The first quarter of the year turned out more expensive than expected. Not because of one major blowout purchase, but because three separate upgrades happened to land in the same window. Some had been planned for months, one took a bit of unexpected rerouting, and all of them ended up being more than just nice-to-haves.
Cancelled My Gym Membership for This: Why the Speediance Gym Monster 2 Was Worth It
When it comes to fitness, I’ve always leaned into consistency over flashiness. I like to move, I like to lift and I like to run, but I also like convenience. Over the past year, my routine had quietly shifted from strength training at the gym to running outdoors, mostly as part of my post-surgery recovery. I was still exercising, sure, but my gym visits started dropping off a cliff. What didn’t drop, however, was the premium price of my gym membership. Paying top-tier rates to not show up started to feel increasingly ridiculous.
That shift eventually forced me to reassess how I wanted to train moving forward. I wasn’t against going back to the gym, but the truth was that I simply didn’t want to go back. What I did want was something that could bring the functionality of a commercial gym into my home, something compact, reliable and, most importantly, commitment-free in terms of installation and ongoing costs.
That search is what led me into the strange and occasionally absurd world of smart home gyms. After a bit of shopping around, I found myself circling Tonal. It looked sleek, promised a ton of features and had great reviews. But the more I looked, the more red flags popped up. It’s not officially available in Germany, the installation is heavy-duty wall-mounted (which isn’t ideal for renters) and you’re required to pay for an annual membership on top of the already premium hardware cost. Not ideal, especially if you’re not looking to commit long-term to one system or vendor.
Back to the shopping drawing board.
Eventually, I discovered the Speediance Gym Monster 2 and that changed everything. It ticked all the boxes that Tonal didn’t. No wall mounting. No installation nightmares. No forced subscription. It even has wheels, which makes it easy to move around and adapt to the space I’m in, something I didn’t think I’d care about until I realised how often I like to change up my setup.
Over the past month, since I made the switch, I haven’t missed a single strength session. The machine fits beautifully into my weekly routine and not once have I felt like I was compromising on workout quality. The Speediance can deliver up to 100kg of resistance, which is more than enough for my current state. For context, before surgery I was doing 80kg barbell squats and 117.5kg deadlifts, so yes, heavy lifters might find the cap limiting, but for anyone training in a standard 8–12 rep range, it covers everything you realistically need.
It’s also worth noting how much better this has made me feel about my finances. Sure, it wasn’t cheap up front, but it completely replaced my expensive gym membership. If I stay consistent, the machine will pay for itself in about three years. That’s a theoretical win, of course, because let’s be honest, I’ll probably just end up shopping for something else entirely with the money I “save”. Still, the logic is sound.
From a tech and user experience standpoint, the Speediance has been solid. The only minor gripe is with the Apple Music integration. While you can sign in, you’re stuck browsing genre playlists or recently played music, no direct access to your own curated playlists. It’s a small frustration and one I’ve worked around by sticking to podcasts and other external sources.
All in all, this has been one of the most sensible purchases I’ve made in a while. I went shopping for a solution to a problem, not a shiny toy. What I got was a genuinely effective home gym setup that has already earned its spot in my routine. It’s the kind of shopping decision that actually makes you feel good long after the box is opened and those are rare.
Why the Sony FX30 Was the Camera I Actually Needed
There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes from working with gear that isn’t truly yours. Not because you didn’t pay for it, or because you’re borrowing it out of necessity, but because using someone else’s equipment means tiptoeing around it. You’re always just a little too careful, a little too hesitant. That was me with the Sony ZV-E10.
It’s a great camera, especially for beginners. Lightweight, decently spec’d and capable of solid video work when paired with the right settings and lighting. But it wasn’t mine, it was my wife’s. Every time I used it for something more involved than a quick b-roll shot, there was that nagging voice in the back of my head reminding me: don’t scratch it, don’t drop it, don’t push it too hard or too long or too far. And that kind of mindset is the opposite of creative freedom.
After more than a year of second-guessing everything from lens swaps to whether I could get away with a longer session without tripping the overheating issue, I started shopping for something that would give me full ownership and full control. The answer came in the form of the Sony FX30.
