Another eevblog & other forums observer for several years, and even longer term electronics hobbyist (with a bit of side-steps in the mechanical direction). Studied EE / programming, but working as a programmer (high level stuff, no electronics in sight).
Finally I have acquired both the necessary space and some new tools to start going forward faster and to more advanced stuff. Just need some more tools/devices, and as usual, some more money (working on that) and lots of free time (I am pretty sure free time goes by much faster than any other time, even if scientists claim otherwise).
I tend to have troubles to finish projects if they are not well planned beforehand, and a (large) bit of perfectionism, so as I have learned to know myself on those "issues", I have started to more or less overdo the planning, design, engineering phase of all non-trivial projects. Which means I tend to read a lot of datasheets, application notes and literature, and check for plenty of options, backup choices and backup plans. Basically anything and everything that helps me finish the actual do it -phase as easily as possible and with the least chances of showstoppers along the way.
Some of the projects are rather ambitious, but (most) should be still doable even for a hobbyist like me. Should be. Time willmay tell. And sometimes the "could/can I actually do this?" is more interesting than the actual end result. At least one learns a lot just from all the reading beforehand. (:bookworm smiley:)
All that has lead to my current status of having about 20 projects in various shapes in the planning stage, about 30 in a "just an idea" stage, and only a couple finished projects, a full cabinet (and few big boxes) of accumulated items and components for the projects... and the big desire to start getting stuff done (and thus getting some of that project storage compressed into the smaller and hopefully useful, or at least usable, end results).