@marlyn I think if I do anything, it would probably be radio related or making my own simple processor out of a bunch of chips. All of these project ideas I read on the internet are like "hey attach a cell phone to a robot" or "hey attach a thumbprint scanner to something" and i'm like

these seem like toys i'd never really make use of after i'd build them. and they depend on pretty much pre-made blobs that seem to me more interesting but not feasible to do yourself

@KitRedgrave
Yeah that is super fair.
Have you looked into getting Amateur Radio certification where you live? That might be a good avenue towards explorations in RF circuits.
(If you live in the US, this would be where you'd look)
http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club

@marlyn I got the handbook but still haven't gotten around to reading it yet

@KitRedgrave
Oh, if you're interested in creating a simple processor, perhaps you could try something with VHDL/Verilog and an FPGA of some sort? Those allow you to easily reconfigure digital circuits, which allows for designing more elaborate systems with ease. The big drawback I'm aware of rn though is that all the FPGAs I know of require proprietary software to re-program.