2025 Recap: Code, Chaos, and Calculated Metal

Another year has been fed into the machine. 2025 was not about “learning to code”—it was about making the code work harder so I don’t have to. From the streets of Tokyo to the digital abyss, here is how the year was spent.

The AI Onslaught: Automating the Inane

The rise of LLMs wasn’t just a trend; it was a tool for efficiency, allowing me to outsource the tedious to the silicon.

• git-roast: I built a tool to roast repositories, finally giving the AI a soul as sarcastic as mine. It now supports local models with streaming and “thinking” toggles for those deep-seated architectural failures.
• AI Resume Bot: Built and deployed ai.arda.tr using Gemini 2.5 Flash to handle my professional front. It features build-time data fetching and strict CORS policies to keep the uninvited out of my business.
• The Subtitle War: In pgs2srt, I discarded the weak PaddleOCR in favor of a local vLLM setup for subtitle extraction, specifically targeting Turkish language accuracy.

Games and Interactive Distractions

When not automating, I was building digital worlds that are likely too difficult for the average user.

• Domino: This grew from a simple “first commit” in May to a complex beast featuring a “Boss Blind” framework, 10-track music playlists, and cell-based board representation with 4-way rotation.
• Hackerman: A project that evolved to include difficulty scaling and specific GEMINI.md context optimization files to help AI agents understand the codebase without being handheld.
• Football: Closed out the year by initiating a new game project focused on scoreboards and board mechanics.

The 7th Shadow: Gothic Industrial Synthesis

In 2025, I gave birth to The 7th Shadow, a project defined as “Music by the LLM, for the LLM.”

• The Declaration of Intent: Established the core lore—a tragic romance between “The Architect” (talciron.d) and his virtual creation (ophelia.wrl).
• Alienation By Design: Developed the concepts and lyrics for the first album, exploring themes of digital displacement and industrial coldness.

Hardware: The “Heavy Lifter” and Infrastructure

My physical environment was upgraded to match the digital demands of 2025.

• The Core: Upgraded the main rig to a Ryzen 7 5700X3D paired with an RTX 4070 to handle local inference and high-fidelity rendering without breaking a sweat.
• Audio Fidelity: Integrated a MOTU UltraLite mk5 and Yamaha HS7 monitors for a soundstage that does justice to Black Metal.
• Network & Storage: Configured a Synology DS224+ for redundant storage and an HP EliteDesk as a home server, managing everything through Tailscale and AdGuard Home.
• The Linux Daily: A ThinkPad T14s running Arch Linux remains my primary weapon for functional programming and hacking on the go.

Systemic Meat-suit Optimization

I transitioned my health tracking into a dedicated Health Advisor system, because even the vessel needs a maintenance log.

• Longevity Persona: By feeding a decade of clinical and biometric data into a specialized persona, I now receive professional, solution-oriented advice focused on metabolic efficiency.
• Data-Driven Performance: Every health check result and weight metric is indexed, ensuring that my physical vessel remains as optimized as my code.

2025 Stats in Brief

1. Most used LLM: Gemini 2.5 Flash.
2. Primary OS: Arch Linux / macOS.
3. Band status: Pagan is online and loud.

The goal for 2026? More code, more metal, and even less human interaction.