[tgittos]

Also a metahobbyist.

I've tried everything you have (except weather stations and mechanical pencils) but also make/play guitars, hobbyist electronics, paper making, painting/illustration, fixing up old cars, and MtG among others.

I realized I was being a little ridiculous when I started planning a peltier powered hydroponic cabinet for growing fresh wasabi. Most of that was to do with the disappointing results with peltier cooling temperature deltas.

The garage full of specialist tools is what kills me. I can't imagine how I'll ever use the vacuum chamber I built for epoxy stabilization again, but I have one.

[hotpotamus]

I reused a fermentation setup for the hydroponic wasabi idea. I had some success with lettuce as a test subject but the humidity was not well-controlled which I think would be a problem. The thought of how much energy I'd have to use for years to keep the whole thing running just made it seem a bit ridiculous. Also, I'm not sure if I could reliably source wasabi seeds. I stick with super-hot peppers mostly which don't need a lot in the way of temperature control.

[tgittos]

I reached a similar conclusion, luckily before doing too much building. I'm happy with terrariums so far, they scratch my 'living things in closed systems' itch.

[hotpotamus]

Funny, I was sort of exploring the idea of aquaponics myself and I was trying to explain to someone what was at the root of my curiosity and I realized that it was enclosed ecosystems. I had fun giving the lettuce to people and explaining that it was grown without ever seeing natural sun or soil and showing them a timelapse video of the growth, but no one seemed all that impressed lol.

If you've never been, I can highly recommend a trip to "Biosphere 2" in Arizona which is a semi-retired monument to the whole idea, and quite worth the tour.

[yummypaint]

Keep leaning into it. Each new capability is a gateway to more. Now that you have rough vacuum you can start doing plasma experiments. That comes wrapped up with a bunch of lab / high voltage safety stuff, but also enables x-ray experiments. Could then branch off into intersections with crystals/minerals/chemistry. Anyway that is just one branch.

[robotguy]

>I realized I was being a little ridiculous

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing...