I’ve (more or less) got those two hobbies as well! :D

I work on cars for fun, but that might not be the most budget friendly thing to do outside of basic car maintenance. Of course, this is assuming that you or a friend has a car to work on.

What if you get an Arduino starter kit? That involves putting things together with your hands and writing code to make the hardware do cool things.

For music production, you could check out a website like Looperman or a subscription service like Splice. Then, download a few audio samples and use them as a starting point for a song. This helped me get back into music production after a five month period of minimal inspiration.

Photography (even with a cellphone) could be nice too. You could even use it as a reason to do physical activities like hiking.

EDIT: Have you been hanging out with friends regularly? If not, I think that it should be

This one hits home, but because it feels like I’ve lost my parent to the 24 hour news cycle. They also had motorcycle accident around a decade ago that might have caused some brain damage. If there was damage, it was never formally identified by a medical professional.

I’ve watched them become more angry at and scared of the world as they grow older. I don’t fully agree with their beliefs on various topics, but always try to listen and understand why they feel the way they do.

It’s so frustrating to watch someone you care about ruin themselves trying to stay “informed” while surrounding themselves with others that contribute to confirmation bias.

Before you get into physical modular synths, have you tried VCV Rack? It could exacerbate things for you, but it helped me avoid/delay falling into the rabbit hole of buying such hardware haha.

Similarly, sim racing. Went from a Logitech G920 to a direct drive wheel base, VR headset, and fancy pedals. The temptation to save up for a triple or ultrawide monitor setup is real.