge (1970 SE) -
absolute classic and memorable musical
Jump In! (2007 US) -
one of those very few Disney feature films that have somewhat
meaningful story
Honey (2003 US) -
basically the Jessica Alba movie that my sister really likes
Crossroads (2002 US) -
basically the Britney Spears movie that my sister really likes
Kontrol (2003 HU) - 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 BR) -
forever defined the way I look at Brazil
Tropa de Elite (2007
BR) - 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
US FR DE ZM IT DK GB) - how
Nicolas Cage and Jared Leto sell guns
Goodfellas (1990 US)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014
US DE)
Drive (2011 US)
John Wick 1 and 2 (2014 and 2017
US)
Whiplash (2014 US)
Logan (2017 US CA)
Ronin (1998 US GB FR)
Robocop (1987 US)
District 9 (2009 ZA)
God Bless America (2011
US)
Léon (1994 US FR) -
came for Gary Oldman's 'Everyone' roar, stayed for everything
else!
Pulp Fiction (1994 US)
-
T-34 (2018 RU) - first
movie that I've watched with friends via discord
The Pianist (2002
FR PL GB DE)
Spirited Away (2001 JP)
Truman Show (1998 US)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004
US)
Blue Lagoon (1980 US)
The Island (2005 US)
The Social Network (2010
US)
In Time (2011 US)
The Time Machine (2002
US) - that machine looks sick
and the scope of the story is epic
Terminator 1 and 2 (1984, 1991
US) - movies about the
Governor of California that tries to destroy and then save the
future of Los Angeles
Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018
US) - 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.
Smoleńsk (2016 PL) -
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
US) - 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