Started playing again after another short break. I always get tired out because of the mods, when they simply become machine tending games. So, new set of mods for myself:
Twilight Forest
InvTweaks
Mystcraft
ExtraBiomesXL
Computercraft
SoulShards
Invasion Mod
NEI
Even with those mods I have to keep myself building rather than just focusing on the mods, but it's still a lot more fun and less time consuming than anything involving tubes or electricity has been. I'd still probably like redpower, just for the redstone stuff and miniblocks, but even that might be left out. I'm enjoying being limited in my palette. I also used large biomes and it's really given me a sense of exploration. I find myself wandering more and more, and while I haven't seriously gotten into mystcraft yet (Complete lack of chickens), I just make a linking book anywhere I find interesting and want to return.
I started off my current world in a red valley, followed the dried out riverbed out to find a marsh and a village. Spent the night in the village, harvested a few potatoes and carrots and traded some of their wheat for arrows and continued on. The marsh went on for a good while. Ended up coming upon another village. Left a small marker inside another house and made a linking book there(had the resources too then.) Also found an iron sword in the blacksmith's chest. Thanked him for it, but I don't think he was happy in any case. Continued on, heading towards the sunset and after another couple of days of walking found a biome with extreme hills (including some floating islands) and extremely tall fur trees. (The tallest were 2x2 at the base and once harvested were at least two stacks of logs. Consumed my entire stone axe and half of my wooden one to harvest it down to a stump.) Left a stump with a sign on it as a marker of the end to the marsh journey, made a small wooden base and set in for some serious mining. Found decent resouces. Set on iron. Started up a nexus a short walk into the marsh. Makes good defensive terrain. Eventually had a chest full of cobble, so decided to build a small stone castle-ish outpost with a lookout tower on it. Currently working on that, to fill out the inside and prettify it. Still just a temporary base though.
All in all, I'm just plain having a lot more fun with this setup than I've had with IC2 or Buildcraft or anything else, in months. Comptutercraft turtles, with a bit of programming, take care of most of my mining worries, just have to stay nearby(don't let the chunk unload) and keep an eye on them and most of the boring parts of mining are taken care of. I can still explore caves and abandoned mines on my own, but they're great at automatic branch mining. Setting up grids and I just take a quick walkthrough, place torches, kill mobs, and harvest resources in the walls. Meanwhile, I can be at the surface, building, protecting the nexus, or exploring a bit and enjoying the view.
I used to scoff at those who chose to play vanilla. I'd say, "they don't know what they're missing." Now I know what I missed all that time. I'd suggest to everyone who hasn't done it in a while. Give vanilla, or at least a severely cut down set of mods a try. It's fun, and relaxing, and feels a lot less like work.