The FX30 is, for lack of a better phrase, a beast in disguise. It’s not flashy, not bulky, not trying to convince you it’s a cinema camera for the price of a webcam and yet, it brings so much pro-level capability to the table. 10-bit 4:2:2 internal recording. S-Log3. H.265 codec support. A built-in fan. Real-time LUT previews. It’s one of those rare devices that feels like it was designed for people who actually use cameras every day, not just pixel peepers looking for bragging rights.
Paired with the Sigma 16mm f/1.4, it becomes a dream setup for content creation. Sharp, wide, clean. It doesn’t try to correct your flaws, it just gets out of your way and lets you shoot. That’s exactly what I wanted. And more importantly, that’s what I needed.
The FX30 has changed the way I feel about filming. There’s no longer a mental block of “can I risk it?”, I just set up, shoot and edit. I no longer think about temperature cut-offs or SD card speed bottlenecks. It’s the same type of confidence you get when you buy a tool that you know is going to work every time you pick it up.
This wasn’t one of those spontaneous shopping splurges. I had this exact combo in mind for well over a year. I watched countless videos, read through comparison posts and came dangerously close to settling on other setups just because they were easier to find or marginally cheaper. But I waited and when the time was right, I finally made the leap.
Shopping for camera gear can be overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to future-proof without going overboard. The FX30 isn’t cheap, but it’s not overkill either. It strikes that rare middle ground where you feel like you’re buying something that’ll last you years, not just until the next firmware update rolls around.
There are still some extras I’ll probably add later, a sturdier tripod, a faster SD card or two, but that’s the kind of shopping I actually enjoy now. Because the foundation is solid. The core of the setup is complete.
And for the first time in a long time, filming feels like something I get to do instead of something I have to tiptoe around.
The GPU Shopping Spiral: Why I Ended Up with an RTX 5090
There are logical purchases and then there’s GPU shopping.
To be clear, I wasn’t planning on buying a new graphics card this year. In fact, if my original card hadn’t died, I probably wouldn’t have given the 50-Series a second glance. But technology has a funny way of unravelling your plans.
I started out with a 3090 Ti. It was, at the time, the top-of-the-line choice and I picked it very intentionally. Not just for the power, but for the peace of mind that came from knowing I had the best available. It did everything I needed and then, of course, it died. Still under warranty, thankfully, but what I got back wasn’t the same thing. Instead of a direct replacement, I received an RTX 4080 Super. Technically better in some ways. Quieter. More efficient. Practically the same performance, maybe a touch more in certain tasks. But it wasn’t the best. And it definitely wasn’t something I would’ve chosen for myself.
That one detail gnawed at me for months. It wasn’t about benchmarks or real-world differences, it was about knowing I was using something that, to me, felt like a compromise. The kind of mental hang-up that only makes sense if you’ve ever done high-end tech shopping for peace of mind rather than actual need.
So, naturally, I started watching RTX 5090 reviews. Not because I needed it, but because I couldn’t stop thinking about what I really wanted when I first built my system. This was never about chasing the newest thing. If my 3090 Ti hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have upgraded until the 60-Series. But now that I was already nudged off course, the 5090 started to look more and more like a reset button, a way to restore the feeling of this is mine and I chose it.
That led to, you guessed it, more shopping. Endless stock checks, price alerts and a ridiculous number of tabs open at any given time. I eventually found a 5090 Founders Edition, unopened, at almost retail pricing, a unicorn find in this kind of market. And that was it. I ordered it. It arrived. I installed it. And now here we are.
In terms of actual productivity? It’s a monster. But I won’t pretend that I bought it because I needed to render 3D simulations faster or hit 60fps in unoptimised open-world games without frame generation. Those things are nice, but they’re not why I bought it. The 5090 gives me peace of mind. It lets me stop thinking about whether my system is good enough. It puts the decision back in my hands and that counts for more than a few frames per second.
Looking back, this was a very different kind of shopping experience. It wasn’t research-heavy or comparison-driven. It wasn’t about finding the best value or balancing performance per watt. It was about correcting something that felt off, even if nobody else would have noticed.
If you’re deep into the tech space, you probably know exactly what I mean. If you’re not, it might sound ridiculous. Either way, it’s done. I’ve got the card I wanted from the start and now, hopefully, I can stop shopping for GPUs, at least until the 80-Series drops and ruins everything all over again.
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