“Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.”
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

I’m writing one last time in 2025!

2025 is wrapped. Finalized. Of all the years it definitely was one. Lets look back at it.

Work

Well I started a new job here in the closing hours of 2025. It wasn’t in my plans to switch up jobs here, but outside forces created this situation so here we are. I started at Justworks a few weeks ago and it’s been a real vibe shift from my last year(really 18 months) at Begin Learning. Justworks has energy and really emanates a feeling that they are accomplishing and creating and generating output that I haven’t felt in a long time. It’s been difficult starting a job during Christmas holidays, but I’m excited to jump in and see where we can go from here.

Creative
Where There’s A Willis There’s A Way is winding down in the next few weeks. We will be recording our final episode probably next month. Its a sad turn, and I am really wondering what project Josh and I can work on next but in the meantime it’s been a blast coming up with these last few episode moments.

Kmartinix Makes is just getting started and I hope it continues into 2026 even stronger. Basically as a driver for me to keep getting workshop projects going, its also a way to learn about video and content creation and improve my speaking and writing skills.
Speaking of - my workshop has been getting more love then ever before, and I’m almost finished with the router table that’s taken me 4 years to build. Really excited to grow there.

This Blog! I had hoped to write a bit more then we got, but I’m glad with what we have. I definitely hope to keep this going and make it more regular next year.

Favorites

I read a decent amount of books this year, but was surprised to see this was my list of favorites. I really focused this year on creating a goal-list for the year and working down that instead of just randomly flitting from thing to thing. It helped keep me focused and always have something lined up to read.

I crossed some real bangers off my watchlist this year. Some real good stuff here, not a lot of hidden gems. The Straight Story was brought to my attention after David Lynch passed away, and I ended up watching it twice I enjoyed it so much.

My TV watching was a little scattered this year. I didn’t end up watching that many shows, for better or for worse, and I struggled making a top 10 of non-2025 shows. The top 5 of this list were all amazing, but after that I honestly didn’t have a lot left to pick from.

As far as 2025 shows go, there was a lot of great stuff this year. Genre fiction really shined with Andor and just continued through the year with some great stuff. This list was a blast to remember through.

I know there’s still a lot of great stuff left to watch from 2025 that I missed, but I have started deciding to just call it on 12/31. Anything I can’t or don’t get to before then will have to wait and hopefully show up on a future year’s first-time watches.
That said there are some great stuff in here. The top 3 each made me cry many times(Hamnet still makes me cry just thinking about it) and the rest of the list has so many unique and amazing things about it.

Thanks for reading!